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The PINKMADE kitchen — marble, strawberries and chocolate in golden light

PINKMADE

We're not chefs over here — we're moms.

From-scratch family recipes from my garden and market
by Naomi Christie-Joseph · Berbice, Guyana

The Digital Cookbook · First Edition

For my father, who sat on the blue stools at my little New York island and talked with me while I cooked.

For my husband and my Justus, who eat the rainbow with me every day.

Comb your hair — there is more power in it than you believe. And come eat.

Before we start

Welcome to my kitchen — more tea, babe. 🌸 This is wholesome, natural cooking from Berbice, Guyana, taught the way mama teaches: warm, real, step by step. Fresh ingredients from the market and the yard. Nothing fancy for fancy's sake — but everything from scratch, because that's how love tastes.

Two things before you tie your apron. One: I am funny, but I am strict. The recipes work if you respect them. Two: we eat the rainbow in this house — fruits and vegetables in every colour God made — and then we think pink. 💗

— Naomi · CEO of Little Rock, mama of the Justus Rock 👑

What's cooking

Cocoa TeaMorning in Berbice Milk Tea, Made ProperMorning in Berbice Fried BakesMorning in Berbice Dhal — the Pot That Raised MeThe Family Table Roti, Soft & FlakyThe Family Table Cook-up RiceThe Family Table Pizza From ScratchFriday Night Sorrel, IcedMore Tea, Babe Ginger TeaMore Tea, Babe Lime Iced TeaMore Tea, Babe Chocolate & Every BerrySweetness Weakness
🌅

Morning in Berbice

The day doesn't start when you wake up. It starts when the pot goes on.

Cocoa Tea

HotFrom scratch

A Guyanese morning in a cup. If you've only had cocoa from a tin, sit down — this is going to be emotional.

From the Garden & Market

  • 1 cocoa stick (grated, about 3 tbsp)
  • 3 cups water
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 cup milk (or coconut milk)
  • Sugar or condensed milk, to taste
  • Tiny pinch of salt & grated nutmeg

The Way Mama Teaches

  1. Bring the water to a boil with the cinnamon and bay leaf.
  2. Whisk in the grated cocoa stick and let it simmer gently 10–15 minutes — the oils will rise and the kitchen will smell like heaven.
  3. Add the milk, sweeten to taste, and warm it back through — don't let it boil over.
  4. Finish with the pinch of salt and nutmeg. Strain into cups.
Mama says: real cocoa carries a little oil on top — that's not a flaw, that's the blessing. Don't skim it.

For my family: Sunday mornings, before anybody's allowed to be busy.

Milk Tea, Made Proper

Hot

The classic — the way mama poured it. Strong tea, real milk, no shortcuts, no teabag left drowning and forgotten.

From the Garden & Market

  • 2 cups water
  • 2 black tea bags (or 2 tsp loose tea)
  • 1 cup milk
  • Sugar or condensed milk, to taste
  • Optional: a slice of ginger or a cardamom pod

The Way Mama Teaches

  1. Boil the water — with the ginger or cardamom if you're feeling special.
  2. Add the tea and let it steep 3–4 minutes. Strong, not bitter — taste it.
  3. Warm the milk and pour it in. Sweeten to taste.
  4. Serve hot, with something to dip if you know what's good for you.
Mama says: the tea steeps for minutes, not the whole morning. Set it, watch it, respect it.

For my family: every single day. This one is non-negotiable.

Fried Bakes

From scratch

Golden, puffed, and gone in five minutes. Bakes don't wait for anybody, so call the family before they hit the oil.

From the Garden & Market

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • About ¾ cup water (or milk)
  • Oil, for frying

The Way Mama Teaches

  1. Mix flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Rub in the butter.
  2. Add water little by little into a soft dough. Knead just until smooth — don't fight it.
  3. Rest it 30 minutes, covered. (Yes, thirty. Go make the tea.)
  4. Cut pieces, roll into rounds about ¼-inch thick.
  5. Fry in hot oil, spooning oil over the top so they puff proud. Golden both sides, drain, serve hot.
Mama says: if the oil isn't hot enough, the bake will drink it. Test with a little piece first — always.

For my family: with cocoa tea, and with butter melting in the middle.

🍛

The Family Table

The big pots. The ones that raised us.

Dhal — the Pot That Raised Me

From scratchGuyanese classic

Golden, garlicky, poured over rice like a blessing. This is Guyana in a spoon — and it's simpler than you think, once you respect it.

