Pineapple Habanero chutney

It is so very hot!!

Plantation Organic Gardens Cayman Islands: October 2012 - Vegetable and Herb Gardening at Lat...

Plantation Organic Gardens Cayman Islands: October 2012 - Vegetable and Herb Gardening at Lat...: www.plantationhouse.blogspot.com Octobers bring much promise to gardeners here at 20 degrees North and October 2012 is no exception.  Thi...

Pineapple Coconut Chops

This week we had the greatest pleasure of cooking for an auctioned dinner party. It was a great time for all and the five courses of dinner were well received. My buddies JT, Mike Aram and Scott whipped up all the food, since I was otherwise busy with other menu items this week. Starting off was some amazing fresh summer salad with a specially made pineapple and mango vinaigrette which was one of the first parts of the dinner. A mango and a little piece of pineapple cooked down and blended to a purée with shallots and wine dressed the fresh field greens, tomato slices, cucumber chips and onion shards. The chefs also served up some of the famous Trinidadian sorrel rum punch. The sorrel drink is made from the dried flowers of a Caribbean flowering plant in the Hibiscus sp. family. Either way it served as a mixer for a bottle of dark rum, and its deep red color is similar to red wine. The fragrant notes of sweet cloves, cinnamon and lemons are very evident and then followed by the light floral notes in the beverage. The exact similar beverage is common in Mexico and is known as Jamaica, spelt exactly like the Island name of Jamaica. In Mexico, this beverage is either served hot or cold and is sweetened with sugar. It always usually is mixed or served with alcohol such as tequila. However in my case, when we added the rum that is when the party really got started! Being served over crushed ice, the potent mixture of rum and spices in the punch did quick work of more than a few honorable fallen brain cells. Oh well you win some and then you lose some. We had to follow up with the appetizer course which included a fresh mango salsa, where mango chunks were marinated in lime juice, cilantro, salt, pepper, garlic, thyme, green onions and some white wine. These were made alongside a spicy habanero and plum tomato guacamole which was served again along with a fresh baked, Jamaican styled jerked flavored flaked salmon pastry. The pastry way uniquely handcrafted in the shape of an ocean going fish and baked in a wood fired pizza oven. Let me put it this way, it’s definitely not your everyday downtown Duluth food fare choices and it tasted so Irie to these guys that at this part of the dinner, they decided that they hire us back for a second dinner party. Sweet! Later we presented an entrée of traditional Caribbean styled rice and peas and pork loins, which I adapted from my good friend Prince Paul our local reggae godfather and superstar. This rice and peas was made with kidney beans mixed in with white rice that was first fried in butter and spices before it was boiled with water. The fragrant steamed rice when cooked was mixed in with steaming hot red kidney beans that were seasoned with onions, allspice, nutmeg, thyme, garlic, habanero peppers, cumin, salt and black pepper. With the rice, there was also a side of vegetables which consisted of summer squashes that were thinly sliced along with red onions, carrots and bell peppers. The veggies were done on the wood fired grill and spiced with my grill rub made with salt, pepper, cumin, fennel, fenugreek and mustard seeds among others. The pork loin chop were marinated with a mixture of pineapple juice, garlic, coconut milk, fennel, fenugreek, cumin, coriander, cilantro, mustard seeds, lemon juice, and two splashes of dark rum. At this point in the night the drinks were flowing well and it was time to grill off of the pork and serve it off for the guests. Then the icing on the cake was the dessert course where the chef JT, skillfully made a dark chocolate rum mousse with Captain Morgan’s Blackstrap Spiced Rum. He layered the rum chocolate mousse into cocktail glasses with the sweetened chunks of jellied mangoes and pineapples. Many thanks must go out to Pam and Emily for having us over and it was especially nice to meet all of you. What a great time with good food and fine conversations.

Neopolitan focaccia with pepperoni.

