Spices4Sunsets

Duck with wasabi pepper sauce

 

Duck with wasabi pepper sauce and wasabi mash

Duck legs, 1 per person, this recipe would be for 4 people

1 onion

2 cloves of garlic

2 tablespoons of brandy

1 tablespoon of soy sauce

Salt and pepper

For the duck legs, put them in a roasting tin, you can add a few things to flavour it while it cooks, like the above. Cover the duck in the roasting tin with foil. Slow cook on about 140 C for a few hours. The duck will kind of cook itself in its own fat and come out so tender, but don’t forget to cover it otherwise the fat will evaporate and the duck will burn to the bottom of the roasting tin. Not speaking from experience or anything!!!

For the wasabi pepper sauce

1 tablespoon Soy sauce

2 tablespoons Brandy

Beef Stock

1 teaspoon Pepper

1 teaspoon Wasabi

½ tablespoon Sugar

1 tiny dash Gravy browning

½ a tablespoon cornflour dissolved in a little water

In a pan heat the brandy for a few minutes or until there is about half as much liquid as you started with, then add the soy sauce a little water and the beef stock. When the stock is all dissolved add the sugar, when this is dissolved you can thicken the sauce with cornflour, add the pepper, the wasabi, (you may want to leave less than 1 teaspoon or omit it entirely if you don’t like it) and last of all colour your sauce with a tiny bit of gravy browning, otherwise it may look a horrible colour of brown.

For the wasabi mash

3 potatoes

150 ml of Cream

50g Butter

1 teaspoon Wasabi

Salt as you like!!

Everybody knows how to make mash so I won’t need to explain.

 

 

Tartar of tuna with mint and cucumber sauce

Tartar of tuna with mint and cucumber sauce

500g of fresh tuna

Soya sauce

Sesame oil

Salt

Pepper

A few sesame seeds

Cut the tuna into small cubs about half a centre metre in diameter, toss in all the other ingredients. Leave in a bowl on the fridge with Clingfilm over it as the smell of the sesame oil will stink your fridge out, incidentally if you don’t like sesame oil omit this ingredient and use olive oil instead.

For the mint and cucumber sauce

About ten mint leaves

Half a large cucumber, (peeled and seeded and tasted)

1 lemon

Salt

Pepper

Olive oil

To make this sauce add all the ingredients except the olive oil to kitchen aid and when they have becomes completely blended start adding the olive oil until you have a nice consistency.

For presentation engulf the plate in the sauce and then using a metal mould place the tuna in the middle. Garnish with a slice of lemon and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

 

Banana pancakes

Breakfast in Las Rochas

We had these corn fritters which are apparently typical to Venezuela, fresh mangos which were probably the best I have ever tasted and banana pancakes. Considering I don’t like bananas these were not too bad.

Banana pancakes

1 banana pureed

250ml milk

1 egg

100 g flour

½ Tbls sugar

Mix all the ingredients until it forms a smooth paste. Heat a pan with a little butter and about a dessert spoonful of the mix into the pan so it forms small round pancakes, not really thin like crepes though. Cook one either side for a few minutes until slightly brown.

 

Orange Gazpacho

Orange Gazpacho

Ripe tomatoes, skinned and de piped    500g

Cucumber 1

Red peppers 1

Garlic 2 cloves

Red wine vinegar 3 Tbls

Tomato paste 1 Tbls

Paprika 2 teaspoons

Chilli’s 2

Oranges 5 juice and rind

Salt and black pepper

This is an easy one!

First skin the tomatoes, boil up a large pan of water, and cut an X shape into the top of the    tomato where the stalk grew from. Prepare another pot with ice and cold water. Chuck the tomatoes into the boiling water for a minute or two, or until you see the X coming a bit loose then take them out of the hot and put them in the cold, the skin should come loose really easily so you can just pull it off.

That’s the hardest part and you might well decide that that is indeed a phaf, fresh tomatoes are more expensive than tinned ones and make the economical decision, time wise and money wise to use tinned tomatoes. (Not as healthy though so the infamous “they might say”)

The rest is easy put it all in the food processor along with the tomatoes and blend, and blend and then blend again.

Then its ready, very tasty and very healthy, this is actually one of those things that everyone likes, even if they are surprised that they like it. It makes a great starter or if you serve it in a shot glass it could be an amuse bush or an appetiser, I guess you could even add vodka and make it a cocktail!

