I did it! I made Paneer!

A few months ago when Richa blogged about another of her favourite paneer recipes, my comment included the fact that I had never had paneer. That same day, I received an email with a how-to-make paneer guide. Richa, said, “I cannot let you go on and not try paneer.” She even sent me a link which I filed away. As I continued to visit many other blogs including non-Indian bloggers, I heard them raving about paneer. And then more recently, Jugalbandi and Soul Food gave demos and instructions on how to make this Indian cheese, Paneer. So, I thought that it was time to make paneer and this week’s column is about my findings as it relates to paneer making. You can read all about it here.

Among the things I found interesting is how different milks offer varying degrees of whiteness and the difference in taste when salt is added to the milk when making it and not. I followed the recipe from here for 1 litre of whole milk.

Another thing discussed in the column is how I preferred to use the paneer in a manner that was familiar to me before venturing out. Will I venture out and make paneer again and try the more popular dishes such as mattar paneer (paneer & green peas) and palak paneer (paneer & spinach)? Find out.

Here are the ways I had the paneer I made.

Cubed & Fried

Drizzled with honey

Dressed with cilantro-lime dressing

Dry-curried eggplant & paneer

I also cooked it sauteed with okras, tomatoes, onions and fresh herbs and if you want to know what I thought of these dishes, I discuss it in the column.

As I was making the paneer and watching the milk curdle, it remined me of a sweet my Aunt Betty would make whenever she had curdled milk. She'd add cinnamon, cloves and sugar to the curdled milk and let it boil until reduced. This was such a treat. She called it "paynuse" I am not sure of the spelling this is how the word sounded :)

By the way, have you noticed the spoons in the pics? Guess what? They are gift from a friend down under, Kiriel of Papillon Pantry. I first saw her post of tea noodles and the spoons in which she served them. I merely complimented her on the good tableware find and yes, the same day (see, there’s a theme here today) I received an email from her requesting my address so that she can send me some spoons and so I have spoons! I love them very much. Thanks again, Kiriel!

Speaking of noodles, please don’t forget to CLICK and send in your entries for this month’s theme. You still have time to CLICK and submit here.

Have a good week, everyone!

Trying Something Different

You know how sometimes we get tired of eating a particular dish? or having it a particular way? Well, in this week's column, I offer 3 variations of two pies and a salad. The original versions of these dishes have already been tried, tested and proven to be successful. So why mess with them? Uh, because I can, because I want to and more importantly because I know you'll appreciate my tampering (lol) Click here to read the column.

Tamper # 1

Truth be told, the credit for this tampering goes to my sister-in-law as it was at her house that I first had it. I jazzed it up a little bit and am now making it public. Instead of using regular potatoes, use sweet-potatoes for a twist to this long-time favourite.

Tamper # 2

Macaroni and cheese make a great pie but how about trying macaroni, pumpkin & cheese pie? It's a great way to sneak veggies into your diet without loosing the taste of the original dish. And it's something different to bring to the table.

Tamper # 3

This is sweet potato pie, it's very different from the traditional North American sweet potato pie that's made and served around Thanksgiving as a dessert. This is a savory sweet potato pie with hints of sweetness. In parts of the Caribbean, it is served in many homes for Sunday lunch and on special occasions.

When I thought about this week's column and dishes, I had in mind that the holidays are fast approaching and we're always looking for ideas... I hope that three dishes offer some variation and inspiration. I know I plan to have them on my table.

Please do not hesitate to email me for the recipes.

Today is Eid-ul-Fitr, it marks the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. This holiday is celebrated in Guyana and throughout the world in Muslim communities. Happy Eid-ul-Fitr to my multi-cultural family, friends and readers of this blog.

Gimme Plantains & Friendship Breads

When many people think about Caribbean food, plantains quickly come to mind. While you can't blame them because we do eat a lot of plantains in these parts, we're much more than plantains, but that's for another column and another post :) Often when plantains are thought of in the Caribbean-food context, it is usually as fried ripe plantains. However, there are so many other ways that we prepare and eat plantains.

