Caribbean Cooking, Culinary Fiction Short Stories and Online Recipes

Visiting the Cayman Islands? Let us guide you to the best eco-sites and agricultural attractions on island! Eat food fresh from the farm and relax away from the crowded hustle and bustle of the cruise port, West Bay and Seven Mile Beach area. The events and attractions we can link for you are limited, seasonal but always family friendly and welcoming to all when available. Welcome! and have a great stay on Island!

Featured Recipes for Jan 2012

Callaloo (sometimes called calaloo or kallaloo)

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callaloo

A popular Caribbean dish served in different variants in across the Caribbean. The main ingredient is a leaf vegetable, traditionally either amaranth (known by many local names including callaloo or bhaaji), taro or Xanthosoma. Both are known by many names including callaloo, coco, tannia, bhaaji, or dasheen bush. Because the leaf vegetable used in some regions may be locally called "callaloo" or "callaloo bush", some confusion can arise among the different vegetables and with the dish itself. Outside of the Caribbean, water spinach is occasionally used. Trinidadians primarily use taro/dasheen bush for callaloo, while Jamaicans and Guyanese use the name callaloo to refer to amaranth, and use it in a plethora of dishes and also a drink ('callaloo juice'). It should be understood that the 'callaloo' made in Jamaica is different from the 'callaloo' made in Trinidad and Tobago in terms of main ingredient (the leaf used) and other ingredients included (for example, Jamaicans tend to use only callaloo leaf, salt, onions, escallion and simply steam the vegetable, while Trinidadians use okra and coconut milk to make an entirely different dish with a different taste and consistency).

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callaloo

"Caribbean Spiced Mango and Mandarin Fruit Salad"

A fresh fruit salad, served raw and spiced up in the Caribbean style.

In the Duluth MN area, many grocery stores are offering seedless mandarins and juicy mangoes at very affordable prices. I must admit the mandarins are some of the sweetest I have ever had and the mangoes, even though they are imported, they maintain their wonderful sweetness, texture and juice content all through transhipment. For this recipe I use one mango, and three to four of the seedless mandarins currently available at many of our local grocery stores...

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"Coconut Curry Lake Trout with Sweet Yams"

A fusion cuisine fish curry dish where the Caribbean Sea meets Lake Superior.

At one of my many and more recently sold out cooking classes at the Whole Foods Coop in Duluth MN, I shocked most of the participants with this fusion recipe. It is an old and timeless tradition in the southern Caribbean Isles to serve freshly caught ocean fish species such as Red Snapper, Bonito, Jacks or Tuna in a coconut curry sauce (coconuts being harvest fresh on the same beach where the fishermen sold their catch). The real jaw dropper here turned out to be the method by which I extracted the fresh coconut milk from a dry organic coconut that was purchased here locally in the Duluth MN area. Many in attendance were familiar with what a coconut was, but no one could wonder how the coconut yielded its nutritious and flavor filled milk. The exotic fusion curry took second to many wide eyed and wondering questions about further uses and recipes in which freshly prepared coconut milk could be used...

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"Coconut Roti"

A grilled flat bread made from flour and fermenting coconut milk and sea water and or yoghurt

I was always familiar with my mothers' recipe for this native East Indian flatbread (Roti) that was brought to the Caribbean by our ancestors from India, over one hundred years ago. In the East Indian style, the bread was similar to a flat tortilla and cooked on a hot metal griddle or a stone that was heated on an outdoor mud fireplace (chulha). On my travels through the jungles on the island of Trinidad, I met the tribe of Earth People, a group of Rastafarians who lived in the remote and pristine Madamas Bay area. I was taught many of their secret recipes and this one turned out to be a staple and a favorite of mine. All this recipe called for was three to four cups of wheat flour, a cup of salt water from the ocean, a little fermenting coconut milk, an open fire and a stick. The hand shaped loaf was roasted on open embers and the stick was used to expertly flip......