Some people don’t like it slightly grainy as it will be if it comes straight from the food processor, I do but if this is the case, strain it through a fine sieve. Another thing if you prefer a slightly more intense tomato flavour, I do, add a couple of teaspoons of tomato paste, having said that that’s coming from a girl that likes to eat tomato puree on toast.

For the greeny bit in the photo I just blended so cucumber basil and olive oil, I think it makes a good garnish.

 

Spring roll wrapped tuna

Spring roll Wrapped Tuna

This is really a very simple thing to do, it’s really just like making seared tuna just adding the spring roll bit gives it a bit more character

Spring roll paper or Brick

A loin of tuna not all of it, but some of that part cut into a decent rectangular shape.

Egg/milk wash

For garnish (all optional)

Ginger

Soy sauce

Wasabi

(You could also add a small salad as I have in the picture)

 

Cut the Tuna into long rectangular loins, about 20 cm long.

Roll the pastry around the tuna sticking it on with the egg milk mix.

When ready to serve put a little oil in a pan and sear each side so that the pastry is cooked and so is a tiny bit of the tuna. Make sure the, middle is still rare for the best taste.

Cut accordingly and serve

 

Hollandaise Sauce

Hollandaise Sauce

4 egg yolks

2 tsp hot lemon

2 tsp hot white wine vinegar

220g melted butter

In a food processor whip the egg yolks for ages, I mean ages at least 6 to 7 minutes.

In the microwave heat the freshly squeezed lemon and vinegar so it’s a little bit warm.

Add to the eggs in the processor but don’t stop it keep it running.

Melt the butter in a pan, and then pour into a jug so that you can add it to the egg mix in a sow stream.

So whilst still processing the egg mix, pour the butter into it slowly in a stream.

The mix should thicken a little to form an amazingly simple but delicious sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste.

In the above picture I’ve served this with smoked salmon and steamed asparagus, a very good starter or Sunday brunch, although hollandaise is most commonly served on eggs Benedict.

 

Red snapper

Roasted red snapper

Red snapper is easy to get in the Caribbean, I would like to say it’s easy to catch and I’m so good at fishing that I catch them all the time, this is not true, but the local boat men always have it on offer. (Locals that drive around in little boats selling things like bread,* fruit, vegetables and fish)

Ingredients

Red snapper  1 fish for 2 people, size depending on what you can get how big your appetite is

Aubergines    1

Peppers 2

Purple potatoes   2

Christophine or Courgette 2

Onions   1

Garlic 2 cloves

 

I’m not sure why I quantitate things like this as it’s really not that important how much of each vegetable you put in or if indeed you change the vegetables slightly.

Prep- the fish or get your fishmonger to do it for you, I would do this if I had the chance, the scales on snapper are quite big and you can make an awful mess when you de-scale it. Gutting is not so bad in comparison, not that it’s the nicest thing in the world to do, but it is relatively easier than the scaling. Once prepped make some cut in the skin as seen in the picture.

Chop all the vegetables into small wedges and scatter over the bottom of the roasting tin. Before you roast the fish, pre roast the vegetables for 20 minutes oven temp 180 C Then place the fish on top of them. Pour a little olive oil over it and the vegetables. Finally add a good shake of salt and pepper, (I have this lemon pepper stuff that is really good for fish.)

I roasted this large fish in the oven for 25 minutes on 180 C. A smaller fish will need less time so maybe you can roast the vegetables for longer, before add the fish.

 

 

 

 

Plantain

Roasted plantain

Considering plantains look just like Bananas and I hate Bananas I would always be hesitant to try plantain but roasted it tasted amazing, more like a parsnip but better, I would defiantly recommend this food.

I roasted some with a little bit of Cajun spice.

 

Christophine

Roasted Christophine

This vegetable looks kind of like an avocado on the outside but when you prepare it, and roast it tastes more like a cross between a courgette and a potato, it’s very nice actually.

 

Parmasan coated Aubergine/Egg Plant

Parmesan coated Aubergines/egg plant

Aubergines must be a really resilient plant, there everywhere and even when you can hardly find any fruit or vegetables you can always find aubergines, that’s why I’m trying be creative with them, but if anyone has a cook book named 1000 things to do with an aubergine, it would come in handy here in the Caribbean, and the Mediterranean in the summer for that matter.

