The Sweet And Heat Of A Caribbean Barbaque

 barbecue and Caribbean flavors go hand in hand. The sweet and spicy favors highlight all sorts of grilled means ,side dishes and desserts.In fact the word barbecue comes from the Taino people who inhabited most of the islands in this paradise. It's now time to try the paradises' great dishes,perfect for summer eating.

Grilled meats is the backbone of the region's outdoor cooking.Jamaicans add the spicy mix of jerk to everything from burgers to chicken.There are three main ingredients in the mix - Scotch Bonnet peppers,s allspice and thyme.Scotch bonnet is one of the hottest peppers out there and it what gives jerk it's eye watering bite. You can find it everywhere. Wal-Mart has it in powdered form. Nutmeg and brown sugar balance out this extreme heat.Onion and garlic give it a nice earthy, vegetal flavor. Try jerk chicken wings for a tasty meal A jerk rib sauce is a better alternative tom that gloppy overly sweet one. You will need ketchup,a wet paste jerk marinade, apple cider vinegar and liquid smoke. This jerk marinade consists of pimento scotch bonnet peppers, some kind of acid like vinegar and a variety of spices. Use clove ,cinnamon,nutmeg and thyme. sugar is also mixed in but you could use brown sugar for a more earthier sweet flavor. garlic also makes this sauce sing.Mix everything together and either slather on the ribs before cooking or dip them in the sauce after grilling.

Very barbecue deserves a table full of sides. A Caribbean one is no different. Try a corn dish with fresh corn right off the cob.This is just  using a sharp knife to slice  the kernels off and into a bowl. saute corn and garlic in oil for five minutes  In a small dish combine pineapple juice, milk soy sauce, sugar cumin and ginger. You can sub in almond milk for cow;s milk and brown sugar for the refined white.. Pour this sauce over the corn, cover it and then simmer for fifteen more minutes.. Add chopped green onions and cook for another five minutes. Salads are another perfect foil for all that fiery meat.A bowl of greens with a honey lime dressing and rich with such fruit as pineapple mandarins  and dried cranberries  provides refreshment to all that fire.  add some sesame seeds for crunch and if you want croutons. A simple salad with just pineapple and coconut also works along with a few sliced bell peppers and cherry tomatoes. for dessert try the sweet and creamy dulce de Coco Tierno, a Domincan treat made from tender coconut meat, condensed milk and regular milk.Coconut macaroons are another meal ender that would be perfect with iced coffee or tea. dip the macaroons in dark chocolate for an added treat.

The Caribbean is full of great recipes perfect for any barbecue. Whip up some jerk,Make a fruity salad and then create a sweet tropical influenced dessert. It s the taste of the islands in your back yard.

Six Years Without The Chef

 It has been six years since we lost the Master Chef of this household. I wonder what she would have thought of some of my most recerntly acquired tastes. would she have liked the Caribbean and Puerto Rican influences in my diet? I wonder.

I work at a school where there are some interesting food choices in the campus .I have finally tried jerk chicken and loved it. There'sa fieriness to it that add totp the meat's flavor. Would my Mom would have liked it? That's a hard question. She would have appreciated the work going into it but the spiciness may have put her off a bit.I know she would have had fun in replicating the recipe. She may have tweaked it and would have eliminated fiery Scotch bonnets and added more crushed peppers and/or nutmeg. She would have also tried making a vegan version of it as well. Then there are the tostones  and empanada from the Borracua stand. She would have like the tostones if they had the pink sauce, a mix of ketchup, mayo and some hot sauce.I think she would have like the empanadas too, enjoying their crispiness  and either the tender spiced chicken insid or the pizza one , rich with sauce and mozzarella.

My Mom was open to all sorts of recipes and flavors. I know she would have dome some amazing recipes with my Berbere spice that I use for my Ethiopian stews. Would she have approved of my taking the family recipes for both the broccoli and green bean salad and changing them slightly? I use onion powder instead of fresh minced onions. Ir's easier and the onion flavor is nicely distributed. Using the powder also gets rid of the threat of heartburn which comes with eating fresh cut onions.As for air frying, she'd probably OK it. She would have liked the ease of it  along with the crunchiess it gives to almost everything. She would have definitely gotten one and used it on a daily basis if they had come out forty or thirty years ago. (why didn;t they? There's not much technology in them- they're jsut a mini convection ovens after all). All our meals would have been cooked in them from chicken to ham. all made delicious thanks to her magic touch

My Mom would have like the new addtions to my diet. She would have liked my air fryer.They would have been perfect for her.

Caribbean Veggies Your Way

 After a summer of tomatoes and squash it's time to think outside the back yard. There are a wealth of Caribbean veggies  that can be made into interesting and comofrting recipes. It's time to expand your culinary horizons.