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"Drunken Party Duck"

An extremely flavor filled and spicy duck curry/stew that is marinated in over 15 fresh herbs and spices and tenderized in Puncheon Rum (110% Overproof Sugar Cane Rum)

I dedicate this recipe to my late great uncle Lawrence of Siparia Village, Trinidad and Tobago, whose grand parents gave up every thing they had and came from India to the Caribbean as agricultural estate laborers for the British Empire over one hundred years ago.
Even though our visits to his humble home in the village of Siparia, Trinidad and Tobago, were few and far in between, Uncle Lawrence celebrated our day long visits with a freshly prepared duck curry stew, that inspired my taste buds to want more and more. From my early days in training on the banks of the River Caura, to the marshy mangroves of the Oropouche Lagoon over looking the Venezuelan mainland, preparing this recipe according to his instructions made me the barely famous cook I am today. Most critical of the ingredients were the freshly picked leaves from the rare "Curry Tree". The tree as was called "Carampoulaay" and the fragrant but almost pungent leaves blended and balanced the other 14 herbs and spices used in the recipe preparation....
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"Caribbean Coconut Crusted Walleye"

Most people who come from the Caribbean would not actually eat or prepare this meal (not because it is a new and unique Fusion Cuisine dish) but simply because there are too many time consuming steps in the preparation. Most would be more content preparing their freshwater fish eg. Tilapia, Walleye, Guabine, Causcarube, Seven Colors or Mamatata in a simple curry sauce with a side of freshly grilled roti (East Indian styled Wheat Flat Bread) or a medley of boiled root vegetables (Yam, Taro, Cassava, Sweet Potato, Eddoes, and Tania) slightly sauted in a tablespoon of salted butter.
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"Secrets of the Jamaican Jerk Cooking Style"

Deep in the foothills of Jamaica's pristine Blue mountain range, a bountiful variety of natural plants and animals have been the source of food for the native Amerindians. Through the course of time, and with the advent of slavery and colonialism, the backwoods culinary style of the island of Jamaica has become most famously known for the recipe "Jamaican Jerk". It is common knowledge that combination of spices and the method of preparation for jerk pork, chicken, fish or vegetables has it origins in Jamaica with the first African ex-slaves (Maroons) who fled the harsh and cruel life on the white colonial plantations to the safety of the hills and forests in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. One day whilst I was on official University trip to Jamaica from Trinidad, I was given the opportunity to visit the Port Antonio area in eastern Jamaica where the centuries old traditional method of preparing Jamaican Jerk Pork, Chicken and Fish was still being carried out. My personal friend and guide Gary Lee (now a Plant Protection Officer at the Jamaican Ministry of Agriculture) had driven me many hours out of Kingston (the capital city in Jamaica) though the beautiful and lush countryside (Fern Gully) to see the cooking process and document it for myself. Many spices are available here in the Duluth/Superior area and here is how I would prepare the most authentic tasting Jamaican Jerk that you can find outside of the Port Antonio area....

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Featured Recipes for Feb2012

Geera Pork
Sahina and other West Indian styled spicy fried breads
Yam Puri
Seamoss Punch
Cayman Islands Fried Lobster
Marinated Conch Salad
Bahamas Conch Fritters

Plantation House Eco Site, GreenMarket and Organic Gardens - Grand Cayman

We finally had a chance to catch up with farmer Joel Walton, a Cayman Brac native (one of the smaller islands,) whom we met at Sunday’s “Island Style Organic” demo poolside at the Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman. He gave a great presentation, while the chefs pictured above prepared dishes using ingredients from his farm, Plantation House. Not to worry if you couldn’t be there, because below he offers many interesting details about Cayman farming and cooking cultures, and also gives a peek into the unique things he is doing in his operation.

Dominica Organic Agriculture Movement -Dominica

Projet d'entreprise agricole biologique - Sur le territoire de Saint Martin

Soualiga Farm Boy Produces - Saint Martin