Yesterday, I tested the first recipe from "Caribbean Cooking for a Cause" by Wendy Wilkenson and Donna Lee. As I did not explain much about the book itself, I will start today's blog with some explanation of the book's layout and how I plan to cook my way through it. The book, which is available from a variety of on-line outlets, including Amazon.com, presents a variety of recipes from the various Caribbean Islands, moving from north to south. In all, 18 islands or island groups provide the inspiration for the dishes included in the book. The recipes come from chefs of top restaurants of the islands and some from the celebrities who are featured in the book. I will start from the beginning (Burmuda) and work my way down the Caribbean chain, finishing with Granada, the part-time home of Morgan Freeman.
The first chapter, following the introduction by Morgan Freeman, contains several recipes from Bermuda. This chapter features Michael Douglas, whose maternal side of the family have roots in Burmuda; Michael's grandfather was an attorney general of Burmuda. The recipe for Burmuda Bouillabaisse comes from Chef John Watson of Aqua Restaurant, Ariel Sands Resort.
Well, when I left off yesterday, I was on my way to the local supermarket, located in a wonderful courtyard shopping complex, Village Market, on the western fringe of Nairobi, not very far from the US Embassy and United Nations compounds. In Village Market, the place to get your meat and seafood is "Prime Cuts Butchery and Bistro". They bring in fresh seafood every Friday from the Kenya coast, and they also stock a wonderful variety of cheeses and sausages imported from Europe, as well as high quality locally available meats.
I went there looking for mussels and lobster, two key staples for the recipe. Unfortunately, the only mussels were frozen green mussels on the half shell, which were very pricey, and I didn't think they would work well. Reluctantly, I decided that my recipe would have to do without the mussels. I did buy two Indian Ocean Lobsters, about 1/4 pound each. This variety of lobster has no claws and looks more like a southern USA Crayfish, but larger. Off the coast of Kenya, they can grow to be several pounds. I chose two small ones as I was cutting the recipe in half to serve Mayling and myself. I had a shopping list, but forgot to include butternut squash and rum. I only realized this upon returning home about 4pm. I quickly decided that this recipe was going be a little off course from the one in the book. I had the prawns, lobster and Malindi Sole, which substituted for the Rock Fish. No V-8 juice, so I added a little more tomato paste instead. No rum, so why not try a jigger of John Lee, Kentucky Straight Bourbon. No Sherry pepper sauce either, so I added a little cayenne pepper. I substituted peeled chopped zuchinni for butternut squash. I had all the other spices. While these substitutions probably did little justice to the recipe, the result was mouth watering, at least I thought so. We ate about 8 pm on our covered patio with a fire going in our chiminea (Nairobi at more than 5,000 feet elevation can get very chilly at night). A little was left that I intended for lunch today. I just checked the frig. Gone!! Mayling took the last bit to her office for her lunch. No wonder she said she wouldn't be coming home to join me.
Tonight it will be chicken Roti, also from the Aqua Restaurant. I had better get Ruth, our household helper and excellent cook herself, to make the homemade chapatis (close to the Caribbean Roti). For this recipe, it seems I have all the ingredients.
1 comment:
Go Paul go! Wish I were there to taste one of your meals. In absentia, Debbie
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