Paul Franson's TravelTastes
Finding the New Caribbean Cuisine
by
Paul Franson
Appetizers and Snacks
Salad and Soups
Seafood
Poultry and Meat
Starchy Vegetables
Vegetables
Breads
Sauces
Desserts
Beverages
Island Ingredients
Few cuisines sound better than
Caribbean food. West Indian ingredients — exotic fruits and vegetables and
fresh seafood — sound exciting and the combinations innovative. In practice,
however, food in most Caribbean islands rarely tastes as good as it sounds.
This is especially true on the English-
and Dutch-speaking islands, which inherited a bland culinary tradition from
their colonial masters that even local spices can’t overcome. No one ever
went to an English- (or Dutch-) speaking island – including the American Virgin Islands -- for
the food in the past. Fortunately, that's changing
a
This doesn't apply to the French
islands, of course. They’ve inherited the best traditions of French cooking and
enhanced it with local ingredients.
One popular tourist destination,
Antigua, illustrates the problem. Reacting against slavery that ended more than
150 years ago, the local people don’t like to work in fields or to serve other
people, especially those they consider wealthy white tourists.
The island is as dry as California
without the technology, the inclination or the funds to adopt modern techniques
of agriculture. As a result, local produce is scarce and uninspiring. And like
its neighbors, Antigua’s attitude defines the term insular. Each island is a
different country or political jurisdiction that erects greater barriers to the
products of fellow islands than to those from North America.
While great produce is grown 40
miles away in Guadeloupe, the most common food
on Antigua is chicken imported from Georgia or Arkansas. Goats
abound, but appear on the table less than imported beef. Finding fresh fish
often requires a trip to the dock early in the morning, and it’s sometime
difficult to locate fresh fruit, even in season.
Tourists, of course, typically
don’t really want to try such local delicacies as bull foot soup or fried
breadfruit anyway, so they get hamburgers, barbecued chicken, French fries and
the occasional overcooked lobster.
If they do go to local restaurants,
the local food is often unfamiliar if tasty animal parts and vegetables in spicy sauce,
sometimes containing dumplings.
Much of the food is fried. And many dishes are doused in hot
sauce.
Nevertheless, it is possible to find excellent West Indian food. More to the point, it’s possible to produce better-than-traditional Caribbean dishes, just as new American Greek cooking eschews the vast quantities of oil used at home.
The following are authentic
recipes, lightened in some cases, but typical of the best food available. Aside
from the fritters, tasty enough to justify the frying, none are fried. Each
recipe serves six people unless otherwise stated.
Conch Fritters
Fritters filled with various
ingredients—animal, seafood, vegetable or fruit —are popular snacks in the
Caribbean. Some utilize potatoes or other starches as binders, but most use
flour. Conch is traditional, but other possibilities are clams, abalone, whelk
(scungilli), shrimp and crab.
filling
1 pound conch
1 small onion, diced
1 small hot pepper, seeded and diced
Oil to fry
batter
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon paprika
Salt and pepper
1 beaten egg
Water to mix (about 3/4 cup)
If the conch is fresh, pound it
until it’s tender; it’s as tough as abalone. Grind into small pieces and mix
with the onion and pepper, then add the other ingredients, mixing thoroughly.
Let the batter sit for a few minutes and drop by large spoonfuls into ½ inch of
hot oil. Flatten with a spatula and turn to brown on both sides. Drain and
serve warm with lime juice, tartar sauce or cocktail sauce.
Yields about 25 fritters.
Codfish balls
Fritters featuring dried salt cod
(bacalao in Spanish) are popular in many places. These are made with potatoes,
but don't contain any peppers so they aren't hot; they're best dipped in a hot
sauce.
1/2 pound dried salt cod (weight
after removing skin and bones)
2 large peeled and boiled baking potatoes (russets)
1/2 chopped onion
1 lightly beaten egg
pepper -- no salt needed!
oil for deep frying
hot sauce
Soak the fish for at least a few
hours, changing water at least once. Flake with a fork or fingers. Mix
ingredients and puree in food processor or blender. Shape into small balls
using a large melon balled or spoons, then fry until golden. Serve with sauce
for dipping.
Akkras
These spicy fritters are composed
primarily of black-eyed peas. They suggest the falafel of the Middle East.
