Barbados @ 50 - Pigeon Peas

While there is a wide variety of peas and beans - fresh and dried available in Barbados, Pigeon Peas is most associated with the cuisine of Barbados. The everyday staple of Rice and Peas is made with rehydrated dried pigeon peas. The fresh variety - much more expensive - is reserved for use on special occasions to make Rice and Peas; Christmas, Easter, Independence are among those special occasions. Pigeon peas is also used to make a Christmas dish called Jug - a mixture of pureed pigeon peas, salt meat and ham held together with guinea corn flour.

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Barbados @ 50 - Rice & Peas

Each county in the Caribbean has a dish of rice and peas/beans that is a staple. The peas/beans used differentiate the dish of rice and peas from one state to another. The variety of the peas/beans is also considered - fresh or dried and rehydrated. In some cases the peas/beans are cooked with the rice to make a one pot dish and in other places, the peas/beans is cooked into a stew and ladled beside or on top of cooked rice.

In Barbados, rice and peas is made with pigeon peas - fresh, dry and rehydrated, the latter being more popular and readily available. Salted pigtails or salted beef is used to season (salt) the dish. Considered the "prize in the rice" if you get a piece of the salt meat that was cooked in the dish, consider yourself to be lucky and know that the cook is fond of you.

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Want to make a Trini Pelau?

Ever since Guy Fieri, of Food Network visited Pam's Kitchen in Seattle, Washington, on his Diners, Drive-ins & Dives show, I've gotten lots of emails with questions and requests for Trini Pelau - one of the dishes featured. In my column this week, I have outlined in detail how to go about making this dish from selecting the ingredients to prepping to finishing the dish. Click here for the column. The recipe can be found at the bottom of the column and for a pictorial step-by-step guide, see my Trini Pelau Flicker set here.

I hope that you try this dish which is a favourite not only in Trinidad but the Caribbean. It is a one-pot dish that is sure to delight your friends and family. See also Felix's Pelau.

One of the many things I like about food blogging is discovering blogs of various cuisines, particularly those with which I am unfamiliar. Through these discoveries one thing always rings through - geographically we may be hundreds of thousands of miles apart, we may speak different languages etc. but when it comes to the food itself, we are not so vastly different for we use similar ingredients but with different methods and techniques. More importantly, such blogs are playing a vital role in recording their food culture amidst this fast-food-genetically-modified-mass-produced food era in which we find ourselves. Such blogs are to be celebrated for keeping their heritage alive.

With that said, I'd like to introduce Slovak Cooking. It is written by my newest blog friend, Lubos Brieda. Lubos takes us right into the heart of it all - his grandmother's kitchen! Go see her in action with step by step photographs on how to create many delights. This week, I am so making her Bryndza Pierogi then her Apple Pancakes, and then... okay, I have quite a few of her recipes bookmarked. Lubos thanks for leading me to your blog!

Have a great weekend everyone!

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