In my column this week, I share some of the plantain dishes I enjoy the most and also a new spice-paste combo for sauteed green plantains that I learnt from here. Thanks Sailu. Click here to read the column.

If you'd like to learn more about the plantain and the plantain versus the banana, then Jugalbandi is the place to go. This week they had an insightful and informative post about the plantain.

Asha of Foodie's hope also has profiled some interesting plantain recipes this past week.

Without further ado, I present some plantain treats for you. If you'd like the recipe to any of these dishes, please do not hesitate to email me.

Plantain chips

Plantain Foo-Foo

(Foo-foo/fu-fu is an African dish: made by boiling and pounding startchy root vegetables and making them into balls to be eaten with stews or in soups. Plantains are also made into foo-foo though strictly speaking it is not a root vegetable though we think of it as a ground provision)

Foo-foo with stewed beef

Boiled ripe plantains with herb butter

Fried ripe plantains (very ripe)

Boiled green plantains sauteed with a mustard-coconut-ginger-chili paste

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And now for more fun stuff. Over two weeks ago, a lovely lady by the name of Suganya of Tasty Palettes fame, emailed asking me if I'd like to receive one the Amish Friendship-Bread starter that's been making its rounds all over the USA (that I know of so far). I enthusiastically responded, "yes!" So, here are some of the things I made with my starter after feeding it and sharing it with my friends.

First up - a Currant bread (which is more like a type of sweet bread)

Second - A Tipsy bread (tipsy because the grounded fruits that I used to make this bread have been macerating and marinating in rum for a year!)

Finally, I made the no-knead bread with the starter.

I found the dough to be a lot more sticky and difficult to handle because of the additional liquid. Nevertheless, the bread came out great as you can see. I got the same crust, but the texture was different, not as airy and holey as the original no-knead bread and what was particularly interesting is that the bread had a slight sourdough-taste to it. That, definitely comes from the starter.

It's how I like It

There are many of us who grew up watching the women in our families cook - without recipes, with just 1 or 2 ingredients, making the little they had stretch to feed the entire household but at the same time, never compromising on taste. Their ingenuity, creativity and resourcefulness made them the excellent cooks they were and continue to be.

Born out of that, we grew up eating certain things and certain dishes prepared a certain way and, as adults, these are the only ways, or our favourite ways, to have those foods or dishes. And that my friends, is the subject of this week's column - I Like It Like That - it refers to the way, I like to eat certain things because that's the way I grew up eating them. Click here to read the column.

In our home when I was growing up, chowmein was always served with steamed rice.

And whenever my mom was looking for a fast-food dish that was filling and satisfying, she turned to curried eggs.

Various recipes for Egg Curry can be found here, here, here, here, here and here. If you'd like mine, email me.

What are some of the foods/dishes you prepare today the same way you liked them while growing up?

An Undefined Relationship

This past week, I’ve seen some of my blogger friends, here and here, singing the praises of the eggplant. Words such as elegant, royal and yes, sexy were used to describe this (fruit) vegetable.

As for me, my relationship with eggplants has been fraught with feelings of hatred, frustration and, and, wait for it – moments of selective loving! All this has led to the title of this week’s column and this post: An Undefined Relationship. And so the column begins: “If I said to you that I don’t like something and that I can only eat it cooked 3 ways and yet I purchase it every week at the market, you’d have to conclude that I really do like it wouldn’t you? If you know the answer, tell me because I’m not sure.” You can click here to read the column in its entirety.

To date, there are only 3 ways I’d eat eggplants, also known to us as bolangers, bigan and aubergines. First as a choka: stuffed with slivers of garlic throughout, fire roasted and mashed. To this mixture is added, fire roasted tomatoes and seasoned with green onions, hot chilies, salt and a drizzle of oil. Some of you may recognize this dish by another name and with perhaps a few added ingredients as bigan bharta.