2 cups uncooked black-eyed peas
1 seeded and diced green or red bell peppers (or 1/2 of each)
1 small seeded and diced Scotch bonnet or Habanero peppers (be careful!)
3 garlic cloves (not traditional, but adds considerably to flavor)
Salt and black pepper
Oil for deep frying (or less for cooking patties instead of balls)
Soak the peas in water overnight.
Remove skins if you wish by rubbing them between your palms, then drain and
soak again for a few hours. Drain and combine with peppers, garlic and pepper,
then purée in a blender until smooth. Add salt and black pepper. Drop
tablespoons of batter in hot oil and fry until golden (You can also shape into
patties and cook in 1/4 inch of oil). Drain and serve as an appetizer with hot
sauce.
Makes 25 fritters
Fried Green
Plantains
These twice-fried treats are called
tostones in Puerto Rico. They’re like fat potato chips and are pretty
bland so are often used with dips or drizzled with garlic oil.
1 large green plantain
Oil for frying
Salt and pepper
Peel and slice the plantain
diagonally into ¾-in. pieces. Soak in cold salted water for 30 minutes and dry
with towels. Heat about 1/2 inch of vegetable oil in a heavy frying pan over
medium high heat, then fry the slices for 2 minutes on each side. Then lower
the heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes more, turning slices often but don’t
let them get too dark. Remove the slices from pan, then flatten to half the
original thickness. Return the heat to high and fry the flattened slices until
golden on both sides. Remove and drain, then salt and pepper.
Rotis
Rotis, the burritos of the
Caribbean, have East Indian antecedents, but they’ve become the regional
fast food. Simply a white flour pancake wrapped around a curried meat or
vegetable filling, they’ve available everywhere at reasonable cost. You can
make them hot or mild. This is a mild lamb version.
2 pounds cubed boneless lamb
shoulder or leg
flour for dusting lamb
2 tablespoons curry powder (commercial powder is used in the Caribbean)
1 large chopped onion
3 large cloves garlic
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 small boiling potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 medium carrots, scraped and sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
Raisins (optional)
Dash hot sauce
1 cup water
Roti bread (large flour tortillas
can substitute) and chutney (see recipes below)
Shake lamb with flour, then brown.
Add onion, garlic and curry and sauté until onions are translucent. Add water
and bring to boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add
potatoes and carrots and cook for 20 minutes or until the meat and potatoes are
tender. Add raisins and hot sauce if desired.
When ready to prepare rotis, put
scoop of filling in center of 8-inch roti bread (see recipe below), adding
chutney, and fold up like a burrito.
Avocado and Papaya Salad
Avocados are a popular ingredient
in elegant Caribbean dishes, especially salads. This salad combines their richness with sweet papaya and tart
lime.
3 ripe avocados
1 large ripe papaya
5 Caribbean or Key limes
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
Salt and pepper to taste
sugar if using North American limes
Peel the avocados and papaya (or
carefully remove the flesh), slice them in half. Removing the stone from the
avocado and scoop out the papaya seeds. Slice fruit into 1/4-inch slices (the
avocado lengthwise, the papaya across) and fan alternate slices on four salad
plates. Separately, squeeze two limes and whisk the juice with the oil. Taste;
it may be too acid since our limes are sold unripe. Those in the Caribbean are
ripe, hence sweeter -- and yellow rather than green. Add a little sugar in
necessary. Pour over the salads and garnish each with lime wedges.
Conch Chowder
Caribbeans love spicy hot soups and
stews, which they regard as cooling because they make you perspire. There are
as many variations of conch chowder as there are conch cooks. As with clam
chowders, most are spicy and red with tomato like this version. A New England
clam chowder recipe would serve for a creamy white chowder. You can sometimes
find canned or frozen conch; whelk (scungilli) is similar, as is abalone, which
is available canned from Mexico.
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 clove garlic
1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 whole small hot pepper
2 pints fish stock (or two bottles clam juice plus 1 pint water)
1 lb. peeled and cubed boiling potatoes
½-teaspoon chopped dried oregano or thyme leaves
1 can (14 oz) peeled tomatoes, chopped coarsely
1 tablespoon arrowroot (or cornstarch) in ¼-cup cold dry white wine
1 lb. pounded and/or ground conch meat
Salt and pepper to taste
Sauté the onions, garlic, and
peppers until the onion is translucent. Add stock, potatoes, oregano, and
chopped tomatoes and simmer until the potatoes are done. Add conch. Remove the
hot pepper. Remove soup from heat and add arrowroot in wine (or water),
stirring until the chowder thickens slightly. Serve with hot sauce and
johnnycake (see below).
