The Sugar Mill Caribbean Cookbook (26 page)
Read The Sugar Mill Caribbean Cookbook Online
Authors: Jinx Morgan
Stir in the walnuts, sprinkle with parsley, and serve.
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Makes 6 servings
We wondered if our friend Gale had learned her driving technique while training for the Grand Prix. No, she's a New Yorker who had learned to drive in San Juan. Just when one of us was about to ask if eighty-five was the normal highway speed on the island, we realized that other cars were passing
us,
their drivers giving us disdainful looks.
We safely reached our destination, a mountain village where pork is king, and considered the trip well worth the damp palms it induced. Gale had brought us to visit one of her favorite
lechonerias,
one of a half dozen outdoor barbecue stalls in a town where wood smoke fills the air, and
lechon asado
(roast pig), pork ribs, sausage, and crispy cracklings are slowly cooked over hot coals. In Puerto
Rico
people travel
miles to
taste
this marvelous
meat on site.
But that's not unusual
on this island. Here food is so important that on weekends families drive across the island just to eat fresh fish caught and cooked in Cabo Rojo. So these culinary pilgrims don't run out of steam along the way, almost every main road is dotted with family-run stalls selling Puerto Rican fast foodâincluding fritters filled with cheese, meat, codfish, or green bananas.
Such robust country specialties make up just one facet of Puerto Rico's culinary scene. Traditional champions of Spanish-Caribbean cooking, Puerto Rican chefs are now adapting traditional dishes to today's tastes. The trendiest restaurants have cut back on salt and rarely fry in lard, but the cornucopia of spices, herbs, and fresh ingredients still results in exciting dishes.
Sofrito, a potent combination of salt pork, onion, garlic, tomato, green pepper, ham, and annatto (achiote) seeds, is the backbone for many popular preparations. Island chefs sauté the seeds, once prized by the Taino Indians, in oil to turn it bright orange.
Asopao, a combination of chicken, rice, and perhaps twenty other ingredients, depending on the whim of the cook, has clear antecedents in Spain's paella, and could be called Puerto Rico's national dish.
With an active fishing industry, Puerto Ricans enjoy plenty of seafood: red snapper, marlin, sole, hake, octopus, conch, and Caribbean lobster as well as
jueyes
(land crabs). The island's oysters are tiny and exceptionally sweet.
With good fish, many local herbs, and a constant supply of exotic fruits and vegetables, today's Puerto Rican chefs are entering a new age. In just ten years the listings of restaurants in the Puerto Rican yellow pages has grown from four to fourteen
pages. Visitors to
Puerto Rico could, if they chose, spend their time simply eating their way across the island.
But with all this good food, something is needed to wash it down. Nowhere have we found such imaginative fresh fruit drinks. Mango, pineapple, fresh coconut, passion fruit, tamarind, and soursop are all blended together in various thirst-quenching, icy combinations. And, of course, there is rum. Puerto Rico produces many varieties of the region's trademark beverage, and this island claims to have invented the drink that has lifted many a weary traveler's spirit: the pitia colada.
Elegant but easy, this dish benefits from just a few drops of Caribbean hot sauce, which add a dash of gusto. Although sabayon is usually a dessert sauce, we've made it savory with lemon juice and dill to complement the shellfish timbales. This dish will serve twelve if you offer it as a first course rather than a main course.
Â
| 1 | pound medium shrimp, shelled and deveined |
| ¾ | pound sea scallops, rinsed and patted dry |
| 1½ | teaspoons salt |
| ¼ | teaspoon hot pepper sauce |
| ½ | teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg |
| Whites of 2 large eggs | |
| 2½ | cups heavy cream |
| Thin carrot slices, blanched just until limp and cut into decorative designs |
| Green onion tops, blanched for 30 seconds and cut into thin strips |
| 8 | egg yolks |
| 3 | tablespoons lemon juice |
| ½ | teaspoon salt |
| 1 | pinch ground black pepper |
| ¼ | cup water |
| 2 | tablespoons snipped fresh dillweed, or 2 teaspoons dried dillweed |
To make the timbales, whirl the shrimp, scallops, salt, hot sauce, and nutmeg in a food processor (in two batches, if necessary) until the mixture is smooth, scraping down the side of the bowl several times. The machine should run for about 1½ minutes.
With the machine running, add the egg whites and cream, and whirl until the contents are well blended. The mixture should be thick and fluffy.
Preheat the oven to 350°.
Oil 12 ½-cup molds, and arrange the carrots and green onions in the bottoms in a pretty design. Carefully fill the molds with the timbale mixture. Place them in a baking pan, and fill the pan one-third of the way up the sides of the molds with boiling water. Put the pan into the hot oven, and bake the timbales for 30 minutes.
