Hi Everyone,
I cooked this year but not as much as you would think, due to a rather hectic travel and work schedule. The times that I did cook, I found myself looking for simple or quick and easy things to make. While travelling, I had a few memorable dishes that I was excited to get home and recreate in my own kitchen. There was some nostalgia and trying new things too.
In this the last column of 2011, I want to share with you My Memorable 12. Twelve things I made, ate, and most of which I shared with you too. Here they are, in no particular order.
Bajan Privilege – this dish brought together three of my favourite things to eat: rice, okra and salt meat. The sheer simplicity and bare essentials cooking that is required for this dish has made it one of my go-to meals whenever I am looking for something quick and super satisfying.
Murtani (Upar Gaar) – a fire-roasted smash up is how I referred to this combo choka. Okra, baigan (eggplant), tomatoes, garlic, hot peppers are all fire roasted and mashed together for a smoky, silky, tangy, fire-hot and savoury mouthful. I enjoyed this choka so much, that, as you know, I’d make a large batch and keep in little containers in the refrigerator.
Momofuku Pork Buns – there are many pork buns in this world and I have not had them all but good gracious, the Momofuku Pork Buns are hands down, my favourite to date. The sweet, white, tender bun lovingly encasing some slow roasted pork belly with a smear of hoisin sauce and a scattering of sliced, wafer-thin green onions will have you unashamedly reaching for your fourth, fifth, even sixth bun in one sitting. So good!
Antigua’s Raisin Buns – sweet, yeasty, spiced and peppered with raisins, one of these warm buns with a couple of thick slices of aged cheddar cheese is a taste of home for many Antiguans and Barbudians. Skipping the cheese and dunking the bun into a hot cup of tea, coffee, Milo or any of your favourite flavoured hot beverage works fine too. I love this bun so much that I altered the spice combination to make it as my cross buns this year.
Beets – I cooked beets for this first time ever, earlier this year. You know, they turned out to be excellent and my favourite way to eat beets is now simply to grate them and eat them raw. I’m glad I gave beets a second chance. I soon realized that the sweet mushy, over-cooked stuff I had eaten at various eating establishments were a gross insult and disrespect to this healthy, vitamin-packed vegetable.
Custard Blocks – now this was a trip down memory lane. Just a whiff of the custard block as you bring it to your mouth for a hard suck of that sweet, spiced, milky custard will cast you back to your school days.
Pat & Yohann’s Potato Salad – a great example of impromptu cooking and a salad that celebrates the freewheeling creativity of cooking. Potatoes, baked chicken, boiled eggs, and vegetables all brought together with mayonnaise. Eating something that totally satisfies a craving is something to be celebrated.
Boiled Cassava in Garlic Sauce – I had this while in Trinidad earlier this year and could not wait to get back home to make it myself. I love cassava in many ways, especially boil and fry but simply boiling the cassava and letting it drink in the garlicky sauce while it is still hot is something to be remembered and craved.
Roast Ripe Plantains – I cannot begin to tell you how liberating it is to now eat oven “fried” ripe plantains these days. It is guilt-free with just a light coating of oil in a cast iron skillet. Caramelized, tender and sweet; I have not fried ripe plantains for a very long time.
Garlic-Butter Flaps – yes, we all know what butter flaps are but I’ve taken mine to two other levels (so far): as cheese flaps and then as garlic butter flaps. With the cheese flaps I use a cheese paste instead of butter and for the garlic-butter flaps, I make my own garlic butter and luxuriously spread it on the dough, fold, make the flap and then bake it. Just the thought of these brings a smile to my face.
Curried Eddoes – this is another of these simple and easy dishes I referred to in my opening. Here in Barbados, the eddoes are not the same as the ones we get in Guyana (I miss Guyana’s eddoes). However, Barbados produces an eddo referred to as pulp-eddo. It is so called because they are small about 2 – 3 inches in diameter and by the time you peel them, you’re left with little balls, so, instead of peeling them, most Bajans would boil the eddoes as is (after washing them clean) and then squeeze them out of the skin. When eddoes were in season, I bought often and cooked eddo curry that I would eat just so – for breakfast, lunch and to snack on! I wish I could have some right now.
Pumpkin & Split Pea Soup with Salted Pigtails – If it’s one vegetable that we get here in Barbados that is of excellent quality, it is pumpkin. Big, thick, deep orange-fleshed pumpkin that’s so sweet and melts quickly. Many Fridays I found myself making this soup. The split peas give body to the soup, so you don’t have to add cream or anything else to improve the texture. The salted pigtails season the soup along with fresh thyme and onions. Simple and slap-your-thigh good. Throw in a few pieces of macaroni if you have but nothing else.
What were some of your memorable eats in 2011?
Happy New Year!