Pumpkin Soup
Caribbean pumpkin is a large
spherical squash with sweet orange flesh like Hubbard squash. This soup is
offered at both modest stands and expensive restaurants throughout the
Antilles.
3 tablespoon butter
1 large onion peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic peeled and minced
¼-teaspoon ground ginger
¼-teaspoon ground cinnamon
½-teaspoon turmeric
2 lbs. fresh pumpkin or winter squash, peeled, seeded and cut into cubes
2 potatoes peeled and cubed
2 carrots peeled and sliced
1 pint chicken stock
½-pint cream
Sauté the onions and garlic until
onions are translucent, then add spices and cook for a minute. Add pumpkin,
potatoes and carrots along with the stock, then simmer until the vegetables are
soft. Purée in a food processor, then add the cream and serve. Garnish with
thin slice of lime or parsley.
Callaloo Soup
Callaloo is the name of both a
leafy green and a spicy soup. As with many classic dishes, variations abound,
some containing crab or okra.
2 lb. callaloo (see ingredients at
end of page), chard or kale, washed
1 large ham hock or 1 lb. meaty bacon or salt pork
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 small fresh hot pepper
juice of two small limes
2 pints chicken stock
First plunge the greens in boiling
water for a minute, then cool rapidly in cold water to set the bright green
color. Chop coarsely and set aside. Then bring the meat to a boil in a large
amount of water, then soak for an hour and drain to remove excess saltiness.
Chop the meat finely and heat in heavy pan to render fat. Discard all but one
tablespoon of fat. Sauté onions, garlic, pepper and thyme until the onion is
translucent, then add the greens. Add stock and simmer for half an hour. Remove
hot pepper, add lime juice and puree until smooth, then serve with hot sauce.
Garnish with sour cream or yogurt.
Caribbean Grilled Fish
Excellent-tasting fish inhabit the
Caribbean. Steaks from firm-fleshed fish like dorado (mahi-mahi) and wahoo ( a
type of mackerel) are popular grilled.
Six ¾-in. thick fish steaks
Juice from three limes plus three limes for garnish and taste
Vegetable oil
Salt and pepper
Brush the fish on both sides with
lime juice, then oil. Place over hot charcoal fire and cook for about five
minutes, then turn once and finish cooking five minutes. Serve immediately with
lime slices.
Red Snapper Creole
Creole sauces of tomato, onion,
sweet and hot peppers, celery and garlic sautéed in oil are popular on seafood,
poultry and vegetables from Trinidad to New Orleans. Only the proportions — and
the amount of hot peppers — varies. This sauce can be used with other fish, but
red snapper fillets are popular.
Six 6-oz. red snapper fillets
Sauce
¼-cup olive oil
2 ribs celery, sliced crosswise into narrow pieces
1 green bell pepper, halved, seeded and sliced lengthwise into narrow strips
1 red green pepper, ditto
1 small hot pepper, seeded and finely diced
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thinly
½-teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 14-oz. can tomatoes (or equivalent in ripe tomatoes)
½-cup white wine
1 teaspoon arrowroot in water or wine (optional)
Dash hot sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Limes to garnish
Sauté the celery and peppers in oil
for 3 minutes, then add onions and garlic and stir until onions are
translucent. Add thyme, tomatoes and wine and simmer for 20 minutes. The
mixture should remain liquid; if necessary, add water. Add fish fillets and
poach for ten minutes. Arrowroot in water can be added to thicken the sauce.
Serve with lime wedges and hot sauce —islanders use vast amounts.
Antillean Lobster with
Garlic-Lime Sauce
Caribbean lobsters are large
crawfish that don’t have the large edible claws of New England versions. They
aren’t as rich as New England lobsters, but are so big that one person is
usually served half a tail. In the islands, they’re often boiled and frozen,
then grilled, guaranteeing a dry, tough meal. And grilling a fresh lobster
usually means the outside is dry and burned while the inside remains underdone.
