A move forward and a look back

I know it seems like once again I have fallen off the face of the earth. I haven't. However last month we moved house and the new place doesn't yet have an Internet connection. Not having access to the Internet is a bit like falling off the earth, isn't it? 

Seriously, phone company you could have told us when we applied for service that your technicians don't 'fish' for cable. It would have saved everyone a huge waste of time. Cable guys we have called it in four times and told your office that the house is 200m from the road. Three 3 different guys have come by and still, no hook up. Sheesh! Walk with enough cable, already! 

Honestly, a month without any kind of technology and we are all like "Goodnight John-Boy," up in here. 

So how did we get here? Well two years ago, my husband and I purchased what we optimistically called a fixer upper. Looking back at this photo, I am willing to concede that might have been a-glass-is-half-full, kind of description.

The reality was actually a nightmare of  exposed wiring, bare concrete floors and walls that were clearly once inhabited by the crooked man of English nursery rhyme fame.

But see, here is the thing... on the day we went to view the house, we saw this first.

Can you say SOLD!

Its funny at the time I wrote this post we had no idea that we would ever have anything more than a postage stamp, sized garden. Now that we are staring at the the reality of something more, we are starting to question our sanity. Words like insane and crazy have been tossed about but I prefer the term visionary :-) Apparently so did the bank.

It would seem that my husband and I are in possession of some mad powers of persuasion. No one was more surprised than we were when we managed to secure financing for this project. This was achieved in part by waving this picture around and describing the surrounding scenic views of green hills and the lush vegetation.  

Hey did we mention the view of the waterfall from the front porch? 

Okay, so most days its a small spring but on rainy days the mountain opens up and it is quite spectacular. 

Interior renovations are complete and we have moved in. Most of the 'neighbours' including this magnificent falcon have already popped by for a meet and greet.

Understandably our first meals here were quite simple. The kind of thing that doesn't need a recipe. This is a simple red pear, walnut salad that I topped with pomegranate seeds and served with a store-bought strawberry balsamic vinaigrette. Being surrounded by all this green makes me think of salads and wholesome meals.

A lot of work remains to be done on the outside of the house but my new kitchen is a dream. Hopefully it won't be long again before we have an internet connection and I look forward to sharing with you the meals that come out of it as we settle in.

Jamaican Christmas Pudding

Nothing makes us yearn for home and family like a recipe that has been handed down for generations. That is why when my friend Debra told me that she was teaching her church group in Dallas how to make her grandmother's Christmas pudding I jumped at the opportunity to ask her for the recipe. I am excited beyond all belief at this share.....I remember this pudding so well!  I know all thoughts of Christmas are well and truly out our minds now that the New Year is here but believe me this is a recipe you will want to bookmark for a special occasion as it is truly and indulgent treat.

Season's Greetings to everyone. I am doing a "guest blog" for Wizzy this week -which might on some level imply that I am a blogger with my own blog just around the corner for BLDP, just jumping in while the season is right. However in the interest of full disclosure I must confess right off the bat -I am NOT a blogger, nor a photographer. So with those confessions out of the way, and hopefully your indulgence -let's proceed shall we?

My Mom, who Wizzy has mentioned on this blog - is a self described Jamidadian- a transplanted Jamaican, living in Trinidad. So of course, our house was a bit of an oddity when I compared notes with friends at school and neighbours. Most of those differences faded away as our house became a truly Jamidadian house. However, Jamaican Christmas Pudding was one thing that never received the Trini touch. 

In Trinidad over the holiday season, it is a time for celebrating family and friends. You can expect friends to drop by all December long. You paint the curbs, the front walls, clean top to bottom and prepare the house for lots of through traffic. Some visits are long and go all into the night and some are just a a brief moment to touch base with someone you don't see that often -but you exchange a hug, have a drink and eat some Christmas cake. It is storied that for each different piece of cake you eat, you will receive a month of good luck in the coming year - so visits abound! 

At our house my Mom made both a cake and pudding as the recipes are two halves of the same coin, both starting with a full crock of dried fruit that have been soaking in rum and cherry brandy since June or July. My mom's recipe made 4 large cakes/puddings and she grew up making 2 cakes and 2 puddings from the one recipe. Each time someone would come to the house my Mom would ask "Would you like some cake or pudding" and the answer was always "Yes please. Pudding please".  It didn't take my Mom long to start making 3-4 puddings. 

