Latest Recipes

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    Green Fig With Smoked Herring And Cabbage.

    Hopefully you’ve had time to try the Smoked Herring With Cabbage recipe I shared with you last week. A truly classic dish made with subtle differences throughout the Caribbean. This time we’ll do one mom would always make for dad whenever she had leftovers from the cabbage and smoked herrings combo. Since we had a variety of banana trees in our kitchen garden at the back of the house, we always made use of the ‘cooking fig” (green cooking bananas) supply we always seemed to have.

  • Cabbage With Smoked Herrings

    Here’s another one of those dishes I hated as a kid growing up on the islands. Both the smoked herrings and the cabbage were etched into my don’t eat list, but as an adult they’re two ingredients I not only use on the regular, but crave. The scent of dad roasting the smoked herrings (back then the choice were whole fish) on an open flame to give it extra flavor and to help remove the skin and bones, wasn’t pleasant. That said.. even when using the fillets as I’m about to do, know that it will impart a distinct scent throughout your kitchen/home.

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    Coconut Tarragon Chicken Recipe.

    Coconut Tarragon Chicken! Here’s another recipe you won’t normally see being made in the Caribbean as it’s more of a fusion type dish. However with the lovely flavors of the coconut milk and tarragon, I know you’ll quickly fall in love with this ensemble. Not heavily seasoned as we normally treat ‘chicken’, but I wanted the coconut and tarragon to really stand out. It’s probably one of the few recipes using chicken breast (notorious for being dry) that I truly adore.

  • Curry Chicken Pelau.

    We were into hour 5 of the long drive to Connecticut from Toronto to watch the Trinidad and Tobago Soca Warriors take on the US men’s national team in a world Cup qualifying game. My friend who was the designated driver for the trip, asked if I had ever done a curry chicken pelau. The next hour or so we found ourselves engrossed in the possibility of such a recipe and why we thought it was a delicious idea. Though neither of us had tried it before, in our minds it was doable.This curry chicken pelau is a tribute to that trip and the way we dissected the (possible) recipe.

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    Quick Ham Pineapple Fried Rice.

    If you follow me on Instagram you would have seen me (just after the holidays) post the pic of me surrounded by a ton of plastic containers. When you visit mom and dad it’s always a time to eat like a KING and have enough food to return home with. Basically I went prepared for the leftover train. This recipe is a byproduct of that visit and the volume of irie food which accompanied us home. By now you should have guessed that I luv fried rice (there are several recipes posted here) and this one certainly delivers.

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    Coconut Curry Venison (deer).

    Any sort of game, including deer (venison) is what we call “wild meat” in the Caribbean and for the most part it’s a sort of cherished delicacy, especially around Christmas and Carnival time. I have very fond childhood memories of going hunting with my brother and dad and into my early teens we would venture out with my friends. Though I went to school in San Fernando (city), most of my spare time was spent in the country side of Guaracara, so you’d find that I’m an outdoors person at heart.

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    Oven Roasted Sardines.

    It’s kinda funny that in the Caribbean we quickly reach of a can of sardines more often than taking advantage of the abundance of fresh sardines from the Caribbean sea. It’s probably a convenience thing, plus if you ever had to clean sardines you’d know that it’s a bit time consuming (and smelly). Admittedly I’m a HUGE fan of tin sardines.. done with thinly sliced onion, tomato and scotch bonnet peppers.. with a bit of freshly ground black pepper, lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil.

  • Fried Snapper In A Zesty Orange Ginger Sauce.

    With all the requests I usually get this time of the year (Good Friday) for fish recipes, I thought I’d share one of my favorite recipes using fillets of Red Snapper. In my youth days on the islands it was ALWAYS fish on Good Friday (Catholic home) and though mom and dad never went to church they felt it necessary to stick with tradition. Usually it was fried, stewed or curry fish, served with ground provisions (Yam, Dasheen. Eddoes, Cassava and/or green bananas), a salad of some sort and I still recall dad drizzling olive oil (sweet-oil as he would call it) over the boiled ground provisions.

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    Panko Crusted Fried Plantains.

    With a variety of banana and plantain trees in our kitchen garden at the back of our home, we grew up with a natural affection for boiled and/or fried plantains. Sunday lunch was all about the sides of boiled plantains to give the entire meal a sort of rounded appeal, with the natural sweetness of the plantain. It’s funny how I still crave plantains from time to time (would explain why I’m always experimenting with different recipes), but I’ve not had a ripe banana in about 20 years.

  • Caribbean Black Eyed Peas Soup.

    Take us away from the Caribbean, but you CANNOT take the “Caribbean” from US! Soup and Saturday is like the blue shirt and khaki shorts uniform you’d see next generation island boys smartly dressed in as they make their way to school. You expect to see it, without question. In my time on the islands anyway! We love making a massive (no matter how hard you try, the pot never seems big enough) pot of soup, rich and thick with wonderful flavors and textures. Guaranteed to be found on a Saturday bubbling away in homes across the region.

  • Shrimp Wontons Recipe.

    Shrimp Wontons or Wantons is one of those snacks I grew up eating at the many Chinese restaurants and food trucks in San Fernando Trinidad as a young fella. Fresh from the fryer and dipped in a basic sauce of soy sauce and pepeprsauce, it was the ideal thing to eat after dad, my younger brother and I would go watch Kung Fu movies on a Saturday afternoon. It was usually the appetizer for an amazing full-on Chinese meal, as you could ONLY get in Trinidad and Tobago. Ask any Trinbagonian and they will swear that ‘our’ Chinee (Chinese) food is unlike any you’d find elsewhere.

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    Roasted Tomato Coconut Soup (vegetarian).

    Doh try that! I can hear my Caribbean people screaming “that is not we kinda soup”! As we’ve discussed in the past, soups on the islands are tick, heavy and generally full of body (like what most non-Caribbean consider to be hearty stews). But let me assume you that this soup is quite filling and very comforting. You’ll notice that the ingredients are what we use daily throughout the Caribbean and yuh know we love ah coconut milk! Tip: If you roast the vegetables on a grill or open fire, you’ll get a lovely overall flavor.