Can Cook, Must Cook

We're moving

2006-09-02T08:12:00.000Z

Can Cook, Must Cook is moving to a new address.
As much as we like the Blogger platform, some of their recent problems have made updating this blog too much of a hassle sometimes.
Our new address is http://cancookmustcook.com. Please update your bookmarks!
Be warned, I'm still working to perfect the new site, so there'll be a few glitches. If you're not redirected before you finish reading this, click here for the new Can Cook, Must Cook site.

Oil down - the recipes

2006-08-17T14:20:00.000Z

Of course everyone has their own way of making oil down, it's usually passed on from mummy, granny or tantie.
My mother doesn't make oil down often, but when she does it's quite amazing. I don't remember any measurements of course, but I've consulted other books and folks for some guidelines.
Anita Maharaj, a Trini who read the blog suggested that I add Golden Ray to give it that unique flavour, better known to Trinis as that 'real Creole flavour'. Heather said I should use sweet potato (the white one) to bring out the sweetness in the breadfruit.
For those of you who don't know the joy of oil down, I'll give you two recipes.
The first recipe is from the late great Sylvia Hunt, best described as Trinidad and Tobago's Delia Smith. Sylvia was our first proper TV cook she brought a lot of traditional recipes to a mass audience in a way that was never done before.
The second recipe is from the Naparima Girls Cookbook, a cookery bible for many Trinis as it has recipes for most of the delicacies enjoyed by the average Trini.
Try these recipes and let me know the outcome.

Oil Down according to Sylvia Hunt
1 large breadfruit
2 lbs mixed salted meat
Lime juice
2 medium sized onions
6 red and green sweet chilli peppers, cut into wedges
1 clove garlic
1 bunch chive chopped
Thyme
3 cups thick coconut milk
1 fllavouring pepper
2 tsp sugar
1 green hot pepper
Salt
Cooking oil

Method
1. Wash and peel breadfruit. Cut into 8 sections. Remove centre lengthways of each section and cut into half crosswise.
2. Wash and scrape meat, cut into pieces and rinse in lime juice and water.
3. Remove skins of onions, rinse and cut into small pieces. Remove seeds of chilli peppers and cut into wedges. Chop chives into small pieces.
4. Put salted meat into cold water, bring to the boil and drain. Repeat 3 times to remove preserving saly. Put to cook until just tender and drain.
5. Saute onions and garlic in hot oil until onions are pale yellow.
6. Add chive, thyme, flavouring pepper, salted meat and salt to taste. Pour over 2 cups of coconut milk.
7. Add wedges of breadfruit, sugar, green hot pepper and cook until breadfruit absorbs liquid.
8. Add remaining coconut milk. Remove hot pepper. Stir to blend well and cook at a reduced heat. There should be no remaining liquid.
9. Serve hot.
Sylvia Hunt's Cooking, 1985

Oil Down, the Naps Girls way
8 ozs cooked saltfish, flaked
2 chives
2 pints coconut milk
1 large or 2 small breadfruit cut into 4 – 6 sections
1 whole hot pepper
2 sprigs thyme
1 stick celery, chopped.

1 Soak meat overnight in cold water. Drain.
2. Remove the breadfruit and peel and in a saucepan, put alternate layers of breadfruit, meat and saltfish.
3. Tie chilli, thyme, chive and add to pan with celery and coconut milk.
4. Cover tightly and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 45-50 mins until everything is cooked and tender. When cooked the liquid should be absorbed and the stew oily.
5. Remove herbs before serving and add salt to taste.
From the Naparima Girls High School - Trinidad and Tobago Recipes, 1988

Prelude to an oil down

2006-08-15T20:54:00.000Z

The time has come for the great oil down day. I've been itching to cook breadfruit oil down since March, when a completely unscientific poll on this blog revealed it was the dish that Trinis like best.
When I ran the survey, I promised to cook whatever people voted as their favourite. And since the summer seems to be disappearing quickly, I thought I should do it before the weather gets totally rotten.
There's a bit of serendipity involved in making oil down over here, mainly because you might not get breadfruit when you want it. I bought two breadfruits two weeks ago in Peckham with the intention of peeling and freezing them when I got home. Unfortunately, I fell asleep and by the next morning, the breadfruits went soft.
With just three days to go before the cook, a bit of panic set in so I prayed hard and went to Shepherd's Bush Market where I got four perfect breadfruits.
I've cut them up and put them in the freezer (to stop them ripening), now all I've got to do is buy the seasonings, saltfish, and coconut milk. Next time, I'll give the breadfruit oil down recipe.

Another Trini foodie

2006-08-14T20:10:00.000Z

Today I discovered a great blog from another Trini foodie, Petit Careme, who I assume is a woman!
I found her blog when she made a comment on my last entry so I had a look at her blog and at once became green with envy because she was showing off Crix biscuits and Chee Zees fresh from Trinidad.
I get more envious when I saw the spread she laid on for her friends over the weekend for which included stew chicken - Sylvia Hunt style! Check out her blog for details.

In another entry, she talked about orange pine ice cream, a dessert she reckons was invented in the Caribbean. And to be honest I have to agree with her because I never see it anywhere else.
As boldface as ever, I asked her for some guidelines, because I wouldn't mind making some orange pine ice cream myself. She said orange pine ice cream is "basically a traditional vanilla custard without the vanilla. And you have to heat the milk with the grated zest of 3 oranges, then strain it. Then after you make the custard add the juice of 3 oranges (which you have reduced to about 0.5 cup) and the grated zest of 1-2 oranges."
I wonder if I could ask for any pointers on oil down, since I planning to make a wicked oil down on Friday!

Of things Trini

2006-08-11T11:34:00.000Z

Did you know that Trinidad's chocolate is highly regarded all over the world? Chocolate makers really love our chocolate and I was pleasantly surprised to find this chocolate at a friend's home recently.
On the wrapper it says: "Gran Cuova (I think they mean Couva) Cocoa originates from special plantations on the Caribbean island of Trinidad and is one of the world's finest cocoas. When combined with utmost care and the finest ingredients, its unique and beguling aromatic flavour produces a superb extra bitter chocolate."
It makes me wonder if our chocolate is so good, why have we been subjecting our children to the crap of Charles Chocolate for so many years?
But as we're in the Trini vein, I'll talk about two cookbooks I got recently, Caribbean Flavours and Angostura's The Taste That Changed The World.
They're both authored by Wendy Rahamut, a cook who came to prominence in the mid-1990s when she started appearing on daytime talk shows in Trinidad. She also writes a weekly column in the Trinidad Guardian and does some writing for other Caribbean publications as well.
In Caribbean Flavours, there are more than 150 recipes ranging from traditional dishes like Tobago curried crab and dumplings to the contemporary fusion dishes like shrimp saute with basil and feta.
I read somewhere that described her as Trinidad's Nigella Lawson, but that's not true. Nigella Lawson writes like an angel, Wendy Rahamut just doesn't. I'll be the first to admit that I've never been inspired by Wendy Rahamut to cook anything and I still remain uninspired.
Caribbean Flavours is not really a bad book, but it looks like a hip cookery textbook.
In design terms, it's a bit basic and there aren't enough photographs. If you've read this blog before you'll know that one of my pet peeves is 'cartoony Caribbean' effects. Unfortunately, some of the food photography in this book verges on the cartoony. There is a good range of recipes in this book, and none of them are too challenging so it should be easy going for the less accomplished cooks.
With a title like The Taste That Changed The World, you'd think you were getting a food novel, but no, it's a cookbook inspired by Angostura Bitters.
They should change that damn title, it's too bloody pretentious. We all love Angostura bitters, but it didn't change the world.
When you open the book, the first thing that greets you is a testamonial about Harold Prieto, the photographer. Opposite to a big, black and white photo of a smiling Mr Prieto, noted musicologist Pat Bishop writes; "Prieto is a man who likes his vegetables to look perky; he requires his food to be colourful." All this palaver is a bit egoistic but at least he got his colours bright and his veggies perky.
The hardcover and sprawling photos indicate that this book is meant for your coffee table. But why oh why didn't Angostura spend some good money and get a proper designer to do this book? Why does it read like a corporate brochure with a short cookbook tacked on?
All the recipes - yes all - use Angostura Bitters including Kenyan Style Chicken Tikka. Sounds like a joke doesn't it? Chicken Tikka is a dish made up in English curry houses to suit the English palate, it's not a 'real' Indian dish. I'd be interested to hear what my Indo-Kenyan friends think of this.
I looked in vain through the two of these books to see whether there would be a recipe that included Trinidad's finest chocolate but no such luck. It seems we're stuck with Jamaican stuff, according to Wendy Rahamut. Here's her recipe for Cocoa Coffee Cake which, by the way, has no coffee in it!

1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1.5 cups flour
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup cocoa
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Icing sugar to finish

Method
1. Preheat oven to 350F, grease a 9-inch cake tin
2. Cream butter with granulated sugar until creamy. Add the eggs and beat until nice and fluffy. Combine the baking powder and flour and add to mixture alternatively with the milk.
3. Combine cocoa, nuts, brown sugar and cinnamon.
4. Place a third of the batter into pan, sprinkle with half the cocoa mixture. Repeat with another layer of batter, then cocoa mixture.
5. Top with remaining batter.
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with icing sugar when cooled.

My recipe quest continues

2006-08-01T17:55:00.000Z

My search for a recipe using strawberry vinegar as a key ingredient has taken some interesting twists and turns. At first, I thought about doing seared scallops and gurnard with strawberry vinegar and shallot dressing, but after tasting the strawberry vinegar again, I felt it would be too tart and mask the delicate flavour of the scallops and gurnard.
Aardvarknav kindly posted several recipes on this blog including a catfish recipe, which looks quite interesting.
I wasn't sure whether I could find catfish here but Duncan Lucas of Passionate About Fish told me catfish is known as either rockfish or wolf fish.
He said both freshwater or seawater catfish are available and described seawater catfish, which live on a diet of crustaceans and molluscs, as having "a beautiful, delicate shellfish flavour".
I had a look at a few books including Culinary Artistry, Rick Stein's Taste of the Sea and Leith's Fish Bible. And as I suspected, an oily fish would be best with a tart sauce like strawberry vinegar sauce.
I took my search to the foodies on the BBC Food messageboard and I got some helpful suggestions. Rustie posted several links to recipes that use raspberry vinegar which I will substitute with the strawberry vinegar. The recipe that caught my eye came from the BBC's treasure trove of recipes.
I like the look of this recipe and if I decide to use it, I'll use salmon if I can't get sea trout. Meanwhile, my search continues.

Sea trout with rose, raspberry vinegar and fennel
Ingredients
1kg/2¼lb sea trout, filleted
275ml/½ pint fish stock
125ml/4fl oz dry rosé wine
1 tbsp strawberry vinegar
30-50g/1-2oz butter
½ lemon, squeezed
5 fennel sprigs, chopped

Method
1. Preheat oven temperature to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
2. Place sea trout fillets in an ovenproof dish with a little of the fish stock. Season well. Put in the oven for 5-8 minutes until cooked. Remove fish from the oven but keep warm.
3. Pour the juice from the fish into a pan with remaining stock, rosé wine and strawberry vinegar. Bubble hard and reduce by half.
4. Add butter, lemon juice and finely chopped fennel sprigs.
5. Lift the skin off the fillets of fish and lay them on a plate. Pour over the sauce. Serve immediately.
6. Serve with new potatoes or a green leaf salad.

