Themed Christmases Part One

Are you dreading a boring Christmas dinner? Then think beyond the usual fare. Have a themed holidsy dinner with different foods from around the world. It's a fun chamge up that's even more exciting than those Christmas gifts.

Most people would choose an English style holiday meal thanks to Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". The 1843 ghost and redemption story hints at a great feast of turkey and steamed pudding and it can easily be replicated here. In fact their holiday meal was probably the basic for our Thanksgiving. Along with the bird there is stuffing, gravy , brussels srpouts and cranberry sauce. You could give it a Northern English falvro by subbing in Yorkshire pudding a savory whole pan popover for the stuffing. You could also serve a great joint of roast beef too instead of the turkey. The steamed pudding which is actually a cake is really the star of the whole meal. This dessert is really a steamed cake made with the usual batter ingredients of eggs, flour milk and sugar along with vanilla for flavoring. It;s poured in a large parchment paper line bowl which itself is placed into a sauce pan halfway filled with water. It's then steamed for two hours , Afterwards its' inverted upside down and is covered with brandy and a sprig of holly.The pudding is set afire and served flaming to the table. Custard or ice cream is usually served with it.

Another idea  and this depends where you are is the Australian Christmas barbecue. The Aussies go wild with the grill  since the holiday falls at the beigninng of summer Down Under. It's bring out the burgers and dogs along with chicken kebobs and shrimp. Cold oysters are another treat if you want to be authentic. They also make a potato gratin or scalloped potatoes,This dish is good even with any kind of Christmas main course. It's layering sliced potatoes with butter, cheese and cream and topping it off with crunchy bread crumbs or even crushed potato chips. WHat to finish off a big summer meal ? A fruit trifle is a popular choice.It's layers of any kind of fruit, gelatin or custard and fresh whipped cream. If you're really ambitious try the Pavlova, named for the early Twentieth Century Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova.  This layered cake of meringue, again fresh whipped and usually strawberries is a light and airy showstopper. Another warm weather Christmas meal is a Jamaican one. The main course is ham while the sides are a fun baked mac and cheese along with a fresh salad. Dessert is a yummy sweet potato pudding which is the crustless version of the pie.

These are just the beginning of an iinternational Christmas. Pick one and run with it. You can have fun with a traditional meal or a summery barbecue. Go wild. It's Christmas.

The Inequality of Craft Foods

There are many  excellent Black food crafters out there yet it's the white ones that get all the credit It's a system, like much of the food industry based on decades of racism. Will it end? Will there be equality? Hopefully there will be and soon.

 Regular contributor Kim Severson wrote this eye opening piece for today's New York Times Food section.  She interviewed Shakirah Simley who works in food policy  who also had an artesinal jam company Slow Jams. Food artesans of color have been ignored and shunned  while creating some of the country's best craft foods such as jams and pickles. Surprisingly a bucket of moldy jam started it all off.It belonged to Jessica Koslow owner of the hip Sqrl. This is a trendy breakfast cafe in Los Angeles famed for its' homemade type jams and Instagram pictures of those jams on toast with a slick of ricotta cheese. Yet this prize winning eatery got sloppy and let mold take over it's foodstuff, so much so that workers had to scrape the stuff off in layers.It infuriated Black artesans whose own jams were looked over and passed over in competitions. A few like New jersey jam maker Ashley Rouse, a jam maker who also has a  successful jam company, Trade Street Jam Company wondered how Chef Koslow got a book and all this success after a visit to LA and Sqrl.

Racism goes deeper than just jams. It seeps into every aspect of craft food making, excluding people of color along with women and the LGBTQ community . Slowly but surely it is changing thanks to Ms. Simley who is  now the director of the office of racial equality in San Francisco. She urged The Good Food Awards, held in San Francisco to waive their $78 entry fee for people of color. About twenty percent  of the entrants identified as Black. Only one of the fifty-five companies entering the preserves category is black owned. There's a new equity task force  set up by the Good Food Foundation to examine how to make its' premier competition for cheesemakers, beekeepers and other provisioners less white.The organization is rethinking the very natures of its' rules and categories. For example the rules require that ingredients be seasonal, local and preferably organic. This may disqualify a brilliant Jamaican hot sauce maker in the Bronx that gets his or her peppers at a corner produce store.  

People will be surprised that there are Black food artsesans. Yet they should be more surprised at the inequalities they face, from funding to food competitions. Will it change. Hopefully soon.

Cuisine Of The Sunshine State

Florida is known for many things, sugar white sands, the mysterious Everglades and a fascinating history.Yet it also has some interesting dishes, influenced by the South and the many people who have immigrated there. It is not only a snowbird's retreat,it is a foodie's one too.

Many forget that the state is also part of the South and with that comes Southern cooking The northernmost counties border Georgia and Alabama.Grits are a  staple  but the grunt fish , popular i n the area is added in. People from Jacksonville to Pensacola also enjoy barbecue along Brunswick stew. That true southern dessert chess pie ,a custardy treat rich with sugar, cream and eggs is found in many bakeries along with being made by many home bakers.Georgia's pecan pie drifted south and is also enjoyed in northern Florida. The indigenous people, the Seminoles also contributed to the table. They showed settlers how to cook boiled swamp cabbage or the nicer name heart of cabbage palmIt's cooked with water salt and a little sugar. The greens can also be bought, already soaked in a vinaigrette  and relabeled hearts of palm.The tribe also contributed a fried bread made only of flour water and oil along with softkee a kind of hominy made with wild rice, baking soda and cornstarch.It can be served with meat or just plain. Some of the indigenous meats from alligator to deer are served with skillet corn stuffing, possibly influenced by intermarriage with former enslaved Africans.Cajun and Creole influences have also impacted the cuisine too

The southern part of the state has been so richly influenced by the Caribbean that the cuisine is now called Floribbean.One of the main influences is Cuban, thanks to many migrating from Castro's Cuba for almost sixty years. The hallmarks are an emphasis on fresh ingredients, namely chicken and fish and ,a melange of spices.especially strong flavors offset by milder ones. Also the cuisine uses a lot of fresh fruit juice, namely citrus such as lemon and orange. This is the Cuban and Haitian influence wit their love of sweet and tangy. However unlike some Cuban and Jamaican, the heat is less intense.It's not as eye watering as Jamaican jerk. The fieriness is almost always mitigated by the addition of mango,papaya, rum, almond , key lime or honey. A typical Miami dinner might be paella, with fresh caught fish  or pernil, roast pig accompanied by arroz con gandule -rice and peas. Barbacoa, the original barbecue is also featured and done in many backyard cookouts.What makes it different from regular grilled meats is the   use of  fresh juice as a marinade for the meats. Of course the most famed Southern Florida dessert is the drool worthy Key Lime pie. It comes from the Florida Keys, Papa Hemingway's hangout. This is a tart, yet rich and custardy pie thanks to the limes and eggs used along with condensed milk and topped with whipped cream The crust is almost alwaysnmade of graham crackers.

Florida gives us a panorama of different scenes, from ritzy beaches to gator filled swamps. It also gives us a variety of different dishes, each as unique as the people who make them. They are diverse and tasty, exciting and flavorful,

Stay strong, my Orlando readers. Show bravery and heart. Show love when others want hate, courage when others want fear. We're behind you.