It may be heresy to say so, but grilling looks great, usually tastes bad.
Likewise, grilling butter garlic and lime usually gives a burned flavor. Here’s
a way to avoid those problems with a fresh lobster.
3 live Caribbean lobsters or frozen
uncooked lobster tails
Vegetable oil for basting
Juice of three limes
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 stick (4 oz.) butter
Quartered limes for garnish
Chop lobster in half with cleaver
(if frozen, defrost in refrigerator then bring to room temperature just before
cooking). Baste with oil only, then place shell side down on grill. Cook 7
minutes, then baste again with the oil, turn and grill only 3 minutes on the
cut side to give grilled flavor without burning. Remove from fire and dabble
with sauce. Add lime slices for garnish and flavor.
An alternate is to simply poach the
lobster tail (meat side up) in water and white wine or defrost a cooked frozen
tail, then drain and serve with the sauce. You can throw it on the grill for a
few seconds if you like brown stripes on the lobster, but coat first with oil
to keep it from drying out.
Sauce
Melt butter and add garlic. Simmer
for 10 minutes then add lime juice.
Jerk chicken
Jerking is barbecuing using a spicy
hot rubbing paste. It was perfected in Jamaica. Jerk pork is most common, but
the technique is used for other meats and chicken. The most distinctive flavor
is of Jamaica pimento (allspice), and allspice sticks or logs are used in the
fire in Jamaica. We have to be content with adding it to the rub. There are
dozens of jerks, all containing allspice and hot peppers. Most jerk rubs
contain many other spices and ingredients.
2 frying chickens, cut into eight
parts
Vegetable oil
Jerk rub (below)
Shake chicken pieces with jerk
sauce in paper bag. Place chicken over medium low heat on covered grill,
preferably over pimento wood or charcoal containing pimento berries soaked in
water. Cook for 30 minutes, turning every few minutes. Check by piecing thigh
with a knife to ensure juices run clear.
Jerk rub
The most authentic jerk sauce is a
dry paste or powder that is rubbed into the meat. Since it doesn’t contain
sugar, it doesn’t burn like tomato-based sauces and is used during the whole
cooking process.
1 tablespoon onion powder
2 tablespoons ground allspice (Jamaican pimento)
2 tablespoons cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon salt
1-teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼-teaspoon ground clover
A few grinds of nutmeg
Combine ingredients thoroughly. You
can add neutral oil to make a paste if you prefer but it doesn’t seem to work
well on chicken.
Jerk Pork
Jerk paste
Based on recipe for jerk rub above,
you can use fresh onion, preferably green onions rather than dry powder, and add
Scotch bonnet peppers. Add to whirring blender and process into uniform purée.
This creates a thick paste, but it doesn’t seem to stick well to chicken. For
pork, cook long and slowly.
Baked plantain
Plantains look like bananas on
steroids. There are many varieties, and it’s worth asking the supplier to make
sure what you’re buying. The green (unripe) versions are cooked for their
starchy filling quality, the ripe ones often fried.
3 large green plantains
2 tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Peel plantains, slice in half
vertically and lay in small baking dish. Dot with butter, cover and bake for 30
minutes in a 375° oven.
Breadfruit gratin
Breadfruit was brought to the
Caribbean by the infamous Captain Blight to feed slaves cheaply. It looks like
a big grapefruit with bad skin, but when cooked, is like a slightly sweet new
potato and can be used in many of the same recipes.
1 medium breadfruit (about 2 lbs.)
3 tablespoons butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
½-cup cream
½-cup grated mellow cheese
½-cup chicken stock or water
Peel and core the breadfruit, then
slice ¼-inch thick. Bring to boil in water, then simmer for five minutes. Drain
and discard water. Arrange breadfruit slices in a buttered casserole dish, then
dot with butter and pour on mixture of cream, garlic and stock. Sprinkle with
salt, pepper and cheese. Cover and bake for 15 minutes in 375° oven, then
uncover and bake 15 minutes or until breadfruit is done and cheese crusty.
Rice and peas
The Caribbean has hundreds of
recipes that feature rice with various types of dried beans, generally called
peas in the Islands. This is a basic version.