Not only about the food

2006-07-26T17:37:00.000Z

What constitutes a good culinary experience? It's hard to describe but I know it's not all about the food.
If you go to someone's house and all they could offer you is Crix biscuits and butter with some juice, you'd enjoy it because you know they offered it with a lot of love.
At that point, it doesn't matter if the house are a lil untidy or things not perfect, but if I go to a restaurant, I certainly expect everything to be perfect, because I'm paying, I don't want love, I want a good all round culinary experience.
My recent visit to the Hummingbird Restaurant in north London was less than satisfying.
Even though the food was extremely tasty, there were too many other things that didn't sit well with me.
Click here to see photos of my visit to the Hummingbird.
The service was a bit too leisurely. Waitress No. 1 was so laid back she seemed uninterested. Waitress No. 2 who took over, was under pressure because she was the only person on the floor so the service got slower as the night went on.
Untidiness doesn't cut it in a restaurant.
The Hummingbird could do with a visit from my mother in full clearing up mode. Don't get me wrong, the place wasn't unclean, it was just untidy.
The bar area was in a mess with menus all over the counter top, behind the bar looked like a storage area and the amount of half-empty bottles on the shelf didn't help either.
On the décor front, I could appreciate what they were trying to do with a minimalist approach, white walls, metal chairs and a coconut tree motif. They didn't go down the colourful 'cartoon Caribbean' look that I hate.
However, the place looks tired. The walls could do with a lick of paint, because the signs of wear – scrub marks from chairs – were clearly visible.
The toilet was clean but on the way to the toilet, there were broken floor tiles and an untidy back yard with a broken down car. It was just too shoddy.
On the food front, the place is extremely popular. There was a steady stream of customers and their takeaway business appears to be going guns.
I'll give them high marks for their menu because it's one of the most diverse Caribbean menus I've seen among the restaurants I've visited.
The range of dishes would find favour with even the harshest Caribbean foodies. Bajans will be glad that coo coo and stewed fish is prominent on the menu. In fact that was my choice for main course. It was sumptuous.
The chef got the cornmeal, okro and coconut milk to a perfect texture and the red fish cooked in a rich tomato, pepper and red herb stew was a wonderful accompaniment.
When I saw fried sprats - or what we call 'fry dry' in the Caribbean - as one of the appetisers, I couldn't resist. My mom used to do these when I was a child and I hadn’t had them since. Cherise’s saltfish fritters (accra) were light and moreish but EJ thought the potatoes in his sweet potato cheese bake were overcooked and Lisa felt her callaloo was a tad spicy.
Click here to see the photos of my visit to the Hummingbird.
I loved the ginger and tamarind sauce that accompanied EJ's grilled lamb but he said the lamb was a bit too well done. That's something I find about Caribbean restaurants, they tend to cook the meat too much. Lisa also thought her St Lucian lobster was a tad overcooked but tasty nonetheless. Cherise said her jerk chicken, was just right.
If The Hummingbird could get the food right, why don't they pay attention to everything else?
I think some people might feel I'm a bit harsh, but I really feel that Caribbean cuisine is as good as any other and I don't understand why more restaurateurs aren't making the effort to hit the heights that some other 'ethnic' restaurants are doing in this country.

My first harvest

2006-07-24T11:36:00.000Z

I was so excited when I dug up these lovely garlic bulbs!
I got the cloves at last year's Hampton Court Palace Flower Show from the
Garlic Farm's stall.
I've bought their garlic at Borough Market before, and since I know how good that Isle of Wight garlic is, I thought I'd give planting some a shot.
I planted them in November and waited patiently until last week to harvest them. It feels great to hold something you've planted in your hands.
The next project is salad leaves, carrots and spring onions (aka scallions), but it's so damn hot now I think I'll wait until it cools a bit.
I'm not a green thumb, I'm not good at plants but I'm determined to make a success of planting edible stuff but who knows, I might throw in a few roses, some irisies and a few cacti for good measure.

Stumped by exotic vinegar

2006-07-24T00:19:00.000Z

The wonderful Stacy gave me this bottle of strawberry vinegar and I'd love to cook something with it for her, but I keep finding recipes for salad dressing.
But even though fish cakes with salad and strawberry vinegar dressing sounds great, I don't think it'll cut it for her sophisticated palate.
So if anyone out there could help with an interesting vegetarian recipe that uses strawberry vinegar, please send it on.

Less food please?

2006-07-23T15:47:00.000Z

I'm not usually one to complain about generous servings but when Bonnie and I went to Mr Jerk the other day, we were both stunned by the stevedore-sized portions.
Essentially, Mr Jerk does what it says on the tin, it serves Jerk dishes and other Jamaican favourites.
The restaurant is known for hearty Jamaican food like patties, jerk chicken, ackee and saltfish and brown stew fish.
One evening after work, Bonnie and I went to the Wardour Street branch in Central London to see what we could 'nyam'.
This is where I begin to complain. The guy taking orders at the counter was not welcoming at all. He was gruff, abrupt and didn't give good advice about items on the menu.
We ignored this and soldiered on anyway. Now Mr Jerk is a takeaway as well as a sit down restaurant. It is small and awkwardly shaped so you could find yourself jammed up against a post or stuck in a corner with little space to manoeuvre. This is not the place you want to be spreading out for a leisurely meal.
Unfortunately, they were out of salt fish dumplings and fried plantains that we had hoped to start with. I thought coco bread sounded interesting so I consulted Mr Man at the counter who told me it was something that you eat with patties. So thinking he would know best, Bonnie and I ordered coco bread and patties.
It was not a wise choice. Coco bread is a big bread roll, and what Mr Man didn't explain was that the bread was cut like a sandwich and the patty stuck in the middle – yes, Jamaican Patties sandwich.
The patties were quite delicious but how in heaven's name could you serve a patty sandwich? That is as anachronistic as the 'chips butty' much loved by people up and down the UK.
I didn't eat the whole starter, because there wouldn't be space for the main course of braised oxtail with rice and peas. When the young lady came with the food, I was speechless for a few moments because I couldn't believe the amount of food that was on the plate! Talk about heaping platefuls!
The food itself was absolutely delicious. The oxtail was unctuous and succulent and the rice and peas was also excellent. Bonnie's pepper steak with hard food (provisions to Trinis) was great as well. The beef was like butter, she could have cut it with a spoon.
You might wonder why I'm complaining about the portion sizes, but I had a look around at the plates other people left behind and none of them were empty because no one could get through the mountains of food. I would think this is a real waste of money for the restaurant.
I guess if they're selling equally large servings in a takeaway container, it's good for the customer who could either share the meal or eat some and save the rest for another time.
In a way, it was a good thing we had lots of food to take away, because those leftovers were put to good use. On the platform at Piccadilly Circus tube station, we saw a homeless guy sitting with his dog and holding a 'homeless and hungry' sign. Usually, I don't give beggars anything, as I prefer to give to the charities but this guy looked honest and the poor dog looked so forlorn.
When I took the two containers to him, I said I had no money but just food. He was totally chuffed and said, "no worries, the food is better". I'm glad Mr Jerk's food didn't go to waste.

Another one converted

2006-07-23T13:38:00.000Z

In case you didn't realise, one of my missions in life is to convert as many of my Trini friends into adventurous foodies.
You see, a lot of Trinis are a bit sniffy when it comes to trying new stuff. Not only do they feel that the Trini way is the only way, but they're often willing to dismiss something different without giving it a chance.
Most of my friends are open to new stuff, but many of them blanch at the thought of rabbit cause they can't believe I'd eat Bugs Bunny or at ostrich because it's just weird.
My good buddy Paul recently spent a weekend in London with me so I took him to Borough Market and convinced him to try venison. He was surprised that deer was so readily avialable, as back home the ony time you get deer is if you know someone who went hunting in the bush.
Paul liked the venison and also fell in love with Borough Market. He was thoroughly impressed with the sheer variety and the freshness of the products on offer and now when he calls he asks, "how's Borough Market?"
My mission continues.....

The prodigal returns....

2006-07-23T12:41:00.000Z

Hectic!! That’s the only way I can describe my life lately, hectic and fun!
I’ve been having a fantastic summer, especially hanging out with my friends at random and unexpected events.
I have to shamefully admit to a day of drunken excess to celebrate my birthday which for the bits I can remember was excellent. I’ve been told that I was the life of the party for the entire evening, until I slinked off and passed out on Bonnie’s couch.
Thanks to Maurice for the bottle of Laphroaig single malt whisky, it’s my favourite single malt and all 70cl of it went down really well. Amazingly after all that alcohol, I didn’t have a hangover or any adverse side effects. I put that down to the venison burger, oysters, clams and sinful chocolate cake I had at Borough Market before getting to Bonnie’s house, as well as copious amounts of food throughout the day.
Lest you think I’ve turned into a wutless drunkard, rest assured that I rarely drink that much, and when I have done, it’s been in the company of good friends so my business won’t be in the street.
Talking about good friends, I’ve shared some interesting meals with friends at Caribbean restaurants in London in recent weeks.
A few months ago, I said I’ve not been particularly impressed with the Caribbean stuff on offer in London and I’ll admit that I am not as cynical but it’s clear our restaurants still have a long way to go if they’re even to reach to the standard of some pubs here.
Lisa and I finally went to BB’s Crab Back Restaurant, near to where I live in Ealing, West London and I had a great meal.
BB’s has been around for a while and is a 'must-do' for Caribbean celebs passing through London, you can tell by looking at the walls because everyone who’s someone seems to have signed the walls at BB’s. From Brian Lara and the West Indies team to soca stars and politicians, they’ve all eaten there.
When I stepped into the restaurant, I felt as if I was in a time warp, but not in a bad way. It was like eating in a shack on the side of the road on the way to the beach where the reggae music in the background – Beres Hammond and Gregory Isaacs obviously – is a bit too loud and the service is leisurely but attentive.
BB’s might be really rootsy, but chef/owner Brian Benjamin’s menu is quite sophisticated. The menu is quite diverse and strongly influenced by Grenada, chef Benjamin's native land.
There are old favourites like callaloo, ackee and saltfish and curried goat side by side with modern interpretations of less well-known dishes from the region.
I was thoroughly intrigued by the Bathway Express, an appetising curried split peas risotto served with mild mint and yogurt sauce, that’s clearly based on good ole split peas and rice, something our mothers cook up quickly if they not feeling to make pelau or soup.
I love prawns, so I couldn’t help but dig into to Lisa’s King Prawns Seretse (cooked in butter with lobster sauce and served with pimentos and mango). That was bloody excellent!
What struck me about BB’s was the extensive rum list that included Cockspur, Royal Rivers, Vat 19, Clarke’s Court, Appleton and El Dorado rums.
I have a bee in my bonnet about rum and I think more Caribbean people (myself included) ought to be rum experts in the way that many Europeans are wine experts. I once shocked a wine critic by saying that wine is an acquired taste for me, and that I could do without it.
Once you taste rums like Angostura’s 1919 and 1824, Appleton’s V/X or 12-year-old El Dorado, you can’t really enjoy £4.99 Ernest and Julio can you? I promise I’ll return to that conversation in the future.
Passion Fruit Sorbet or Bananas flamed in Rum and Lemon are always tempting options for dessert, but we decided to try something different and went for the Bush Tea, a delicious and soothing infusion of Grenada’s finest spices - West Indian bay leaves, lemongrass and cinnamon.
Chef Brian and his wife Anna are great hosts, and I was happy they took the time to chat with us about food and about things in general. Brian told me about the Grenadian version of oil down that sounded much richer than the Trinidadian recipe. He even promised that he could cook it for a bunch of us if we warn him in advance. I will definitely be back!

Not a doubles in sight!

2006-06-27T07:08:00.000Z

Everybody asked me if I got any doubles in Germany, well for the record, I didn't see any doubles vendors in Nuremberg. In fact, I didn't see any Trini food on display.
I went to the Tourism Board's booth after the game but I didn't see any trace of any Trini food. I heard there was Trini food in Dortmund, but those reports are yet to be confirmed.
Frankly, I believe a lot of Trinidadian companies missed a trick, especially companies like Angostura.
Imagine that Trinidad and Tobago is getting the most press it has ever gotten in the United Kingdom yet no one felt it was right or even sensible to organise a trade event here?
Angostura could have taken advantage of the opportunity to push its rums to pubs in London or even in Scotland where there was a huge Trinidad and Tobago support base.
What did Angostura do? They concentrated on satisfying the converted and they are probably thinking they were so successful because all the Trinis came out to their free soca concerts.
Now I have no problems with hosting soca concerts in Germany, not at all. But what about the week before the World Cup when all eyes were on Trinidad and Tobago? A well organised Trini music show supplemented by some UK acts in London might have gone down a storm at a venue like the Barbican.
I feel like I'm peeing in the wind but the fact that I didn't get a doubles isn't about me and it certainly isn't about doubles. It's about yet another missed opportunity by Trinidad and Tobago to show the world what we're about.