To make the sauce, put the egg yolks into the top of a double boiler over simmering water. Whisk until they are thickened and doubled in volume. Beat in the lemon juice, salt, pepper, and water, and continue whisking until the sauce again thickens. It should be thick enough to coat a spoon. Add the dill, and adjust the seasonings, if you like.
When the timbales are ready, rwarm the sauce over low heat, if necessary. Spoon some of the warm sauce onto serving plates, unmold the timbales on top, and serve.
Â
Makes 6 servings
The tart tomatoes form a happy marriage with the sweet mangoes in this salsa. Try it with other seafood or grilled chicken breasts. It also makes a great dip with plantain chips.
Â
| 3 | medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped |
| 2 | cups finely chopped mango |
| ½ | cup chopped red onion |
| â
| cup chopped basil, loosely packed |
| 6 | tablespoons red wine vinegar |
| 3 | tablespoons capers |
| 3 | tablespoons olive oil |
| 36 | sea scallops |
| ¾ | teaspoon salt |
| ¾ | teaspoon pepper |
| 1 | avocado, sliced |
| Basil sprigs |
Combine the salsa ingredients in a bowl. Cover the bowl, and refrigerate it for at least an hour.
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the scallops, and cook them, turning them once, until they are firm, about 3 minutes. Remove the scallops from the skillet, and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Arrange the scallops on a plate, top them with salsa, and garnish them with avocado slices and basil. Serve at once.
Â
Makes 6 servings
We use a real scallop shell as a template for cutting out the puff pastry. If you don't have a scallop shell handy, you can draw a facsimile on paper, and use that as a cutting guide. Simple squares or circles of puff pastry are fine, too.
| 2 | red bell peppers or 3 pimientos |
| 3 | tablespoons minced onion |
| 1 | cup dry white wine |
| ½ | cup clam broth |
| ½ | cup water |
| 2 | cups heavy cream |
| 2 | tablespoons cold butter |
| 2 | tablespoons lemon juice |
| Â | Salt and pepper to taste |
| Â | Commercial puff pastry |
| Â | Â |
| 2½ | pounds scallops |
| ½ | bay leaf |
| 1 | pinch thyme |
| ¼ | teaspoon salt |
| 1 | cup dry white wine |
| 2 | tablespoons cold butter |
If you are using fresh peppers, turn them over a low flame, using a long fork, until the skins are black and charred. Put the peppers into a plastic bag, seal the bag, and let the peppers steam for 20 minutes. Peel off the skins, remove the seeds, and slice the peppers.
Boil together the roasted peppers or pimientos, onion, white wine, clam broth, and water in a heavy pan until the liquid is reduced to about 3 tablespoons. Add the cream, and simmer until the mixture is thickened. Put it into a blender or food processor, and whirl the mixture until it is smooth. Season it with the lemon juice and salt and pepper, and reserve the sauce.
Cut six scallop-shell shapes from the puff pastry, and bake the pieces according to the directions on the package until they are puffed and golden brown. Split them in half horizontally, and keep them warm.
Put the scallops into a saucepan with the bay leaf, thyme, salt, white wine, and enough water to cover the scallops. Bring the water to the boiling point, immediately lower the heat, and poach the scallops in barely simmering water, covered, until they are tender, about 3 to 4 minutes (boiling the scal lops would toughen them).
Drain the scallops, and fill the warm puff pastry shells with them. Reheat the sauce, stir the butter into it, and spoon some of the sauce over the scallops. Serve immediately.
Â
Makes 6 servings
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Many trips to One of our favorite cities, New Orleans, and many conversations with one of our favorite "people, Paul Prudhomme, reinforced our understanding of the intimate connections between Caribbean and Cajun and Louisiana Creole cuisines. This double shellfish recipe mirrors that relationship. Paul also explained that the literal meaning of
etouffée
is "smothered," but in Louisiana kitchens the ' word usually applies to dishes cooked with a roux and then covered with liquid.
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| 7 | tablespoons vegetable oil |
| ¾ | cup flour |
| ½ | cup chopped celery |
| ½ | cup chopped onions |
| ¼ | cup chopped red bell peppers |
| ¼ | cup chopped green bell peppers |
| 1 | tablespoon Cajun Seasoning (see [>] ) |
| Liquor from the oysters (see right column) | |
| Fish stock or clam broth | |
| 1 | cup chopped green onions |
| 2 | tablespoons butter |
| 1 | pound shrimp, shelled, deveined, and diced |