Live Your Dreams: Caribbean Cuisine

I will be posting all the recipes for the new dishes I learn how to make while living with my Host Family. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

**Disclaimer
Nothing is measured. There is no such thing as an approximate measurement or time for cooking. Food is prepared to taste..needs more salt, needs more sugar..etc, not golden brown yet, needs more time.. You get the idea!
Stewed Pigeon Peas

Olive oil

1 Whole Garlic

1 Onion

A lot of Pigeon Peas

1/2 cup? Ketchup or tomato paste

3/4 cup? Sugar

GENEROUS Amounts of Salt and Pepper

1 cup or more depending, Water

Couple tablespoonsMargarine

LOTS of Curry

Coat the bottom of a wok type pan with olive oil and add 1 whole garlic. Add 1 chopped onion. Stir around and let brown or something.

Rinse pigeon peas.

Add pigeon peas to garlic and oil.

Add all the other ingredients.

Let boil for a while, I lost track but probably like an hour or more. Might have to add more water. Add the end, you want kind of a thicker type sauce.

Callaloo Something or Other

Approx 4-8 bunches of Callaloo (type of spinach. Its actually the leaves of the dasheen).

1 Whole Garlic

Couple tablespoons of Olive Oil

TONS of Curry

Generous Amounts of Black Pepper

2 Cups ish of Coconut Milk

Peel callaloo stems if old. Otherwise just cut the end of the stalk. Cut up callaloo into chunks, like lettuce.

Rinse with water and let them steep for a bit in water, but not too much water, after the leaves have dried a bit. If you touch them, they can cause your skin to itch, so be careful.

Add olive oil and garlic to a pot. Let cook for a little bit.

Add all the callaloo, curry, pepper.

Then pour over the coconut milk.

Let it boil down for a long time.

Will turn to a mush. Let it boil until all the water is gone and the consistency is like a paste.

This takes a long time, but remember to stir, otherwise it will burn.

This tastes just like spinach paneer that you would get at an Indian restaurant. So
good!!

Breadfruit Salad

2 Roasted Breadfruit

1 can Mixed Vegetables; Carrots, green beans, peas, corn, etc

Couple stalks of Celery

1 Onion

1 Green Pepper

1 Whole Garlic

Alot of Mustard

A good Amount of Mayonaise

Generous Amounts of Black Pepper

Roast breadfruit, peel the shell, cut out the center seeds, and then cut into small chunks. -or-

Boil breadfruit. Cut breadfruit into 4 sections, boil with salt, and peel after cooled.

Add all ingredients and mix together.

This dish is the equivalent of potato salad.

Bread Pudding

4 Loaves of Bread

6 Eggs

2 Can Evaporated Milk

TONSSSS of Nutmeg

TONSS of Cinnamon

Alot of Sugar

Raisins

Cherries

Cut loaves of bread into chunks and put in a large bowl.

Mix the milk, eggs, spices, and sugar together.

Add over the bread. Fold the bread so that all pieces are covered with the milk mixture.

Bake at 350F until golden brown on top.

Other food that I have not necessarily cooked myself, but have eaten:

fish and pelau

bush tea: made from soursop leaves found on the side of the road.

Fried Dolphin (dolphin fish) not Flipper:

Some sort of stew with pork, including the skin and bones:

Yum look at all that meat (i did not eat this):

Chunks and pasta:

Chunks are like tofu and its pretty good:

The oranges are green?

Dinner, most nights. lettuce, cucumber, tomato salad with mustard as the dressing.

Its quite delicious.

Chunks!

Pork, with the skin and everything.

Salad, mac n cheese, and chunks.

Chunk balls.

Rolling the ground up chunks into balls.

Chunk burger.

Frying the chunk burgers and chunk balls.

Buckets of eggs.

This is how you make toast when you dont have a toaster.

Fried eggs, cheese, and toast.

One of these green round things is a fruit (watermellon) and the other is a vegetable (pumpkin). Do you know which is which?

Sunday lunch-salad, and potato/pumpkin bake.

Woke up to this lovely sight one sunday morning..Just a leg of beef and some chicken bits soaking in the sink (pronounced zinc). NBD. I would also like to add, that as I was coming home from training one evening my Host Father was carrying a bag of cattle balls. This is actually what they called them. There was no fancy name. Just cattle balls.

