Day 3: Sides & Salad

Recipe: Butter Potatoes

These are some very simple and straightforward ideas, and really need no recipe. However, I am posting a how-to recipe for the Butter Potatoes. While many might be tempted to use margarine for this recipe, don't. Use butter for excellent flavour. When a dish is simple, use the best and freshest ingredients available.

This Pumpkin Rice is gorgeously jeweled with chunks of sweet pumpkin. Start the dish by sautéing lots of onions and finely minced fresh thyme. Wash the rice and drain well (pre-soaking is optional). Gently cook the rice with the onion-thyme mixture of a minute or 2 before adding cooking liquid (vegetable or chicken stock, or water) along with pumpkin, black pepper and salt to taste. A pat or 2 of butter would be a welcome addition. Stir well, bring to a boil, for 5 minutes than cook covered for 25 - 30 minutes depending on the variety of rice you are using. Shut off heat; let sit for 10 minutes before fluffing and serving.

My mother likes a combo she puts together that she calls corn custard, this is a take on that but I call it Corn Pie/Corn Pudding because it is thicker and richer. Mix together 1 part cream style corn with 2 parts canned (drained) whole corn along with some cheese sauce (same type used to make from-scratch macaroni pie) and an egg. Top with grated cheese and bake in a 350 degrees oven for 25 - 30 minutes or until the edges are browned and the pudding puffed up. Let rest for 10 - 15 minutes before serving.

Tip: season the cheese sauce with finely minced garlic, thyme and hot peppers.

I eat okra all year round and that includes Christmas. Fresh sweet local corn is in season at this time too so I combine the two. Steam and cut okra. Shuck corn and remove kernels; steam cook and assemble with okra while still hot. Make a simple dressing of soy sauce and fresh lime/lemon juice and drizzle. Serve immediately.

There is no order to the things assembled here - put together whatever is on hand and serve as is or with a salad dressing of your choice. Here I have avocado, tomato, lettuce, olives and sliced red onions.

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Crispy Okra Salad

Apart from the obvious love and hate stance people take with okra/ochroe, there is a middle ground. The middle ground is where you find those people who would eat okra only if it is prepared in specific ways and in specific dishes. For example, my best friend will eat okra in Cornmeal Cou-cou but not in any other dish. This dish of Crispy Fried Okra is one of the many ways in which some in the middle would eat okra because there is none of the inherent slime/gooeyness present.

This salad is best eaten fresh for optimum crisp soon after it is made, however, when I first had it a few years ago, I had some leftover which I refrigerated. I love okra so it did not bother me that the crispness would not be there the following day. I placed the remaining salad atop slices of roast pork sandwiched between slices of artisan-style bread (think coleslaw). It was so good. On another occasion I had it with dhal and rice. Simply delicious.

Here is the recipe.

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Beautifully Different

Ingredients, like people, come in all varieties, colors, shapes, and sizes. Side by side, together - it's a beautiful thing.

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A Cool, Crisp, Salad

Sweet, juicy chunks of cool watermelon paired with thin slices of crisp, crunchy kohlrabi really does not need a dressing to be eaten as a salad. A sprinkling of chiffonade fresh peppermint or chocolate mint is refreshingly appealing with each forkful. If you want to serve this salad with a dressing opt for a very light briny dressing. Or opt for a sprinkling of pickling juice from your favourite jar of pickle or brined olives.

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Yellow. Sweet. Exquisite.

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Pretty Food: A RAW SLAW

There are certain veggies I prefer to eat raw - cabbage, carrots, kholrabi, Snow peas, celery sticks and broccoli stems are among the lot that I like. Adding herbs, flavour the dish. Here I used cilantro/coriander. Raw slaws like these are an easy way to get in your daily veggies.

There is no specific 'recipe' here, use whatever quantities of the ingredients you have.

If you make this slaw you can serve it with a creamy dressing, however, I would suggest dressing it just as you are about to serve it. Or, take the dressing to the table and let people add as little or as much as they like.

