Categorized | Fish
Callaloo, the true spirt of the islands.
Posted on 14 December 2009
What would Sunday lunch (the biggest meal of the week on the islands) be without a healthy serving of Callaloo, rice, stew chicken, macaroni pie and slices of fried plantains? Not to be confused with Jamaican callaloo, callaloo is an actual dish and it’s not made from the bush/plant that our Jamaican friends call callaloo. The main ingredient in our callaloo dish is the tender baby leaves of the dasheen plant (also called dasheen bush) or in my case (couldn’t find dasheen leaves) I used tender baby spinach. Living in North America means there are times when we must find substitutes for traditional ingredients used in many of our dishes as it’s hard to source the ingredients normally used.
Though the recipe I’m about to share with you is not the traditional way of making callaloo, you’ll find that it’s very tasty, similar in texture and appearance to the real deal.
You’ll Need
2 cans (400 ml) coconut milk
Water (see below for amount)
6 cloves garlic
2 lbs Spinach (baby leaves work best)
1 lb ochro (okra)
1/2 onion sliced
2 crabs (split into 2 pieces each)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 sprigs of thyme
1 green habanero or scotch bonnet pepper (add any pepper you like)
1 teaspoon Goldenray butter (optional but makes a big difference)
Before we get to the actual steps in making the callaloo I must mention that if you can’t source (like me) tender dasheen leaves, it’s important that you not use ordinary spinach leaves, but do try to get baby spinach. Not only is it tender, but it’s not as strong in flavour as normal spinach. Regular spinach may over-power the dish and you won’t achieve that wonderful taste that a good callaloo will have. I must also mention that crab meat or imitation crab will not give it the true unique savoriness as would actual crab in the shell.
Start by placing a deep pot on a medium heat and pour the 2 cans of coconut milk into it, then using one of the cans, add 2 cans of water as well (so you have 4 cans of liquid in the pot). As it comes to a boil, wash the spinach leaves and start adding to the pot. If it’s fresh harvested spinach, you may have to rinse a few times as they can have a lot of dirt/sand between the leaves.
It will seem that all the spinach will not fit in the pot at the start, but as it wilts in the hot liquid you’ll have tons of room. The next step is to wash and trim the ochro (okra) by removing the stems and discarding. Then slice each one into 1 inch pieces (see pic below). Add the sliced onions, garlic, ochro and hot pepper. Leave the hot pepper whole at this point. You can also add the salt, thyme and blackpepper to the mixture.
Cover the pot, bring the heat down low to a gentle simmer and allow to cook for about 1 hour or until everything is tender and starts to melt together. Be sure to stir every 15 minutes or so and check to ensure that it’s not sticking at the bottom of the pot. This will be an indication that your heat is too high.
Now that it’s been cooking for 1 hr, it’s time to add the crab to the pot. I usually season it a bit first with some green seasoning and allow it to marinate for about 15 minutes before adding it to the pot with the callaloo. After you’ve added the seasoned crab (seasoning is optional) allow the callaloo to cook for another 15 minutes.
The final step is to break everything down. Luckily enough I have a swizzle stick (wooden one) that someone from the islands sent for me a few years back. If you don’t have one you can use either a whisk or one of those electric puree sticks. If you are using an electric one, I suggest you pulse a few times and not use a continuous action or it will make the callaloo very foamy and it can harm the finished product.
If you’re using a whisk, simply whisk until everything is broken down into a soup like consistency. Before you whisk you can remove the pepper (remember I mentioned to put it in whole) if you’re worried about the heat content.
The very final step is to add the GoldenRay butter, stir it around and turn off the heat. Enjoy!
Side Note:There are many variations of cooking this classic Trinbagonian dish, but I assure you this is a great start that you can customize as you get better at preparing it.
* From the recipe above you should have enough left over to freeze and enjoy at a later time. Just pour into a freezer style bowl and it usually last a couple months in the freezer. To thaw, all you have to do is empty the contents of the bowl into a pot with a couple tablespoons of water on very low heat and allow to melt. Or stick in the microwave.
24 Responses to “Callaloo, the true spirt of the islands.”
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
-
[...] which I felt should be much coarser, akin to the texture achievable when using a traditional wooden swizzle stick to blend it. He didn’t believe an immersion blender could do as good a job as the jug [...]
Leave a Reply
- Tags
- Popular
- Latest
- Comments
- Subscribe
- Spreading The Culinary Culture Of The Caribbean - Taymer Mason.
- The Ultimate Dhalpuri Recipe.
- Stewed Oxtail With Butter Beans.
- Spreading The Culinary Culture Of The Caribbean – Ramin Ganeshram.
- How To Make Geera Chicken.
- The Ultimate Ackee And Saltfish Recipe.
- The Ultimate Jerk Pork Recipe.
- The Ultimate Oven Jerk Chicken.
- A Delectable Corn Soup Recipe.
- Classic Jerk Chicken Wings In the Oven.