My new favorite breakfast: corn meal porridge. So easy, cheap and tasty!

Pumpkin soup with homemade croutons. delicious!

Potato salad that I made by myself.

Breakfast awaits. Bread, cream cheese and tomato sandwiches. and a cup of "tea" (Ovaltine (hot with condensed milk)).

Some form of eggplant in a tomato (ketchup) sauce with rice.

Smoked fish, chi chi cake, and roasted breadfruit that looks radioactive.

Potato salad (that i made).

I forget what this was...

I dont know what this is, it was like a hot pocket filled with lentils. very tasty.

Cant really tell, but it was filled with lentils (peas).

Fish Boil Up (Dolphin, okra, christophene, sweet potato, yam, cassava, plantain, cabbage, onion, tomato, dumplings, other provisions. Take note of the amount of food in my bowl.

My Host Mom, Advira. Take note of the size of her bowl.

A Hearty Sunday Lunch.

Just a normal meal, rice, whole fish, tomato and cucumber salad.

Getting much better with de-boning the fish.

eggs come in bags not cartons.

homemade hummus!

lemons that look like limes, for the hummus.

banana smoothie!

my toaster. more like roasted bread :-)

peppers, onions, tomatoes, standard for everything.

really good tomato haha.

bakes for a second try. a little it better but still not good.

nutmeg.

so much fruit. oranges that are actually lemons, mangoes, apples and bananas.

mashed up guavas?

pelau

cooking by candle light...

no microwave :-/

guavas (from my backyard) for guava juice!

this bake (which is actually fried) looks like a fish! haha

fried plantains.

breakfast one morning. omelet bread and cheese.

carrots and cabbage.

so many bananas!

banana fritters. yum!

prim rose.

french toast for dinner!

popcorn the old fashioned way!

apple crisp.

plums from my backyard.

tiniest carrots ever.

Homemade tomato sauce for pizza at Liz and Kierstens!

Homemade pizza! Yum!

Cocoa from my backyard.

The inside..If you suck on the white things they are sweet and milky, and then once that outer part is gone you can dry the bean and then make chocolate.

So many green bananas.

Homemade dill hummus! So GOOD!

Mango juice.

Callaloo

My attempt at macaroni pie. it didnt work, but it was still tasty.

Callaloo.

Eggplant parm station.

Eggplant.

Eggplant parm at my house with Liz.

Half without cheese for Kiersten!

So much fruit! Mangoes, Oranges (yes they are green), bananas and limes.

Plums from my backyard.

Lime juice.

Limeade.

Pumpkin.

Mashing the pumpkin for fritters.

Pumpkin fritters!

Limes!

Banana coconut smoothie.

More fruit; pineapple, mangoes, bananas, oranges.

Shark.

Dill hummus.

Way better than any store bought hummus.

Apple crisp

Pasta with fresh parsley.

ICE CREAM!

Colorful spices: cayenne pepper, curry, and saffron.

Saffron rice with onions

Saffron rice, almost just like at Machismo!

Black beans, peppers, onions for black bean burritos.

Black bean burrito with saffron rice.

So delicious, almost like going to Chipotle or Machismo.

Black bean veggie burgers

"Frying" them didnt really work, so I baked them. They also were really crumbly because I didnt have any eggs.

Black bean burgers with [burnt] fried plantains. I actually prefer them burnt haha.

Passionfruit.

Inside of a passionfruit: lots of thin black seeds, and gelly like orange colored pulp.

Passionfruit juice. I love my blender btw.

Very tasty, but not quite the same as when others make it, probably because i add only half the amount of sugar.

Mango puree

Probably one of many mango smoothies.

I think this one was mango, pineapple, coconut with yogurt (one of the rare occurrences that i had plain yogurt (its hard to find and expensive-i was going to use it to make my own yogurt, but that hasnt happened yet). This is also my new favorite smoothie combo.

Tomatoes and onions for homemade sauce.

Rice with chunks and homemade tomato sauce for stuffed peppers.

Exhibit A: peppers.