Ingredients

Breadcrumbs x 200g

Black pepper x 100g

Parmesan cheese

Salt 1 teaspoon

 

Flour enough to cover the aubergine slices

Eggs x 2

Milk x 100ml

Slice the aubergine and cover in flour.

Mix the egg and milk, and dip each piece of floured aubergine into the mix.

Then dip the aubergine into the pepper seasoned breadcrumb parmesan mix. Deep fry the bites until floating and golden brown, if you don’t have a fat fryer you can fry them in a pan with a generous amount of oil.

 

 

 

Guanabana

Guanabana or Soursop

This fruit as seen in the above photo prompted an interesting conversation with the market tender. I asked

“Excuse me what is this” to which he replied

“That’s ice cream baby” as you can imagine I gave him a funny look and said

“What?” he then replied

“Okay okay it’s Obama” again I gave him a funny looked and he quickly added

“ Like the president because is so interesting”

I finally got the real name out of him Guanabana or Soursop, purchased one with instructions not to eat it for a couple more days until it was softer.

When I tried it the strange conversation became a bit clearer as it did indeed taste a little like ice cream, with a slight hint of pineapple and therefore as a fruit is quite interesting so aptly named if you think president Obama is interesting. It’s not unusual to have strange conversations with market tenders, but it is quite unusual when the strangeness becomes clear and you actually get what they mean, maybe I’ve been in the sun for too long. Anyway that said and done next time I get a Guanabana I’m going to juice it and make sorbet and I think it will be quite delicious.

Grilled scallops

Scallops with Tabouleh style salad

For 4 people go with two scallops each, so 8

For the Tabuoleh

Cucumber

Tomato

Red onion

Mint

Red wine vinegar

Olive oil

Pinch of salt

Pinch of sugar 

Chop all the tomato cucumber and onion into small cubes, chop the mint finely and then toss everything together in the vinegar oil mix then season.

Sear the scallops on a grill pan for about 5 minutes either side, unless if you like them slightly rare, I find it good to have a spare on the grill as a test so you can cut it to see where you’re at and then you don’t end up with too under cooked or too over cooked scallops. However it really depends on personal taste how you cook them some people think they are too tough if there cooked thoroughly but some people hate the idea of under cooked fish. It’s best just to ask the people you are cooking for how exactly they like them.

When you do and they are nicely grilled, serve in a bowl on top of the Tabouleh with a small lemon garnish.

 

Hot green peppers

 

Hot green peppers with black beans

Green peppers

Black beans

Red onions

Garlic

Chilli

Paprika

Salt

Pepper

Lime

Finely chop the garlic and onions the chilli and the green peppers and sautéed until soft, add all the spices a squeeze of lime and some pre soaked black beans at the end a mix together.

This is a good dish to use green peppers which are a bit boring on their own but there are so many of them here in the Caribbean, and sometimes you need to use anything you can find as there are not that many options.

To make it more interesting add mozzarella cheese, then it becomes a confusion dish.

Spiced Lamb Kebebs

 

Spiced Lamb Kebabs

 

For the seasoning

 

Paprika    2 tsp

Chilli’s     1 tsp of powder or 1 fresh red (unless you like strong spice then add more)

Olive oil       2 tbsp

Black pepper     1 tsp

Salt      2 tsp

Celery salt      1 tsp

Red pepper        ½ chopped finely

Onions        1 chopped finely

Garlic      2 cloves

Thyme   Pull the little leaves of 1 bunch

Lime   1 Juice

Red wine vinegar 2 tbsp

 

For the kebabs

 

Lamb chopped into cubes (Noisette d Agneau)

Amount depends on how many kebabs you want to make but if you use more vegetables you need less lamb and vice versa

Onion       1    

Aubergines/egg plant      1

Courgettes/Zucchini     2

Red bell pepper    1

 

 

Mix up the ingredients for the seasoning and leave the lamb to marinate for a few hours.

 

To prepare the kebabs cut the meat and vegetables into similar sized pieces. Stab the lamb chunks and vegetable chunks on to the kebab until it is full. On a grill pan cook for about 6 minutes on each side, if you like you lamb rare it may need even less time, especially if the lamb is really good quality. On a BBQ it may take a little longer to cook depending how hot your BBQ gets.

