Spices4Sunsets

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.

 

St Kitts and Nevis

 

St Kitts and Nevis

I arrived at St Kitts where all the cruise ships come in at a place called Basseterre. At first I had to walk through the purpose built especially for tourists bit of town, I keep coming across these in places and a part of me thinks it’s a shame they build these as it means the bulk of the tourists are really visiting a place properly they’re seeing a sugar coated version.

Basseterre is the biggest town I’ve seen so far, since I’ve been in the Caribbean, but it was interesting to walk around, some of the building are new some old some great looking and some very shabby.

Unfortunately the market wasn’t open yet as I was there quite early in the morning and as we all know nobody does and thing in a rush here in the Caribbean.

Anyway my point being that I had to go to a supermarket to buy food, this seems to be the general trend so far, so it seems you either get to buy French products or more American products on the other Island, so I’m not just making Caribbean food, I’m generally making things from anything I can get hold of, with a slight Caribbean theme in my head.

 

Snow in the Caribbean?

Saba, Caribbean 

St Barths

On arrival to St Barths my phone alerted me to say, welcome to Europe which is always a funny one when you know you’re far from the continent itself, however I was delighted to also be alerted of European calls rates, much cheaper for me.

St Barths differs from the rest of the Caribbean, it’s quite strange, you know you’re not in France but they manage to make it very French. This means you don’t quite have the rustic charm of the rest of the Caribbean but you do feel a bit more like you’re in the real world! “Well ish, if you count very expensive shops and clubs and restaurants that you may need to take a second mortgage to go to.”

From a foodie point of view however it’s great, Real French bread, caviar, Fois Gras, you can get it all, just as if you were in France.

 

life on the Beach

A perfect day on the beach in the BVI's over the christmas period, although I hate to admit it, and I hate to be so typically english and talk about the weather, but it actually rained on Christmas day here, but tis not an everyday thing.

Christmas Lights

I actually took this picture back in Fort Laurderdale where the christmas lights were amazing but I saved posting the picture until Christmas

Merry Christmas from the BVI's

A perfect Christamas Sunset

Fish Market Bahama style

I Just love coming across Little Markets like this, its all fresh and all local, although Im always hoping the fish havent been lying there too long. You never can tell for sure until you start cutting them up, and by then its hardly likey that your going to take it back. But this all looked like fresh catch to me. Look caferfully at the Conch shells, you can see the fleshy snail like thing that you eat, it was moving when I took the photo, Still alive, so were the Spinny lobsters, thats also a pretty good indication of freshness.
 

Bahamas

Bahamas

Well I have to say the Bahamas are very pleasing to the eye, the colours are so vibrant it’s hard to believe the sky can be that blue and the water that green. The first stop was Paradise Island on Nassau, Wandering through the immaculately kept hotel Atlantis I felt a bit like I was in Disney land and after loosing my allocated gambling money my friends and I decided to go across the bridge to find some authentic life which is something I prefer, we found ourselves in a perfect rickety rackety bar and had an excellent time drinking cocktails and Bad wine.

The rest of the Bahamas as far as I could see is a Hugh contrast to Paradise Island, of course it has perfect beaches the and beautiful aqua water, but unless you’re in a resort life is a bit basic, not that this is a bad thing, Only when you need to do something in a hurry does it pose a problem.

Mostly all the food of the Bahamas is shipped in from America, they do not have many crops, as most of the Island are practically sand bars.

 Things you can get however are from the sea Crayfish, (Lobster), Grouper, Red Snapper and conch, amongst other fishy things.

 I’m really not the biggest fan of conch, I think it’s the fact that it’s an ugly slug like creature, but it could be the flavour as well. I suppose some people love it. Conch fritters, seem to be the most popular way of serving it, however as with everything there are a million other options.

 

Fort Lauderdale Sunset

Loving the colour I didnt edit at all!! Honest

Fort Laurderdale and the Everglades

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.

 

 

Florida, USA

Florida

I had an unimaginably easy trip through immigration and customs when I arrived in Florida which I was pleasantly surprised about. I was also pleasantly surprised to find it was gorgeously warm albeit a little bit too humid, although I should have expected this, but it is hard to imagine when leaving England in December that soon you will be back in a summer like winter.

I ordered a small car at the airport but when I got to it I had to go back to the desk to inform them that they had given me the wrong car as it was huge; however I was informed that this was a small car! Well not to me I could hardly see over the steering wheel and I’m not small, anyway all was good as the roads are big here too. 

Beaching it up was my main priority, for the first few days, so I cruised down the straight flat highway in my “small car” finding my surrounding quite foreign, which I wasn’t expecting as I have been to America before but I forgot how different everything seems to an English girls like myself.

After a few days on the beach drinking strawberry Daiquiris, I headed to the everglades to do an airboat trip. One of the things that really jumped out to me apart from the alligators on the side of the road was how absolutely flat the landscape is. The airboat ride was fun experience although they didn’t tell us we were going to get soaked and Id left my handbag on the floor, which had to be drained at the end of the trip, fortunately Id left my phone in the car, and my camera was safely glued to my face as I was scouting for a good shot of an Alligator.

Ok I’ll stop rattling on about the ins and outs of my daily trips, you can see more from the pictures and this blog is supposed to be more about the food, so here are a few more Recipes to feast your eyes on.

 

Brazil Design

Brazil