If I'm doing it, I prefer a quickie

It's true. I love food. I love to eat. But I do not love the daily chore that is cooking. (Gasp!) But wait, you have a food blog, you say. To which I reply, yes the occasional foray into food preparation and creating a healthy, satisfying or at times an extravagant, feast pleases me. Having to do it everyday - does not. The duty bound, run of the mill, everydayness of cooking can be exhausting and as dull as dirt. So like many home cooks, I have developed routines and quickie cheating versions of kitchen tasks that help me cope.



Let's examine a hugely popular cooking method the world over. There is some evidence to suggest that barbecue was transported from the Caribbean to the rest of the world when Europeans observed the manner in which Amerindians smoked and prepared their meats on a grill called a buccan. Wild game was cured with salt and spices, then covered with wet leaves and cooked on a grill of local wood over an open fire pit. This early method of barbecue was called boucan by the by the French and the word boucaniers (buccaneer)was used to describe persons who prepared their meats this way. The term eventually came to describe pirates who I can only surmise found this a convenient cooking method that served their swashbuckling, beach lifestyle.



Convenient though it may have been for early colonial settlers it's a pain in the steer butt or chicken carcass for a working mom of three - maybe four (counting the days when DH might be acting like a kid himself). Here is my big tip for preparing this popular meal: get your significant other to do it for you:-) Easy enough since the modern day grill seems to draw out a man's primal need to rustle with coals and giant slabs of raw meat which must be tamed with secret marinades, spice rubs, slapped with special sauces and then charred, uhmm I mean grilled. Even if the self same guy doesn't know where to locate a fork in his own kitchen (yes M, I am talking about you), he will no doubt be the owner of the Mercedes Benz of outdoor backyard grills. What's more he will be more than willing to show you how to use it with swashbuckling flair. "Gas grills are for sissies," he'll declare through a cloud of smoke thick enough to keep all but the dragonfly sized mosquitoes away.

I love BBQ. Mr H and I tend to get all dewy eyed when we taste meat that has been smoked to a sweet, smoky, succulent, sticky perfection. Spare ribs at Pussers Marina Cay - we'll be back. Unfortunately, the chances of me hauling out a grill, fanning hot coals under an already sweltering Caribbean sun, getting smoke in my eyes and my hair are really - NEVER! Instead, when friends invite me to a barbecue, I will ask if it's okay to bring extra meat and whatever extra ingredients the cook might need. These extras are grilled and I take them home for later on in the week. Roll your eyes all you want doyenne of etiquette Marguerite Gorden. If you ever taste my friend J's barbecue you would do the same.



Finally, as I say in the title to this post, If I'm the one cooking, I prefer a method that does not sacrifice flavour but at the same time gets lunch or dinner on the table in quick time. Oven BBQ chicken is a very popular cheat version that appears often on the table for Sunday Lunch in many homes. There are many variations to suit personal preferences. The only must here is that your herbs should be fresh. Okay so the purists out there are probably firing up their own grills now to roast me for daring to call my baked chicken, barbecue. All I can say is, so long as you have that grill lit, may I come over with a few extra pieces of meat ;-)?

So here it is my quickie version of BBQ chicken done in the oven, better known as It's too damned hot to BBQ Chicken recipe! Or for those of you approaching winter in your country feel free to swap out the word hot for cold.)

3 1/2 - 4lbs chicken, cut up
1 lime
1 tsp salt
1 tsp minced garlic
6 tbs spoons green seasoning (use more or less to your taste)
2 cups Hunts bold (or your favourite babbecue sauce
1/2 cup ketchup (optional)
a generous splash Lea and Perrin's Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp ( or more) Caribbean pepper sauce.


1) Wash chicken with lime. Squeeze one lime in 3/4 cup of water. Add to bowl of cut up raw chicken and mix. Pour off the lime water.

2) Season chicken with salt, garlic and green seasoning. Leave in the fridge overnight or at least 1/2 hour

3) Place skin side up on a foil-lined, baking dish. Discard marinade. Sprinkle some additional green seasoning over chicken. Mix the ketchup, barbecue sauce and the pepper. Cover chicken with this sauce and bake for 35 - 40 mins at 325 degrees F.

4) Remove from the oven. Coat chicken with additional barbecue sauce and return to the oven.

5) Cook until done about 15 mins more, turning chicken and basting occasionally until chicken has a nice colour and the sauce is a thick gravy. You could always add a little water to it for a thinner sauce. We like a cooked sauce and this saves us the extra step of cooking one on the stove.