1 ham hock
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 large onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, diced
1 rib celery, sliced thinly
1 small fresh pepper, de-seeded and minced
1 carrot, chopped finely
2 springs thyme
2 bay leaves
1 lb. dried beans (red, black, black-eyed, pigeon or pink)
1 quart water
Salt and pepper
2 cups uncooked rice
2 tablespoons coconut oil or butter
Salt and pepper
Chopped green onions
Hot sauce
If the beans are from the
Caribbean, pick over carefully for stones. Soak the beans overnight or bring to
a boil for a minute or two, then remove from heat and soak an hour. Discard the
water (A loss of flavor, but this allegedly removes most of the gas-producing
long sugars.) Add vegetable oil to a large pan, then sweat oil from the ham
hock for 10 minutes. Add onions, garlic, pepper and carrot and cook until soft.
Add beans and herbs and stir, then add water. Bring to boil, cover, then reduce
heat and simmer for 2 hours or until beans are thoroughly cooked, some mushy.
Check often to ensure beans don’t dry. If so add more liquid. Add salt and
pepper. Separate meat from hock and return to beans.
Place rice with salt and coconut
oil in heavy pan with tight lid. Add 4 cups water and bring to a boil, reduce
heat to low and let cook unopened 20 minutes. Then check, cooking 5 minutes
more if necessary, and fluff.
Offer rice and beans in separate
dishes. Let each person take a pile of rice and put the wet beans on top.
Garnish with chopped green onions and provide hot sauce for flavoring.
Eggplant Creole
Eggplants, often called aubergine
or melongene, are found in many forms in the Caribbean, and eaten in many ways.
This dish bears a kinship to the eggplant stews of the Mediterranean like
ratatouille.
¼-cup vegetable oil (olive oil
tastes best, but isn’t typical of the Caribbean)
1 large eggplant (or two or three small ones)
1 large onion
4 cloves garlic
1 sweet red pepper
1 sweet green pepper
1 fresh hot pepper
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 can tomatoes
¼-cup plain vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
Caribbean eggplants are bitter, so
leach out the bitterness by slicing them, then sprinkling with salt and
draining for 20 minutes. Then rinse and dry. Sauté the eggplant slices in hot
oil until soft, then set aside to make the sauce. Heat oil, then add onion,
garlic and peppers. Cook until the onions are translucent, then add thyme,
tomatoes and vinegar. Cook until sauce thickens slightly, then pour over
eggplant slices in a oven-proof dish and bake for 15 minutes at 375°.
Stuffed christophene
Christophene is the local name for
the chayote. This delicate squash can be steamed and served with butter and
lime, served au gratin, or stuffed as here.
3 medium christophenes (chayotes)
1 cup dry bread crumbs
1 small onion, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons butter
¼-teaspoon cinnamon
A few grinds of nutmeg
Salt and pepper
Lime wedges
Sauté onion and garlic in butter
until soft, then add spices and crumbs and cook for until well integrated.
Slice christophenes in half lengthwise, discarding the seeds. Arrange them cut
side up in a shallow baking dish containing ½ inch of water. Place one-sixth of
the filling mixture in each cavity and bake at 375° until the vegetable is soft
and the bread crumb mixture crisp. Serve with lime wedges.
Roti bread
Roti bread looks like flour
tortillas, which make fine rotis. This version is more traditional.
1½-cups flour
1½-teaspoons baking powder
½-teaspoon salt
1½-tablespoons lard (or other solid fat, but lard works best)
A few tablespoons water
Mix the dry ingredients thoroughly,
then work in lard and add enough water to make a soft but not sticky dough.
Cover and let rise for an hour. Divide dough into six pieces, then roll out to
8-inch circles and cook individually in a heavy ungreased but well seasoned
cast iron or nonstick skillet for about two minutes on each side. They should
just start to brown.
Johnnycake
Johnnycake is fried bread dough, an
unsweetened flat doughnut hole. Many contain cornmeal for a nutty taste, but
they can be made with only white flour. The same dough can be used for
dumplings cooked in soups and stews. It’s lighter than many local dumplings,
which typically contain no leavening.