Food and Football - Part Two

2006-06-25T11:28:00.000Z

What is it with Germans and salt??
Don't they understand how to use herbs and spices to add flavour to their food? Almost everything I ate in Germany tasted like a Saxa table salt overdose.
I wonder if this is a new phenomena because when I last visited Germany some seven years ago, I didn't have this problem. Maybe my taste buds have matured?
That said, it was really hit and miss time with food on my visit for the World Cup.
My first meal, a burger in the Lindner Congress Hotel bistro wasn't bad. It was a pretty hefty burger with bacon, cheese, salad and chips and priced at a very reasonable €14 but it was a bit salty.
I thought I was being picky, but then Stefan, another Trini I met in the bistro said his pork ribs were also salty. As Stefan touted his solution of drinking a half litre of beer, I wondered if the salty food thing was an insidious plot to make sure beer sales escalate during the World Cup.
But the Germans don't need to do anything to sell their beer because it's top class stuff. I love their dark beer which I had at every opportunity.
In fact, I had so much of it that I had to make an effort to drink water to give my kidneys a fair chance!
The other thing that Germany is known for is great sausages and Nuremberg (where the epic TT v England clash took place) is known as the sausage capital of Europe.
I had two 'hot dogs' on the streets in Nuremberg and the sausages were excellent, as was the bread. The sausages weren't salty at all, in fact they were quite tasty and went well with piquant mustard and caramelised onions.
We used our last day in Germany to explore the delights of Frankfurt and our first stop was a bakery with an eye catching array of breads and cakes.
I bought a Stollen cake to share with my colleagues in the office. Stollen cake is a traditional German cake that's usually eaten at Christmas. It's got a rich, fruity dough that's usually filled with marzipan.
Some Stollen cakes can be sickly sweet and claggy because of the liberal use of marzipan but this bakery found the perfect balance and the result was light, moist and extremely tasty.
I found an interesting mix of eateries in the bit of Frankfurt we explored, there were some sandwich bars, sushi takeaways and a few Italian-styled restaurants. But we wanted traditional German food.
Eventually, we found a gastropub/beer garden - don't ask me the name - with an interesting looking menu. One of the specials for the day was roast turkey, an odd choice for a hot summer day I thought.
Paul and Lisa started with the soup of the day, a sumptuous looking, silkily textured carrot soup which was spoilt by too much salt. Did the chef not realise that a bit of coriander and cumin would have done more to enhance the flavour than a ladle of salt?
I opted not to have a starter, and went for the most traditional looking main on the menu, the Frankfurt Plate. An original Gref-Volsings boiled beef sausage, a pair of boiled pork sausages and a fried slice of pork sausage with potato salad, complemented with a dollop of tangy mustard and a julienned gherkin.
The sausages were spot on and I was quite taken by the way the contrasting texture of the sausages worked with the creamy potato salad and the tangy mustard.
As we were finishing our meal, we noticed a flurry of activity in the street and a host of police officers heading to a nearby shop. In a flash, the street was cleared and the police tape was drawn but no one seemed fussed in the restaurant, even though it looked like the police were acting on a bomb threat. That was our cue to pay up and look for a deli where we could find some charcuterie cuts.
I bought about four types of meat, including some yummy South African ham and some serano ham for which I paid €8.33. I was laughing because if I'd bought this in London, I would have paid something like £20.
My culinary experience in Germany this time was markedly different than the last, mainly because I was a vegetarian. I went to several top notch restaurants and my memories are of asparagus and potatoes in every conceivable form - Germany is not a good place for vegetarians.
This time, I think that having to eat on the run meant that I got some excellent street food and a lot of great beer quite cheaply. I hope one day, I'll return to Germany and have a magical culinary experience but believe me, I'm not holding my breath.
Check the photos of food in Germany.

Food and Football - Part One

2006-06-24T12:38:00.000Z

For the last month my life has been dominated by the 2006 World Cup and Trinidad and Tobago's participation in that esteemed tournament.
I was consumed by writing articles, doing interviews and making radio features about the saga of the Soca Warriors, but that's not to say my mind wasn't on things gastronomic.
Since Trinidad and Tobago qualified for the World Cup last year, the crew's been planning to party hard in Germany - how could we be living in England and not hop over to Germany to wave the red, white and black?
I didn't think it would be right for the crew to head over to Germany without a warm-up so I got the ball rolling with a small bram a couple of days before football's biggest party kicked off.

A nice bunch turned up at my place for the lime, including a few honorary Trinis. It was really great to see the folks who came from Trinidad, excited to be going to the World Cup and bearing gifts of rum and homemade pepper sauce.
I had a really hard time deciding what to cook for the evening. Initially I thought about doing something elaborate like baking a whole salmon and cooking chicken with tequila, but as the day drew closer, I started to scale down my ambitions.
It wasn't until the day before that I decided to go with the theme Trinidad and Tobago versus England, a nod to the football clash that we Trinis were eagerly waiting for.
I cooked Soya Pelau, Toad in the Hole and Roast Beef which was complemented by a mighty tasty Pasta salad from Carrianne and her mom. Lisa and Wendy provided the chocolates, cheese and crackers for dessert.
Everyone loved the pelau but no one could figure out what kind of pelau it was, they were really surprised to hear it was made with soya which usually tastes quite bland.
I told them the secret to making soya taste so nice is to season it as you would meat. I used a basic marinade of parsley, coriander, garlic, lemon juice and a bit of salt.
The soya pelau was actually a good match for the Toad in the Hole, a traditional British dish based on a batter that's also used for Yorkshire Puddings. The 'Toad' is sausage and I used the most traditional of British sausages, the Cumberland sausage.
I got the recipe for Toad in the Hole from Gary Rhodes' New British Classics, an excellent cookbook that clearly debunks the myth about the paucity of British cuisine.
It was a lovely evening, great food and generous lashings of premium rum. I was wearing my red Trinidad and Tobago t-shirt and my Trinidad and Tobago Patriot cap (designed by the charming Jay Mahabir) with a glass of Angostura 1919 singing 'I am a Soca Warrior!' priming up for the real party in Germany!
Check out the photos from the lime.

Somebody's reading!

2006-06-12T21:37:00.000Z

I was rather surprised to receive an email last week congratulating Can Cook, Must Cook on being one of the top ten food blogs on the web.
It's good to see that my random musings about food are interesting to so many other people.
The email came from Sabah Karimi of the Associate Content website.
Have a look at Sabah's article: The Top Ten Foodie Blogs on the Web and you'll see that we're in some pretty good company!

World Cup doubles??

2006-05-27T23:54:00.000Z

Life's been a blur for the last two weeks, and I've been meaning to find a quiet hour to blog. Fortunately, things calmed down a bit and normal service is now resumed.
Wuk, yuh know work, the day job has been manic.
And much of it has to do with the World Cup as I've been working on programmes about Trinidad and Tobago's historic debut in the World Cup.
I hope to be heading off to Germany on June 14th to see Trinidad play England, and I want to check out two food related things in the short time I'll be there. German food (of course) and Trini food in a German context.
I really looking to see whether we will have our wares on display, I really hoping to see vendors selling doubles and pholourie next to the winergirls and steelband.
After all, the Germans say they want to see what all the nations have to offer. I hear Trinidad and Tobago sending soca artistes, tassa drummers and blue devils but I feel hoping for Sauce doubles might be asking for a bit too much.
If I don't see the Trini food, I looking forward to at least drinking some serious German beer and eating some scrummy, delicious bread.
But first I have to encounter Mr German Embassy, but from all reports they moving smoothly there. EJ and Cherise went to the embassy today and they got through easily.
There were a lot of Trinis in the line there and EJ reported hearing a fella say, "I doh care about the result, as long as dey leh we in de stadium wid we cooler so we could slap down some fours."
That's Trinis for you!

Curry? I think I'll have a bagel instead!

2006-05-18T20:31:00.000Z

Last weekend, Bex, Bonnie, Avalon and I went down to Brick Lane in East London to check out the annual Baishaki Mela that's held to celebrate the Bangladeshi New Year.
It's said to be the premier Bengali celebration outside of Bangladesh.
By the time we got there, the main parade was done but there were still people in costumes buzzing around to give us an indication of what we missed.
We walked the length of Brick Lane among the thousands, mainly from the Bangladeshi community, taking in some of the sights and smells of this vibrant part of London, and Bonnie, a Trini-Indian jokingly warned "this is not the crowd to lose me in".
Whenever I go to Brick Lane, I try to have a meal in one of its many curry houses and this time was no different.
Many of Brick Lane's restaurants claim to being 'The Best'. You'll see banners up heralding the accolades bestowed on the restaurant by various London publications.
Unfortunately, this isn't necessarily a true indicator of the standard of the food on offer.
We stood in front of one restaurant with a banner saying something like 'The Guardian's Best Curry House 2006' and contemplated eating there but as it was a lovely mild day, we wanted to dine al fresco so we turned our attention to Preem's, a restaurant across the road, with lots of diners eating outside and of course, a 'Best Curry' banner.
As we took our seats we realised we were a bit close to a dustbin overflowing with discarded paper cups and cans, and people walking past were passing too close to our table.
As soon as a nearby table became free, we moved but this didn't go down with our waiter, a grumpy, crochety old sod who is one of the rudest waiters I've ever come across.
He couldn't, or wouldn't properly advise on different dishes or about how much we should order to share or anything of the sort. I was so dismayed, I told one of his colleagues to warn him about his silly attitude.
The meal didn't have such a bad start with poppadums (fried thin discs of dried peas, sometimes seasoned with spices) and an assortment of dips including mango chutney, as well as vegetable and lamb samosas.
It was the main course that spoilt it for us. I think the worst thing to have is tasteless curry. That should be an oxymoron but it was one that came through on our plates at Preem's on Brick Lane.
Where do I start? The vegetable biryani - usually a mouth watering dish of rice and vegetables infused with a fragrant mixture of spices - tasted like rice cooked with tumeric and a bit of chilli.
I love korma, a mild curry that incorporates yoghurt and coconut cream infused with coriander, cumin, cardamom, and cloves. This time I opted for the lamb korma which tasted like yogurt, curry and a bit of coconut cream but no little or no spice. I was getting really annoyed at how tasteless this meal was. We also had some fish bhindi, fish and okro curry which was like the rest of the meal, pretty unremarkable.
The tastiest bit of the main course was the dish that was supposed to be the blandest! The rice pullao, a plain rice pilaf was just about adequate.
Today, I made a monkfish and vegetable curry that was so much better than the meal we had last week. It was tasty, well spiced and quite enjoyable. I probably should have invited the girls over for lunch.
I did have something nice to eat on Brick Lane that day though. On the way home, we stopped in at one of the traditional beigel (aka bagel) shops for a salt beef with mustard beigel. The bagel was perfect. It reminded me of bread from the small bakeries in Trinidad, where the bread was just as good as homemade. The beef was lean, tender and extremely tasty. The bagel was so perfect in its simplicity, it was a stark contrast to the absolute crud we had earlier.

Yummy chef!

2006-05-15T19:33:00.000Z

I have just seen the tastiest chef in the UK. Scottish chef Tom Lewis has to be the most gorgeous man in food. Ok, he's not Brad Pitt but I wouldn't get worked up about Brad Pitt.
People might talk about the gym-sculted form of Gary Rhodes or Gordon Ramsay's rugged and aggressive charm but Tom Lewis has the most infectious laugh and looks like he could scrum down with the best of them.
Not many people had ever heard of Tom until last month when the list of chefs competing in the Great British Menu was announced. He's up against Nick Nairn, a noted celebrity chef who just happens to be his really good friend.
I had a look at his menus and recipes in the GBM book and it was obvious that he's a chef who likes to experiment. He's the chef at the Monachyle Mhor Hotel and in the short time he's been there, he's got a host of awards and from all indications, it seems a Michelin star isn't far away.

Here's what the Times had to say about his cooking and his restaurant.
"Six miles up the Balquhidder valley, past lochs and crags, Highland cattle and Rob Roy’s grave, Monachyle Mhor is the best restaurant for 40 miles. The chef, Tom Lewis, grew up farming this land, and that is reflected in his feel for tremendous produce: local lamb, beef, venison and grouse; vegetables and mushrooms straight off the family farm; and the freshest of seafood from the west coast."
Someone say something about a holiday in Scotland?
Here's one of Tom's recipes from the Great British Menu.