 

 

Spiced half dried tomatos

 

Spiced and half dried tomatoes

You can buy tomatoes everywhere here in the Caribbean along with carrots it’s the one thing that you can rely on to get, however sometimes they are not very good, or they are over ripe which is bound to happen if they have been sitting out on a market store in 40 degree heat for too long. These ones may not be the best for eating fresh but you can use them for other things like these.

Tomatoes

Dried jerk seasoning

Sugar

Pepper

Salt

Dried herbs

 

I’ve put not amounts because it’s really up to you, just remember that the tomatoes are going to shrink to less than half the size, so more is more. Cut into quarters if it’s a large tomatoes cut the quarters in half as well. Spread them on a baking sheet with parchment paper/grease proof or a slip map. Shake dried jerk spice, a little sugar, salt, pepper and dried herbs over them.

Cook in a very low oven for ages, its best to make these overnight, leave the oven on 80 oC put them in before you go to bed and then in the morning they should be dehydrated.

For the dressing

Vinegar 100ml

Olive oil 100ml

Mustard 1 tsp

Jerk seasoning 1 tsp

Garlic 1 clove cut very very finely

To make the dressing put all the ingredients in a small bottle a shake well. When the tomatoes are cool cover them in this dressing and serve. They will have a fairly strong flavour so sometimes it’s best to just use a few in a mixed salad.

Chilean sea bass with chilli lime sauce

 

Chilean sea bass with creamy chilli lime sauce

1 or 2 chilli’s depending on how hot you like it

1 cube of vegetable stock dissolved in a little water

1 Garlic clove

250ml cream

½ tbsp Olive oil

½ tbsp Corn flour

1 lime juiced

4 x 200g portions of Chilean seas bass

50g butter

 

Cook the sea bass in a pan with the butter until browned on both sides, move to the oven and cook for a further 10 minutes

To make the sauce, cook the garlic and chilli in the olive oil, but do not let the garlic go brown, when cooked add the cream lime and stock. Stir them into the chilli and garlic. Add the corn flour also dissolved in a little cold water a little at a time until the sauce is the thickness you desire.

Pour the sauce over the sea bass, I served this with rice and some sautéed vegetables but it would taste good with pasta or potatoes as well.

 

Antipasti Salad

 

Spiced Antipasti

Aubergines/egg plant

Courgettes/zucchini

Peppers

Artichoke hearts

Just like in Italy it’s easy to find aubergines, courgettes, peppers and artichokes, so making a nice antipasti is easy. I just slice the aubergines and courgettes and cook them on the grill. Then marinate them in oil and vinegar adding some nice jerk spice to give it a Caribbean edge.

For the peppers I bake them in a medium oven in a tin covered with foil for about an hour (medium oven 150 c) when they are ready I take out the middle gently peel off the skin and slice.

The Artichoke hearts are the biggest pain to prep. They are massive and the outer layers are very hard, and you only need the heart in the middle, I wouldn’t blame you if you just omitted this part of the salad. If you can be bothered however to peel away the layers to get to the heart, you need to prep a pan with water and lemon juice in it as soon as you get to the heart it goes brown in the air like potatoes do.  So hearts all found, put into water and gently poached for about 15 mins.

When you have done this add to the same marinade as aubergines and courgettes, and leave for at least an hour for the flavour to develop.

When you are ready assemble on the plate however you like.

 

 

Barbuda

Avocado and bacon salad in a parmesan basket

Avocado and bacon salad in a parmesan basket

For the Parmesan basket

200g parmesan cheese but not the ready grated stuff that not real it does not melt, you need to buy a block and grate it yourself to make sure its real.

A wonderful silicone mat, or if you don’t have one of these, grease proof paper will do the trick.

Place some grated parmesan on the silicone mat so it forms a circle about 10cm in diameter, (imagine your making biscuits and this is you mix) cook for about 7 minutes on 180 c or until melted and just browning.

Take out of the oven and leave to cool a little but not too much, when its cool enough to handle but still warm pick it up a shape oven an upside down bowl. Work fast as it will quickly become brittle and you want to shape it before it does. Once shaped and turned brittle gently take it off you bowl turn it the other way up and it should look like a nice basket.#

I think an avocado and bacon salad is quite self explanatory so throw that together, dress and place in your basket to serve.

 

 

Purple

 

Purple Potatoes

There Just Potatoes they taste exactly the same as white ones but they just happen to be purple, I love them, if you slice them up on the mandolin as you would for potato dauphinoise, then fry them to make really cool crisps/chips. Serve them just as they are with a dip at a party or with a main course, like with a steak instead of normal potato chips.