Second, I like to have eggplants as a dry curry, an inspiration I got from here and adapted to suit my taste.

And finally, I eat eggplants as biganee – thinly sliced eggplants coasted in a spicy split-pea mixture and fried. The biganee is traditionally served with a green mango sour, chutney or achar.

You may ask why only these 3 ways. In the first 2 instances, it is all about the flavour the fire roasting imparts and the almost pureed texture. In the case of the biganee, the slices are then and the split-peas batter and along with the sour, chutney or achar, masks the notion that eggplants are involved :)

Last week, I saw this recipe for Eggplant Croquettes on Chris of Mele Cotte. I made them and in no time they disappeared from the table. Delicious. Instead of baking the eggplants in the oven, you guessed it, I fire-roasted them. As delicious as this is, it is still a little too much eggplant for me so I can’t have more than one at a time but let me tell you, people who love eggplants – this is a must-have, must-try dish. I served mine with a green mango chutney.

No-Knead To Worry

I’ve never been a cool or popular person. At school, I was the quiet student content to be invisible, bury my head in my books and make 1 or 2 very good friends. As I grew into adulthood, I found that I was always late, if ever, in getting on the band-wagon of any trend or anything popular, hence it is now, almost 2 months shy of a year, that I made the much talked, discussed and blogged about No-Knead bread that was brought to us by Mark Bittman, the New York Times’ The Minimalist.

But this post and column is about a lot more than the No-Knead bread, it is about me journeying on an emotional safari and discovering things about my cooking self. I’ve found that I can be over confident, impatient, self-doubting, resolute and yet humble enough to learn lessons. You’ll have to click here for the column to read more and see how these traits manifest themselves.

So, what have I been making that caused this emotional outpouring? Guava jam, guava cheese and for the first time, the vaunted No-Knead bread. Easy, right? Click here and tell me that you don’t see yourself in someway in this column.

The jam and cheese process starts by first peeling and slicing ripe guavas.

Then boiling them and rubbing and pushing the soft pulp through a sieve.

After a little over an hour and a half, one has jam

A little over two hours later and you have guava cheese.

And finally, the bread; there has been enough waxing and waning about this bread and nothing new that I can add to make it more alluring. Here’s what I will say, if you like a crusty, artisan, chewy bread, then this is it. This is the bread for you. It was so good the first time that I made it again the very next day!

Eating the guava jam with this bread was bliss with so many experiences - the crunch of the crust, the chewiness of the texture, the aromatic fruity sweetness of the jam that sunk into the pockets of the bread. Life never tasted so good.

You can click here for the recipe or log on to Jim Lahey’s Sullivan Street Bakery for the recipe and more.

If you haven’t tried making the bread yet, no-knead to worry, you can wait for a year like I did and then try it :))

Lots of Okras & Awards

Okras, lady's finger, bhindi, and gumbo are just some of the more familiar names used for this vegetable which I love very much; It is also the subject of this week's column. Okras are very important to us in the Caribbean and we use it widely in many dishes, including some national dishes.

Like bitter gourd and cilantro (and I'm sure with many other things), okra has its lovers and haters. A large part of the issue I feel is that many people do not understand how to prepare the vegetable in a way that would significantly reduce the silkiness that's too often described by that not so pleasant word - slimy :)

I hope that after reading this week's column that we can turn some haters, if not into lovers, then at least into triers (yeah, I made up the word) (LOL) Click here to go to the column.

Cut okras into rounds or lengthways as above

Place in the sun to dry

Dried okra

Fried okras also called Southern Popcorn

Here is the recipe. I adjusted the salt, using less.

Vegetable Rice-Okra

Sauteed okras with saltfish

Here is a list of my previous posts with dishes in which okras were used so that you can experiment.

