The Sugar Mill Caribbean Cookbook (11 page)
Read The Sugar Mill Caribbean Cookbook Online
Authors: Jinx Morgan
Everyone loves this glorious green dip, but we've added a tropical touch by including papaya and seasoning the combination with Caribbean peppers and local hot sauce.
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| 2 | avocados, peeled and cut into chunks |
| 1 | papaya, peeled and cut into chunks |
| 1 | tomato, cored and cut into chunks |
| 1 | red onion, peeled and quartered |
| 2 | green onions, diced |
| 2 to 3 | garlic cloves, minced |
| ¼ to ½ | Scotch bonnet (or habanero) pepper, or 2 to 3 jalapeño peppers, seeded and minced |
| 3 | tablespoons minced fresh cilantro |
| ¼ | cup lime juice |
| 1 | tablespoon ground cumin |
| 1 | teaspoon hot pepper sauce |
| Salt and pepper to taste |
In a food processor, whirl all of the ingredients, scraping the side often and stopping before the mixture is completely smooth. Serve the guacamole at once with your favorite chips. We especially like it with chips made from West Indian vegetables, such as tannia and plantain.
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Makes about 3 cups
C
ARIBBEAN
G
UACAMOLE
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***
T
ANNIA OR
P
LANTAIN
C
HIPS
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***
T
AMARIND AND
O
RANGE
B
RAISED
B
RISKET ON
C
RUSTY
R
OLLS
[>]
***
C
URRIED
T
OMATO
S
ALAD
[>]
***
L
EMON
S
HORTBREAD
T
ART
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Tanniaâalso known as dasheen, taro, or yautiaâis available in many supermarkets as well as in Asian and West Indian markets.
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| Vegetable oil, for deep frying | |
| 1 | pound tannia |
| Cayenne, salt, and pepper to taste |
In a large pot, heat 1½ inches oil to 315°. Peel the tannia, and slice it as thin as possible. Drop the slices into the oil a few at a time, and fry them until they are light brown. Remove the chips with a slotted spoon, and drain them on paper towels. Sprinkle the chips with seasonings.
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Makes about 1 pound chips
Tropical tubers are an ungainly lot; they are knobby and gnarled, with odd shapes and obscure potential. Moreover, their confused nomenclature discourages many people from trying to sort out one from another. But it's worth becoming familiar with these interesting roots that are vital to the Caribbean diet.
The long, club-shaped tuber with shaggy, patchy skin that we call
tannia
on Tortola is known as
malanga
in Cuba and
yautia
in Puerto Rico. Fried tannia chips are fabulous with almost any dip, and tannia also makes a smooth thickener for soups. Choose tannias that are relatively light-colored, hard, and unblemished.
Scrub them under running water, trim and peel them, drop them into cold water, and refrigerate them in their soaking water for 24 hours.
Dasheen, or taro, is also tangled in a web of differing local names that make identifying it confusing. To add to the muddle, there are two distinct forms of dasheen. One is about the size of a turnip, with brown, shaggy skin and flesh that is white, cream, or lilac-gray. The other form is pale brown and elongated. It is delicious fried or roasted with garlic and butter, pureéd, or added to soups and stews.
Yams are one of the world's largest crops and most important staples. In the United States, yams and sweet potatoes are often confused, although the true yam is no relation to the sweet potato. In the Caribbean, yams are scruffy, hairy brown tubers the size of footballs. They make super chips and, when boiled, provide a nice, starchy counterpoint to salt fish.
Cassava, also known as
yuca
and
manioc,
is the basis for tapioca. The roots are long and narrow and have a bark-like covering. The solid flesh is hard and white and as versatile as the potato. Bread made from the flour of this root is one of the treats of the Caribbean.
Sweet potatoes, also known as
boniato
and
camote,
grow on a trailing perennial plant and usually have orange-tinged skin and flesh that ranges from pale white to a deep red-orange. When cooked, they are dry, pale, and delicately flavored. Choose hard tubers with no moldy spots, peel them, and keep them in cold water in the refrigerator for 24 hours before cooking them. Then you can steam, roast, boil, fry, or bake them.
Most greengrocers now carry plantains, which resemble bananas but are longer, thicker, and starchier. They are always cooked before eating, and never more delicious than when served as the island equivalent of potato chips.
If you can't get plantains, you can substitute green bananas in this recipe.
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| 8 | ripe plantains, peeled and cut into 1-inch crosswise slices |
| Vegetable oil, for deep frying | |
| 6 | cups cold water |
| Salt to taste |
In a large pot, heat 1½ inches of oil to 375°. Add the plantain slices a few at a time, and fry them until they are golden, about 3 minutes. Remove them from the oil with a slotted spoon, and drain them on paper towels.
When the plantain slices are cool, use a mallet or a rolling pin to gently pound each slice to a thickness of â
inch. Put the pounded chips into a large bowl of cold water, without crowding them. Allow them to stand until their edges have absorbed enough water to look puffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Drain the slices on paper towels.