 

Mango and Mozzarella salad

 

Mango and Mozzarella Salad

See! I’m running out of completely Caribbean ideas so I’ve had to go all fusion, but the main thing is you can pick up all the ingredients here

Well this is a bit of a fusion and actually it’s strange because although the mozzarella and balsamic glaze bit are very Italian the end after taste is a bit like coconut. Bizarre but true; and I tested the theory on quite a few people.

So not hard to make, thinly slice a really nice ripe mango, slice the mozzarella, assemble then drizzle some glaze over the top.

So Ingredients!

1 mango

2 mozzarella balls

Balsamic glaze

(maybe some mesculin lettuce for extra decoration)

 

Jerk Chicken

 

Grilled Jerk chicken Breast

4 chicken breasts

For the jerk marinade

4 spring onions finely chopped

1 hot red chilli finely chopped

3 cm root ginger, grated

2 tbsp thyme leaves

200ml red wine vinegar

Juice of 2 limes

3 tbsp honey

2 tsp ground all spice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

 

Extra ingredients’ to make the marinade become a sauce

 

1 tbsp sugar

3 teaspoons of corn flour

 

 

Put all the ingredients for the marinade and a pot and slowly bring to a simmer.

 

Put about ¼ to the side and leave to cool, then pour over the chicken as a marinade, leave for a minimum of 1 hour, but the longer you leave it the better it will taste.

 

The remaining marinade mix will make your sauce, keep on the heat and add an extra tbsp of sugar, when it is dissolved, dissolve 3 tsp of corn flour in a small amount of water, stir in to the jerk ingredients to thicken

 

When you are ready to serve, grill the chicken on each side for about 7 mins, but you may want to check to see if it’s done as not all chicken breasts are the same thickness.

 

Serve with the sauce and a salad and rice as I have, or anything else you would like. This dish is also great on the BBQ.

 

Peach and Mango salsa en croute

Peach and Mango salsa en croute

This is a really tasty little snack but it’s not exactly mango season here in the Caribbean yet so, the mangos I’ve got are imported and they took about a week to ripen on my window sill, a bit disappointing really as this is what I have to do in Europe. A decent mango is so hard to get hold of, and you have to keep a close eye on them because one day there not ripe and the next they’ve gone too far, but also sometimes they never become perfect and they have that hairy straw like texture inside. Anyway good luck finding a good mango especially if you’re in Europe, although a good tip is to look for ones that have been flown over, they should have a little sticker on them and there much more likely to become ripe and taste good.

2 peaches

1 ripe mango

½ a red onion

1 red pepper

a bunch of chives

For the dressing

White wine vinegar, or if you can find it white balsamic its much nicer 25 ml

Olive oil 25 ml

Mustard 1 tsp

For the Croute

Toast or French bread sliced thinly

Garlic butter

Method  

Chop all the vegetables into small square pieces and mix together, combine the ingredients for the dressing in a bottle and shake!

Make the croute by spreading the bread with garlic butter, when ready to serve lightly cook them in the oven for 10 minutes.

Mix the dressing with the vegetables and then put on top of the toast.

You can also put a little sour cream on top for presentation or just a little parsley

 

 

 

Potatoes Dauphinois

 

Potatoes Dauphinois

You really need a mandolin for this, you can make it without but to slice a load of pots the same size is pretty boring but with a mandolin it takes minutes. However be careful to mind your fingers, I get awfully frustrated because this little piece of equipment is the reason I have so many mini cuts. Ok so it does come with a safety thing but I find that if you use it, you waste half the vegetables you’re slicing. It has prongs that grip the top of the vegetable they dig in a few cm’s therefore you lose a few cm’s of vegetable. Oh well fingers grow back and plasters aren’t expensive.

Potatoes 5 large and peeled

Garlic cloves 2

300ml cream

Peel and slice all the potatoes as in picture

I always put some grease proof paper in the bottom of a baking deep baking dish so at the end I can pull the whole lot out and cut with a cutter into neat shapes for service. This dish is essentially a potato pie with no filling.

Chop the garlic into very fine pieces, arrange the potatoes in neat layers and scatter the garlic in between the layers. Pour the cream over the top. Bake on a low heat like 150 c for 2 hours, until the potatoes are soft. This is very simple but so tasty; it’s one of those dishes that is always a winner.