Black Dan's Honey and Toasted Oatmeal Cranachan with strawberries poached in Pernod and cinnamon

3 tbsp oatmeal
150 ml milk
3-4 tbsp good quality runny honey
1 small vanila pod, split lengthways
2 gelatine leaves, soaked in cold water for ten minutes
450 ml double cream

Poached Strawberries
50g strawberries
1 cinnamon stick
2 1/2 tbsp caster sugar
2tbsp Pernod

1. Toast the oatmean in a dry pan for 2-3 minutes, stirring. Set aside
2. Place the milk and the honey in a saucepan and scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod. Add the pod too, then heat until bubbles start appearing around the edge. Do NOT boil. Remove from the heat. Gently squeeze dry the gelatine, add to the hoe milk and stir until completely melted. Stir in the cream. Pass through a sieve into a jug.
3. Divide the toastes oatmeal among four dariole moulds. Slowly pour in the honey cream mixture. Leave to set in the fridge for 4-5 hours.
4. To prepare the strawberries, combine all the ingredients in a heatproof bowl and cover over with cling film. Set over a pan of boiling water and cook for 8-10 minutes. Every now and again, carefully tilt the bowl to swirl the juice over the strawberries. Remove from the hot water and leave to cool.
5. To serve, dip each mould into warm - not hot - water and count to five, then turn out on to a plate. Spoon the poached strawberries around the cranachan.
Serves four

Cranachan is also known as cream crowdie in Scotland, after the local soft cheese - crowdie - which was used instead of cream. The recipe is named after Tom's gardener Black Dan Campbell.

Culture or colour?

2006-05-13T11:53:00.000Z

I had an interesting e-mail exchange yesterday with Fiona Shoop, the editor of fresh magazine. I sent her an email to say that I appreciated her article on the absence of female chefs.
In my email, I made the point that I believe the issue goes beyond female chefs, because there is also a glaring absence of ethnic minority chefs, male and female.
In response, she said she never thought about food in terms of colour but in terms of culture, and that's why the magazine will continue to highlight many types of food in the coming months including Caribbean cuisine.
While I understood where she was coming from, I think she missed my point.
For me, the issue isn’t simply about getting more chefs of colour in terms of numbers. I think it’s a heritage issue. I feel it's important that the food industry attract chefs from all backgrounds because if not, there’s a distinct possibility of some food cultures becoming novelties in the UK.

This mightn't be the case at the moment for the Asian community, but that food sector is facing a threat that can be averted if more young people got involved.
For years, the South Asian community depended heavily on chefs from places like India and Bangladesh to fill the lead roles in their restaurants.
They’ve been able to do this for years because the immigration laws in the UK currently allow for people with unique skills - like chefs - to work here without a problem.
But that’s about to change with the introduction of a new points-based system for workers from outside of the European Union in 2007.
The system favours doctors, engineers and financial experts. It’s similar to the system used in Australia and the government thinks it’s much fairer than the present system.
However, ex-Europe Minister Keith Vaz has reservations about the scheme because he doesn't think it would address skill shortages in certain areas, like the numbers of chefs needed in south Asian restaurants.
He said that while there were 10,000 south Asian restaurants in the UK, contributing £3.2bn to the British economy, there were 20,000 vacancies.
Essentially, what it means is that under the system suggested by the government, it will be easier for a Pole or a Greek, for example to find work in an Asian restaurant than an Asian.
I can see where Vaz is coming from but it's a fact that unemployment is high in the British Asian community so couldn't some of these vacancies can be filled if these unemployed youths knew that cooking was an option.
But who would be their role models? There are very few Asian chefs who are as well known in the mainstream as their British counterparts.
You'd think things would be different especially since curry is said to be Britain's favourite food. In 2005, Amaya was voted London's top restaurant and there are several top class Asian restaurants around the nation including Madhu's, The Cinnamon Club and Benares in London, Aagrah in Yorkshire, Kiplings in Bradford and Curry Fever in Leicester.
Atul Kochhar, chef-owner at Benares was the first Indian to win a Michelin star, but he's not on on tv alot. So I'm really glad he's one of the 14 chefs competing in the Great British Menu for a chance to cook for the Queen's 80th birthday. It would be a major coup if he beats Gary Rhodes, the bookies favourite and one of this country's best known chefs.
If the tv commissioners were willing to take a chance on Jamie Oliver who turned out to be a whopping success, why can't they do the same with an Asian or Afro-Caribbean chef?
I don't have the fear for the future of Asian cuisine in the UK that I do for Caribbean cuisine. I fear if there are no young hotshots to champion our food and no chefs to inspire the youth, then our cuisine will remain at the level of the takeaway in the UK.

Simple Indian by Atul Kochhar and David Loftus (Photographer) - Quadrille Publishing
Indian Essence: The Fresh Tastes of India's New Cuisine by Atul Kochhar - Quadrille Publishing

Needed: More female chefs!

2006-05-10T18:13:00.000Z

Ever noticed that the people who hand down the great traditions of cooking are usually our mothers and grandmothers yet the world of food dominated by men?
It's something that crosses my mind pretty often. In fact, I've been thinking a lot about it this week because I've been following the Great British Menu, a competition among 14 of the UK's top chefs to decide who will cook for the Queen's 80th birthday party in June. Michelin-starred chef Angela Hartnett is the only woman among the group of 14.
Angela runs the show at London's esteemed Connaught Rooms and is a protege of the one and only Gordon Ramsay. It must be said at this point that Angela started her cooking career in the Caribbean at the Sandy Lane Hotel in Barbados. So we could claim her as one of our own, kinda.

I first saw her on tv a few years back in the first edition of Hell's Kitchen and although was really damn tough on those competitors, she was the coolest one in that highly-charged environment.
I had the pleasure of meeting Angela last year at the Good Food Show in London and I found her really cool and down to earth. In fact, she was so cool that she said I was guaranteed to get a table at her restaurant if when I was making reservations, I mentioned that I was the lady from Trinidad she spoke with at the Good Food Show.
At the show, she spoke about her experiences in the kitchen and how she dealt with the competition among the men at the restaurants she's worked at.
She's always been very upfront about the tough conditions facing chefs and in one interview gave young people this warning; "unless you love the job and you like cooking, the last thing that you’re going to do is work 18 hours a day just to produce food. You’ve got to want to do it otherwise there is no point in becoming a chef."
So if a woman has children or an impatient partner, she's not likely to last very long. If she's thin-skinned and can't deal with a certain amount of industrial language then she's definitely not going to make it.
In the Great British Menu, Angela is up against a younger chef who is not just hell bent on beating a Michelin-starred rival, but a woman at that. So when he comes with any macho bullshit, she lets him have it - it's great television.
I really hope that Angela wins this round of the competition eventually becomes the chef who'll cook for the Queen. Even if she doesn't win, I hope her mere presence in the programme is enough to inspire young women to take up the challenge to become chefs.
As if by coincidence, the latest edition of Fresh Magazine (June 2006) has a very good article about the absence of female chefs in the industry and it makes for pretty sad reading.
Fiona Shoop, a trained chef wrote the article and she said she was so fed up of the sexism, she chose to concentrate on journalism "where you can write your way into a job - whatever your gender".
She pointed out that there were probably four or five female chefs who are widely known across the UK: Nigella Lawson, Delia Smith, Lesley Waters and Angela.
And unless you're a real foodie, you won't know Sophie Grigson, Mary Berry or Ursula Ferrigno who are all extremely good chefs and even better writers.
I believe the situation is the same all over the world. I know of very few top female chefs in the Caribbean. They're in the kitchens but they aren't in the frontline.
Someone who bucks the trend is my good mate Debbie Sardinha-Metivier, the first woman to become an executive chef at a Hilton in the Americas. It'll take a few more Debbies to rise to the challenge if the situation is going to change. I live in hope.

Foie gras - the controversy!

2006-05-08T19:21:00.000Z

I came across an interesting site the other day, the Culinary Podcast Network. It's an American-based site that highlights food podcasts from a group of "passionate gastronomes". Some of the podcasters are professional chefs and others are just total foodies.
There's some damn good stuff on the site, and the first thing that caught my attention was a debate about foie gras prompted by the recent banning of the delicacy in Chicago.
For those who don't know what foie gras is, it's the fattened liver of a duck or goose that has been overfed. Foie gras is extremely delicious but like other delicacies it's outrageously expensive.
It's actually the process of fattening the ducks that upsets people. A tube is inserted down the bird's throat three times a day and the animal is force fed lots of pellets.
I've seen this process on television and while I felt it looked uncomfortable for the ducks, the animals didn't seem to be in pain. I concluded that in the grand scheme of things, it was more important to be concerned about issues like the declining fish stocks caused by overfishing than by the discomfort of a small percentage of ducks.
Animal rights activists have been trying to get foie gras outlawed for years but it's still one of the most sought after delicacies. Maybe the Chicago ruling might give new impetus to their cause.
The Culinary Roundtable podcast featured people with range of divergent views like Jennifer Iannolo of Food Philosophy who believes legislation like the Chicago ruling is giving the government the right to say what people could eat.
On the other hand, Steve Wasser of Gastrologica presented an emotive argument about the cruelty of the process and compared it to slavery while Chef Tom Beckman of the CHIC Podcast pointed out that chicken production could be just as inhumane, so why isn't anyone talking about outlawing chicken.
I think there might be some real gems there on that site, I'm looking forward to listening to Jennifer Iannolo talk about cooking and feminism. From what I've read, it seems her controversial views have elicited a torrent of comments.

Why markets are really important

2006-05-07T19:44:00.000Z

If you love markets, you probably understand how important the market is in the life of a town or city, both economically and socially.
This week, The Food Programme on BBC Radio 4 does a timely and interesting exploration of the importance of the market as it relates to British life.
London's Borough Market is 250 years old and is one of the most popular in the capital but how are markets in other parts of the UK doing, especially in the face of the powerful supermarket chains?
I felt that so many of the issues in this programme are also applicable to the Caribbean, where it seems that we're losing touch with the food we're eating.

Sheila Dillon went to Bradford Market, where the city's council is revitalising the market and the vendors are reaping the rewards.
I listened to this programme twice, because the role of markets is one link in the chain of issues considered by food lovers today - seasonality and locality.
The programme also underlines the role of markets have in social interaction and for helping people to appreciate where their food comes from. If you go to the supermarket you can get the variety, but the shop attendant doesn't have a clue about what you'll be eating except that it comes from the distribution centre in Milton Keynes!
Check out The Food Programme, it's a great listen.

Doing dessert - Part One

2006-04-29T17:11:00.000Z

I won't be able to call myself a great cook until I've mastered baking and dessert making.
I know a lot of people say they don't have the patience for making bread, pastry and cake but I think it's fundamental for a proper cook to master these skills.
In the past I've made decent Christmas fruit cake, good Trinidadian bake and sweetbread but I'm not particularly confident about bread, sponge cakes and pastry. I'm not fussed though, one day I'll get it right.
I was asked to contribute a dish to a traditional British Sunday lunch that took place last Sunday, so instead of doing something easy like roast chicken, I plumped for the challenge of making a classic British dessert, Sticky Toffee Pudding.

Sticky Toffee Pudding - which happens to be my favourite dessert - is a moist sponge cake made with fine chopped dates and served covered with toffee sauce.
I agonised so much about it, I woke up at 4am on Sunday to make it so if anything went wrong the first time, I'd have the chance to try again!
Although the method is relatively straightforward, I couldn't help but panic a bit.
I kept asking myself whether the sugar was supposed to be totally dissolved in the butter before I added the eggs. And I wondered if I was folding in the flour properly or knocking the air out of the mixture.
So you could imagine my relief when the cake rose evenly in the oven and didn't sink after I took it out!
It turns out my worrying was in vain, because everyone said they enjoyed it and some even asked for seconds.
I didn't think my effort was too bad but it could have been a bit more moist.
I think next time I make Sticky Toffee Pudding, I'll either bake it in a bain-marie or just take it out of the oven a bit earlier.

Sticky Toffee Pudding
225g (8 oz) dates, chopped
290ml (1/2 pint) tea
110g (4 oz) butter
170g (6 oz) caster sugar
3 eggs
225g (8 ozs) self raising flour, sifted
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp strong coffee

1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F).
2. Soak the dates in the hot tea for 15 minutes.
3. Grease a 22cm (8.5 in) deep cake tin and line the base with a circle of oiled greaseproof paper.
4. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale.
5. Beat in the eggs gradually and then fold in the sifted flour
6. Add the soda, vanilla essence and coffee to the dates and tea and fold into the cake mixture.
7. Turn into the prepared tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 1-1.5 hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
8. Pour the warm toffee sauce over the hot pudding and serve immediately.