1-cup flour
½-cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
Dash of salt
2 tablespoon butter
A few tablespoons of water
Oil for frying
Mix dry ingredients, then work in
butter and add a small amount of water to make a stiff dough. Knead until
smooth. Form into small balls 2 inches in diameter, then flatten to ½ inch
thick. Pour ½ inch of vegetable oil in a pan, heat and fry a few cakes at a
time, until brown on each side. Serve immediately. They’re sodden lumps after
sitting for a while.
Hot sauce
Each island in the Caribbean has
its own commercial and home-made hot sauces. All are nuclear; use them with
caution. The strongest are simply peppers (Scotch bonnet, a cousin of the
Habanero, is hottest) with vinegar and salt. Some temper the fire with papaya,
tomatoes, bell peppers, onion or garlic, and a few, like Tabasco from
Louisiana, are fermented and aged for a distinctive flavor.
1 green (not ripe) papaya, peeled,
seeded and finely chopped
5 hot peppers, de-seeded and chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
¼ cup fresh lime juice
½ cup white vinegar
1 tablespoon hot mustard (for an Antiguan version)
¼- sweet red bell pepper for highlight color (optional)
Dash of salt
Blend all ingredients but the red
pepper into a thick sauce. Add the red pepper and pulse until it’s in small
flecks. Age for about a week in the refrigerator. Consume with care.
Mango chutney
Chutney, like many other Caribbean
standards, originally came from India. A sweet-spicy condiment, it’s vital with
curries, but also enhances roasted pork, lamb and turkey. Chutney can be made
with various fruit, or combinations of fruit, but the most common version uses
under-ripe mangoes.
1 green (unripe or slightly ripe)
mango peeled, seeded and chopped
1 hot pepper, seeded and diced
1 slice fresh ginger, minced or ½-teaspoon ground ginger
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
2 tablespoons. raisins
3tablespoons sugar
Juice of small lime
Salt to taste
Combine ingredients and bring to a
boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes or the mixture thickens. Cool and
serve or refrigerate.
Flambéed bananas
A classic dessert in the islands is
bananas first fried in butter and sugar, then flambéed with rum. It’s an
festive ending for a Caribbean meal, especially if done at the table.
3 ripe bananas, peeled and sliced
lengthwise
1 stick (4 oz.) real butter
3 tablespoons brown sugar or molasses
¼-cup dark rum — if you use 151 proof Demarara, be careful
Lime wedges (optional)
Melt the butter in a heavy skillet.
Add sugar and stir until it melts. Carefully add bananas and simmer for 3
minutes, then carefully turn the bananas. Increase the heat so the mixture
bubbles, then add rum and ignite, swishing the skillet to burn the alcohol off.
Serve immediately. Some people squeeze on lime juice to balance the sweetness
of the dessert.
Pineapple fritters
Antigua grows small pineapples
called black pineapples that are unsurpassed anywhere in the world but
conventional fruits work well in this recipe, too.
1 pineapple, peeled, cored and
sliced into 12 ¼-inch thick rounds
1½-cup self-rising flour (or regular flour plus 1½-teaspoon baking powder)
¼-cup sugar
½-teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon rum
Water for mixing
Oil for frying
Mix the dry ingredients, then add
rum and water to make a pancake-like batter. Let sit a few minutes. Dry
pineapple slices, then dip in batter and immediately fry in a skillet
containing ¼ inch of oil until brown on each side. Sprinkle with sugar and
serve.
Coconut flan
This delicious custard is flavored
with shredded coconut and also contains the traditional caramel sauce. It can
be made in a large single pie or as individual servings. A nice garnish is
toasted fresh coconut.
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
2 cups shredded dried coconut (unsweetened is best but hard to find. The
packages are slightly larger.)
1 14-oz can of sweetened condensed milk (perhaps use unsweetened with sweetened
coconut)
4 lightly beaten eggs
3 tablespoons dark rum
1 1/2 teaspoon real vanilla extract
butter for pan
cinnamon for garnish
Caramelize the sugar by mixing it
with water and boiling gently until it's a nice brown color. Use a silver
colored pan so you can moniutor the color. Don't stir; you can use a brush with
water to dissolve the sugar that sticks to the sides of the pan. Be very
careful since it can cause a bad burn. Let cool slightly and add 1/4 cup water
and stir. Divide caramel among six to eight buttered custard cups or ramekins
(Or use a conventional 9 inch Pyrex pie pan) and swirl around so it coats the
bottom of the cups.