Okay lets talk green seasoning.
This is the key to this dish. Cynthia from the blog Tastes Like Home has already blogged extensively on it so I will point you to her site. So click on her name to read more about it. I make my seasoning using chives, celery, Spanish, French and Portuguese thyme, Trinidad seasoning peppers, chadon beni and garlic.

I know my amateur photography doesn't do this justice and there are some of you still doubting that the deliciousness factor of BBQ done in an oven. Well for you doubting Thomas' head over to The Hungry Mouse her technique is slightly different but the result is the same BBQ with less work! Her photos will surely tempt you.

When Bread is Not the Staff of Life.

As a mom, it's my job to stay informed and make the best dietary decisions possible for my family. This is even more important when someone in your family has a food allergy.



Although he was breastfed for 10 months, we realized early on that Little Bear had problems digesting his food. I had to eliminate all peas and beans from my diet as they made him uncomfortable and gassy. Certain foods also aggravated his eczema. It was difficult to pin down exactly which foods in my diet were the culprits and for the first year we struggled to determine the likely offenders. A few thousand dollars in doctors bills and dietary adjustments later we have determined that he is sensitive to tomatoes, melongene (eggplant), ochro (okra) and gluten. Gluten causes the most severe reaction. Not only does it flare up his eczema but he also gets the sniffles and painful tummy cramps. His stomach gets rock hard. He screams for hours and is inconsolable.

Celiac Disease is a digestive tract disorder. When people with celiac disease eat foods which contain gluten, it creates an adverse reaction that damages the small intestine so that nutrients from food are not properly absorbed. While his doctor hasn't diagnosed celiac disease, we have been advised to keep his diet gluten free - for now anyway. My fingers are crossed that it will be as the doctor says and he may very well outgrow this sensitivity. In the meantime I have set about learning about gluten free food so that I can feed Little Bear stuff that doesn't make him ill and cause him pain. I am trying to remain hopeful that as he grows and his digestive system matures, things will work themselves out.

Of course prior to having my son I was only vaguely aware of celiac disease and don't know anyone with this condition. I wonder how prevalent it is in the Caribbean? What I do know is that it is a challenge to maintain a gluten free diet because gluten is the protein found in wheat, oatmeal*, barley and rye. Wheat is the fundamental ingredient in bread, a food so universally important in the diet of so many cultures that it has been described as the staff of life. But what if you are allergic to gluten? Well that means that bread and all other foods made with wheat flour: pies, cookies, cakes, roti, doubles, wantons, dumplings, pasta, macaroni pie, noodles, lasagna, fried chicken, muffins, and pancakes are also off limits. And those are only the obvious gluten containing foods.

Even more difficult to avoid is the 'hidden' gluten that is often present in commercially prepared foods. Wheat flour is often used in processed foods as a binder, emulsifier, and a filler. Here are are some foods which may be a source of hidden gluten: sausages, luncheon meat, soy sauce, snacks, malt and malted milk, icings, baking powder, some curry powder powders, some types of cocoa, some seasonings (where flour is used as a flow agent), Ovaltine, Milo, baked beans (there may be gluten in the tomato sauce), textured vegetable protein, yogurt, chewing gum, potato chips, popcorn, ice cream cones, beverage mixes, and some pharmaceuticals.


In the Caribbean we are blessed with a wide variety of starchy foods that can be substituted for cereal so initially it was easy to avoid gluten. At first, Little Bear ate a lot of porridge made from sweet potatoes, eddoes, tannia, dasheen, breadfruit, green figs, yams, and cassava. Many parents today start their babies on rice cereal followed by barley, oatmeal and wheat. These cereals are not grown in the West Indies but they are readily available in the supermarket. Let us not forget that our own locally grown produce is nutritionally superior to anything coming out of a box, packed with preservatives and shipped halfway around the world. Listen, I am not saying that I don't keep a box of baby rice cereal in the cupboard for emergencies. I do, but for the most part I don't find it at all difficult to boil a root vegetable and smash it with a fork and a bit of milk.

Little Bear is a 'big' boy now and the proud owner of 4 spanking new teeth. These teeth need substance. No more mushy mush for those bad boys. Biting (not always food related) is almost an obsession with him. I suppose chewing will come later. Sigh. At times it's alarming the huge chunks of food that he bites into and swallows without chewing. He bites everything: furniture, toys, his clothes, paper, a grasshopper ( well almost - we got to poor Jiminy in the nick of time).

Time for some toast so that Little Bear can gnaw his way to biting nirvana. I used the only the only gluten free flour that was available to me Doves Farms Gluten and Wheat Free Brown Bread Flour. At $7.00US, it's not cheap. I have made this twice and both times it produced a dense loaf with a depression in the middle. I am a bit puzzled by the picture of the well-risen loaves shown on the Doves Farm site since mine sagged in the middle. The recipe on the website mentions that the dough should be pressed inwards and upwards to form a domed top. I did not do this because that instruction does not appear on recipe on the the package of flour.