One of th e most popular and ubiquitous in all grocery stores nowadays is the cassava. It's a tuber that can stand in for a potato.It has the same starchiness but the flavor is sweeter and nuttier than a spud.It does have t be peeled and boiled because raw it contains lethal high levels of cyanide. You could also soak them for several hours in cold water to also dissipate the poison. After boiling or soaking and peeling try  roasting them. They're cut and tossed in a blend of olive oil, cumin, garlic, coriander  and onion powder. Cassava or yuca can also be made into tasty fries. Use an air fryer to cook them for  fiften minutes at four hundred degrees Farenheit.Unlike potaotes, though, cassava can also be turned into cakes too. It's called pone and is highly popular in Guyana.There a mix of spices like black pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg mixed with shredded boiled cassava and coconut along with butter and evaporated milk. Brown sugar gives the cake its' earthy mellow sweetness. You may be tired of zucchini right now so it's time to try chayote squas. It tastes somewhat like the squash. It can be roasted or sauteed. Use a mix of butter and olive oil to saute it and spic it up with shallots and garlic.

Everyone thinks New Orleans and Southern cooking when they hear okra but the veggie is also big in Caribbean cooking.It's usually paired with that other Caribbean staple the fiery scotch bonnet pepper. If you;re cooking with th e last , remember this is the hottest capiscum on earth. Use it sparingly. Try both in a stew also zinged up with ginger and garlic. Add some temperate yellow onions and tomatoes to balance it out. It would be good over a bed of rice. Saltfish or baccala  - dried and salted cod can be added to this to make it more substantial.Caribbean, and especially Cuban and Puerto Rican cuisine would be nothing without plantanos or plantains. It is a cousin of a banana and technically a fruit but you can fry it up like a veggie. Peel them, and thn slice them any way you want , whether in coins or lengthwise , spray with oil and tthen air fry for eight minutes at four hundred degrees Farenheit. Flip them after four minutes. Serve with jerk chicken for a tasty supper. Another great side is pigeon peas, a Trinidadian staple. serve them in a stew or over rice. They cna be spiced up with scotch bonnet , all spice and ginger.

Add some Caibbean flavor to your cooking.Use veggies that the islanders use for a different spin on dinner. It's a fun way to celebrate the bold flavors of the tropics.

A Jamaican Christmas Up North

Christmas is full of amazing aromas and flavors. Amp those up and you have a Jamaican holiday. The Jamaicans have always amped up everything about Christmas, from shopping with a junkanoo band playing to cooking and baking flavorful rich dishes. They do the day right.

Famed cookbook writer  and regular contributor, Priya Krishna wrote about it for today's new York Times's Food section. She not only got tot taste the best of Jamaican home chef Hazel Craig but also saw how she created these amazing dishes. Her assistant was her daughter , Jessica, the head  pastry chef at L'Artusa in  Manhattan's West Village.Hazel lives for Christmas celebration It has been the one constant n her family's trouble life here first in Queens , then Islip Long Island. They had even suffered a fire that completely destroyed their house. Yet Hazel would not be deterred during the holidays. She cooked curried goat, callaloo,ackee and saltfish in a small trailer. Even in their rebuilt house, she made sure they had the same feasting as they did before. It stems from Hazel's Jamaican upbringing. The island goes into full partying mode every December. She grew up in Spanish Town where people would dress up, playing drums and dancing in the streets. Her grandmother made her favorite dishes which included curried goat and a fruitcake rife with cherries and raisins marinated in rum since the Christmas before, Hazel's dessert nowadays is a sweet potato pudding , dusted with nutmeg.

The family comes from all over the US for a traditional Jamaican Christmas. Hazel makes the fiery callaloo which would be a perfect chill chaser. right now.It's a fish and greens stew chock full of all sorts of flavors. The original recipe calls for Amaranth and water spinach but Ms. Krishna suggests subbing in kale and Swiss chard with their stems removed. Saltfish or baccalao (cod) is also added for substance along with tomatoes and onions, Hazel adds a teaspoon of Lawry's Seasoned Salt which also has paprika and garlic.It's also cooked with vegetable or canola oil. The fish is first boiled and then shredded into little pieces. The tomato and onion are sauteed , then the saltfish and greens are added and stewed.The other recipe is for curried goat.If you do try this, remember that most supermarkets don't sell it. You'll have to go to a halal butcher for it.Onions and potatoes are added to it along with that famed Jamaican Scotch Bonnet pepper - which is pure fire.There is also the addition of Jamaican curry which also has allspice added ,a spin on the true Indian curry.It takes anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours to cook in a Dutch oven.

Jamaicans know how to do Christmas right. They make it a festival of food, both fiery and warming and sweet and calming. That's exactly what a holiday should be.