Dhals
Saltfish & Okras
Mettagee
Caribbean Meal
Cou cou
Vegetable Rice
Fish Curry

Since you're fed and relaxed now, it's time for the awards ceremony. I have been honoured by a number of my fellow bloggers multiple times with various awards, which I now wear with pride and honour on my humble, little blog. I want to thank each and everyone of you for taking time out of your busy lives and hectic schedules to stop by my blog whether to comment, read or just have a look around - it is all sincerely appreciated.

I particularly want to thank my blog friends who thought me and my blog worthy of these awards. Thank you dear Pilar of La cocina de Lechuza for the Thinking Blogger Award. Thanks to Elly of Elly Says Opa! Carolyn of Mountain Meadows, and Jenn of The Left Over Queen for the Rockin Girl Blogger award. Thanks Caffeinated Cowgirl of Just This Side of Normal and Amanda of Little Foodies for the Thoughtful Blogger and Power of Scmooze award.

Just as in one of my favourite movies, Pay It Forward, I'd like to award some of my following bloggers. It is not possible for me to list all your worthy names here but I am sure that the awardees will in turn, if they choose to, award fellow bloggers. That way, the love is shared all around.

Asha, I noticed that you were already awarded but I want to say thank you for always being there...

Okay, enough talking let's get down to distributing the awards. In no particular order:

Thinking Blogger Award

Bee & Jai of Jugalbandi
Shn of Mishmash!
Carolyn of Mountain Meadows
Mathy of Virundhu
Caffienated Cowgirl of Just this side of normal

Thoughtful Blogger Award

Pelicano of Elaichi Et cetera
Anita of A Mad Tea Party
Coffee of The Spice Cafe
Nora B of Life's Smorgasbord
Melting Wok of Melting Wok

Rockin Girl Blogger Award

Sra of When my soup came alive
Manisha of Indian Food Rocks
Sunita of Sunita's World
Viji of V Cuisine
Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook
Sharmi of Neivedyam

The Power of Schmooze Award

Sia Spice Corner
Helen of Tartlette
Sig of Live to eat
Jaden of Steamy Kitchen
Pamela of Mi blog de cocina
Sylvia of La vida en Buenos Aries y afines

Don't forget that you can click here for the column.

What are you eating?

Hi Friends, I'm back. It was great seeing the family, meeting up with some former broadcasting colleagues and taking in some of the food scene in Guyana. Guyanese definitely eat out a lot more these days, seems as if on every street, every corner there is an eating establishment from restaurants to snackettes, to shops to cafeterias. While there's still a lot of cooking taking place at home, it is definitely not the 3 to 2 times cooking per day and it is not being done every day, more like every other day. The influence of North American sweet-treats is evidenced by the types and varieties of pastries and other sweet products that are made and sold. I am glad to see however, that a lot of the traditional foods and snacks are still prevalent.

This week's column looks at what I call weekday-food and weekend food. In other words, during the week, there were certain kinds of foods my mother and other families made and on the weekends, they cooked dishes not generally made during the week. What was it like in your home growing up? These days, the lines are blurred, we eat anything, anyday, and at anytime. Click here to read more.

Some of the more popular weekend food that have now become everyday food are: roast chicken and macaroni and cheese pie.

Treats such as these delicious stuffed jalapenos wrapped with bacon fortunately still counts as one of those things to make when entertaining or on a weekend when one has more time. The inspiration came from here. If you are vegetarian, you can certainly make these just stuffed with the cream cheese. They are sooooo good.

The column can be read here.

The recipes for these dishes are widespread but if you want my version, please do not hesitate to email me.

Fresh, Flavourful & Juicy Ginger

Fresh ginger

I am still in Guyana having a really good time. This week's column features an ingredient that is universally integral to many cuisines - ginger. From curries, to stews, to desserts and beverages, ginger often plays a flavourful role. In Guyana, one of our popular beverages, made all year-round but especially at Christmas is ginger beer. This is not the alcoholic version and our ginger beer does not require the use of yeast. It is more like a fruit drink. For the recipe, please email me. To read more, click here.