Minnesota Hot Dish with a Caribbean twist

How does one conjure up such a delectable and exotic fusion concoction? It takes some experience in life to think this one up so you need to get about three tablespoons of butter and heat it in a large cast iron skillet and add two tablespoons of any curry powder that you can find. Let the curry sauté in the butter until it has turned from bright yellow to a golden brown color and at this time add one and a half pounds of your choice of ground meat. I prefer fresh ground pork, or ground steak, and or canned beans such as garbanzos or red beans. You can substitute meat for other protein items like some fine vegan textured protein if you wish such and so on and so forth. When you get to this point, you mash in about four soft boiled unpeeled potatoes with a potato masher and four to five cloves of crushed garlic. Cook further this mixture and add salt and pepper to taste. Introduce one quarter of a cup of chopped green onions and two teaspoons of fresh toasted cumin seeds. I suspect that at this point you can then add one cup of heavy cream and spoon the mixture into a casserole dish and sprinkle the top with bread crumbs. Bake to your desired state of doneness, and make sure the bread crumbs on the top get extra toasty. Some people like their hot dish a little firm and cooked to the point that it can be sliced with a knife into neat little squares. Others like a moister and runny consistency to the hot dish recipe, with that extra sprinkle of the toasty bread crumbs for those cold and gloomy Duluth days that seem to be my most creative moments for cooking. So did you guys and gals enjoy all the warm tropical like weather we had recently? I almost gave myself heatstroke by sitting out on the deck too long, while I was grilling up my next recipe. One pineapple should be topped and the thick skin be shaved off with a sharp longer knife. Just cut up to about a half inch under the skin. Cut neat slices off the both ends of the pineapple to allow it to sit on the cutting board nicely, and shave away. Make the remains of your fruit into slices and remove the inedible center. On your hot outdoor grill the pineapple along with two whole habanero peppers, garlic cloves, baby shallots, and a slice of red onion. After the pineapple displays beautiful grill marks remove from the grill and cut into bite sized chunks after which, cool it down in the fridge. Grill the other ingredients until really brown and mince them to a paste with a few sprigs of fresh cilantro and a couple stems of green onions. These ingredients are then to be mixed up with the grilled pineapple chunks and if you can resist, let it sit and marinate itself about another half hour in the refrigerator. This is my style of preparing a Grilled Pineapple Chow, and you should give it a try. This pineapple dish can also be served adult style by adding about half bottle of any type of over proof white rum to the bowl and one and one half cups of white sugar. Garnish with sliced strawberries and mandarin chunks. Cover the grilled pineapple rum chow with plastic wrap and let it sit for a couple hours before serving. A fun way to serve this at a party is to present it with long bamboo skewers that allow the unsuspecting taster to skew a few pieces of the over proof and habanero laced Grilled Pineapple Chow, only to realize that they may have gotten into something more, than the usual party snack. After all of the pineapple is gone, don't toss the juice. Save it, to mix into your barbecue sauce and or may also be used as a marinade for spicy chicken, beef, pork when you get late night spicy food cravings. Marinate your meat and then grill or skillet fry, until ready to eat. More to come!

Green Banana Souse

For this recipe, we will make a vegetarian version of a pickled pork dish that is common throughout the southern Caribbean Islands. You will first need about two pounds of green bananas and this you can find at most any local supermarket. Place the bananas in a large pot of boiling water for about twenty five minutes and then remove them and allow to cool to room temperature. Peel the skins off and cut them crosswise into about half inch slices and place into a bowl. Add enough water to just cover the bananas in the bowl and add three tablespoons of lime juice, two cloves of crushed garlic, and one half cup of thinly sliced white onions. Then you can season this with one teaspoon of salt, on half teaspoon of chopped hot habanero pepper, and some fresh ground white pepper. Go further and add one cup of thinly sliced cucumbers and one half cup of fresh chopped water cress. Chill the souse for a few hours before serving. Normally, one would find this souse dish including meats like thinly sliced pieces of pork, fresh crab meat, fish, scallops or mussels. I have found the banana version to be just as tasty and delicious. Another treat I remember from the mid-summer memories of the past is stuffed okras. A simple recipe to make, from the little odds and ends from your home garden, this recipe will surely make your guests wonder what you have been reading this past week. Blend together or hand blend in a mortar and pestle one tablespoon finely chopped onions or green onions, which ever you prefer better. Also add to the blend two cloves of garlic, one half teaspoon of curry powder, one cup of finely chopped peeled and deveined shrimp, one half teaspoon of salt, a quarter teaspoon of hot pepper, and one tablespoon of parsley. Now you will also need about eighteen fresh and firm looking okras from the local supermarket or farmers market. Cut the top and the end of the okras and make a slit down the center with a paring knife. Put a little of the blended shrimp mixture inside each okra and after all are stuffed you can start to cook them. Heat a tablespoon of vegetable oil in a nonstick frying pan and place the okras together so that they are tightly packed. Sprinkle with a little salt, cover and cook for about fifteen minutes or until the okras are cooked but still firm. These make great appetizers for your summer parties and I suspect that some of the more ambitious readers will experiment this week and try cooking this recipe out on a grill, or under an oven broiler. Whichever way you try and succeed, you will find that trying new foods and cooking them not in accordance with the recipe, can result in failure, or some burnt dinner snacks. The banana raisin drink is one I would like to share, and it is more popular in the Eastern Caribbean islands like Grenada, St. Vincent and Barbados, you will need about one third of a cup of any kind of raisins. Also one and one half cups of water, eight ice cubes, two ripe peeled bananas, one teaspoon of vanilla extract, one and a quarter cups of evaporated milk, one quarter cup of rum, three quarters of a cup of granulated sugar to sweeten to taste and one teaspoon of grated or ground nutmeg. Combine the raisins, water and the ice cubes and put into a blender and process until the raisins and the ice cubes are crushed. Then add the bananas, the vanilla extract, the evaporated milk and the rum. Blend it for a few seconds until pureed and add a little more rum, when no one is looking now. Remove from the blender and sweeten with some sugar or condensed milk and place in the refrigerator until chilled. Serve in glasses sprinkled with nutmeg on the top. For garnish, you can skewer maraschino cherries, with banana slices and mango cubes onto a toothpick which is floated on the top of the glass and then doused with a next shot of rum.