Stuffed: From Empenadas To Pasties

Stuffed foods are always fun foods. How many times have we bit into a pasty and enjoyed the savory  middle.Or sunk our teeth into a Jamaican patty, relishing the mixture of spices and beef. They're a wonderful marriage of crusty shell with flavorful stuffing.

Meat and vegetable pastries are nothing new. They have been around since the 1200,s and were even given a Royal Charter from Henry III of England, The recipe was part of an early cookbook, LeViander while another cookbook from 1393 offered a recipe for meat pies or pastes stuffed with venison, veal, beef or mutton.Pasties are part of the Cornish culture in southwest England, where miners used to take them for their lunches as they descended into the surrounding tin mines. These mini meat pies are known for their flaky crusts, made of a short crust dough and delicious fillings of skirt steak  and lamb, using mixed with mashed potatoes and onions. There are also vegetable ones stuffed with swede or turnip along with potatoes or onions. It spawned the Jamaican beef patty when the English took over the island. There it got a redoing thanks to the inclusion of  cumin and curry along with the ultra fiery taste of the Scotch bonnet pepper. The crust, still in the traditional "D" shape color became a rich golden hue thanks to adding either egg yolk or turmeric.Jamaican home and professional chefs expanded the variety by including seafood such as lobster and shrimp along with pork and soy.

Latin and South Americans have their own version , the empenada first made in the Galacia region of northern Spain and Portugal around the time of the spice trade .The name comes from the Spanish word empanar to wrap or coat with bread.It is the Argentinians who elevated the recipe to a high art. The crust is a mix of wheat flour and beef drippings,similar to Yorkshire pudding while the fillings vary from province to province. Fillings range from typical such as chicken and beef to raisins, boiled eggs and olives. Some also have ham or sweet corn inside too and they can be either baked or fried..There are special ones for Lent and Easter filled with tuna and fish. The Arabs have something similar in fatayer.,Its' spinach and onion filling is spiked with cumin. Arab cuisine is also responsible for the Indian samosas. These delights were introduced to the Indian subcontinent around the 1300' to 1400s. from traders. They are also called shingaras in East India and are fried to a crunchy, golden crisp. Both pies are filled with peas,potatoes,onions and almonds along with chutney and yogurt.

Whether it's pastie or empenada or samosa,  a meat or vegetable pie s a great treat. Have it for a snack or as a light meal with a salad. They're flavorful and fun.

A Trip To The Tropics

Saturday's monster snowstorm has us all longing for balmy breezes with a pina colada in hand or a plate full of chicken jerk under a Caribbean moon. Even though we can't visit Hawaii or Jamaica, we can certainly take a culinary trip to their foods. In fact , there could even be a luau planned despite the snow!

Many think Polynesian and Hawaiian is just pineapple and poi.Its much more than that, we have the Hawaiians to thank for sea salt. They were the first to use it along with various fish and seafood. European settlers brought in pork and chicken which are the backbones of the cuisine.Try the Khal Bi an Asian (the cuisine is also heavily influenced by Chinese, Japanese and Korean settlers to the islands) dish of marinated short ribs. Butterfly short ribs and then let them soak for four hours in a marinade of soy sauce and honey , spiced up with garlic and ginger root. Sesame oil gives it its's smoothness Serve with a variation of somen salad, using the ultra thin  Japanese noodles (vermicelli can be subbed in) mixed with kamaboko, processed white fish  and shredded lettuce. You could also add pepper and tomatoes - yes they're grown in paradise too - and dress wit rice wine vinegar  and sesame oil. Torikatsu is another Hawaiian specialty that uses panko breaded chicken breasts served with a tangy side sauce made with A-1, catsup, along with soy sauce and sugar. You can add a dash of hot sauce for true tradition or omit it for a milder dip.

The Caribbean is another great winter destination. It gives us tongue searing jerks and spicy callaloos. Jerks are a blend of the super hot Scotch bonnet pepper, allspice and thyme. It's easy to make at home,however due to the pepper's fieriness, It's highly recommended to use rubber gloves.. Home chefs can sub in a pepper with lesser heat. Lime or orange juice is added to make it into a paste. For a true island zing  use a slug of rum for some kick and sweetness. Jerks can be used on everything from beef to chicken but it is a standard with pork.Some Jamaican recipes call for lamb and even fish.
Callaloo is a type of spinach, popular in Trinidad and Tobago along with Guyana.Luckily it's now found in markets every where and made with garlic and thyme. Scotch bonnet can be added to give it enough heat for a fireplace along with lemon juice. Try it Virgin Island style with eggplant , okra and sweet potato for a kind of veggie stew.For quick snack food , make Jamaican patties.It's a curry flavored crust surrounding a spicy chopped beef or chicken filling. It's a great weekend dish to  make and have with a chilled ginger beer.