You must be wondering what is the big difference between a Christmas cake and a Christmas pudding. Surely it must be a hugely dramatic production to make a pudding instead of a cake. The differences are slight and subtle, yet the end result is dramatically different - a contradiction, I know. The differences are one of texture because the pudding is steamed and of alcohol content because the pudding is steamed covered and the alcohol does not cook off as it does with a cake and just to be sure, the pudding is "fed" every couple of days with rum or brandy and served with a hard brandy or rum sauce. 

It is a rich treat, served in small slices between friends, as you pause from the hustle and bustle of the season to take the time to visit with each other -often with much merriment and mirth.

Grandma Mae's Jamaican Christmas Pudding
Yield: Four 8-9" cakes

1 lb raisins
1 lb currants
1 lb prunes
1/2 lb dates
1/2 lb mixed peel
1 bottle cherry brandy/prune wine (note: Cherry Brandy is a Caribbean wine that has less than 10% alcohol and isn't truly a brandy)
1/2 lb cherries
1 lb dark brown sugar
1 lb butter
1/2 lb flour
1/2 lb bread crumbs 
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup rum
1 dozen eggs (8 whites and 12 yolks)
Nutmeg
Cinnamon
Rose Water (can be tricky to find -use an English brand -not a Japanese brand)
Browning
Vanilla

Method Grind raisins, prunes, dates and mixed peel. Add currants (whole). Soak in liquor ( for 1 -18 months typically. Although my recent batch had been soaking for 6 years!! )

Find a baking tin with a tight fitting lid. I use those decorative tins from the craft stores as this is a low temperature affair and the pans are well lined. Grease the pans with butter. Line the bottom with wax paper - being sure to bring it up the sides a bit. Double line the sides by folding a long piece of wax paper in half and placing it creased side down in the tin. And then line the bottom again. And then grease and flour the lined pans. 

Cream butter and sugar. 

Finely dice cherries -they should be smaller than the currants!! 

Add 2-3 caps of rose water -add it until the butter and sugar smell like rose water. 

Beat 8 egg whites with a lime peel until very stiff. Don't use a mixer as the lime peel needs to be removed and the mixer tends to chew it up.

Add 1 dozen egg yolks -one at a time to the whites

Add 1/2 cup of rum

1 tsp of vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon -sprinkled across the top of the mixture

Fold in the butter and sugar

Add cherries and fruit and mix in gently

Add browning until the batter is a rich dark brown colour -being careful not to make the batter too thin.

At this stage you may need to make adjustments. The batter is the right consistency when a wooden spoon stands up in it -fully vertical without help. Because the fruits soak for various lengths of time, and browning is sometimes thinner than other times the exact amounts my vary and you may need to add a bit more flour/breadcrumbs mixture -but not much. I seldom have to do this because I have very rich smelling rose water and I would rather have a lighter coloured cake, so I'm very stingy with the browning if it is too thin. 

Use a saucer to pan the mixture into prepared pans -a ladle would work too, but using a teacup saucer is much faster. Whatever works for you but do not just pour it from the mixing bowl! 

Place a piece of wax paper of the top of the pan and press the lid down to seal the pan with the batter.

Bake in an oven at 250* with a water bath/pan full of water in the oven (do NOT place the pan in the water) -for 2-2 1/2 hours. Be sure to check the water every 45 mins or so to make sure it hasn't dried out. 
It is done when it springs back and the pudding has pulled from the sides

When it comes out pour 1/4 cup of sherry or brandy over the top of each pudding and replace the lid. 
It is stored at room temperature -adding more sherry or brandy every week or so. 
And to serve it -cut off a small portion and serve with a hard brandy sauce -which is basically just butter, fine granulated sugar and a bit of sherry or brandy. 

