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Okay well first of all I'm going to start off by saying that I'm by no means an "expert" in Caribbean cooking, I think the only real experts are the ones who actually live in the Caribbean. Cooking from different parts of the world is great because you get to taste things that are obviously a lot different than the normal, and also when cooking you get to use things that you have never heard of, and in Caribbean cooking each recipe has different spices and fruits, and a lot of the time I'll have to go to the grocery store and ask what it even is. You'd actually be surprised though, how much exotic fruits and spices there are in your local grocery store. I chose Caribbean cooking because it tastes awesome, and its really good for you as well. Caribbean food has a lot of contrasting things in it, like sweet and spicy, you might be turned off when seeing that there is coconut and chili powder in the same recipe but don't knock it till you try it cause its really very good.
The first inhabitants of the Caribbean were the Arawaks and the Caribs, who were descendants of the South Americans that crossed the water from Venezuela and Guyana. They were there way before Christopher Columbus was there. In the sixteenth century they were caught in a crossfire of the French, Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch, who all wanted a piece of the Caribbean, I'm sure they were overjoyed by the abundance of fruit, fish, vegetables and other riches of the Caribbean. The Europeans also brought farming to the Caribbean, sheep, pigs, and cattle, and they also built sugar plantations. For some reason they couldn't work for themselves, and this is when the Caribbean tragedy began. Black slaves in the millions were shipped in from West Africa and lived a life of misery on the plantations. When the slave trade was over in the nineteenth century laborers came from India, and China to work the plantations. And you can see how there is so much culture in the Caribbean because of all the different ethnic groups that came there, they brought along with them their cooking styles, language etc. Every Caribbean cooking style starts with local ingredients(or the kind you get from the grocery store) tropical fruit,chicken,fish and fresh vegetables. To these add spices, yams, peppers and most importantly because its in everything, Coconut. This is the flavor of the Caribbean
There is one style of Caribbean cooking that I'm sure you friends down south are pretty fond of, and that's the barbecue. The word can be traced back to French pirates in the Caribbean who gave the name to a whole roasted pig on an open fire -"de barbe a queue", meaning "from beard to tail".
The reason spices were started was because the European sailors needed something the make their dried beef or "jerky" more edible on long sea voyages. Also African slaves grew pretty tired of the boring basic food they were given, so they added spices,this is why spices are used in pretty much everything.
So I think anyone should try making a Caribbean dish, or at least get a friend to make it for you, its good stuff I tell ya.
And when you are eating it just imagine yourself on a sunny Caribbean island with a pina colada in your hand, with the sound of steel drums in the background, hey it works if you don't have the money to go there eh.
Here is a good dish, tastes great.
Jamaican chicken and ham:
50g butter
4 chicken breast fillets cut into 3 cm pieces
1 med brown onion chopped
1 tablespoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon mace
100 g leg ham,diced
1 large apple,peeled,cored,chopped coarsely
1 medium green banana
1 medium mango,seeded,chopped
2 large tomatoes,peeled,seeded,chopped
1 1/4 cups coconut milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1. Melt butter in large heavy saucepan. Cook chicken, in batches,until chicken starts to brown. Return all of the chicken to the pan, add onion,cook until soft
2. Add curry powder, cinnamon,cardamom and mace, cook stirring, 1 min. Add ham,apple,banana,mango,tomato, coconut milk,juice and salt. Stir well, simmer,covered,stirring occasionally, 40 min or until chicken cooked through.
3. Add yogurt, stir until heated through. Serve with boiled rice.
This will taste good with this dish:
Pina Colada
1 cup coconut milk, 1 cup rum, 11/2 cups of pineapple juice,1 cup cracked ice, 1 lime sliced thin.
Blend coconut cream, rum and juice in blender or cocktail shaker about 30 seconds. add ice blend or shake 30 seconds. and serve..mmm.
Here is a good place to go to get some good recepies. And if you want to go the extra mile head to the book store there are tons of books on Caribbean cooking, and if that doesn't sound like your thing, try something else from around the world, its a big world with lots to eat:D
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