In the Southern Caribbean we have “Green Seasoning“, the Spanish speaking Caribbean gave us Sofrito and our Haitian cousins use Epis as the base for many of their delicious offerings. Traditionally made with a mortar and pestle (Munsh Pilon), it’s a blend of herbs, garlic and various peppers. In this recipe I’ll be using a food processor and will be personalizing it a bit to my own taste. So you’ll see that I won’t add any salt, bullion cubes nor onion (explained in the video).
You’ll Need…
Bell Peppers (various colors / med)
3 scallions
10 sprigs thyme
1 scotch bonnet pepper
3/4 – 1 cup olive oil
3/4 cup chopped parsley
5 shallots
2 stalks celery
Note: Optionally you can add a large onion, cloves, bouillon cube, salt and the juice of a lemon. You can always use vinegar instead of the olive oil or or use a combination of both if you want.
Wash and prep the ingredients (rough chop), then place everything in your blender or food processor.
I like my Epis (same as when I’m making Green Seasoning or Sofrito) with a bit of texture so I pulse it until I get the desired consistency, but feel free to puree to your liking.
Place the now complete Epis seasoning in a container with a lid and store in the fridge for months. Optionally you can freeze it in an ice cube tray, then pop out when frozen and store in the freezer in a zipper bag. This will allow you to use one cube every time you’re doing a recipe which calls for this amazing gluten free seasoning.
Epis can be used as a marinade for meats, fish/seafood, added to soups and stews and can be added to your favorite vegan and vegetarian dishes for additional flavor.
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Thanks for this tasty recipe. I’m french Canadian and I’m always looking for ways to spice up my food without salt and this is so perfect! Looking forward to discovering new flavors! Thanks for sharing your amazing recipes.
Chris ,I really enjoyed your Dad’s Debut. Thanks Dad for sharing your knowledg.Also want to thank You Chris for all the great recipes and cooking tips. YOU Rock.
Hi Chris thank you for this recipe; I’m going to the Danforth Market within the next hour to buy all the ingredients and make this seasoning today. Chris, I wanted to mention some things after viewing the video with your wonderful dad but I couldn’t because I’ve already deleted my Face Book account many years ago.
First of all I must say that your dad seems to be such a nice and intelligent guy; he has definitely brought back so much memories for me. Seeing the cocoa reminds me when I used to help my dad together with my mom and sister to take out the seeds from the pods; I used to enjoy sucking the seeds. One thing your dad didn’t mentioned (I don’t know if everyone did it) but we did, after sweating the cocoa we added little water and danced INTO THE COCOA to cleaned it and our feet would get gummy after. Then it was spread very thinly on the floor in the Cocoa House and leave to dry in the sun for a few days and we’d turned it a few time during the drying process with a shovel to ensure it was dried evenly. We had to look out for the rain too, as soon as we see the rain was “setting up” as we say in Trinidad, we’d ran and close the Cocoa House before it starts to fall; and that’s how the famous proverb came to be “When you’ve Cocoa in the sun, you’ve to look out for rain”, lol.
After a few days the cocoa would be dried and bagged and the bags were sewn with twine and a special needle (Cocoa Needle); after my dad would go to Marlay & Company at Sangre Grande to sell the cocoa. Being the last child, I was my dad’s pet (he gave me my 2nd name Darling); I went everywhere with him and after we sold the 8 or more bags of cocoa we’d go to a nice restaurant and have lunch, then my dad would buy things for me and the rest of the family too.
As I told you before Chris, I know to do a lot of things because I’ve done them in my younger years in Trinidad; I can make my own chocolate for tea from scratch also coffee, yogurt (Dahi), Coconut oil, ghee, cane juice, rice flour, corn flour, split pea flour and I can also milk a cow and make Paynoose, I guess that you do know what is Paynoose being a Trinidadian.
I’m very proud that I learnt all these things from my wonderful parents. I do know many people that did these things and are embarrassed to say that they did it in their past BUT it’s no shame and it’s NOT an embarrassment to say that you’ve learned and done these things. People should be embarrassed if they’re Con Artists or steal and murder others but NOT when they did anything good and for the betterment of themselves and mankind.
Thank you Chris and thanks to your wonderful dad (dad put you in the shade boy! lol); you must not hide your wonderful family, lets see your lovely mom too na boy! How you moving so? Anyway God bless you and your lovely family.