If you want to cheat!!  Use a glass dish and microwave for 30 min’s then bake for the last ten in a normally hot oven it’s much quicker and turns out just as good. I’m sure some French chefs would turn in their graves if they were dead and heard anyone say this but sometimes cheats are good.

 

Fois Gras With Balsamic Onion Jam

Fois Gras with balsamic onion Jam

To start; I would pop down to a gourmet shop or a good super market to buy your Fois Gras, I prefer Fois Gras du canard, this is duck! But goose is good too, you can buy it in a block pre prepared and just cut it accordingly.

 Making the jam to go with it is really easy.

Ingredients

Onions 3 large

Oil

200ml balsamic vinegar

50g sugar

Teaspoon of corn flour

Slice the onion and then Soften them in the oil try not burn them, then add the balsamic vinegar and reduce for about 10 minutes.

When the vinegar has reduced and combined with the onions you can add the sugar. NB. You really need to make sure the onions are very soft and moist before you add the vinegar otherwise they will not properly absorb it, so you would see white onion and then vinegar surrounding it.

When you add the sugar leave on the heat until it has dissolved then take it off, careful not to burn the sugar on the heat, it doesn’t taste very nice if it is burnt.

When you have got to this stage add the corn flour but dissolve it in a little water before you add it. It will thicken you jam slightly and make it perfect to eat with the Fois Gras.

Just add a little bit of toast and maybe a salad leaf or to and you have an amazing starter.

 

Lobster with Lime butter Sauce

Lobster with lime butter cream sauce

For the sauce

15 g ½ oz butter

15g ½ oz plain flour

300ml/ ½ pint double cream

1 Lime juiced

Fresh parsley for garnish

Salt and pepper

For the lobster,

1 whole live spiny lobster per 2 people (this is what they call it in the Caribbean other people call them crayfish)

If your using the smaller north Atlantic lobsters you may want to use 1 per person although they are expensive so you may just use a small amount a do it as a starter.

Too make the sauce

Melt the butter in a pan and stir in the flour, take off the heat and gradually stir in the milk, splash by splash stirring continuously, until you have a thick cream, I sometimes make this with a whisk, someone once told me this was cheating but I don’t feel like making something in such a way as to guarantee it doesn’t go wrong is cheating. You see this sauce has a tendency to go lumpy but you have much less of a chance of the lumps if you use a whisk.

When you have your thick cream stir in the cream and lime and season accordingly.

For the lobsters, you can put them in the freezer and freeze them before boiling them, if you leave them a few hours this should kill them or make them so slow you think they are dead. If your freezer like mine does not have enough space to freeze them, I’m afraid you need to boil them alive, this can make some people feel a little squeamish especially if they struggle, or see on my “sorry Mr Lobby” post for what happened to me. worse still you can kill them by just cutting them in half, but I can’t do this, so if I want to BBQ my lobbys or grill them, I just par cook them, so there well and truly dead before you start cutting them up but the flesh is still under cooked.

Fill up your biggest pan with water add some salt to make it brine and boil, when the water is boiling put the lobster in the pan, and too alleviate some guilt put a lid on as quickly as possible. For a 500g (1lb 2oz) lobster it will take about 15 minutes 18 if frozen, allow a further 8 minutes, 11 if frozen for each extra 500g. When it is cooked it will go that lovely flamingo pink colour that most people are familiar with.

When it is cooked you need to cut in half, I always use a meat cleaver for this. It is quite difficult to cut them in half so be careful and mind your fingers, cut splitting from the head down to the body. Once you have done this is it easy to extract the meat, if you keep the shell intact you can use it to present the dish in.

Once you have your cooked lobsters take the meat out of the shell, cut into cubes and add to the sauce, I used the shells too present the finished dish to bring back the colour to the dish.

 

Leftover Turkey Salad

Leftover Turkey Salad

A great option if you are feeling like you over ate over the last few days, or maybe you didn’t if you have left over’s but never the less:

Leftover Turkey

Cucumber

Romaine or Iceberg lettuce

Spring onions

Raisons*

Dressing

White balsamic Vinegar 100ml

Olive oil 100ml

Squeeze of lemon

Salt and pepper

Again this being a salad, I would just consult the above picture, but I listed the ingredients as well, but really it depends on you how much or each ingredient you want to add and how much leftover turkey you have.