In any case the center depression in my loaf makes it look like the bread is smiling when you cut it, don't you think? It has a nice crust but the texture is rubbery. If you don't expect this to taste like bread, then you won't be disappointed with the flavour. It isn't unpleasant. It's just very bland. Think of it as a delivery method for your sandwich fixings. If I was gluten intolerant it would be an acceptable substitute for a sandwich but I can't see myself rushing to eat a warm, buttery slice of this bread straight from the oven. It's not bread; just an acceptable substitute.

Gluten Free Bread
16 oz Brown bread flour (Doves Farms)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp Quick yeast
2 tbs Sugar
12 floz warm milk
1 tsp vinegar
2 eggs
6tbps oil

Mix together the flour, salt, yeast and sugar. In a large bowl beat in the milk, vinegar and eggs. Add the flour and mix to form a sticky dough. ( Looks wet and spongy). Continue mixing adding the oil. Place the dough in an oiled 2 lb bread tin, cover and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
Bake in a pre-heated oven for 40- 45 mins 425 degres F




*Oats on their own do not contain gluten. However, they are not gluten free because of the potential for contamination during growing and processing.

Farewell My Love

My dad brought me a last bag of mangoes. I was so excited that I did not notice until the following day, he was limping. It turns out that he had climbed the mango tree to get the very last mangoes in the topmost branches. He quickly sought to reassure me that he hadn't fallen out of the tree but had only slipped. This was said with the cheeky grin of an impish boy. There was a twinkle in his eyes. Uhhmmm dad you are 72 years old! You are too old to be climbing trees! I scolded, I preached, I ranted at his folly. In my heart though I understood, for who among us can resist the lure of a mango's intoxicating perfume? Those cherub, yellow cheeks with just a blush of rose are so like babies' cheeks, just ripe for biting.

It's the end of the mango season. My heart is heavy as I prepare to say goodbye to my favourite fruit. I was cutting up and freezing some mangoes when it occurred to me that over the past several months I haven't done anything other than eat them as they are, or purée them for the baby. I know, I know, how terribly boring. But I am of the view that there is no better way to enjoy a mango than the way nature intended.


©2009 WizzyTheStick



In the past I have tried various mango tarts and puddings. I can honestly say that I do not like the flavour or texture of a cooked ripe mango. The natural sugars concentrate into a cloying sweet mush - bleh! What I needed was something to offset the overbearing sweetness of the cooked mango. I decided on a rich chocolate. The cake is moist and brownie like. The cake looks so thin because I took some of the batter to make three individual sized cakes for snacking - this kept the DH at bay while I took the photos. In my opinion the only thing missing was to serve this with clotted cream to truly put this over the top. However the cake was done before I could run to the store and buy some.


Mango Chocolate Gâteau

Mango Topping
3 ripe but firm mangoes (sliced as you prefer)
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar ( I will use less next time)

Slice mango and sprinkle with lemon juice. Melt butter in a small saucepan. Add sugar. Spread the butter sugar mixture on the bottom of a non-stick round 9" cake pan. Arrange mango slices and pour cake batter on top.

Cake Ingredients

1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (use a good quality brand)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup shortening (melted)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg


Instructions

In a bowl combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add milk, cooled melted shortening and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed till combined. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add egg and beat 2 minutes more. Pour over the mango slices into non stick 9" round cake pan.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool thoroughly on a rack.



©2009 WizzyTheStick

The End.

There are no more mangoes.

Say hello to my new BFF,pomme de cythère, just coming into season.




©2009 WizzyTheStick

What can I say? My love is fickle smile:-)

A Tale of Whale

© 2009 All Rights Reserved, BreakfastLunchDinner&Punch



I have the dubious distinction of being the great-granddaughter of a whaler. Dubious because it is now politically incorrect to even talk about killing whales. Yet at one time there were about ten commercial whaling stations operating in the Caribbean, in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, in Barbados, Trinidad and Grenada. Today under international agreement, Bequian whalers can harpoon no more than two whales per year. The whale is caught by traditional methods of hand thrown harpoons in small, open, sailing boats. The catch is not sold and is exclusively used for local consumption. It is given away to family and friends.



© 2009 All Rights Reserved, BreakfastLunchDinner&Punch




How does something like this end up on my breakfast table? Simple. The men in my family are seafarers. I would hesitate to call them romantic but for some reason they romaticize a meal of whale meat.