Toffee Sauce
2 tbsp brandy
110g (4 oz) butter
55g (2 oz) demerara sugar
2 tbsp double cream
1. Put all ingredients in saucepan and heat until melted. Bring to boil and allow to thicken slightly.

Recipes taken from Leith's Cookery Bible.

My favourite market

2006-04-26T10:22:00.000Z

I've always been fascinated by markets. As a child, I was mesmerized by the smells, sounds and tastes of the market.
I can still remember the sweet and spicy tamarind balls from the fat lady in the Central Market in Port of Spain, the crunchy khurma from the Indian lady in San Juan Market and the vivid imagery in the picong (serious heckling) between the vendors at both markets.
For a lot of people in the Caribbean, going to the market with your mother or granny is a ritual that many of us continue into our adulthood.
When I go back to Trinidad, I usually hit the market with Madge. We usually head to the San Juan Market - just ten minutes from where we live in Barataria - to buy potatoes, garlic and saltfish from 'the potato lady' and fruit from 'Pops'.
Here, I've got into the habit of going to Borough Market at least two Saturdays a month and now that I work near Shepherds Bush, I head down to the Shepherds Bush Market if I want a lunchtime jaunt. I also go to the Marylebone High Street Market some Sunday mornings.
What is it with me and markets then?

The easiest thing would be to say it's a habit because I used to go to the Brighton Market when I lived there too, but now that I've moved to London, I have to say it's a deep love, particularly for Borough Market in London.
I can't remember how found out about Borough Market, but I learned it was highly recommended by lots of London's best chefs and food writers.
My first visit was in December 2003, a few weeks after moving to London from Brighton.
The first thing that strikes you about Borough Market is the atmosphere. There's a buzz and a vibe about it says 'this place is happening'. Then there's the wide variety of stuff on offer, it's not just fruit and veg, there's fish, game, wild boar, cakes, oyster, mutton, artisan bread and cheese, olive oil, cider, fudge, authentic English pies and so much more.
Borough also has some great characters, and I've got to know a few of them after buying from them for regularly.
There's Tony, the fruit and veg man from whom I get things like soursop, white asparagus and the best blackberries.
Tony is also very cheeky. When I took Madge to Borough Market, he told me he was keeping her and that she didn't need to go back to Trinidad. To this day he always asks 'how's your Mum?'
For the smoothest cider, I check Barry Topp at New Forest Cider. Barry's orchards are in Somerset and Dorset and his cider is off the chain! He also makes a line of delicious liqueurs.
Barry calls me the 'Holy Terror' and tells anyone who would listen that I want his body. I'm always promising to visit his brewery in the New Forest and this year I think I will.
Imagine finding Tobago-style coconut chip chip in the middle of London! Well I found it at Dark Sugars, a stall run by a solid brotherman, Paul Sutherland. He's got Jamaican roots so we have a Caribbean one love going on.
He sells cake and chocolates to die for. Personally, my favourites are banana bread, lemon polenta cake and coconut chip chip!!!
I love oysters. Let me say that again, I love oysters! Every time I visit Borough Market, I have a couple of oysters and a clam from Richard Hayward Oysters. Richard's family has been in the oyster business for seven gnerations, that's more than a century.
His oysters come from West Mersea in Essex and er, did I mention that I love oysters? Talking about oysters, I heard about a recipe for mutton and oysters that I'm going to try using Herdwick Mutton from Farmer Sharp. Andrew Sharp is one of the most engaging people you could meet, and he talks about the process of raising good lamb and mutton with great passion. When you taste his meat, you know those animals were happy and well fed.
The last time I visited, I discovered a stall that sells ostrich in the newly refurbished part of the market. The next time I go, I'll pick up two steaks to try out. These ostriches aren't bred in Australia or Africa, but in Nottinghamshire at the Gamston Wood Farm. Ostrich eggs are so huge you could probably cook a meal for ten with one egg.
I fell in love with big, cuddly Ian Hartland and his pies from day one, ask Nazma Muller how I swooned over this loveable man from Cotgrave, Nottinghamshire.
Anyway, Ian's got a lovely wife named Nicola and together they run Mrs King's Pies with Ian's brothers. I love their pasties and sausage pies. They also make the traditional pies with fillings like leek and pork and apricot and pork.
At the moment, Ian and Nicola are in Europe having a well deserved break!
Wild boar have a reputation for being very fierce, they can inflict serious damage with thos tusks. But on the plus side, their meat is very tasty. Wild boar is more flavourful than pig which makes the meat perfect for sausages and bacon. If you're ever at Borough Market, try Sillfield Farm's wild boar meat, you won't regret it.
I go to Borough Market for the vibes, to pick up specialty items and for a good Saturday eating experience. Admittedly, stuff there could be a bit pricey but you are paying for great quality goods.
I've never had anything bad there, and everyone that I've taken there has had a positive experience.
The other thing is that the stallholders are usually friendly, willing to speak about their produce, and they don't try to force you to buy anything.
You'll come to realise that there's a sense of camaraderie among them, and no one is heistant to point you to someone else's stall if they can't help.
If you love food and you're in London, then you must check out Borough Market. But in the meanwhile, you can see more of my pics at Flickr. Do enjoy!

Fishy adventures at dawn

2006-04-24T19:31:00.000Z

Last Thursday, I was at the Billingsgate Fish Market before sunrise for a pescatorial adventure. I spent the day at Europe's biggest fish market skinning, filleting and boning fish.
For about three years, I've been thinking about doing Billingsgate's Knife Skills course but the timing was always wrong. In January, I pledged to spend the next few years learning as much as I can about food and cooking.
Ideally, I'd love to take some time off and do an intensive cooking course, but since I can't do that, the next best option is to find short courses to fill the gaps in my knowledge.
This course was near the top of my 'food things to do' list and believe me, the three-year wait was worth it.

In case you're wondering why I had to be there so early, it's because the market's business hours are from 5 am to 8.30 am and the first part of the course was a tour of the market with a market inspector.
Our inspector was the extremely engaging Barry O'Toole. He showed us the extensive range of seafood available at the market and more importantly, how to guage its freshness.
Billingsgate certainly caters to London's multicultural society as it has a wide variety of 'exotic' fish from seas all over the world. I saw fish we use regularly in Caribbean cooking like grouper, cavali and kingfish. I was especially struck by the shellfish - huge crabs, meaty mussels and succulent looking tiger prawns.
The atmosphere on the market floor was amazing and now that I've seen the excellent quality seafood at such reasonable prices, I'm ready to make regularly early morning pilgramages to east London.
For the practical part of the course, we were lucky to have Duncan Lucas as our instructor. Duncan is one of the UK's top fishmongers and a damn good teacher. His passion for the fish and his depth of knowledge was breathtaking.
Duncan has been the UK Fishmonger of the Year on five consecutive occasions and he runs a seafood business called Passionate About fish with his partner Sue. What Duncan doesn't know about fish, probably isn't worth knowing. The man is like a walking seafood encyclopaedia.
I can boast that post-Duncan, I'm now able to (among other things) fillet a plaice, skin lemon sole and gurnard, prepare squid and gut a snapper without gashing the belly.
Duncan also teaches the shellfish course at Billingsgate and as soon as I find a suitable date, I'll be there.
At the end of the day, I had a huge bag of fish (worth about £50) to bring home, including the lovely snapper that I'm going to stuff with coriander, parsley, grated ginger and chopped garlic before deciding how to cook it. I can hardly wait!

What a Great Friday!

2006-04-16T09:55:00.000Z

Last Wednesday, EJ announced that the much anticipated Good Friday housewarming lime was off.
After a few despairing emails back and forth among the crew, I suggested that we move the lime over to my house, so Good Friday became the Great Friday lime.
We stuck to the original plan of everyone bringing something for the meal.
Sean and Bex said they'd bring pumpkin and geera pork with bodi.
Bonnie offered channa and Khary took on his regular role of bringing drinks and ice.

I cooked fish, rice, curry mango and dessert of strawberry ice cream and hot cross buns.
Since we were due to eat at around 5pm, I felt an early start would be best so I was up at 7am kneading the dough for hot cross buns.
The buns were made from a recipe by Hayzel Brathwaithe, a great friend and one of Trinidad's rare artisan bakers.
As planned, I cooked the fish using the recipe I adapted from Sylvia Hunt's book but instead of sea bass, I used a whole croaker I picked up at the Shepherd's Bush Market, near to my office in West London.
Of course in typical Trini style, when five o'clock came pots were still bubbling away.
My dishes were long finished but the kitchen was then filled with the aromas of Sean, Bex and Bonnie's pots.
They sensibly opted to cook here instead of toting hot food across London on the train.
An added bonus for the evening, was what I call the unofficial launch of Sean and Bex's t-shirt line, Kangaroo and Manicou.
The t-shirts feature some common Trinidadianisms like Steuuups, Suck Eye, Choonk-a-loonks and Famalee.
My friends know that I like t-shirts with witty sayings on them - I have one that says Jesus is coming, look busy - and I welcome t-shirts that truly reflect Trininess.
The Great Friday lime was one to remember. I'm looking forward to the summer when we'll certainly be eating al fresco.

Trini Stew starring online

2006-04-11T14:32:00.000Z

I'm so happy today. I've scored one for me and for Caribbean cooking!
A few weeks ago, UKTV Food (the British equivalent of American cable channel, The Food Network) commissioned a recipe for Stewed Mutton from me.
I gladly obliged and now you can see my recipe on their website.

The folks at UKTV said they'll link the recipe to a feature on mutton, which will appear around April 23, St George's Day. This feature will celebrate old fashioned English dishes, as well as the multicultural food world we now live in.
I based the recipe on the traditional Trinidadian method of stewing meat which uses caremelised sugar to give the meat flavour and colour.
This mutton recipe is also quite topical since there's a mutton revival, going on in the UK. Prince Charles and Gordon Ramsay are among those urging people to use more mutton.
I can't blame them because mutton is a very interesting meat.
Have a look at my recipe and take a look at the UKTV Food website, I'm sure you'll find lots of interesting foodie things there!
More importantly, try the recipe and tell me what you think!!