-
Beef
beef recipe
Caribbean recipes.
caribbean soup
caribbean soup recipe
caribbean stew chicken
caribbean vegetarian recipe
choka
curry shrimp
eddoes
eddoes recipe
fish recipe
ground provisions
habanero hot sauce recipe
hotsauce
how to cook trini food
how to make caribbean soup
how to make roti
jamaican callaloo
jamaican food
jamaican oxtail recipe
jamaican recipes
jamaican soup
Jerk Chicken
jerk pork
oxtail recipe
pepper sauce
pholourie
recipe
recipes from trinidad
salmon recipe
shado beni
soup recipe
trini cooking
trinidad recipe
trinidad recipes
trinidad soup recipe
trini food
trini pumpkin recipe
trini recipe
trini recipes
trini soup
trini soup recipe
vegetarian curry recipe
vegetarian recipe
Stay up to date
- Subscribe to the RSS Feed
- Subscribe to the feed via email
Nice recipe. Haven’t made callaloo in a while but this recipe might entice me to. Luckily here near DC where I live, we do get real dasheen bush (in fact, I was at the caribbean market yesterday and should have grabbed some – instead I got sorrel, pommecythere, and pig tails and breadfruit – for oil down). Unfortunately, here in DC we do not get good trini crabs. I envy you that
@Dawn –
Where do you get dasheen in DC? I'm in the area and have never found it. Btw, a potential source for blue crabs are some of the Asian markets…I can occasionally find them cleaned and in the chiller case….
Catherine
Dawn, thanks for taking the time to comment. If only I could get some fresh dasheen leaves. I did see some at a local “chinee” store, but they looked tough and bruised. I’m in the hunt for a nice bread fruit to cook on boxing day – big gala at my house for my moms bday.
Hi Chris. Next time I go to the Caribbean store I’d be happy to pick up some Dasheen Bush and ship to you in Canada. It would be my gift to you for the hard work you do on this site and for re-introducing me to the wonders of Caribbean cooking! JLMK. Happy holidays!
Dawn.. appreciated
Happy Holidays.
I really appreciate the time you take to post these recipes (with pictures) and the fact that u give more than just the basic steps..Most of my meals that I have made have been from following your instructions on this site…All the meals came out fantastic…I would just like to say thankyou!!!
Thanks for stopping by Laurena and leaving your comments. be sure to keep coming back and trying more recipes. Your support is appreciated.
There is nothing quite like a plate of rice with calalloo and stewed chicken!
ENT! Gosh, i wish I had some now oui!
the tip about using the baby spinach was the best,I tried it and was almost like the real thing..thnx again…
yea.. at first I used the normal spinach and found it very bitter and hard to break down into a good consistency. Now it's baby spinach all the way.
Great recipe. I'm going to try this tonight.
So how did it turn out for you?
hi i have an extremely simple recipe that never fails… first get one roll bush (it is dasheen that is in a rolled form), 8 ocroes, 3 cloves garlic, one medium onion, 4 pimentos, half pumpkin, chieve, celery and 3 leaves of theme, one pack coconut milk. Put one teaspoon oil in a pot(wait until it gets hot) add onion then garlic, saute, then add remaining ingredients. When dasheen bush is added last, put one cup water and one cup coconut milk. cover and allow to cook down for 20 mins (medium heat). add additional water if desired. when pumpkin is soft and crushed to the touch, callaloo is ready to be blended (blender is easist)
Thanks for sharing.. sounds easy enough to follow.
happy cooking
chris
I'm allergic to crab, can i use another meat
My Mom always used pig tail. Assuming you eat meat that would be a good choice. I'd boil it first (with 2 rinses in fresh water) to remove most of the salt and cook the meat through.
too much milk though; it should be more green than white.
Has anyone used eggplant in callaloo? I swear there was some in the dish served at the Wyndham St. Thomas and it was just delicious! Wish I had that recipe!
Hi Chris, Nice recipes as usual, anyone who doesn't use Crab or meat can make the Callaloo without it. I'm Hindu and when we're fasting we don't use any kind of meat, Fish or Eggs and I do make Callaloo when I'm fasting, it taste very good without the Crab or meat. When I'm not fasting I make my Callaloo just as Chris's but I add a little piece of Pumpkin or Squash, Bellpepper and Carrots. Anytime I visit home (Trinidad) I always bring Dasheen Leaves, Chadon Benni, Trinidad cooking figs and Chataigne. If anyone is coming up to Toronto I ask them to bring me the same. Ok bye everyone.
Thanks for the recipe, and to the person who suggested using pig tail instead of crabs. I have only tasted a little bit here and there of callaloo because I too am allergic to crabs. They've always made it with crabs at my house. 'will have to give it a try with pig tail. Is there any other meat you can use in there?
You can make a tasty callalloo without meat, just add two clove petals to Doonwati's recipe, small piece of golden ray buter,1 tsp ketchup and walla…. taste greattttttttttttttttttt
Hi Chris – can’t wait to try this out. We are having Caribbean night at our dinner club and I am making this along with Jamaican jerk marinaded pork loin (using your jerk marinade as well
)
I have a simple question. We can’t really get crabs like you describe here in Minnesota, but we can get crab legs. What do you think about that as a substitute, and what quantity would you suggest? I suspect I would cut them into pieces to fit in the pot and then strip the crab meat out and dice it up before “swizzling” (note to self – get one of those swizzle sticks).
Now if I could only find a source for Golden Ray here….