Separately, combine coconut, milk,
eggs, rum and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Divide equally among cups, then bake
at 325 degrees in a bain marie (a pan with hot water halfway up the cups) for
30 minutes or until a skewer insert in the middle comes out clean. (Longer,
perhaps 45 minutes for the pie pan).
Let cool and invert cups to serve.
The caramel sauce will run down the sides of the custards for an attractive
presentation.
Based on recipe in Island Cooking.
Pineapple cake
with pineapple cream sauce
This is a cake similar to a carrot
cake with pineapple instead of carrot added. It is served with a rich cream
sauce containing pineapple.
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teapoon salt
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup fresh pureed pineapple (or other suitable tropical fruit)
Sift the dry ingredients together
and set aside.
Heat the milk and butter.
Beat the eggs, adding sugar until
thick and foamy. Add the hot milk and butter mixture and vanilla and mix well.
Pour into a previously buttered and floured 11 by 11 inch baking pan. Bake in a
350 degree oven for about 25 minutes, checking with a skewer to make sure it's
done.
Based on recipe for coconut cake in The New Basics Cookbook.
Pineapple custard sauce
5 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup cream
1 cup chopped fresh pineapple
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon dark rum
Beat the egg yolks with the sugar
aand salt until pale yellow. Mix in the cream, then cook in a double boiler (or
very carefully at low heat) stirring constantly. When it gets thick, remove
from heat, and stir until cool. Add the chopped pineapple, vanilla and rum. Mix
and chill. Serve over cake.
Based on recipe in Island Cooking.
Rum is the drink of the
Caribbean. Almost every island makes its own rum or rums — in the case of the
French islands, dozens of them. They range from clear to dark and flavorful,
and from $2-per-bottle rotgut to libations that rival fine cognacs for
after-dinner sipping.
The world’s most popular rum by far
is Bacardi (pronounced ba car dí), which originated in Cuba, but is now made in
Puerto Rico, Mexico and elsewhere. The most popular Bacardi rums are light and
almost always mixed with strong flavored mixers that would obscure its flavor
in any case. Bacardi also makes some excellent darker rums, many of which don’t
make it to the mainland U.S.
The smaller island specialize in
darker potions, such as Meyer’s from Jamaica, Pusser’s associated with though
no made in the British Virgin Island’s and Mount Gay from Barbados. Cruzan Rum
is a product of St. Croix, US. Virgin Islands, where rum has been produced for
over two hundred years, though the light version we get on the Mainland isn’t
the same as that sold there. All the rums from English- and Spanish-speaking
islands are made from molasses, a by-product of sugar production.
The French islands of Martinique
and Guadeloupe, on the other hand, make their rums from fresh sugar cane juice.
Think of wine made from fresh grape must versus that made from boiled
concentrate and you’ll understand why connoisseurs prefer the French rums.
Though most are dark, they have a more delicate aroma and flavor. They’re also
hard to find and expensive.
Some of these rums are so flavorful
that they can be drunk neat, and it’s certainly a shame to mix them with strong
fruit flavors.
Most rum, however, is mixed with
Coke, tonic, ginger ale or fruit juices, so light rum is fine. Rum with fruit
juice makes the heady punches served to tourists on island excursions by
smiling islanders who assure the visitors that the drinks aren’t strong, almost
surely a fib since the rum is cheaper than the soft drink or fruit mixer!
Beer is the most popular drink with
meals. Most islands make their own, and others like Heineken and Red Stripe are
brewed on a number of islands. Some of the local brews are excellent, some
mediocre, but most are light and served very cold to complement the hot
climate.
Not all the drinks are alcoholic.
Many fruits and flavoring are squeezed or seeped to make tasty and refreshing
concoctions, some tart, some sweet. They include passion fruit, sorrel flowers
(not related to the green herb), lime, mango, tamarind, papaya, pineapple,
coconut, guava and soursop (guanábana). A few commercial soft drinks like Ting,
a light grapefruit concoction, are superb and serve wider distribution in the
U.S.
Rum punch
Rum punches can be based on any
fruit juice. A popular one is made from mixed tropical fruits, with rum added
and nutmeg grated over the top. The classic rum punch has more bite. It can be
made in any quantity using the traditional ratios.