The reason the Raisons are on the side is not just for presentation but lately I’ve discovered that lots of men don’t like sweet things in savoury things, specific examples as above raisons in salads, pineapple on pizza, sweet and sour stuff etc. Now it can’t be all men but a lot that I know of. So I like to put the sweet things on the side, because some people, more women, like myself absolutely love them. Any comments on my theory would be greatly appreciated.

Bacon and Grapefruit salad

Bacon and grapefruit salad

Bacon

Grapefruit

Romaine lettuce

Parmesan

Parsley

For the dressing

50 ml Red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon Mustard

50 ml Olive oil

There are really no rules for salads, just ideas, normally when I’m looking up recipes for salads I just end up looking at the pictures, I personally think this is the best way, it just gives you an idea what to put in your salad.

So Use however much of each ingredient you like depending how much you like it and mix together to form a really tasty salad.

 

 

Pork with apple and star Anise compote

Pork with apple and star Anise Compote

This is not in any way a dish related to the Bahamas, but when I was there after seeing the swimming pigs I reminded myself of pork. I don’t often cook pork as lots of people tend to prefer other meats, and of course there is the ongoing discussion of weather you can eat it pink or not, in my experience most people are still frightened to eat pink pork and although it tastes excellent I don’t cook it that way. I’m sure no harm would be done and have eaten it pink many times myself, but I’m not a scientist or doctor and there is no point in risking someone else’s health over a bit of food.

 

This recipe is for about 4 people.

For the pork chops Marinade:

1 clove garlic

2 table spoons of olive oil

3 star anise pieces crushed slightly

2 table spoons balsamic vinegar

Salt ‘N’ pepper

Put all the ingredients in a bowl with the chops cover with cling wrap and leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours, although the longer you leave it the better they will taste, I would normally marinade something in the morning ready for the evening meal.

For the Compote:

2.5 cm/1 inch piece of fresh root ginger grated

1 small red onion

2 garlic cloves chopped

30g butter or a table spoon of oil

3 apples, any sort will do but if you’re using those mega sized cooking apples you will probably only need one and a bit.

60g/2oz of sugar

2 x whole star anise

1 table spoon of white balsamic vinegar (if you can’t get hold of this use red wine vinegar)

Salt ‘N’ pepper

Gently cook the onions, garlic and ginger in the oil or butter until the onions are soft, try not to burn them. Add all the other ingredients except the balsamic vinegar, salt ‘N’ pepper. Cook over a low heat for 5 or so minutes stirring occasionally until the apples are tender. Stir in the vinegar taste and add seasoning. You can warm it again just before service.

N.B:  I used normal balsamic vinegar when I made this and of course it didn’t come out the best colour (Sludgy brown) so I think the other vinegars will make for a better compote.

When ready to serve cook the pork on a grill if you have one, I think this brings out the flavours more, Cooking time will depend on the thickness, I normally have chops about 3 cm thick and cook them 7 minutes either side, but please check there done before serving them.

I served my chops and compote with sweet potato mash I think it complements the dish thankfully as I had a load of sweet potatoes I needed to use. They are one of the things easy to get hold of in the Bahamas.

I make my sweet potato mash half and half styley, (half white potatoes and half sweet) as I think sweet on their own can be a bit too sweet.

 

Carribean prawn curried soup

Caribbean curried prawn soup

½ a medium onion

1 clove of garlic

7 medium sized prawns, or shrimp

½ can coconut milk/ or cream (the later for a richer soup)

½ cube of fish stock

300ml water

For the curry paste

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon of mustard seed

1 fresh red chilli

1 piece of tamarind

 

Fresh coriander chopped for garnish

Soften the onion and garlic in a little bit of oil, peel and chop 5 of the prawns, and then add to the pan, dissolve the fish stock in the water and add this along with the coconut milk to the pan.

For the curry paste, Crack the tamarind and take out the soft inner bit, dissolve the gooey stuff in a small amount of boiling water and add the other spices, stir and then add it all to the pan. Cook for about ten minutes. Do a taste test to see whether it is salty enough for your tastes if not add a little more stock, if it’s too salty for you add a little more water.

You may not be able to get hold of fresh tamarind, if this is the case use a paste, and use 1 teaspoon. Tamarind has a very distinctive taste, kind of lemony but not, you will know what I mean when you taste it.

I like to garnish this soup with some whole prawns for people to dip in it, but you don’t have too. 