Ginger beer ingredients

Ginger beer

Curried Fish with notes of ginger

Ginger Ice Cream

Dal, Dhal, Dahl!

Dhal is the subject of this week's column.

We make a spicy peas-stew called dhal. Our dhal is made with melted yellow or green split peas (matar dal) and our chunkay ingredients (tadka) are primarily sliced garlic and cumin seeds (geera).

Tomato dhal

Through my visits to various sites of my friends and visitors from the sub-continent my curiousity about this spicy-peas stew was peaked as they profiled various types of dal-pulses (yes, on the sub-continent it's spelt without the 'h') as well as the stew they are made from. So I set about making and tasting a variety of dals and dhals :) Click here to read more and to find out which was one was favourite.

Spinach dhal

Mango dhal

Okra dhal

Red lentil dhal

Friends, I am currently in Guyana and will be here for a few days. While I will still be able to make my posts, I may not be able to do my regular visits to your sites to comment but I'll catch up on all your delicious works when I get back.

Peppers and a Pickle

I'm taking a break from the baking this week, well, baking sweet things :) but I have savoury treats for you. First let's start with the Greek Style Stuffed Peppers. At the beginning of June, The Left Over Queen announced the first Royal Joust. We were to make dishes that included three particular ingredients, cheese, dried fruit and nuts. I tasked The Foodie Sidekick to come up with something so that I can make it for this inaugural event and what she came up with is this Greek Style Stuffed Peppers.

Before you click here for the recipe, I want to let you know that my photograph of the stuffed peppers was accepted by the All Recipes dot com team for publication for this recipe - Yay! Go ahead and click here for the recipe. While the stuffing includes ground meat, you can most definitely substitute and make it vegetarian.

The stuffing, if you do not want to use peppers, can be put into individual ramekins, baked and be served as a side dish.

And now it's pickle time. The theme for this month's Monthly Blog Patrolling event is Preserve It. For 2 months now I've had Manisha of Indian Food Rocks pickle recipes for limes and lemons bookmarked. So when the well-brewed Coffee announced this month's theme, I knew exactly what I was going to post. But here is the thing, what you see is the pickle still in the process of pickling, it has only been bathing in the sun for about a week and according to the recipe, it takes a month to properly cure and pickle.

So I invite you to view my pickle in the process. You can click here for the recipe. If you are wondering why my lime pickle does not look the same as Manisha's or any others who have made it, it is because I switched the ingredients. The ingredients for the lemon pickle, I used to make the lime pickle instead. What can I say, I liked the colour of the lemon pickle when I first saw the post :)

Salt Fish Sweet

Buljol, a traditional Trinidad & Tobago saltfish dish

For centuries saltfish has been imported to the Caribbean. It is one of those items that's highly sought-after by many home cooks and it is an integral part of Caribbean cuisine. Each household has a favourite way of preparing this cured ingredient. Saltfish is so highly prized and important to us that in some countries, it makes up the national dish, such as Jamaica, where Ackee & Saltfish is the national dish. Click here for more and to find out how some other Caribbean countries cook saltfish.

Saltfish - Cod

Growing up, I never liked saltfish and only started cooking it when I moved to Barbados. For more, click here and read the column.

All the recipes are available upon request. All the dishes here are some of the favourite ways to cook saltfish.

Fried (sauteed) Saltfish & Okras

Fried (sauteed) saltfish with onions and tomatoes

Dhal, rice and fried saltfish with okras

Mettagee

This week's column features yet another national dish of Guyana, Mettagee or Mettem. At first I thought that the word was of Amerindian heritage but it is not, the jury is still out on the origin of the word.

Mettagee is thought to have been Portuguese in its origin something they prepared while on the boats from Portugal to Guyana - a one pot dish made with coconut milk but certainly far removed from what we prepare today. As with everything, food changes as we move from one place to another and adapt. However, though believed to be Portuguese in origin, Mettagee is often considered to be an Afro-Guyanese dish.