Heat the oil to 375° again, and cook the chips until they are brown and crisp, about 3 minutes. Drain them on paper towels. Sprinkle them with salt, and serve them hot. (Or allow them to cool, cover them, and refrigerate them for up to 2 days. To reheat the chips, spread them in a single layer on baking sheets, and bake them in a 450° oven until they are hot and crisp, 5 to 7 minutes.)
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Makes about ½ pound chips
Stone crabs are very cooperative shellfishâtheir delicious claws can be removed without causing them too much dismay, and they will quickly grow new ones. When stone crab claws are not available, cooked, chilled shrimp, or cubes of poached firm fish served on toothpicks garnished with lime slices, are just as delicious with Key lime mayonnaise.
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| 2 | cups mayonnaise |
| ¼ | cup Dijon mustard |
| ¼ | cup Key lime juice (or Persian or Tahitian lime juice) |
| 1 | teaspoon grated lime zest |
| Hot pepper sauce or Tabasco sauce to taste | |
| 2 | tablespoons Worcestershire sauce |
| ¼ | teaspoon cayenne |
| Salt and pepper to taste | |
| 30 to 36 | (about 9 pounds) cooked stone crab claws |
| Lemon wedges |
In a bowl, combine all of the ingredients except the crab claws and lemon. Cover the bowl, and refrigerate the mayonnaise for 2 to 4 days to develop its full flavor.
Pile the stone crab claws on a platter, and place a small bowl of the sauce and several lemon wedges by each diner's place. Provide lobster crackers or small wooden mallets, and don't spare the napkins. If you value your dining room table, cover it with newspaper or butcher paper for this delicious but messy event.
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Makes 8 to 10 servings
Even if your view may run more to urban air wells, suburban lawns, desert, or mountains than reefs and breaking surf, you can still create a party atmosphere that soothes and beguiles with fanciful rum drinks, exotic food, and imaginary trade winds wafting through the festivities.
The key to dressing the set for such an event is a profusion of greenery and flowers. Potted plants and tropical bloomsâorchids, hibiscuses, gardenias, or birds-of-paradiseâform the magic carpet that will whisk your party from reality to some star-spangled Caribbean island.
A length of batik, pareu fabric, tapa cloth, or just a vivid flower-print fabric can cover any table with a touch of the tropics. We present finger-foods in a flotilla of leaf-lined baskets. Oversized clam or conch shells find new life displaying snacks or flowers.
Drinks should be tricked out in true island style with garnishes of fresh fruit, such as slices of pineapple, oranges, limes, or carambola (star fruit). If you're very ambitious, you can cut a coconut into perfect halves with a hacksaw, remove the meat, and fill the shell halves with a favorite rum concoction or dips for fruit, vegetables, or shellfish.
Make fresh fruit a centerpiece for your party. Cut a watermelon in half and scoop out the flesh (if you want to scallop or sawtooth the edges, so much the better). Thread pieces of fruit on wooden picks. Stick the picks into the green skin of the watermelon, creating a porcupine-like effect. You can concoct a delicious dip for the fruit from sour cream laced with curry powder, lime juice, and a little honey. Use the watermelon as a natural punch-bowl for your drinks, or fill it with water and float more flowers on it.
So make up your guest list, shake out your sarong, and make plans for one of the best parties of the season. But don't forget that you still should come to the Caribbean for a real island fling.
One of the delights of living in the tropics is being able to reach up and pluck a perfect avocado or two from a tree. Combined with tiny shrimp and molded into a fish shape (or any other you might like), avocados are here transformed into an elegant spread for crackers, toasted slivers of French bread, or melba toast rounds.
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| ¼ | cup olive oil |
| 1 | garlic clove, minced |
| ¼ | cup lime juice |
| 2 | large avocados |
| 3 | tablespoons cold water |
| 1 | envelope unfavored gelatin |
| ¼ | teaspoon salt |
| ¼ | teaspoon ground black pepper |
| â
to ¼ | teaspoon hot pepper sauce, to taste |
| ¼ | cup mayonnaise |
| ½ | pound bay shrimp, rinsed and drained |
| 1 | cup heavy cream, whipped |
| Lime slices |
| Orange slices |
| Watercress sprigs |
Combine the olive oil, garlic, and lime juice in a bowl. Peel and dice the avocados, and marinate them in the oil mixture for 2 hours.
Put the water into the top of a double boiler. Sprinkle the gelatin over the water, then set the pan over boiling water. When the gelatin has dissolved, remove the top of the double boiler from the heat, and let the mixture cool.
In a blender or food processor, purée the avocado and its marinade, the gelatin, the seasonings, the mayonnaise, and the shrimp. Fold in the whipped cream, taste the mixture, and add more seasonings, if you like. Pour the mixture into a 4- to 5-cup mold, cover the mold, and chill it for at least 6 hours.
Turn the mold out onto a serving platter, and garnish it with lime and orange slices and sprigs of watercress. Serve the mold with crackers or toast.