Caribbean Men’s Aphrodisiac

Little fish are making a little bit of a comeback this year let us hope that it is going to happen every year. I was also thinking about the Homegrown Music Festival this week also and was reckoning the likeness of the smelt run this year, as an omen of things to come. Well you see this week one of the famous local bands went on national TV and closed up the talk show. As a result, it is again putting Duluth, Minnesota on the international music scene, since the said performance on the talk show could also be viewed in many locations around the planet. With due respect, I found it fitting to share a recipe this week, that is as rare and esteemed as this bountiful year for local music and the recent smelt run. I must also shout out my friend Jim for inviting me to the Magic Smelt event, what a great and wonderful gift of your talent and experience you have shared the city of Duluth. This recipe for deep fried smelt comes the southern parts of the Caribbean as served in a type of establishment known as a Rum Shop; the primary drink served is rum of course, straight up and with a complimentary glass of ice cold water as a chaser. If ever you came to such a bar and ordered a mixed drink such as a rum and coke, you would be frowned upon by the fellow patrons who drank their rum straight up with a chase of water, which for some reason it irritated them and, sometimes this story, would not always have a happy ending. Since we can and cannot rule out the consumption of liquor, for this sort of behavior, I concluded that is must be the type of food that is served to the patrons in these Rum Shops that accounted for the somewhat hot blooded and distempered fellows. Now this recipe uses freshly netted smelt from Lake Superior that has been neatly cut open with a kitchen scissor and the entrails removed with a quick flick of the fingernails. Allow about three pounds of eviscerated and washed smelt to sit in a bit of water with a few drops of lemon juice. Drain, and then add some minced cilantro, salt, pepper, sprinkle of allspice, and half of a habanero pepper that is finely chopped. A few more cloves of crushed garlic to the smelt marinade will complete it, and then you let it sit for at least an hour in the fridge. At this point place a couple cups of white flour on a baking sheet and sprinkle salt, pepper and ground cumin on top of the flour. Roll and dust all the smelt liberally in the flour letting them sit in the flour about ten minutes. An evident thick coat of flour should be somewhat sticky to the touch. Here is where you take all the dusted smelt to very hot fry oil in a skillet about one inch deep. You can also use a traditional deep fryer if you choose to do so. I let the fish fry until very crispy and well done as it is traditionally served, with the heads and tails intact. I eat the whole entire smelt. The fish head goes in one bite and I savor this morsel with intense delight. The bones of the smelt are softer than butter when prepared in this way and you won’t even notice that they are even there. I make a special dipping sauce for the fried dried fish, with a cup of ketchup, four tablespoons of soy sauce, four tablespoons of Tabasco sauce, one chopped habanero pepper and a squeeze of fresh lime juice. Rumor has it that the fried fish heads, when eaten as a daily ration, will give one the stamina and vigor to consume even more rum and increases tolerance to the ill effects of over consumption the next day. The combination of rum and fried fish has also been traditionally exploited by millions of Caribbean women as an ensnaring food aphrodisiac for Caribbean men. You learn something new every day. Enjoy and support the Homegrown!