From the Garden & Market

  • 1 cup yellow split peas, washed
  • 5 cups water
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic (2 chopped, 2 sliced for the chunkay)
  • ½ tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp salt (to taste)
  • 1 wiri wiri pepper (whole, optional but really not optional)
  • 1 tsp whole geera (cumin) + 2 tbsp oil, for the chunkay

The Way Mama Teaches

  1. Boil the split peas in the water with onion, chopped garlic, turmeric and salt until they melt soft — 40 minutes or so, skimming any foam.
  2. Drop in the whole pepper for the last 10 minutes — flavour, not fire. Don't burst it unless you mean it.
  3. Swizzle (or whisk) until the dhal is smooth and pouring like silk. Thin with hot water if it needs.
  4. Now the chunkay: heat the oil hot in a small pot, add the sliced garlic and whole geera, and the second it turns golden and loud — pour it into the dhal and clap the lid on.
  5. Stir, taste for salt, and serve over rice or with roti.
Mama says: don't fear the chunkay — hot oil and garlic are supposed to shout. Fear a quiet chunkay.

For my family: the pot that raised me, now raising Justus.

Roti, Soft & Flaky

From scratchGuyanese classic

Clap it while it's hot and watch it flake into layers. Roti is patience you can eat — and the first thing my family checks the kitchen for.

From the Garden & Market

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • About 1¼ cups water
  • 4 tbsp soft butter or oil, for spreading
  • Extra flour for dusting

The Way Mama Teaches

  1. Mix flour, baking powder and salt; add water bit by bit into a soft dough. Knead gently until smooth. Rest 30 minutes, covered.
  2. Divide into balls. Roll each out, spread with butter, dust with flour, cut a slit and roll it up into a cone. Tuck the point in. Rest again — 15–30 minutes.
  3. Roll each cone out thin and round, dusting as you go.
  4. Cook on a hot tawah (or dry pan), turning and brushing lightly with oil, until it puffs and freckles gold on both sides.
  5. Straight off the heat, clap it between your hands (careful — hot!) until the layers burst open. Wrap in a clean towel.
Mama says: rush the roti and the roti will embarrass you. Two rests. Not one. Two.

For my family: with dhal, with curry, or torn straight from the towel when they think I'm not looking.

Cook-up Rice

From scratchGuyanese classic

One pot, everything in, and the coconut milk does the rest. This is what Saturday smells like in Berbice.

From the Garden & Market

  • 2 cups rice, washed
  • 1 cup cooked peas (black-eye or split peas)
  • 1 can (or 2 cups fresh) coconut milk + 1½ cups water
  • 1 onion, 3 cloves garlic, 2 stalks eschallot (green onion), chopped
  • Fresh thyme, a good few sprigs
  • 1 whole wiri wiri pepper
  • Salt to taste; oil for the pot
  • Optional: whatever the house has — chicken, beef, or saltfish, seasoned & browned

The Way Mama Teaches

  1. In your big pot, heat oil and sauté onion, garlic, eschallot and thyme until the kitchen announces it.
  2. If you're using meat, brown it now and let it drink the seasoning.
  3. Add rice, peas, coconut milk and water. Salt it. Drop the whole pepper on top like a crown.
  4. Boil hard until the liquid drops to the rice line, then low fire, tight lid — let it steam 20 minutes. No peeking every minute.
  5. Fluff from the bottom up. If you were blessed with bun-bun (the crisp bottom), share it fairly. Or don't. 😄
Mama says: cook-up forgives many things, but it does not forgive a watery pot. Measure your liquid like you mean it.

For my family: Saturdays, big spoon, no plans after.

🍕

Friday Night

In this house we don't call the delivery man. We call the flour.

Pizza From Scratch

Everything from scratchFamily favourite

Every element made with these two hands — the dough, the sauce, all of it. Friday night is pizza night, and pizza night is sacred.

From the Garden & Market

  • Dough: 3½ cups flour · 2¼ tsp yeast · 1 tsp sugar · 1½ tsp salt · 1⅓ cups warm water · 2 tbsp olive oil
  • Sauce: 4 ripe tomatoes (or 1 can), 3 cloves garlic, small onion, thyme or basil, pinch of sugar, salt & pepper, olive oil
  • Top: cheese, and whatever the garden and market gave — sweet peppers, tomatoes, herbs