Warm food memories

2006-04-10T19:14:00.000Z

I was looking at a message board on a food site and I came across a thread about 'food that evokes good memories'. Although I've eaten good food at restaurants, some of the most memorable meals I've eaten over the years has been at the homes of friends and family.
The best food in the world is usually simple and cooked with lots of love.
My list of great food memories is in no particular order but I have to put my mom's food at the top of the list, where it belongs. Madge is an exponent of keeing it simple and playing to her strengths and that is what I've taken from her.
These are the things she does best: pelau (which tastes better when it's a day old), ochro and rice, macaroni pie, lentil peas, porridge, red beans, fish broth, stew chicken, stew flying fish, coconut bake, saltfish buljol, wholewheat bread, black cake, black cake, black cake, sweetbread, sweetbread, sweetbread. If I could only make sweetbread like my mother!!
It's all about Aggie's Tofu Nut Balls. Aggie was the first person to cook tofu for me about ten years ago. I'm sure if I didn't have such a pleasant introduction to bean curd, I wouldn't like it at all today.
I think the secret to Aggie's tofu nut balls was the delicate seasoning and a perfect ratio of nuts to tofu.
Auntie Mavis is a great cook but what I love most is her fish balls. Somehow I seem to remember the fish balls being accompanied by lentils, yummy!! I wonder if I could get the recipe from her???
I have a load of adopted aunts and one of my favourites is Auntie Molly. She's a gentle lady who is like an Italian mama in the way she likes to ensure that you're really well fed when you're at her house. Her roti has this melt in your mouth quality that no roti shop could ever top!
Not far behind Auntie Molly in the roti making stakes is Cherrie's mum Nora. That's another homemade roti that melts in your mouth.
One of the simplest and most satisfying things I've ever eaten is cornmeal porridge.
Sally (Auntie Molly's sister) made it for me when I went to drop something at her house one morning. It was supposed to be a flying visit and I was eventually late for work but for that porridge it was well worth it.
If you've followed this blog from the beginning, you'd know that I love oxtail, especially oxtail soup. My friend EJ's oxtail soup is so good, he could sell it to Marks and Spencer or Harrods! EJ's oxtail soup is the perfect comfort food on a grey, sad winter day.
Roast bake is one of my favourite things. It's a staple in the Trini food repertoire and since most people learn to make it by watching their mothers and grandmothers, there's no one recipe and no two homemade roast bakes are ever the same.
For the non-Trinis who might be reading this, let me explain what bake is. It's an unleavened bread and one of its main ingredients is usually finely grated coconut. These days, health conscious bake makers leave out the coconut and use wheatgerm, sesame seeds and the like.
Pearl Eintou Springer is a poet, librarian and cultural activist and I think she should add bake maker extraordinaire to that!
Her bake isn't really 'bready', it's more delicate and the dough comes apart in soft layers in the way that a flaky pastry does. It's difficult to explain but just know that Eintou's bake tastes amazing.
There's also fried bake, also known as float or johnny cakes in different parts of the Caribbean. I think the key to great fried bake is to roll out each bake quite thinly and make sure the oil is really hot so it cooks through quickly and isn't oily.
My father's sister Auntie Doo Doo has this down to a fine art. I had her bake on my first visit to New York, when I was nine. There's a bit of a story behind this. For some strange reason, Daddy thought I didn't like fried bake, so he told Auntie Doo Doo not to make too many because I won't eat them. He was so wrong!
Not a lot people can boast of having friends who are trained chefs. I'm glad to say I have two cheffy friends. Debbie Sardinha-Metivier is the first woman to become an executive chef in a Hilton in the Americas and she's one of the region's leading chefs.
Debbie did some baked fish for me at her home a few years back and I was totally bowled over. Being fed by Debbie is an honour and it's an opportunity for which a lot of people pay very handsomely these days!
Denise is also a trained chef, at no less a place than the Culinary Institute of America. Unfortunately, she hasn't found a space where she could enjoy cooking for a living and that's a shame.
Denise comes from a Chinese background, so hanging out with her was something of an education in traditional Chinese food. One dish I remember distinctly was tenderly poached chicken with watercress soup. I wasn't only impressed by the taste but also by how so few ingredients could make such a great meal.
For most people, cooking is a necessity not a pleasure. That's the case with Sharon. She's not a dab hand in the kitchen but she loves to eat. She's also a woman with very good taste so even if she's buying in food, it'll be good.
Sharon's favourite is Ragu and pasta, I know it sounds ordinary but it's not as idiotproof a dish as it sounds. To Sharon's credit, she's one of the few people I know who can cook pasta perfectly - al dente. That perfectly cooked pasta and Ragu with extra herbs for more flavour and a bit of cheese was the ideal fast food before heading out to lime.
When I was at university in Trinidad, I had the pleasure of managing the Student Union bar and cafe. It was there that I met Mary Samuel, a very hearty Tobagonian woman who cooks like an angel.
Mary is an extremely versatile cook but she was at her best when doing proper Tobago dishes. Her Curry Crab and Dumpling is the stuff of legend and my Friday evening would not be complete without Mary's Curry Crab and Dumpling and a cold Carib beer.
From Tobago to Barbados and Ma Graham's sumptuous Green Fig Coo Coo. I stayed at Ma Graham's home for a few weeks in 1986 and she was the perfect host. It was also the first time I had mashed green fig (green bananas) that was as soft as mashed potatoes.
She mashed the boiled figs by hand with lots of butter, milk, garlic, salt and white pepper. It was divine served with well-seasoned fried flying fish. Ma Graham passed away a few years ago but she left some indelible food memories behind.

A Curry option for Easter

2006-04-07T14:30:00.000Z

Plans are afoot for a big lime on Easter Friday.
EJ and Cherise are having their long-awaited housewaming party in Finchley, North London and in typical EJ style, he's cooking up a real Trini favourite.
The last time he cooked for us, it was oxtail soup and this time, he'll be doing Curry Duck.
Curry isn't a traditional Easter option but I know EJ is desperate to cook the two ducks he got in Sainsbury's a few weeks ago.
To make the occasion more lavish, they've asked everyone to bring a dish to accompany the duck and after thinking about it, I decided that I'll make the percect accompaniment - Curry Mango.
I got this recipe from my good pardner in Trinidad, Jillian Joseph-Lall, who makes the best curry mango I've ever tasted! The recipe calls for julie mangoes, but even though we don't have those here, I'm sure I can still can do justice to this recipe.

Jillian's Curry Mango

Preparation time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 40 mins - one hour

6 large unripe mangoes
2 tbsp oil
6 ozs anchar massala (or a mixture of 3oz coriander seeds, 2oz onion seeds and 1oz geera roasted and ground)
2 tsp salt
150g sugar
8-10 garlic cloves, chopped finely
2 large hot chillies or Scotch Bonnet peppers, chopped finely

Method
1. Wash mangoes, slice through to make 1cm rounds and remove the nutty bit inside the seed.
2. Boil for 20-30 mins to soften slightly. This will also get rid of the some of the acidity of the mangoes.
3. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan or casserole.
4. Add half the garlic and pepper, cook until slightly burnt and remove from pan.
5. Make a thick paste with the massala and water and pour into the saucepan with the oil, stirring constantly for about 5 mins. This process is called 'chunkaying' the massala.
6. Add the mangoes to the massala, stir and add a bit of water so the mixture won't stick to the pot, but not too much, as mangoes will release water as they cook.
7. Add sugar, salt and the rest of garlic and pepper. Cover and let simmer.
8. After about 20 minutes, taste and adjust sugar. More sugar might be needed depending on the acidity of the mangoes.
9. Cook for a further 20 minutes or until the mango pulp is very soft.

The secret to a good curry mango is to let it rest for a few days in the refrigerator as this allows the flavours to develop. Serve as an accompaniment to any curry dish or as a light snack with some plain crackers, preferably Crix.

The Easter fish tradition

2006-04-07T10:59:00.000Z

With the glorious four-day Easter weekend coming up, I'm going to take the opportunity to relax and do some special cooking.
The plan is to cook a wicked fish dish at some point over the weekend, so I could feel at one with the thousands in the Caribbean who follow this tradition.
Fish is a staple of Caribbean cooking and moreso at Easter time when the majority Christian population celebrates the end of Lent with a big fish dish.
My mother Madge told me she'll be cooking a simple dish of Baked or Steamed Fish with Provisions, Buttered Vegetables and Salad on Good Friday.
While we were comparing our plans for Easter cooking, she told me about the exorbitant cost of fish in Trinidad this year. It's not unusual for the price of fish to shoot up at Easter because of the high demand but apparently it's worse this year because lots of people have stopped eating chicken after a strange disease - not avian flu - killed hundreds of chickens on a farm in east Trinidad.
Madge told me that kingfish which normally costs TT$20 (approx £2) per pound is now being sold at more than TT$40 (approx £4) per pound. This is quite staggering and clearly out of the reach of the average Trinidadian.

The cheaper options, which are also being sold at double their normal price, are carite at around TT$30 per pound and shark at TT$20. Although the demand for fish rises a bit around Easter time over here, I've never seen prices jump in the way they do in Trinidad.
This weekend, I'll do something simple that doesn't involve slaving over the stove for too long, so I'll do a recipe inspired by Trinidad's first celebrity chef, Sylvia Hunt.
I've adapted her recipe for Stuffed and Curried Cascadura from the book Sylvia Hunt's Cooking. And as it's unlikely that I'll find cascadura here, I'll sea bass instead. I think this will go well with basmati rice and salad.

Stuffed and Curried Sea Bass

3 small sea bass, scaled and gutted
2 limes
2 tsp lime juice
sea salt

For the stuffing
1/2 cup chopped herbs (flat leaf parsley, thyme, chives and coriander)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp curry powder

For the curry
2 tbsp oil
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp curry powder
1/4 tsp saffron powder
3/4 cup coconut milk
1 small onion quartered
1 green hot chilli pepper
1/4 tsp sugar

Method
1. Clean and wash fish thoroughly with lime juice. Season with lime juice and salt.
2. Mix herbs and chopped onion with 1/2 tsp curry powder and blend into a thick paste with some coconut milk.
3. Stuff the herb mix into the fish cavity.
4. Heat oil in a deep frying pan, add garlic and fry until golden brown then remove.
5. To the remaining curry powder and saffron powder, add enough coconut milk to make a paste of a pouring consistency.
6. Add the curry paste to the oil and stir quickly.
7. When the paste thickens, add the rest of coconut milk and reduce slightly.
8. Put in stuffed fish, spoon over curry mixture, add quartered onions and the whole chilli pepper and simmer.
9. After 15 minutes, add the sugar, check seasoning, remove the whole chilli and cook for five more minutes.

I eat meat because...

2006-04-05T18:47:00.000Z

Since I started this blog, quite a few people who knew me in my vegetarian days have asked what prompted me to eat meat again.
Two years ago, I began eating meat again after 12 years of going veggie. The reason was simple, I felt if I wanted to be a great cook, I couldn’t do so without knowing how to cook ALL kinds of food and that included meat. And how can a good cook not taste what they’re cooking?
So after tasty dish of venison fillet, I re-embraced the way of flesh.
This doesn’t mean that I eat just any meat. I'm still very mindful of the reason I stopped eating meat in the first place: intensive farming and its ills.

In his book, The River Cottage Meat Book, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall explores this topic in great depth. And although the description below is about the UK, in many cases, it would be quite appropriate for the Caribbean as well.
"The vast majority of our farm animals are now raised under methods that are systematically abusive. For them, discomfort is now the norm, pain is routine, growth is abnormal and diet is unnatural. Disease is widespread and stress is almost constant.
We have battery hens in wire cages so small they can’t turn around. We farm broiler chickens indoors for our fast food restaurants and supermarkets, in such close confinement and such huge numbers that premature deaths counted in the millions are considered the industry norm."
Hugh F-W is just one of a growing number who are concerned about this. In fact, the issue is quite big in the UK, and many are now choosing free range or organic meat. I do the same. I also tend to buy meat from butchers or game keepers who can vouch for the provenance of the meat: they know where the meat comes from, they know the conditions under which it was raised and slaughtered and for how long it was hung.
I’m a bit of a snob in that regard, I like good quality ingredients and to be honest, if I can’t have good quality meat, I do without. If I'm eating out and I’m not sure how good the meat is, I eat veggies. I’ll admit the only time I deviate from this principle is when I have the delightfully yummy but greasy fried chicken wings from Chicken Spot, my local takeaway.
That said however, chicken is not my meat of choice. I prefer strong meats like mutton, venison, game birds and lamb. Whenever I eat game, I wonder why our own tasty wild meat is not more popular in Caribbean cooking. Anyone who has had a good curry lappe or agouti will agree with me. Maybe no one’s found a sensible or profitable way to rear some of these animals while still giving them the space to be 'wild'.
I hope people in the Caribbean will soon wake up to the ills of the meat industry and demand better quality but the downside to better quality is higher prices and in many parts of the Caribbean, food prices are already too high.
Are any of our regional governments doing anything about this? Are they offering incentives for farmers who want to rear their animals in a less intensive way? I know that governments of the banana producing countries in the region already give their farmers incentives to go organic, so why can't this happen with livestock?
I can only remain hopeful this will happen sooner rather than later.
To hear an interesting discussion about the complex relationship we have with meat, listen to this edition of The Food Programme from BBC Radio 4.

Comfort food for a rainy day

2006-04-02T21:26:00.000Z

My friend Pat sent me a sumptuous oxtail recipe that she's loved since she was a child. She said, "would you believe I used to clean out the pot to get the last bit of bean sauce?"
Pat insists on getting fresh oxtail from the butcher, because somehow the frozen stuff just doesn't taste the same. It sounds like a dish that'll be perfect for a rainy Saturday.
Try it and tell me what you think.

Oxtail and Red Beans
by Pat Ganase

3 tbsp cooking oil
3 tbsp brown sugar
2-3 lbs "fresh" oxtail, butcher cut in sections
2-3 cm/3/4 inch ginger, finely chopped
Sprig of thyme
4-5 cloves garlic
1 lb red beans, soaked and boiled or tinned
1 large onion
6 mild chillies, chopped
1 Scotch bonnet pepper
450 g/1lb pumpkin, cubed
225ml/8 ozs tomato ketchup
Salt to taste

1. Heat oil in a deep iron pot (or pressure cooker),
2. Add sugar, caramelise until it's deep brown and bubbling - not burnt.
3. Add oxtail pieces and stir until they are nicely browned.
4. Add thyme, ginger and half the garlic.
5. Cover with water and cook at medium heat. (If you have a pressure cooker, cook on high for 10-15 minutes.)
6. After an hour or when meat is soft, but not falling off the bone, add red beans , onion, remaining garlic, mild chillies, pumpkin and salt.
7. At this point, ensure the sauce is the consistency of a thick stew, not too soupy.
8. Add tomato ketchup and simmer.
9. In the last five minutes, put the Scotch Bonnet pepper on top.
10. The oxtail is ready when the meat is just falling off the bone, beans are soft and melting and pumpkin is falling apart. Serve with steaming white rice and a salad of cucumber and onion marinated in lime juice.