Root Vegetables or Ground Provisions as we call them grow abundantly here in the Caribbean and we make a variety of dishes with them. Cassava (tapioca), eddoes (taro root), sweet potatoes, yams, tannia can all be had in these parts.

The dish featured here is a true celebration of these root vegetables that are united with plantains, green and ripe, okras, dumplings and cooked with fresh coconut milk. It is traditionally served with salt fish or fried fish.



Versions of this dish are made in other Caribbean countries as well, in Jamaica it's Rundown, in Grenada, St. Vincent & The Grenadines and Trinidad & Tobago, it's known as Oildown.

I encourage you to try making this dish. You will absolutely love it.

To read more in the column, click here.
For the recipe, please email me.
Click here and find out how the dish was enjoyed.

Rice, Peas & the Prize

Vegetarians be warned, this is a meat post :) but please do not let it prevent you from commenting or asking a question. Email me for a vegetarian version of this dish.



Rice and peas and peas and rice are not the same as the Guyanese Cook-up rice or the Trini pelau. In Barbados, rice and peas refers to cooked pigeon peas (dried, fresh or canned) with rice and flavoured with a piece of salt meat, pigtail to be exact. In other parts of the Caribbean this combination is also known as peas and rice and the peas/beans used to identify the dish are different in a variety of islands. For example, peas and rice in Jamaica is red kidney beans cooked with rice. In the Eastern Caribbean islands stewed peas served with steamed rice is what is known as peas and rice.

Salt meat is self explanatory, it is meat that has been cured with salt (think bacon). Pigtail is a very popular salt meat in this region and Barbados is known for its pigtail or tails as they are fondly called :) Because the meat is salted, it is used when making rice and peas to season the entire dish and impart some flavour. To read more, click here.

• For an entertaining take on how our tastes change, adjust and adapt, click here.
• For this week's column, click here.
• For the recipe of this dish Email me

Barbequed pigtails

Easy Dishes to Entertain with

I had some friends over this past weekend and since I had spent so much time cooking during the week for the Independence column, I was sort of burnt out. I wanted to make things for the gathering that would not take a lot of time to prep and cook but would nevertheless be tasty. Everyone enjoyed the coucous with green onions and kebabs. I also made scalloped potatoes and a banana cake and served it with some strawberry sauce but I was too tired to take those pics. Please enjoy the couscous and the kebabs.

For clarification, the dolphin is NOT Flipper! :D, Please see here for info on the fish I used. Some of you may know it as Dorado or Mahi-mahi

Independence Food & A Foodie Sidekick

Guyana is often referred to as the Land of Six Peoples and the Land of Many Waters. Six peoples because our nation is made up of Africans, Indians, Portuguese, Chinese, Indigenous and the ever growing mixed race of which I am. It is fondly known as the Land of Many Waters due to it numerous rivers, the largest being the mighty Essequibo river.

Well, today this shapely country, (if you doubt it’s shapely, check out the map here ) :) the land of my birth, is celebrating 41 years of Independence. In honour of this occasion, in this week’s column, I decided to make two of our national dishes which, for me, personify who we are as Guyanese.

Cook-up Rice with beef, chicken and salted pork

Cook-Up Rice is a must-have dish on Saturdays. Cook-up as we call it, is a one-pot dish that consists of peas, rice and various meats – fresh and cured - that is cooked with coconut milk and fresh herbs. Cook-up rice is also a traditional Old Year’s Night (New Year’s Eve to some of you) meal.

The variety of ingredients in this dish, I feel, exemplifies the make-up of Guyana. We like to serve this dish with fried fish, fried ripe plantains and a simple salad.

Fried fish & fried ripe plantains

Sliced cucumbers & tomatoes

Another national dish we have is called Pepperpot. While Pepperpot can be eaten all year round, it is traditionally made and eaten at Christmas. Breakfast on Christmas morning would just not be breakfast without Pepperpot and bread, preferably homemade.