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Fuss-free Egg Salad

Hey, I know it's been a while since I've posted but I am still around. Just like you, I'm trying to balance life and work and to make times for the things that I do enjoy, like sharing with you.

The most "difficult" part about  making this egg salad is boiling the eggs just right. You want it hard boiled but not overcooked so much that the yolks become rubbery and dry. You want to cook the eggs and cool them down immediately so that that grey sulphur ring does not develop around the yolks.

Everyone has their way of boiling eggs but here's what I do and it that works for me, every time.

• I always bring the eggs up to room temperature - this enables even cooking
• Add the eggs to a large enough sauce pot so that when they boil, they don't bump into each other  and crack, there is room for each egg to move around freely.
• Cover the eggs with tap water, cover the pot and bring to a boil, once the pot comes to a boil, cook for 6 minutes exactly and then transfer the eggs to an ice bath - lots of ice and just enough water to make it very cold. Remember that the ice is going to melt some when the hot eggs are plunged into it.
• Let the eggs rest in the iced water for about 7 minutes before attempting to peel them.

Now when it comes to egg salad, I am looking for creamy, not runny, so I add just enough mayonnaise and mustard to give me that texture.

INGREDIENTS

Serves 2

• 4 eggs, room temperature, boiled, cooled and chopped in large pieces
• 2 - 3 teaspoons real mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon grainy mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt (or to suit your taste)
• A few grinds of fresh black pepper
• Optional: a small squirt of lime or lemon juice
• 1 scallion/green onion sliced thinly, white and green parts

DIRECTIONS

1. Add all the ingredients except the green onions/scallion to a bowl - mash and mix. Do not over mash, you want the eggs to have some texture.
2. Fold in the green onions.
3. Serve immediately or chill in an airtight container until ready to serve (best consumed with 2 days).

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A Light has gone...

My Dear Friends,

You would have noticed an unexplained absence from this blog for 3 weeks now. It was due to the sudden passing of a very close relative who died unexpectedly in the wee hours of Good Friday morning. I did not have time to alert you that I won't be around because I had to get on the first available flight to Guyana.

We are all coping the best way we can... Death is often shocking and surprising and more so when someone at the prime of their life, without ailment, walks into a hospital, lies on a bed and is gone in 20 minutes. One is stunned when this happens, you slap and pinch yourself to wake up from the horrible dream because it cannot be real, you spoke to this person a couple of hours ago - you laughed, you made plans for the Easter weekend... but it is clear that God had other plans.

Since my return to Barbados, I have not done any cooking, I've only made a salad and I'm sharing it with you. It's nothing fancy, so there's no recipe really. Just cut some carrots, apples and toss then with a little mayonnaise, honey and grainy mustard. Add a splash of lemon juice if you like.

Have a great week everyone.

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Raisin Bread for Mom

When you live overseas, one often thinks of their parents back home, particularly as they get older... My mom and I chat on the phone every week, and last weekend when she told me she felt like eating raisin bread, I wished I was there to bake it for her. Read this week's column to find out how I like to have raisin bread and for the recipe. My mom is not nearby but perhaps you can make it for your mom?

This week on ABOUT.com, it is not too soon to start gathering recipes and ideas for the upcoming holidays - Thanksgiving or Christmas. Try my Sweet Potato Salad recipe instead of the usual potato salad.

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Happy Easter!

Hi Everyone,

A very Happy & Blessed Easter to one and all!

May the colours of Spring, Holi and Easter, as shown in these beautiful cherry tomatoes, brighten your life - today and always!

For the tomato salad, you'll need some vine-ripened tomatoes, some lemon basil leaves, a tablespoon or two of excellent olive oil, a sprinkling of coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss it all together and enjoy! If for some reason your tomatoes are a little tart, add a pinch of sugar to the mix.

Have a great weekend!

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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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