The Sugar Mill Caribbean Cookbook (9 page)

Preheat the oven to 350°. Blanch all of the vegetables except the peppers and onion. Drain the vegetables, and put them into a bowl with the peppers and the bread crumb–pecan mixture. In a small skillet, sauté the onion in 2 tablespoons of the butter, and add the onion to the other vegetables. Stir the mixture together.

On a cloth towel, place two sheets of phyllo, one on top of the other. Brush them with some of the melted butter, and sprinkle them with bread crumbs. Lay two more sheets of phyllo on top, and brush with butter and sprinkle with crumbs as before. Repeat the process until the phyllo sheets are used up.

Spoon the vegetable mixture down the middle of the phyllo stack, parallel to the long edges, arranging the vegetables in an attractive pattern. Fold one long edge of the phyllo over the vegetables, and roll the strudel, tucking in the short edges. Brush the top of the roll with the egg wash, and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake the strudel for 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Allow the strudel to cool for a few minutes before you slice it.

 

Makes 8 servings

When the Spanish settled in the Caribbean, they brought with them many of their native dishes. This flavorful sauce is the basis for many dishes in Spanish-speaking islands.

 

Sauté the salt pork in a skillet until it is golden. Remove the pieces of pork with a slotted spoon, and drain them on paper towels. Pour off most of the fat from the skillet, and add the peppers, onion, garlic, and oil. Sauté until the onions are soft and translucent. Add the tomatoes, chicken broth, cilantro, and salt pork, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove the pan from the heat, and season the mixture with salt and pepper. When you are ready to serve, add the poached sweetbreads and heat them in the sauce. Spoon the sweetbreads and sauce into the puff pastry shells, and serve.

 

Makes 6 servings

Garlic butter is the classic sauce in which escargots swim. This rum-enhanced preparation introduces a different and equally appealing approach. Whelks are also delicious in this dish.

 

Preheat the oven to 350°. Place the bread rounds on a baking sheet, and brush them with 4 tablespoons of the garlic butter. Toast them in the oven for about 10 to 12 minutes, or until they are crisp and golden brown.

While the bread toasts, sauté the mushrooms in the remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet. Cook them until their moisture is released and evaporated. Add the rum, tomatoes, and escargots, and sauté until the escargots are heated through. Stir in the remaining garlic butter and parsley.

Spoon the mixture onto the toast rounds, and serve.

 

Makes 6 servings

A warm-weather plant with leaves very much like spinach grows as a vine in the tropics. Often our garden fence is covered with a profusion of "spinach" leaves, and these crepes are one way we like to use the crop.

 

Put all the crepe ingredients into a blender or food processor, and whirl until they are well combined. Refrigerate the batter for at least 2 hours.

Brush a 6- to 7-inch crepe pan with oil, and place the pan over high heat. Pour ¼ cup of the crepe batter into the pan, and tilt the pan to spread the batter evenly over it. Cook the crepe for about 1 minute, until you can shake it loose from the bottom of the pan. Turn the crepe over, and cook it for about half a minute on the other side. Slide it onto a rack to cool. If you won't be filling the crepes right away, stack them between layers of waxed paper. (You can freeze the crepes, if you like. To reheat them, remove the waxed paper and wrap the crepes in foil. Warm them in a 300° oven.)

To make the filling, put the cream cheese and seasoning mix into a blender or food processor. Whirl to combine them, adding just enough milk or cream to make the mixture easy to spread. Spread some of the cheese mixture over each crepe. Spoon black beans down the center. Roll the crepes, and wrap them snugly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate them for at least 2 hours.

When you are ready to serve, un-wrap the crepes, slice them diagonally into bite-size pieces, and serve.

 

Makes about 14 crepes or about 84 bite-size pieces

Rick Buttafuso, Sugar Mill chef, invented these piquant sausages, which he enhances with Caribbean spices and serves with a colorful Creole sauce.

 

Spread the pork meat and fat on a baking sheet. Combine the ingredients for the Caribbean spice mix. Sprinkle the pork with 2 to 4 tablespoons of the spice mix, with the brown sugar, and with the cloves, and toss the pork with the seasonings.

Run the spiced pork through the medium plate of a meat grinder. Put the ground meat into a bowl. Add the red wine, and mix well. Form the mixture into 2½-inch patties.

To make the Creole sauce, heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the onions and garlic, and sauté them until they are translucent. Add the peppers, and continue to sauté for about 5 minutes. Season the sauce to taste with the Caribbean spice mix, and keep the sauce warm.

Heat ¼ inch oil in a large skillet, and fry the patties, turning them once.

Serve the patties and the Creole sauce over the hot fettuccine.

 

Makes 8–10 first-course servings or 6 main-course servings

This is another of Rick Buttafuso's inventions. He likes the apple-wood chips for the delicate flavor they impart to the scallops. Be sure to have plenty of ventilation when smoking the seafood.

 

Combine the brine ingredients in a pot. Bring them to a boil, and let them cool.

Soak the scallops in the cooled brine for 20 minutes. Place them on a rack, and allow them to dry.

Put the wood chips between two bricks in the bottom of a roasting pan. Heat the pan over high heat until the wood chips begin to smoke. Preheat the oven to 300°.