The OTHER Potato

It peels just as easily, it cooks faster and it can be prepared very much the same way as you’d prepare the English potato – baked, boiled, mashed, sautéed and even be made into chips and fries. Which potato is it? The sweet potato! Click here for this week's column to find out more about the white-fleshed sweet potato. In the column you will also find the method for preparing all the dishes you see below.

Sweet Potato Pie

Sweet Potato Salad

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Notes on a Chicken Salad & Guest Posting!

Over the years I’ve made quite a few chicken salads and I’ve experimented with various cooking methods as well as various parts of the chicken all in a quest to find the most effective way for the chicken to remain moist and flavourful. There's a particular cooking method I prefer coupled with a particular cut of the chicken that gives me the results and flavour I am looking for. Click here to read my Notes on a Chicken Salad. The recipe can also be found at the bottom of the column.

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Want to know about the dish shown in the photograph below complete with a recipe? Well, head on over to my friend Bee at Rasa Malaysia as I'm GUEST POSTING on her blog! You are invited to leave your comments there and explore her blog which is a fantastic gateway to various South Asian cuisines! Click here to go!

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Eating Abroad

When my travels take me up North, it is not always easy to return home and recreate the dishes I enjoyed. Sure, I can find some of the ingredients back in the Caribbean but they are usually imported, sometimes not of the best quality and they often cost a fortune. You know, like they were flown in on first class or something! Click here to read the column.

I'm currently on holiday and I'm on a cherry binge; with each bag of cherries I’ve bought, I've made different things like jam and compote. And then on Tuesday, I made a cherry cobbler. It was so nice, that I made it twice, within a 24-hour period!!! The first cobbler was for a friend’s birthday and I wanted to make something simple yet interesting for dessert. I personally feel that after a certain number of birthdays, birthday cake becomes boring, more so if you’re not a cake person. For more, read my column.

What I love about this cobbler is that the fruit is embedded in the batter, it's cuddled lovingly and sweetly. I promise you, if you make this once, it will immediately become one of your go-to desserts. The great thing about the recipe also is that you can use any firm ripe fruit to make it. I made one with plums.

I first saw this cobbler at Evolving Tastes over a year ago and had it bookmarked. The original recipe can be found here. I made some flavour additions to the batter - I added 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon greated nutmeg. I also used 3 instead of 2 cups of fruit because I wanted it really fruity. I reduced the sugar by 1/4 cup each - for the batter as well as for the filling. See my adapted recipe here. Make this cobbler and watch it disappear in no time!

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Cooking... In Someone else's Kitchen

I spent several weeks with a friend in the USA and of course, I cooked. I felt totally off my cooking game. The simplest of tasks had me questioning my cooking skills. I found myself scorching things, burning things, under cooking some dishes and over cooking others. I have always felt that a good cook is one who is able to adapt to various cooking environments. I began to ask myself, if I was having so much trouble in this new kitchen… really… how good a cook am I? (Cue the dramatic music) Click here for the column and find out how things went.

These Plantain-Sausage Rolls are easy to make and delicious anytime. Here's what you'll need: ripe plantains (look for the ones that the skins have started to darken), your favourite uncooked sausage links, nuts of your choice ground finely but with a little texture. Bamboo toothpicks.

And here's now to make them:

1. Cook the sausages first as they will take the longest. Let cool to handle and slice into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick rounds. Set aside.
2. Peel and slice the plantains and pan fry them. Working with them still warm, take one piece of sausage, place on the plantain and roll from one end to the other, roll in ground nuts, secure with toothpick and set aside. Repeat until all the sausages are used up. If you have plantains remaining, just roll them up, roll in nuts, secure with toothpicks and serve; or, you can elinimate the nuts altogether for those with allergies.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE TO ALL MY AMERICAN FRIENDS AND READERS!

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