Cooks note: This makes a TON of pudding/cake. Typically I soak a whole recipe of fruit but bake a half recipe of  pudding at a time. If making to give as gifts the this will yield approx six 6" cakes

Bolo di kashupete (Aruban Christmas cake)

How did you enjoy Christmas day? I hope it was spent in the loving company of family and friends. As much as I enjoy the actual day of Christmas it's always such a blur of activity so that I look forward to the days after when I can laze about and relax with a fridge full of left overs so I don't have to cook. 

Here is a traditional Christmas cake from the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba. I have been insanely curious about this recipe ever since I encountered it about two years ago. Essentially it's a pound cake soaked in rum with a fudge topping. The unusual frosting is what initially caught my interest. I stayed true to the recipe but decorated it a bit differently. 

I don't have that much of a sweet tooth so there was no way I could cover the entire cake with fudge. I think not doing that was a mistake because the cake was a bit dry and there wasn't much of a rum flavour. I am supposing that covering the entire cake in the frosting 'seals' it which would keep it nice and moist. In any event it was no hardship for me to correct my flaw by simply pouring a 'capful' of spiced rum over each slice before serving - problem solved.  

Traditionally, Aruban cashew cake is decorated with cashews and maraschino cherries. It is also sliced in half and covered and filled with the frosting. I did not have cherries so I substituted with dried cranberries which looked pretty. Also I ran out of cashews, so I used walnuts. The texture of the frosting is somewhat grainy (it's a fudge after all) and I found it a bit sweet for my tastes but no one else complained. Overall a very festive looking cake with lots of holiday flavour.

Bolo di Kashupete (Cashew Cake)

Cake

Ingredients

2 cups butter (unsalted)

2 cups sugar

4 cups flour

6 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp salt

Cashew Frosting

3 cups finely ground cashews (unsalted)

2 cups sugar

1 cup water

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping

1/4 to 1/2 cup Rum *(I used a spiced rum but you could use Brandy)

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Method (Cake)

Prep: Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 10 inch springform cake pan with a hole in the centre. Dust pan with flour after greasing.

Make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature  

Next sift together the dry ingredients ( flour, baking powder and salt). 

Beat: Using a stand mixture and a paddle attachment. Beat the softened butter at medium speed until it is light in colour. Add the sugar and continue to beat for about 4 mins longer. Scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula and with the mixer on low speed add the eggs one at a time. Beat for about a minute before adding the next one. Mix in the vanilla and almond extracts.

Add dry to wet: Add about a third of the sifted dry ingredients and gently fold into the egg mixture on low speed. Add another third of the dry ingredients and fold in gently. Do this once more and mix on low until dry ingredients are gradually incorporated into the egg mixture.

Bake: Pour into the prepared cake pan and bake at 350 F for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean. Allow cake to cool in tin for about 10 mins before removing it from the pan. Stick holes in the cake with a skewer and pour 1/4 cup or more of rum over the cake. Cool completely before frosting.

Method (Frosting)

In a medium saucepan add 1 cup water with 2 cups sugar. Cook until the mixture gets to the soft ball stage (240 F) Once it reaches 240 F add the condensed milk, vanilla extract and the ground cashew. Remove from the heat and keep stirring until it becomes a manageable thick cream. (Cashew cream dries fast so make this the day you intend to decorate the cake. It cannot be made before hand as it will harden. Keep a bowl of water nearby to dip your spatula while spreading the cream)

Five-Spice Roasted Chicken

It's the holiday season and we are all busy, busy, busy. I know I am not the only one rushing about with last minute preparations. It's all kinds of chaotic around here.  Always at this time of the year it's easy to fall into the trap of eating fast food at every turn. It's easier to avoid the grab and go junk food if I know that I have lunch or dinner at home which just needs to be warmed in the microwave. This Asian style roasted chicken is one of my go-to dishes which can be done the day before. It makes for a lovely, quick, meal served with fried rice or even plain jasmine rice and some steamed vegetables. I used to make this using a whole chicken but I find using the drumsticks makes it even simpler to serve.

Five-Spice Roasted Chicken

Ingredients

For the Marinade
2 tsp sesame oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp freshly grated ginger
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 tsp five-spice powder
1 tbs honey

8 chicken drumsticks

Method

Mix together all marinade ingredients and pour over chicken. Put chicken and marinade in a zip-lock bag and place in the fridge to marinate for at least 30 minutes or overnight, turning occasionally.