1 parts sour (fresh lime juice, not
that horrible bottled stuff!)
2 parts sweet (sugar syrup or Grenadine [pomegranate syrup])
3 parts strong (rum — in this case, dark rum is justified)
4 parts weak (water, soda water or orange or other light fruit juice).
If the "parts" are
ounces, it’s 10 ounces total, and is served in a tall glass with ice. Garnish
with a lime or other fruit slice and grated nutmeg. Serves one
Daiquiri
The classic Daiquiri becomes frozen
if you have a blender. Warning makes a 12-volt version for boats, a necessity
in the tropics!
2 oz. light rum
2 oz. fresh lime juice
1 oz. sugar syrup
Crushed ice
Mix ingredients. Blend to a slush
for a frozen version. Garnish with lime slice.
Serves one.
Piña colada
The name suggests a Spanish origin,
but piña coladas are ubiquitous throughout the Caribbean. Though they contain
pineapple (piña), the distinctive coconut flavor comes from cream of coconut,
thick liquid that rises on coconut milk, the liquid extracted from ripe coconut
flesh mixed with water or coconut water (the almost tasteless liquid from ripe
coconuts many people confuse with coconut milk).
2 oz. dark rum
4 oz. pineapple juice (or 6 oz. fresh ripe pineapple)
1 oz. coconut cream (sold commercially as Coco Lopez)
Dash of lime for tartness to balance all the sweetness and richness
Lime garnish
Blend the rum, pineapple (juice),
coconut cream and lime squeeze with ice in a blender. Garnish with lime. Serves
one
Most Caribbean food ingredients are
reasonably available in U.S. supermarkets, partly because of the influx of
Caribbean and Latin American immigrants. Some are found primarily at
specialized markets. At any rate, they’re common in California, sometimes under
alternate names. Western Caribbeans call dasheen or taro leaves callaloo, for
example, but Easterners use the name for Chinese spinach (yin choi), sold in
the U.S. as New Zealand spinach. Suitable substitutes include kale, chard, or
spinach.
Many of the ingredients are
indigenous to the area, though others were brought by African slaves or
colonists. The infamous Captain Bligh imported breadfruit from Tahiti as a
humanitarian gesture to feed the slaves, for example.
The most popular fruits are
bananas, mangos, papayas (paw-paws), guavas, pineapples, limes and coconuts,
commonly cooked in dishes as well as eaten raw or in rum-laced drinks.
Common starchy vegetables include,
in addition to the ubiquitous potato, other roots prepared in the same ways:
cassava (yuca), dasheen (taro), eddo, yams (hard white or yellow roots, not
Louisiana moist red-orange sweet potatoes) and sweet potatoes. Breadfruit,
plantains (vegetable bananas) and pumpkin (a hard squash) are fruits, but are
prepared the same ways as the roots: baked, fried, boiled, scalloped or in
salads and soups. Most don’t mash well; they become very starchy and resemble
library paste. Rice is widely eaten, too.
Other popular vegetables include
okra, christophene (chayote), dried beans (pigeon, black-eyed, red, pink or
black), carrots, corn and cabbage. For some reason, canned carrots and peas
adorn salads even in fancy restaurants.
Many foods are flavored with
coconut milk (liquid extracted from shredded mature coconut), lime, ginger and
the inevitable hot sauces and peppers, some truly incendiary. Of course, the
Caribbean is famous for its spices, especially cinnamon, allspice, mace, nutmeg
and cloves.
A huge variety of seafood inhabits
local waters, notably fish from tiny minnows to dolphin fish (mahimahi or
dorado) and huge marlin that are fished commercially. Conch [conk], the meat of
the huge whelk shell that almost symbolizes the Caribbean, is popular, but
becoming rare because of demand. One favorite treat for locals is salted cod
fish, soaked and prepared in fritters or with a fruit called ackee that looks
and tastes like scrambled eggs.
Though chicken is the most common
meat, lamb, pork and beef are popular. Most are imported from the United
States. You won’t see many sheep on the islands, just lots of goats, but since
Americans don’t eat goat, many restaurants call the goat meat lamb or mutton.
The local meats products are often tough, suitable only for slow cooking
methods unless they’ve been tenderized by marinating in papaya, a natural
tenderizer, limes or other acids.
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(c) 1999 Paul Franson