In Guyana, the Indigenous peoples are Amerindians and it is they that we have to thank for this unique, flavourful creation.

Pepperpot made with beef and pig-trotters

The key to excellent Pepperpot lies in good quality casreep. Casreep is a thick syrup that is obtained from boiled cassava juice. This flavourful syrup is used in many sauces and as flavourings in some dishes. I have some Trinidadian friends who L-O-V-E our casreep. They use it in place of burnt sugar to colour some of their dishes.

To make Pepperpot you need some ingredients that may seem strange to some of you J - cow-heel, pig trotters and more familiar, beef. The other ingredients are flavourings: casreep, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, scotch bonnet pepper, dried orange or lemon peel, salt, sugar and water. The ingredients are put in a large pot and set on a roaring fire to cook for at least 1 hour.

Pepperpot tastes best the day(s) after it is made. It is eaten with bread that sops up the sweet-like sauce. Pepperpot lasts for days without refrigeration; this is done by reheating it twice a day to a boil. At each reheating, the flavours are further enriched.

So why make a traditional Christmas dish at Independence? Because I can :) more seriously, I made it because I wanted to salute and acknowledge our Indigenous heritage that makes Guyana such a special place.

Please email me if you’d like the recipe for either of the dishes: Cook-up rice or Pepperpot. I did not put them here because they would have made this post even longer.

This week’s column can be read here.
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And now on to some serious foodie business...

Many of you out there have spouses, relatives and friends who are there, close by, to taste your creations, experiement on, and give feedback all the time. Me? I have my best friend Susan, as my family and relatives live in another country. She is my foodie sidekick.

Susan has created a blog, Foodie Sidekick, where those (spouses, partners, relatives & friends) who are at the receiving end of a foodie's creative, obsessive, compulsive, mad and delicious creations can gather, discuss and exchange among themselves the things we do in the name of food blogging, the tastes, the tantrums, the triumphs etc.

Here, let her tell you in her own words what the blog is all about.

"Are you now or have you ever been a Foodie Sidekick? Have you ever knowingly associated with Foodie Sidekicks? I hope so. Just like Batman had his Robin and Superman had his Krypto every foodie has one, two, three or more sidekicks. We are the people who have the pleasure of watching the foodies create glorious gastronomic delights. We are the people who have the delectable duty to taste those culinary creations. Whilst happily eating one of Cynthia’s wonderful meals I had the idea to start the Foodie Sidekick. The Foodie Sidekick is a place for all the foodie sidekicks to gather and let the world know just how all these wonderful dishes actually taste. Let you’re foodie sidekicks know that finally they have their own gathering space to talk about one of the most important aspects of food – eating it. Now, be very clear, you’re probably a foodie – that’s why you’re reading this here, but you can be a foodie and a foodie sidekick too. Come to Foodie Sidekick, take the test and see if you too are a Foodie Sidekick.!" Susan.

So I encourge you all to click here and send all your loved ones to dish about your dishes! (lol)

How do you like your Breadfruit?

A young breadfruit

This week’s column is all about the versatile breadfruit. It can be roasted, fried, boiled, mashed, creamed, pickled, sautéed, candied… and I’m sure that you will be able to tell me more ways in which this fruit can be prepared.

The flesh of a cut breadfruit

One of my favourite ways to have breadfruit is sliced thinly and fried. It makes a quick delicious snack that can be spiced in a variety of ways. For this post however, I have done a simple spicy sprinkling of freshly cracked black pepper and coarse sea salt. It can be sliced thicker if you like. I used a mandoline to slice mine.

Breadfruit Chips

One of the more popular ways to eat breadfruit here is to boil it, slice it and serve it with sauteed saltfish, tomatoes, onions, and herbs. Many Many people, particularly in the Eastern Caribbean islands would prefer this dish to chicken, pork or other meat dish.

Boiled & Sliced breadfruit with saltfish, tomatoes & onions


A Vegetarian version -boiled & Sliced breadfruit with sauteed onions & tomatoes

Read the column here.