Exhibit B: Stuffed peppers

Yum vegetarian stuffed peppers. Substituted ground beef for soya chunks.

Exhibit C: Finished product

American style food!

The outdoor vegetable market in Town.

This may look like tea, but it is the water that came out of my faucet after a heavy rain.

MMmm mango smoothie

Pineapple! The pineapples here have a hint of coconut flavor to them and they are absolutely amazing.

Oranges are actually green.

I eat alot of fruit. Soursop, pineapple, mango, sugar apples.

Soursop. Kind of sweet and sour with a milky consistency.

Quite a pain in the butt to cut up though. the black seeds are toxic.

Yum.

More fruit.

Mango salsa.

Kingstown Fish Market

Red snapper.

Avocado. I made guacomole.

Limes.

Homemade Pizza! with corn, green beans, peppers and onions.

Real butter!

I love pineapples!

So delicious!

Vegetable fried rice.

Carrots, green beans, corn, cabbage.

Muddy water again.

American style breakfast as Klaras Cafe.

So many bananas and plantains! I was eating bananas or plantains for bfast, lunch and dinner for like 3 days straight.

Mango coconut muffins.

I thought this pepper looked funny haha.

Fruit Fruit and more Fruit. Guavas, star fruit.

I think theres limes in there too.

Mangoes, star fruit, guavas.

Banana bread.

It turned out really good!!

Morocan Fish Tagine=tomatoes, onions in a saffron and cinnamon vegetable broth.

with Red Snapper.

Yumm!!

Finished!

Over rice.

Veggie omelet with cheese, courtesy of Chef Chris.

Soursop

Sugar apples, mangoes, pineapple, soursop.

Peace Corps Birthday Cake!

Spanish Rice

Veggies for salsa and tacos

Our Mexican Feast!

Spices i brought home for my family: saffron, curry, cinnamon bark, cloves, nutmeg.

Vegan Apple Crumb Cake

Look at these seeds in this lime.

Perfect limes or are they lemons, i dont know. from my yard.

Veggie quiche.

Dirt in my water. nbd.

Cole slaw

A bag of lemons/limes from my yard.

Meatloaf (oatmeal cookies)

What water is supposed to look like:What my water looks like.

These lemons are not smooth at all.

Star Fruit

Not sure what you call this: but you cook the star fruit with orange juice and mango puree. and then you add coconut milk. so good!

With the coconut milk on top.

Guavas for juice.

Black bean burgers that actually held together

Perfection

Frang got into the crix.

Oh yay more mud coming from the pipe.

Pizza

Piled highhhh!

Roasted Breadfruit.

Breadfruit salad. recipe above.

the beginning of green bean casserole

frying the onions..

final product: homemade green bean casserole.

veg soup

Frang caught a chicken, i guess she was hungry?

om nom nom nom

creole rice before it was cooked.

fresh ginger.

evidently this was entirely too much ginger for the sorrel juice i attempted to make. who knew it was so potent?

sorrel and ginger for sorrel juice; a very popular christmastime drink.

after the sorrel and ginger have been cooked..sifting out the solids.

finished sorrel juice: remember i mentioned that i added to much ginger. yeah well this juice was so hot it was undrinkable.

coconut granola.

when you dont have a microwave but you want to melt butter...and i think that is pumpkin boiling in the pot for the pumpkin deliciousness i was making for our Peace Corps Thanksgiving.

look at all that food at our PC thanksgiving

collard greens, salmon cakes, broccoli casserole, corn bread, cucumber salad, veggie quiche, stuffing, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, potato salad, i dont remember what else..

all gone! so full!

Our entertainment for the evening.

breakfast for dinner?

When i was taking the kids to the beach, we made popcorn. however what we really made was a mess. also, its kind of difficult to make popcorn on the stove.

this looks kinda gross but in the end it tasted so delicious. first step was browning garlic and onions (and mushrooms but i didnt have any, nor do i like them) in vegetable stock...

then add spinach and cream cheese...

and add it all over pasta and you get creamy spinach something. it was very good!

Christmas baking! these are genets, they are italian lemon cookies that my italian neighbors taught my mom and me to make a long time ago. they are so good. but they usually remind me of Easter.