 

Alligator Bites

Alligator bites

 

Alligator  tail    x 300 g

 

Breadcrumbs x 200g

Black pepper x 100g

Cajun seasoning x 2 teaspoons

Salt 1 teaspoon

 

Flour enough to cover the alligator

Eggs x 2

Milk x 100ml

Chop the Alligator tail into small pieces and cover in flour.

Mix the egg and milk, and dip each piece of floured Alligator tail into the mix.

Then dip into the alligator into the pepper seasoned breadcrumb mix. Deep fry the bites until floating and golden brown, if you don’t have a fat fryer you can fry them in a pan with a generous amount of oil.

Also if you can’t get hold of alligator you can use chicken, actually it’s probably nicer but I was in Florida and I thought it was very novel. Serve these with any dip you like.

 

 

Jerk Pumpkin Soup

Onion x 1

Garlic x 1 clove

Chilli x 1 chilli

Ginger x 1 teaspoon of ground, 1 inch of the ugly real stuff peeled and grated

Red wine vinegar x 100ml ¼ cup

Honey x two teaspoons more if you’re not sweet enough

Ground all spice 1 teaspoon

Cinnamon ½ teaspoon

Pumpkin x 300g

Potato x 1 medium

Vegetable stock x 1 cube

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tea spoons of fresh Thyme

Caramelise the onions and garlic with a little oil, then add the chilli and ginger, cook for a few minutes, then add the stock pumpkin potatoes all spice, cinnamon and Thyme, simmer until the pumpkin and potato are cooked, add the red wine vinegar and the honey stir them in. Blend with a hand held food processor, if the soup is too thick add a little more water. Serve with a blob of crème fresh or sour cream and a sprig of thyme.

I’ve served this with a King crab leg as I though it maked a perfect a combination but you could just serve with some lovely crusty bread or some crackers.

 

Dishes I made up inspired by my trip to Brazil

Chilean seas bass, with Bahia style coconut sauce, white rice and cheats Brazilian beans, (Feijoada). I say cheats because I’m just going to use stock and am defiantly not going to use pigs’ ears and beefs tongues that are supposed to go into the making of them. (That’s not a figure of speech its real ingredient) The bean dish used to be a dish for the slaves they made them by cooking the beans with all leftover meat parts, hence ears and tongues and maybe even eyeballs and all.

 Each piece of fish about 200g, per portion, so depending on how many people you are cooking for is how many pieces you use.

1 Onion diced

1 clove Garlic

2 fresh green Chilli's

100 ml Chopped tomatoes

1 squeezed Lime of lime juice

1 Coconut milk,

2 teaspoons Dende oil, palm oil (see picture below)

•     Chop the onion and garlic finely and sauté, then add the rest of the ingredients, and let simmer for 20 minutes or so until the ingredients are fused together.

•     You can now add salt pepper to taste and a little fish stock, just add and taste until you like the flavour, if you think something is missing add a little sugar.

•     Pan fry the fish on the fleshy side, the finish off in the oven for about 10 minutes on 180 0c, although don't guarantee that check before you serve to see if it’s done.

•     For the cheats’ beans, using some tinned black beans, put in a pan, add some beefstock water, all spice and gravy browning, and reduce until you have a tasty sauce for the beans. Easy!!

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION RECIPES FROM NOWHERE INPARTICULAR

 

Parma Ham and Avocado salad.

 

This is an amazingly simple easy salad to make all you need is a big metal ring to make it in to give it the neat rounded finish so it looks great on your plate.

• Ice burg lettuce
• Cucumber
• Sweetcorn
• Spring onions
• Cheddar Cheese
• Olive oil
• White wine vinegar
• Parma Ham
• Avocado

Simply Chop the iceberg lettuce cucumber Cheddar cheese and spring onion and toss together in a bowl with the olive oil and white wine vinegar.

Use this salad as the bottom layer, once this is done, layer the Parma ham, then place the Avocado on top. Sprinkle with parsley and chives and garnish with cucumber and red onion then your done! finnitto! finished!

I didn't quantitate this recipe as its really up to you how much you use depending on how big your moulds are and how much you like the Ingredient's you can also add other ingredients that you prefer, I would also season the tossed salad, but my Mum wouldn't so everyone different, do it however you prefer.

NB: Parma ham from "Parma" which is actually a town in Itally.