P.S. Not sure why they put such a big picture of me instead of the dishes... Oh well...

Flowers, A Recipe & A Memory

Happy Mothers day to all the strong, beautiful phenomenal women I know, including those, who like my sister, will be mothers this time next year. I salute each and everyone of you for your tireless, selfless and loving devotion to your children - even those of us who are grown adults. In your eyes we will always be babies, your little ones :)

I want to salute the Dads who are mothers in their own rights too. The world often forgets, but I want us to all remember, that there are many fathers out there who are raising their children, independent of a mother in the household.

My column this week pays tribute, not only to my mom, but to all moms. I'm sure when you read it, you'll find many things that you can identify with. Please read and come back and share a favourite food-memory of your mother.

I'll start the ball rolling.

As children, every afternoon when my brother, sister and I got home from school, we would be hot, tired and hungry but mostly we would be thirsty.

One fine hot, sunny afternoon, we arrived home and mom had made us a treat - Strawberry Nesquik! It was our favourite drink. What made it special this particular day was the way in which she served it. Instead of pouring it into glasses as she usually would, she had poured the drink into ice-cube trays and frozen it! So we each had a cup full of Strawberry Nesquick flutees!



I remember sitting on the steps and sucking and biting my flutees and licking my fingers, they were so good. I was in heaven. So in honour of this memory, for the first time since all those years ago, I've made Nesquik flutees and for a moment as I sucked on them, I was a kid again.

Also my gift to all the busy parents out there on this special day is a simple, healthy, tasty and satisfying dish that can be cooked in less than 30 minutes.

Vegetable Rice - Pumpkin

Vegetable Rice - Okra (Bhindi)

Recipe - Vegetable Rice

Notes:
You can substitute the water with chicken or vegetable broth
Most vegetables can be used in this dish.
You can choose to use one vegetable or a combination of vegetables
Use whatever rice you have available and use the liquid to rice ratio according to the package instructions.You can add shrimp or cubed firm fish to this dish

It's a great way to sneak vegetables into your children's food.

Ingredients

2 cups Basmati rice
2 cups of vegetables cut into chunks
3 cups boiling water
1 onion, diced
3 sprigs thyme
2 tbsp oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

In a pot, heat oil
Sauté onions and thyme (1 – 2 minutes)
Add vegetables and sauté for 2 minutes
Season with salt and pepper
Add rice and continue to sauté for another minute
Pour in boiling water and stir
Check for seasoning (salt and pepper). Add if desired
Cover pot and let boil for about 3 minutes or until you begin to see the rice surface
Turn down stove to simmer, cover pot and let cook for 20 minutes or until all the liquid is dried out
Stir and serve as you please.

A Veritable Feast

Clockwise: Veal curry, Sadha roti, Mango chutney, tomato choka, Apple Chutney, Hummus.

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Guyana is today celebrating 169 years of the first arrival of Indians to its shores.

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Many of my friends over at the Dining Hall have been fascinated about my posts in terms of similarities to their own cuisine. As I've been saying all along, our cuisine in the Caribbean has been influenced by African, Indian, Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French, Indigenous, Arabic & British cuisines. In our corner of the world, fusion food actually exists! :)

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Today in my column, I discuss the influence of Indian cuisine in Guyana and the Caribbean; I also marvel at the discoveries I've made through food blogging about the origins of some of the dishes we make here.

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The food in today's post are inspired and influenced in a variety of ways. The curry I made was done using a Sri Lankan Curry Powder mix that my Sri Lankan friend, Kumi sent me last weekend. Hummus is a Middle Eastern dish. The chutneys and choka are West Indian and Indian inspired. So too is my version of sadha roti, a leavened flat bread. Enjoy!

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You can read the column here.

Apple Chutney - I used Granny Smith Apples for its tartness
Ingredients: Apples, garlic, lemon juice, salt and hot chillies, combined in a food processor