The Way Mama Teaches

  1. Wake the yeast: warm water, sugar, yeast — 5–10 minutes until it foams. If it doesn't foam, start over; dead yeast makes flat dreams.
  2. Mix in flour, salt and oil; knead about 8–10 minutes until smooth and springy.
  3. Let it rise, covered, about an hour — the dough decides when it's ready, not you. It should double.
  4. Sauce while you wait: sauté garlic and onion in oil, add chopped tomatoes, herbs, pinch of sugar, salt. Simmer low 20 minutes until thick. Taste it. Fix it.
  5. Punch down, stretch onto your pan — from the middle out, leave the edge proud.
  6. Sauce thin, cheese generous, toppings honest. Hottest oven you have (475°F/245°C), 12–15 minutes until the edge is gold and the cheese is gossiping.
  7. Rest five minutes before cutting. Yes, five. I see you.
Mama says: the dough decides when it's ready — not you, not your schedule, not your hungry husband. Let it rest.

For my family: Fridays. Everyone picks a corner. Nobody fights. (Everybody fights.)

☕

More Tea, Babe

A whole chapter for my tea sanctuary — hot and cold, always from scratch.

Sorrel, Iced

IcedFrom scratch

Ruby red, cold, and beautiful — the celebration glass. When the sorrel comes out, something good is happening.

From the Garden & Market

  • 2 cups dried sorrel (hibiscus)
  • 8 cups water
  • 1 big thumb of ginger, sliced
  • 4 cloves · 1 cinnamon stick
  • Sugar to taste
  • Lime squeeze; ice for days

The Way Mama Teaches

  1. Boil the water with ginger, cloves and cinnamon for 5 minutes.
  2. Add the sorrel, turn off the fire, cover — and let it steep hours, until it's deep ruby. Overnight is love.
  3. Strain, sweeten while slightly warm, brighten with lime.
  4. Chill it cold-cold. Serve over ice like a jewel.
Mama says: sorrel isn't made in a hurry. Steep it long, chill it colder than your ex's heart, and it will never fail you.

For my family: holidays, birthdays, and any Tuesday that behaves like one.

Ginger Tea

Hot

For everything. Cold coming? Ginger tea. Belly upset? Ginger tea. Long day in court? Counsel takes her ginger tea.

From the Garden & Market

  • 1 big thumb of fresh ginger, sliced thin or grated
  • 3 cups water
  • Honey or sugar to taste
  • Lime squeeze

The Way Mama Teaches

  1. Boil the ginger in the water — a real boil, 10 minutes — until the kitchen clears your sinuses for free.
  2. Strain, sweeten with honey, finish with lime.
  3. Sip hot. Repeat as needed. It's needed more than you think.
Mama says: weak ginger tea is just warm water with opinions. Boil it properly.

For my family: the cure-first, questions-later cup.

Lime Iced Tea

Iced

Limes straight from the yard, sweetened just enough. The glass that empties itself.

From the Garden & Market

  • 3 black tea bags
  • 4 cups water
  • Juice of 3–4 limes (from the yard if you're lucky)
  • Sugar to taste · ice · lime slices & mint to dress it

The Way Mama Teaches

  1. Steep the tea in 2 cups just-boiled water, 4 minutes. Not more.
  2. Sweeten while warm, then add 2 cups cold water.
  3. Add the lime juice, taste, adjust — it should make your eyes smile, not squint.
  4. Pour over ice, dress with lime and mint like it's going somewhere important.
Mama says: sweeten warm, never cold — sugar dissolves in warmth, same as people.

For my family: veranda weather in a glass.

🍓

My Sweetness Weakness

Anything chocolate. Every berry there is. I said what I said.

Chocolate & Every Berry

From scratchWeakness

Dark chocolate, melted slow, and the prettiest berries the market had. This is not a recipe so much as a love language.

From the Garden & Market

  • 1 good bar of dark chocolate (the one you'd hide from company)
  • Strawberries, and every berry there is — washed, dried completely
  • Tiny pinch of sea salt
  • Optional: white chocolate, for drizzling like you're famous

The Way Mama Teaches

  1. Melt the chocolate gently — a bowl over barely-simmering water, stirring, patient. Chocolate burns the moment you get arrogant.
  2. Dry berries only. Water is chocolate's enemy — one drop and it seizes like a bad contract.
  3. Dip each berry two-thirds in, twist, and lay on parchment paper.
  4. Pinch of sea salt while glossy. Drizzle the white chocolate if you're showing off (show off).
  5. Chill 20 minutes to set. Arrange them beautiful — we eat with our eyes first in this house.
Mama says: dry the berries like your dessert depends on it — because it does.

For my family: movie nights on the island, four stools full. 💙

One comb-stroke at a time. One pot at a time. The crown is already yours — this is just the feeding of it. 👑

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