Save Our Society

2006-04-02T10:41:00.000Z

Last weekend, I was bristling with the joys of blogging about Trini food, the delights of Breadfruit Oildown and the evocative descriptions by my friends about their food memories in what must have seemed to be an idyllic time in Trinidad and Tobago.
Unfortunately, in the last week Trinbagonians all over the world were shocked and saddened to the core at the grisly murder of six-year-old Sean Luke in Couva.
Over the years, we've seen some horrible murders in Trinidad, but none like this case of a child being buggered to death by a cane stick.
I am so dismayed by the situation in Trinidad that I feel compelled to say something about it on this blog.
Crime has escalated in our twin-island nation in recent years with a record number of murders and kidnappings in 2005. The amazing thing about this is that kidnappings didn't even happen in Trinidad until about three years ago.
To those of us living abroad, reading the Trinidad newspapers is like having a daily dose of "Today's Crime", since it seems that nothing else is happening there.
Some people, including high ranking politicians and security officials have tried to play down the crime situation by saying that many of the murders are gang related and restricted to certain parts of the country. But when you visit Trinidad, people are always talking about the high crime rate, and I can sense there's underlying anger and tension.
Now there's nothing that the police could have done to prevent this shocking crime, because the alleged killers, aged 13 and 16 had a plan to harm this poor child. But their tardy response to the family's concerns about their missing child was appalling.
How do people begin to feel secure if the police aren't taking things seriously?
The worst thing about this is the sense of powerlessness that Trinidadians have. We have people in positions of power, but they aren't leaders. The Prime Minister and his lot are more concerned with short term policy measures that will win votes but they aren't thinking ahead and looking to stabilise the nation for the future. No one is saying how they can deal with the crime, or the causes of crime and the silence is deafening.
I would love to return to my homeland but the situation there is making me doubtful. The unfortunate thing is that there are many of us out here who want go back home to make a difference but now we're thinking twice about it.

It's official, Trinis love Oildown!

2006-03-25T07:45:00.000Z

The results of my very unscientific 'Trini's Finest' food survey are finally in. Despite the attempts by some of my friends to engage in acts of voter padding - no Bonnie, I can't make paratha roti and pumpkin win - the favourite was Breadfruit Oildown.
I sent out 80 emails and 47 people responded. Forty-five respondents named a definite favourite while the other two praised the all round goodness of Trini cuisine.

Breadfruit Oildown - 11 votes
Pelau - 9 votes
Roti - 6 votes
Ochro and rice - 4 votes
Provision and saltfish - 3 votes
Coconut bake - 2 votes
Coo Coo and Callaloo - 2 votes

Oxtail Soup, Curry Crab and Dumpling, Curry Wild Meat, Cowheel Soup, Stew Chicken and Callaloo, Doubles, Shark and Bake and Macaroni Pie each got 1 vote.

An interesting note came from Martin (whose favourite was Curry Crab by the way), who said one of his childhood favourites was Chip Chip Accra. I know I can't get Chip Chip here but I'll try British shellfish, maybe cockles or clams.

The next step is to cook Oil Down for a discerning crowd, some of whom I have never cooked for! I'll make sure and record it for the blog, complete with photos and the recipe.

Good food in Brixton

2006-03-22T20:19:00.000Z

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the best person to ask about eating Caribbean food in London. I've not been terribly impressed by what's on offer mainly because most of the places that sell 'Caribbean food' are just takeaway outlets offering versions of Jerk Chicken, Jamaican patties and Curry Goat.
Unfortunately, the average Brit thinks this really is the sum total of Caribbean cuisine, so much so that when some people hear you're from the Caribbean, they ask 'can you make jerk chicken?'.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about the goodness or otherwise of jerk chicken or Jamaican food. My beef is about the absence of any top notch restaurants with a menu that reflects the diversity of Caribbean cuisine.
But it's not fair to bang on about this and not speak about the good stuff that's on offer. That brings me to the Bamboula Restaurant in Brixton.
A few days ago, seven of us (including a Brit and a Trini-Aussie) checked out the restaurant that boasts among its directors Virginia Burke, author of Eat Caribbean, which I reviewed quite recently on this blog.
Bamboula is also something of a London showcase for Walkerswood Foods, the Jamaican company known for its seasonings and sauces. It was therefore not unreasonable for us to expect finger licking goodness.
Bamboula is small, it can probably seat about 20 people - if so many. But I think this is part of its charm as it's a cosy and intimate setting. The decor was dominated by bright colours and Caribbean motifs, like fig leaves painted on the tables.
The pretty lengthy menu was anchored by Jamaican staples like Ackee and Saltfish, Jerk Chicken, Escoveitch Fish, Curry Goat and Pick Up Saltfish, all of which were ordered by our group.
I started with Top Gully, ackee and saltfish encased in a strip of fried plantain. The sweetness of the plantain was a good contrast to the saltiness of the ackee and saltfish.
Alice, the sole Brit among us had the Pickup Saltfish, which we thought was a dish Trinis call Buljol, but the presentation was totally different and the saltfish a bit too salty.
She also ordered callaloo, which I was eager to taste, since Jamaicans make callaloo with chopped spinach, instead of dasheen leaves like they do in Trinidad. Bamboula's callaloo was tasty but I prefer the Trini way of making it like a soup.
Choosing my main course wasn't difficult, I went for the Oxtail Stew with Festival, my favourite Jamaican delicacy. Festival is a bread like dumpling that's made with a bit of cornmeal. It went well with the oxtail stew which was very tender and succulent but a tad salty. I didn't get to taste what everyone ordered, but I liked Rebecca's tasty Escoveitch Fish and Sean's unctuous curry goat.
Overall the Bamboula experience was positive, the service was a bit slow but friendly, kinda like back in the Caribbean.
I'd recommend it, because the food is quite solid and unpretentious. The servings were generous and it wasn't very expensive. The bill for seven came up to £110 including drinks, so by London's standards, it was good value for money.
Bamboula Restaurant, 12 Acre Lane, Brixton, SW2 5SG

Cute, furry and really tasty

2006-03-19T15:23:00.000Z

I've been meaning to blog about the wild rabbit stew I cooked last Sunday.
I know some people will ask "how could you eat a cute, furry rabbit??"
Well, I'm sure that rabbit was cute but it tasted damn good!
I bought the rabbit on impulse two weekends ago at the Marylebone High Street Market in Central London. The kindly gentleman from Manor Farm Game suggested I try it, and at only £3.50 for a whole rabbit, I didn't think I could go too far wrong.

As soon as I got home, I got out my Meat Book and followed the instructions for jointing the rabbit. And while cutting it up, I marvelled at how little fat there was on the rabbit, all I could see was deep red - almost purple - muscle. I saved the blood and the liver, rinsed the meat and seasoned it with salt and black pepper before putting it in the freezer.
I imagined that rabbit should be cooked with a deep, rich sauce and many of the recipes I looked at said this. In the end I plumped for an adaptation of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipe for Jugged Hare from the Meat Book.
Essentially, to make Jugged Hare you sear the meat and cook it with shallots, carrots, garlic and smoked bacon. Once the meat is browned all over, pour in a bottle of cabernet sauvignon, brandy and water seasoned with a bouquet garni of parsley, thyme and bay leaves and cooked in a low oven for about two hours.
When the rabbit was done, the meat was so tender it was falling off the bone but the dish wouldn't be complete without a robust sauce. I strained the remaining sauce and mixed it with the rabbit's blood and finely chopped liver. After a bit of salt and pepper and a few minutes of gentle simmering, the sauce was ready.
My friends who tried the rabbit seemed to enjoy it. Heather (who took the accompanying photo) asked for seconds and my flatmate Maurice was impressed by the tenderness of the meat and the subtleness of the flavour. Anita, a great cook who doesn't eat meat was impressed by the look and smell of the dish.
And what did I think? I absolutely loved it. The rabbit was flavourful and very tender. I was expecting it to taste quite 'gamey' but it wasn't.
Rabbit is quite versatile, and can work in different styles of cooking quite easily. Unfortunately, rabbit isn't a meat that's commonly used in Caribbean cooking, but I think it would be great in a Trini style stew with dumplings or curried with vegetables and rice.
The next time I buy one, I'll certainly be cooking it in true Caribbean style.

The Nation's Favourite Food

2006-03-16T15:03:00.000Z

A few nights ago, I was testing a recipe for Trinidadian Stewed Mutton and started thinking about the dishes that really turn Trinis on.
With that in mind, I embarked on the ‘Trini’s finest’ food survey.
This very unscientific survey took the form of an email shot to about 70 of my Trini friends from different backgrounds and with varying attitudes to food.
I asked them to tell me what their favourite dish was and why.
I promised my friends that when the votes are all counted, I'll cook the winner and give my verdict on the blog.
I thought it would be a good idea to blog about this, because I felt the range of responses would show off the diversity of Trinidad's cuisine. Personally, I think ours is the most varied in Caribbean cooking.
Within one day, I received about 40 enthusiastic responses and so far, Breadfruit Oil Down has taken a handy lead ahead of Pelau as the favourite Trini dish. In a few days, I'll declare a winner and tell you when I'm going to cook this meal.
Some of my friends waxed lyrical about their food and I have to admit I got hungry reading some of their emails.
Here's a taste of what some of them said.

Food is like music - there is one for every mood that you are in.
You cannot deny that for a Panaroma or impromptu beach lime or for cricket in the oval that a well bubbled chicken or beef pelau hits the spot, under a card lime or parang session a powerful pig foot souse with your water cress and cucumber just punctuates the occasion suitably especially if it's a tad spicy meshing well with the fire that is associated with Latino ethnicity.
Or what about after a fete - what better than a corn soup with dumplin, or a boil corn on the way to the beach or even a shark and bake when you get there.
Brent

For me it is cowheel soup, the nutrition aspect is really top standard, but I always remember my Grandmother making soup for me when I used to visit her in the country, and for my mom house in T&T soup day was always Saturday.
Willis

There is nothing in the world to beat doubles and a good roti - specifically a roti from Dobson's.
Keifel

I love - and don’t laugh - provisions (eddoes, sweet potato, dasheen) fry up with saltfish, and tomato choka and sada roti. We usually make this after Easter when they have a lot of left over provision. You do the cook up with lots of garlic and pepper and the provision is in small bits and kinda soft. Fry in iron pot till its kinda sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Lisa G

A good, and I repeat GOOD, pelau has to be my all time favourite. Just something about a sticky pelau, hot off the stove, loaded with peas and the right amount of pepper....comfort food without being dessert. Could just curl up and sleep after!
Cherise

My favourite dish is oil down - with lots of fat pieces of pig tail and a
ton of coconut milk just seeping into the breadfruit and causing it to melt
all over everything!!! Oh gorm, now I'm starving!!!!
Tami

Ah guess it goin to have to be a good coconut bake and saltfish/smoke herring. De smell alone does make you even more hungry, yuh does want to buss it up but really a heavy breakfast like that does keep you full until you have a Trini Sunday lunch which must include a good callaloo etc. Remember lunch is usually later on Sundays since you might have church, yuh washing, yuh cleaning and preparing your various dishes for Sunday lunch.
Jillian

I love ochro rice with pigtail. I like the slippery feel of the ochro sliding down my throat and I like the salty surprise of the pigtail between the rice.
Essiba

Stewed oxtails, white rice and pigeon peas. It is the most succulent meat once properly stewed (soft meat, completely browned) and when placed on a bed of steaming white rice with peas, it is the perfect meal.
Nicole