Foodies can turn their kitchens into culinary getaways  by cooking foods of the tropics Try a sweet Hawaiian dish or a fiery jerk to remind one of balmy nights  and warm turquoise seas.It's almost like a vacation to your favorite island!

Cold Days, Sunny Meals

The temps are dipping. There's more night than light and the pressure of the holidays are coming  at full speed. It would be nice to escape this, take a trip to a warm happy go lucky island or exciting , exotic country. However that ' s impossible - or is it? Cooking sunny bright meals, from sunny bright places is a mini escape from  dull, chilly days.It's an exciting way to enjoy winter cooking.

One sunny bright place that has so many tasty recipes is Morocco. This corner of northwestern Africa has some yummy dishes that are easy to make. Cooking Moroccan may also be the perfect time to add a tajine pot to your kitchen arsenal. Everyone from Williams-Sonoma to J.C. Penney's now sell  them.  If you don't have one, no worry. A pressure cooker can sub for it. Slow cook a chicken with an array  of such spices as cumin and ginger.Saffron colors it to a blazing sun yellow  while raisins temper the spices kick. A plus is that it takes an hour which allows you to work around cooking it. A second  plus is that the recipe is bendable.You can use lamb or veggies instead of fowl.. Couscous is another dish that will bring to mind colorful bazaars and rainbow sunsets. Squash and chickpeas are added to this wheat semolina along with dried fruit and spices such as turmeric and cinnamon. For a light weekend supper try bagels with za'atar, an easy to make dip. This is a mix of sumac,thyme and roasted sesame seeds along with marjoram, oregano and coarse salt. Dip the bagel(it should be hand rolled , not those big puffy kinds) first in  a small bowl of olive oil and then the spice mix. Za'atar can also be sprinkled on eggs,, salads and veggies to zing them up.

Everyone love the Caribbean , with it's warm seas and balmy nights. To capture some of that heat , try making a few of the dishes of the area. Jamaica gives us the fiery jerk - which can be translated into a pork , chicken or chicken wing dish. You can buy jerk seasoning or better yet make it yourself. It's a blend of onion powder, chives, allspice and cinnamon. Cayenne gives it its' color and fire while nutmeg and cinnamon gives it a tinge of sweetness. It can be rubbed on the wings a few hours before.  Serve it with a tangy pineapple infused sauce. Jerk pork is another fiery dish, guaranteed to satisfy that longing for Kingston. It's taking pork loin, marinating it with a heady mix of Scotch Bonnet peppers, a mix of orange and lime juices along with  a blend of soy sauce and olive oil and then grilling it over an open flame (hopefully the grill hasn't been put away yet) Serve with a plate of hot festivals, a fried zeppoli like fritter that tempers the jerk's spiciness. Plaintains can also be served. These are a type of banana that are excellent prepared the sweet way with brown sugar and butter. Vanilla and cinnamon are also added to accentuate the taste.Plaintains can also be fried into a fun crispy chip too.

Let your kitchen take you to those exotic, sunny places. It's easy to make a tangine or jerk chicken and pretend you're in Morocco or Jamaica. Consider these exotic dishes a vacation for your palate.

Jerk A Holiday Dish All Winter Long

Any kind of jerk is typically eaten during Kwanzaa. it's a symbol of some peoples Afro-Carib roots. However jerk meat whether chicken or pork is a good dish anytime during winter. It's a refreshing alternative to the traditional chill chasers like stews and roasts.

Jerk's origins came from either the Spanish word charqui which means dried or that the meat was poked or jerked with stick and the holes filled up with spices. Escaped slaves or Maroons created it probably as early as 1655 when they established a secluded inland colony on the isle of Jamaica. Jerk now means a meat that either has had a dry rub or has been marinaded in spices. Allspice is the chief spice in wet and dry jerks, but also garlic and onions are used for flavor. There is also a sweet element and that comes from added cane sugar. Ginger and Scotch bonnets, the hottest of all peppers are added into the meat for a blast of fire. The jerked meat is then cooked over an aromatic wood for an added smoky flavor.

What are the best meats for jerk? usually chicken and usually the whole bird. It's better to make it with the whole bird bathed in a spicy marinade for a few hours. Pork is another good option and even better are pork ribs although beef ribs are another good choice For these last two a dry jerk rub is probably the best way to go. Marinade may be to messy and also may be a bit more overpowering. YOu can also try a dry rub on any side or pork or even ham.

Jerk is the perfect way to celebrate Kwanzaa and a nod to the the brave people who created it. Yet it's also a good dish for a cold winter night. The spices will keep the chill away and leave you feeling warm - as if surrounded by the Caribbean.