Marathon Maniac #957
Here are the recipes from our cooking class - Barbados style. I especially loved the curry chicken and the coconut bread, but everything was delicious! Plantains were a surprise to me - they look just like bananas but taste more like potato.
'
Island Cuisine
With
Chef Joel Gittens
Spiced Pumpkin Fritters
Plantains in a Blanket
Cream of Broccoli Soup
Bajan Curry Chicken with Mashed Garlic Yucca
and Seasonal Vegetables
Coconut Bread
1 small 21b pumpkin peeled, cooked and mashed 6 oz brown sugar
2 eggs (optional)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
Vz tsp nutmeg
1A tsp salt
Corn oil for shallow frying.
In a small bowl whisk eggs and vanilla. Add pumpkin and mix. Add all other ingredients and combine well.
Heat oil in a medium pan to 350 degrees. Scoop individual portions into the hot oil and fry until golden brown.
When finished, place fritters on a plate with paper tissue to absorb excess oil. Serve.
3 ripe plantains 1 lb bacon
Peel plantains and slice into 1 inch rounds. Cut bacon strips in half. Wrap half bacon strip around plantain and place on baking tray with cut ends on bottom.
Bake the plantains wrapped with bacon in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until the bacon is crispy and done.
Remove from oven and serve.
Chef Note: Add a dusting of smoked paprika or cayenne pepper on the plantains before wrapping for additional flavor.
3/4 cup chopped onion
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
3/4 pound broccoli, chopped coarse (about 31/2 cups)
2 cups chicken Stock
1 cup water
IV2 tsp fresh lemon juice, or to taste
1A cup heavy cream
In a saucepan sautee onion in the butter over moderate heat until the onion is translucent.
Add the broccoli, chicken stock and the water and cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until the broccoli is cooked.
In a blender puree the soup in small batches until smooth.
Transfer the pureed soup to another saucepan. Whisk in the lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.
Reheat the soup over a moderately low heat, and whisk in the heavy cream (don't let the soup boil).
Strain if desired and serve with a parmesan crostini.
Bajan Curried Chicken
3 lbs chicken breast cubed
2 limes
1 large sweet onion
3 stalks of green onion 1/2 inch ginger root Fresh thyme
4 Tbsp curry powder Salt and black pepper 3 Tbsp corn oil
3 medium potatoes
2 carrots
1 habanera pepper
Heat oil in a 5 to 6 quart wide heavy pot over moderately low heat. Cook onions, garlic and ginger, until softened about 5 minutes.
Add curry powder and cook stirring for 2 minutes. Add chicken and cook, stirring to coat, 3 minutes. More curry can be added if desired.
Chop the green onions 1A inch and add to the pot with 4 sprigs of fresh thyme. Add enough water to cover and the habanera pepper (whole). Simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until chicken is cooked through, about 40 minutes.
Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. Serve with toasted coconut on top for garnish.
Chef Note: Don't burst the Habanera pepper be very gentle it will add flavor without the heat. Slices of fresh mango and raisins can also be cooked with the chicken curry.
Mashed Garlic Yucca
1 lb yucca peeled and diced (large)
6 oz butter
4 cloves of garlic peeled (add more if desired)
Salt to taste.
Place peeled and diced yucca in a small sauce pan with enough water to cover. Add butter and garlic (garlic can be smashed or rough chopped).
Season with salt and add more water if necessary. Yucca is finished when it is fork tender and easy to mash.
2 lbs all-purpose flour
1 lb brown Sugar
3A cup coconut milk (optional: evaporated milk)
3A lb butter
1/4 lb shortening (optional)
1 grated coconut (approx 3 cups)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla 1 tsp nutmeg raisins - optional cherries - optional
1 egg (optional)
Makes approximately 3 sized breads
Coconut Filling (optional)
V2 cup grated coconut
2 Tbsp Sugar
1 tsp essence
2 Tbsp water
Put all ingredients in small pan & place on low fire. Stir continuously for approximately 3 minutes or until sugar is dissolved.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour loaf pans.
Mix all dry ingredients together (except fruit).
Mix butter and shortening into mixture, using fingers, until mixture resembles large bread crumbs.
Add fruit to mixture. Use enough liquid to bind mixture together. This could be coconut water, milk or just plain water.
Knead dough for a few minutes. The longer you knead the dough, the firmer the bread becomes. Sweet bread is traditionally a firm bread, but some people like it soft & crumbly. The choice is yours.
Fill loaf pan halfway with dough.
Place a slender line of coconut filling lengthwise down the middle of the dough. Put remaining dough on top.
Cut light crisscross pattern on top with a knife for decoration (optional). Bake for 30 - 45 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean.
Tip: For a crisper top, place a small pan with water at the bottom of oven while baking.
Life is a headlong rush into the unknown. We can hunker down and hope nothing hits us or we can stand tall, lean into the wind and say, "Bring it on, darlin', and don't be stingy with the jalapenos."
Trails are hard!
Thanks, Holly. They sure look delicious. It was, however, a mistake to look at them with 2+ until dinner.
Need a fast half for late fall. Then I need to actually train for it.
I love Caribbean food! Thank you for the recipes. They look great. Just a couple of minor quibbles with your instructor.
If the plantains taste like potatoes they are at most barely ripe. Where they green or yellow and black? When they really ripen up (and are yellow and black) they are very sweet and taste just awesome when quick fried; a taste nothing like a potato!
My other quibble is with the directions for handling the habanero pepper. They are among the hottest peppers around so keeping them from bursting if dropped whole into the pot is a really (and I do mean really) good idea! But you can dispense with the gentle treatment by removing the seeds and veins prior to cooking. Just be forewarned the oils are scorching hot! Do not do this bare handed or you will be sorry! Trust me I have made this mistake! Wear disposable cooking gloves when handling the habaneros and then carefully toss them out the second you are done with handling them.
Live like you are dying not like you are afraid to die.
Drunken Irish Soda Bread and Irish Brown Bread this way --> http://allrecipes.com/cook/4379041/
Twocat - we saw the plantains, and they did indeed look like over-ripe bananas, yellow and black. And I did not mean to imply that they weren't sweet, just that they were more like a cross between a banana and a potato. Maybe in Ohio you don't always get the freshest plantains...still, they were delicious, and the simple bacon-wrapped plantains will be an easy appetizer idea for gatherings.
I hear you on the handling of peppers. I usually put my hands inside plastic bags when I handle peppers. Once I did not when I was chopping jalepinas and I could not put in my contacts for several days - just would not wash off.
If you do not let the plantains get to they yellow and black stage they are quite potato like in taste! Those are good too. I am a little surprised at the recipe then. I would have thought just yellow (maybe some green, little or no black) would have been about right for an appetizer like the one you made. I might try doing some experimenting. Maybe start today! If I go home via Bridgeport I can stop and get some plantains and see how it works out!