My favourite dish is pelau.
Reason? When I was finally living, working, had my own flat in Trinidad (not just visiting), my brother and I held a flat-warming party. We made sandwiches (yes, sandwiches!) and got a real Trini cussin' from our friends with plenty of advice about cooking REAL food for Trini parties.
Later that week, I asked the then cook, canteen, and general welfare matron at Radio Trinidad (in the days when we still had a tea trolley arriving in the newsroom!) to show me what to make. She gave me a list of ingredients and showed me how to make the best damn pelau on the planet.
But, pelau is still my party food of choice for Caribbean and British friends alike (and I keep modifying the recipe when needed).
Debbie R

Bittersweet delights

2006-03-13T19:20:00.000Z

I've not given up on blogging my dears, it's just been really hectic in the last week.
But in between an intensive project management course, loads of meetings and trying to work my body into shape, I still managed to get some reading and cooking done!
I'm almost through reading English Food by Jane Grigson.
Jane Grigson is hailed as one of the UK's best ever food writers and her books are recommended reading for any serious foodie. Unfortunately, she passed away in 1990 but she left the food world with some real classics.
I was struck by the robustness of her writing, the depth of her research and the breadth of the recipes in this book.
And I was pleasantly surprised to see a recipe that included one of my favourite vegetables: the much maligned carilli or bitter melon.
Carilli (Mormordica charantia) is a bumpy green gourd that's not exactly the easiest thing to eat because it's soooooo bitter.
In Trinidad, lots of people dismiss carilli as 'poor food'. But it's actually quite a delicacy among the East Indians and Chinese.
I remember my father used to boil carilli and drink the resulting yucky bitter tea to help his high blood pressure. It wasn't until much later however, that I discovered how a bit of seasoning and cooking could transform this ugly and bitter gourd into a fantastic dish.
Jane Grigson's recipe for carilli - she calls it kerala, like the Asians do here - is Three Gourd Garnish which she recommends as a wonderful accompaniment for smoked chicken, roast duck or lamb. She says it also goes well with salmon and firm white fish.
Here's her recipe which serves six.

4 small to medium caralli
8-12 small courgettes or zucchinis, halved lengthways
Half a cucumber
1-2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Salt
3 tablespoons mixed chopped parsley, coriander and chives
Slightly salted butter

Halve the carilli, scrape out the seeds and remove the white pulp. Slice thinly and soak in salt water for at at least an hour to remove some of the bitterness.
Blanch for three minutes, drain and set aside.
Cook the courgettes gently in some butter with a pinch each of garlic and black pepper in a covered pan. Peel and slice the cucumber in long thin strips, fry briefly to heat through and soften slightly. Finish the carilli in a little butter with a pinch of garlic and pepper.
Arrange to one side of a serving dish, beside the poultry, lamb or fish. Keep warm while you toss the remaining garlic and the caralli seeds in a knod of butter to heat through. Add herbs and pour over the dish.

I'm going to try this recipe once I could put my hand on some caralli but I'm not too sure about using the seeds in the way Grigson suggests. Maybe if someone knows about this, they can drop me a line and let me know.

A tale of Dodgy Doubles

2006-03-02T19:25:00.000Z

Carnival is the highlight of the year for most Trinidadians, especially for those across the diaspora who make the annual trek to wine and jam.
In the seven years I've been living in the UK I've only been back for Carnival twice. And to think that before that, I'd have opted for water torture rather than miss a Carnival! Me, a Carnival baby miss the festival? No way!
But the old folks have a saying, 'after one time, is two time'.
This year, some of us Trinis in London decided to pay homage to that staple of Trinidad Carnival - the All Inclusive Fete.
For those who don't know, an All Inclusive Fete is a party where you pay a hefty sum to eat and drink all you can. This year, the more popular All Inclusives in Trinidad cost anywhere from TT$400 (£40) to $TT1,000 (£100).
Apparently in the really exclusive parties, there's gourmet food and the bars serve Johnny Walker Blue, a blended whisky that Trinis think is really posh.
Anyway, our version of the All Inclusive was called the Carnival Saddos Pretend All Inclusive Fete. The name says it all eh?
We didn't have Johnny Walker Blue, but we had Fernandes Black Label Rum and a mock Malibu called Cubanabay. And since we couldn't exactly afford a gourmet chef like Gordon Ramsay, I did the cooking!
What did I cook you ask? The staples of Trini food - Pelau, Roast Bake and Doubles!
The pelau and the bake were amazing, but the doubles were a bit dodgy!
I tried the doubles recipe from the oft quoted Trini cookbook, the Naparima Girls Cookbook and it simply didn't work. And I tried to be as authentic as possible, I had small squares of wax paper to wrap the doubles like they do back home! It wasn't that they were inedible - my friends ate every last one - but the bara didn't have the melt in your mouth quality like the doubles you could get in an all inclusive fete in Trinidad. I guess that's why our party was a 'Pretend All Inclusive'.
We intend to make the Pretend All Inclusive an annual event, which means I have a year to learn to make proper doubles. But I mightn't need to, after all, next year I could be wining in Trini Carnival!

A challenge to Eat Caribbean

2006-02-19T19:50:00.000Z

It rained all day in London today and such rotten weather calls for comfort food and staying under the duvet with a good book.
I could talk about the heavenly seafood broth I cooked today but I'll stick to my plan and review what I've read.
Eat Caribbean by Virginia Burke was a good way to get some sunshine by osmosis. This is one of the best books on Caribbean cookery I've seen in a while. It's well written with loads of fantastic photos and recipes that work.
Actually, I'd be surprised if Eat Caribbean wasn't this good, because the author has a wealth of experience in the food industry.
Virginia Burke is the managing director of marketing for Walkerswood Caribbean Foods (known for their jerk seasoning) and director of the Bamboula Caribbean Restaurant in London.
One of this book's strong points is that it doesn't fetishise or trivialise Caribbean food. In fact, it demystifies the cuisine and makes it very accessible to the non-Caribbean reader.
This means anyone living in a big city with a significant Caribbean or African community can find most of the ingredients quite easily. It's not uncommon to find ground provisions and tropical fruit in major supermarkets these days.
Eat Caribbean has a decidedly Jamaican slant, which isn't surprising since Burke is Jamaican. To her credit, she makes it clear in the introduction that Jamaican food is what she knows best. So there's a chapter on Jerk food, which is probably par for the course as for most non-Caribbeans, jerk chicken is their only experience of Caribbean food.

Some of the better known classic Caribbean recipes included are Saltfish Accra, Pepperpot Soup, Pelau, Ackee and Saltfish and Curried Goat.
I think the most interesting recipes are those from Cuba and Guadeloupe and I'm looking forward to trying Cuban Oxtail with Rioja and Guadeloupean Curried Goat.
However, there are a few things I don't like about Eat Caribbean, one of them is the book's layout. You have to wade through 40 pages of introductory stuff before getting to the recipes. I'd have preferred to read about Caribbean lifestyle and markets at various points during the book instead of all at the beginning.
Also, Eat Caribbean doesn't really survey the region very well. There's one dish from the Bahamas, but none from countries like Barbados, Guyana or Dominica. Is it that Burke felt the food from those countries was a bit too exotic?
By extension, I would think the strong emphasis on Jamaican dishes could turn off a lot of Caribbean readers who don't see any of their dishes included.
Despite this, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Eat Caribbean because there are a lot of interesting recipes in there and none of them are particularly difficult. I also think Virginia Burke sets a new benchmark for writers of Caribbean cookbooks in the future and I feel this is Burke's real accomplishment.
Eat Caribbean: The Best of Caribbean Cookery by Virginia Burke (Pub: Simon and Schuster).

Roti and me

2006-02-14T18:49:00.000Z

Oh gorm ah could eat ah roti now!
Now if I was living in Trinidad my roti craving wouldn't last long, because in Trinidad, you're always at least 15 minutes away from a good roti.
Not so in London, especially in the middle of winter!
Last night, my friend Kelvin aka EJ picked me up for a roti jaunt. We headed to South London and our favourite roti shop, Roti Joupa.

I've been going there for about three years now, but last night was the first time I carefully looked at how Vash and his team make roti. Actually, I was kinda lucky because they were doing a big order for a customer.
At one point when Dave was kneading the dough for dhalpourie roti, EJ joked, 'yuh have to have special hands to make that roti yuh know!'
He was so right because like pastry or bread, the way you knead the roti dough will determine if you end up with something that's strong enough to hold a heavy serving of vegetable or meat filling but soft enough to melt in your mouth.
By the same token, it's not difficult to end up with a cardboardy kinda mess that's destined for the bin - I know because it happened to me.
Oddly enough, I wasn't really feeling for roti last night so I had two doubles, a glass of sorrel and a slice of coconut sweetbread instead. I did however, come away with a renewed appreciation of the art of roti making. In fact, I told Vash that I'd like to spend a few hours in their kitchen and of course, he suggested that I come in on a Saturday - their busiest day!
Until then, I have to rely on a recipe from one of Trinidad's best loved cookbooks, the Naparima High School Cookbook. I'll share it with you and if anyone knows about a better recipe, send it along!

Dhalpurie Roti
1lb flour
3 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
Water
1/2 tsp saffron
1/2 lb split peas
3 cloves garlic
2-3 tsp ground geera

Boil the split peas with saffron, salt and garlic until tender but not too soft. Drain and grind to a breadcumb like consistency in a food processor. Add geera and salt to taste and leave to cool.
Knead flour with baking powder to a soft dough. Rub the dough with oil and leave to rest for 30 mins. Cut the dough into 6 to 8 pieces and shape into round balls. Open each ball and in the centre, put about 3-4 tsbp of of the pea mixture, close and seal the ball.
Heat a baking stone, flat griddle pan or large pancake pan. Roll a ball of dough very thinly, spread a thin layer of oil or ghee over the baking stone and put on the rolled out dough.
Cook on one side for one or two minutes, turn the dough over and spread with oil or melted ghee. After two minutes, turn over and spread oil or ghee over the dough. Do not let the roti get too brown. Repeat with the remaining dough balls.

Eating my words....

2006-02-11T21:03:00.000Z

Hello, my name is Franka and I'm a cookbookaholic.
I have a mild addiction to cookbooks. But isn't this perfectly natural if you love food and cooking? One day I intend to write a cookbook that other addicts add to their shelves as well.
My latest acquisition is Feast by Nigella Lawson. And this is why I'm eating my words.
You see, I've always told my friends that as much as I like Nigella's programmes, I wouldn't buy one of her cookbooks. But that changed when I actually picked up one of her books and had a look.

Nigella's writes like an angel (I would expect nothing less from someone who went to Oxford and was the deputy literary editor of the Sunday Times newspaper). She brings her buouyant personality and passion to her books and most crucially, her recipes are top notch.
Feast is aptly subtitled Food That Celebrates Life. In 21 chapters, Nigella explores the food that's eaten during cultural and religious celebrations like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, Eid and Passover. She also looks at feasts at some of life's common events like breakfast, weddings and funerals.
This book is a gem, and I'd heartily recommend it. There are lots of recipes I'd love to try especially Chocolate Gingerbread!!
I liked her inclusion of a chapter about special but awkward times like, the first date and the first dinner with prospective in-laws. I was also fascinated by the chapter on Eid, because the dishes she selected are so very different from the Eid dishes I've encountered at Eid celebrations in Trinidad.
Read more about Nigella at her website, you'll even find some recipes.

The Joy of Oxtail

2006-02-11T19:17:00.000Z

Saturday's normally a soup day in the Caribbean.
You'll find a lot of people making soup, usually fish broth or oxtail soup. If they can't make it, then they'll go somewhere and buy a soup!
Today, in London, I paid homage to my roots and I made oxtail soup with what's known as 'winter vegetables' - parsnips, desiree potatoes, jerusalem artichokes, carrots and broccoli.
At it's best, oxtail is an unctuous, glutinous delight. My soup wasn't very glutinous mainly because I used the leaner part of the tail. But if you use the more meaty bit, it releases a lovely light jelly that gives the soup its unique flavour.
In Trinidad, most people use a pressure cooker to tenderise the oxtail before adding the veggies and if necessarily, dumplings. But I seared my oxtail to give it some colour and removed it from the pot. I then made a mirepoix and let it cook for a bit before putting the meat back in the pot and adding the veggies along with stock and seasoning.
Two hours later, there was one of the most flavourful soups I've ever made. It looked better than the one in the photo!!
I'd love to know what other foodies think are their best soups. Oxtail soup and fish broth are up at the top there for me!