Preheat oven to 350F

Place drumsticks on a roasting tray. Pour marinade over drumsticks and bake for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes turn chicken over and baste with gravy that is in the tray. Cook for 30 minutes more, basting and turning until drumsticks are cooked through and juices run clear when chicken is pieced with a knife.

Tamarind Ginger Spice Cake

Amazing cake but we'll get to that in a minute.

First a mini rant at the spouse who absolutely is NOT deserving of ANY cake at this point.

Some time last week, my husband was away from work and I had to use his car to drop our children to school.

Note to self:  Self, never borrow your  man's car without first checking for gas.

Children safely transported,  I was on my way to work, tunes happily cranked up way loud, and vibesing along with my boy Bunji. There I was singing along to this and thinking how glorious it was to be travelling in the opposite direction of morning rush hour traffic when I noticed that the gas indicator light was on. No worries because there are like five service stations between me and my place of employment. No need to flip out, right?

Wrong.

Just my bad luck there was a power outage that morning which meant no working pumps at any of those five gas stations. The car eventually ran out of gas...

again.

Yes this has happened to me with this car before. Therefore I was seriously annoyed at myself for allowing it to happen a second time. While waiting to be 'rescued' by my dad and brother, I texted the hubby.

Me: Bloody hell! You have no gas!
DH: What! No way, is the red light on?

*Because to a guy the red light means you still have a lot of gas left.

Me: Yes the red light was on but now it isn't cause I am shut down at the side of the road.
DH: Nah man, my car never shut down on me before when the red light was on.

Me: Rendered speechless by the absurdity of that response.  I chose not to reply and I am happy to report we are still happily married today.

Okay now back to cake.

There is nothing I love more that using a familiar ingredient in an unexpected way. When I saw this recipe over on Anh's food blog, it immediately jumped to the top of my "Recipes to Try" list.

Tamarind is already a star ingredient in many of my savory dishes and I was intrigued by the idea of it in cake.

 This cake is rich and moist, with a tender crumb. Here is what one of my taste testers at work said about it. "There was a flavour I could not put my finger on .....but it was good with a spicy warmth from the ginger and a hint of pepper" 

You don't actually taste the tamarind but you know it's there by the extra kick of flavour it brings. This was definitely a hit with my father who is not usually effusive about food. He never makes a comment beyond,  'Its good,"  or  "It's not good." to describe any dish. To him something either is or it isn't.

He had a slice of this and said nothing. Later he had another slice, but still no comment.
I was concerned. Two slices might mean it was good but why hadn't he said anything?

The next day I had my answer. Dad came home and placed a bag of crystallized ginger on the kitchen and said two words.

 "Make more."

Alrighty then.

Tamarind Ginger Spice Cake

3 large eggs, room temperature
3 tablespoons milk, room temperature
1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract
3 tablespoons Matouks Tamarind Chutney
3 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
1 1/2 cups (150 grams) sifted cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4  teaspoon salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
13 tablespoons butter (185 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

Lime Glaze

1 cup icing sugar
Juice of 1/2 lime
chopped crystallized ginger

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Place rack in the center of the oven. Butter a 9x5x3inch loaf pan. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and butter the paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, ginger, tamarind chutney and vanilla extract.

Place the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and sugar) in the bowl of your mixer and mix on low speed for 30 seconds. Add the butter and half the egg mixture. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Increase the speed to medium and beat for one minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the rest of the egg mixture gradually, in 2 additions beating about 30 seconds after each add in. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin. Bake for 55 - 60 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

This is essentially a pound cake recipe albeit a slightly different method from a traditional pound cake. It is quite normal for there to be a crack down the center of this cake.

Remove the cake from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

This cake can be covered and stored for several days at room temperature or one week when refrigerated.

Make the lime glaze. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and gradually add the lime juice. Stir unil you have a consistency that you like. Adjust consistency with extra lime juice or icing sugar as you wish. Cover cake with glaze.

Cook's Notes:
Matouk's is a Trinidadian brand of condiments that is well known throughout the Caribbean. It is available from various online sources but should you have trouble finding it you could easily make your own tamarind chutney.