These are taciturn men. Men who can spend all day looking out across the bay with a pair of binoculars without saying a word or it would seem even moving an inch. They are men of slow grunts and uhhms for conversation. The ship captains among them have permanent squints from staring for hours on end at vast empty horizons. Apart from an almost a voyeuristic love of listening to VHF channel 16 and its call and distress conversations - silence and monotony are their thing. That is unless there is whale meat on the table. Then they come to life. They become animated. They trade stories about their adventures at sea. To hear them, you'd swear that they battled the beast themselves. And while they don't actually beat their chests and say Arrrgh, as cousin A put it, "The way they carry on it's like, hoist the flag fellas we gah(got) whale!" You'd swear they sat in that boat themselves like the late, Athneal Ollivierre risking life and limb to bring it to the table.

What Luck Polluck Salad and a Lesson in Dialect

Have you had your salad today? Salads are my Achilles heel. I confess that many times after I have rushed about a hot kitchen, fussing with 'le plat principal' I am lazy about salad. Too often I am content to cut up tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers on my plate and call it a day. Is it any wonder then, that I get to the point where I actually crave a salad?

I usually don't bother with recipes for salads preferring instead to use what is seasonal and to go with a formula of fruits, vegetables, beans or peas, sometimes nuts. If the salad is going to be eaten as a meal on it's own then I'll toss in cheese, eggs or meat.

These days it's all about avocado. An American friend once told me that she hated avocado. I could not understand why until I had the displeasure of eating one in the States. At first I did not even recognize it and I had to ask several times to be sure it was an avocado. The thing was so black and quail-up, quail-up, like an over-large prune. The repetition there is not a typo but but local dialect to express the idea that it was very shriveled and small. The skin was bumpy-bumpy. The pear itself was flavourless and watery-watery. No, I don't stammer or have Tourette's. I find that my local dialect best conveys just how intensely nasty this aberration of an avocado looked and tasted!

In the Caribbean we are truly blessed with tasty avocados. My favourite is a West Indian variety called Pollock. The leathery skin peels off easily. It has a firm texture with none of the annoying little fibers of the maroon-skinned variety. The deep, yellow colour doesn't discolour as quickly. It has a firm, yet smooth and creamy texture with an almost buttery taste.

Luckily I have 2 friends with Pollock trees, so there are always at least 3 sitting on my kitchen counter on any given day during the avocado season. You'd think with such an abundance that I'd be tired of avocados by now. No such luck. In this house a Pollock is coveted almost as much as a Julie mango and slices are rationed and measured; arguments abound about who has been sneaking pieces.

As you can see from the picture, I had some ingredients (olives, croutons and some blue cheese) left over from another salad. I did not want them to go to waste so I threw them in, turning this into those 'evil' high fat restaurant salads. You know the ones that you sanctimoniously order at the restaurant with friends because you are dieting. You feel so proud of yourself for your healthy choice. Ha! Luscious lobster in garlic butter sauce you are no match for my willpower! Look away Venezuelan fried pork thingy that looks so interesting! Does it taste like garlic pork you wonder? Never mind I am having the salad. Of course these salads fool you into thinking they are healthy but by the time you add up the fats, you might as well have ordered the steak.

Here is the basic recipe with my kitchen-dump extras left off.


* 1 lb boneless chicken strips (you can use chicken breasts but I prefer the more succulent meat of the legs and thighs.)
* 2 teaspoons hot and spicy jamaican jerk spice (2 tsp is the amount recommended but I put 2 to 3 tbp. It's to your taste.)
* 1/4 cup cooking butter
* 6 cups torn lettuce
* 8 cherry tomatoes (halved or quartered)
* 1/2 medium avocado, pitted peeled and coarsely chopped


Lime Vinaigrettte
* 1/4 tablespoon canola oil
* 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (or regular vinegar if that's all you have on hand)
* 3 tablespoons lime juice
* 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh culantro (or substitute 2 tablespoons cilantro)
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 dash fresh coarse ground black pepper

Method

The chicken can be done the day before. Rub legs and thighs with butter and jerk seasonings. Marinate for 1/2 hr or overnight. Grill or roast in 375°F oven for 45 mins to an hour or until chicken is no longer pink when pierced with a fork. Baste chicken with butter throughout cooking process.

In a screw top jar, combine 1/4 cup oil, lime juice, culantro (or sub cilantro, vinegar, 1/4 teaspoon salt and dash black pepper. Cover and shake well to make the dressing.

Put lettuce on 4 salad plates. Top with chicken, tomatoes, and avocado. Drizzle with dressing.