Caribbean Night

My absolute favourite thing to do is cook.... and it is something that can bring a smile to my face however gloomy I feel inside. I've been wanting to cook for my friends T & L for a long time, but it's difficult since they have kids and are allergic to cats. Opportunity presented itself last Sunday and I seized it - they became my guinea pigs for a Caribbean night. I cooked for many hours and was excited in my own little world in their kitchen. This meal was quite educational for me as it used vegetables and spices that I have never used before.

First, I made an appetizer of plantains, yams and sweet potato chips. This involved deep frying - something that I have never done! By the end of the cooking spree, I felt covered in oil! But it was definitely worth it!

If you are like me, you would have thought that yams and sweet potatoes are the same thing and buy the same vegetable for recipes that require either. I now stand corrected. The typical "sweet potato" that you see in the supermarket is most likely a "yam". Yams are orange inside with an orangey-brown skin. However, yams have red skins and white flesh (much like red potatoes). They have a slightly sweeter taste. While they are not from the same plant family, they are both good sources of the difficult nutrient to obtain: beta-carotene (the precurser to vitamin A).

Plantains are a type of banana that are grown as a vegetable. They must be cooked before eating and have a slightly bitter taste. In the plantain chips, they had a nice hint of sweetness making them very enjoyable and perhaps my new favourite vegetable (or is it a fruit?). They are cooked like potatoes - they can be fried, mashed, baked or boiled.

Corn is a major component of Caribbean cuisine. It is considered a sacred food and has a lot of significance in their culture. My cookbook has this note: "Not only was it a vital source of sustenance, but it also provided shelter, fencing and even clothing. Every part of the plant was used, even the silks surrounding the kernels, which became ties for tamales. When corn was cooked, whoever added it to the pot had first to breathe on it to rid of its fear and dying and accustom it to the heat." So I made this really yummy corn soup with tomato topping on it! After watching a girl on Master Chef use canned tomatoes and having the judges make a frown, I could not cut corners - I used fresh corn on the cobs :-) The soup was very sweet as a result!

The Salad had red onions, mangos, tomatoes and cucumbers with a light garlic and spice dressing. Very nice complement to the meal with a nice combination of sweet, salty, acidic and tang. Click here for recipe.

The main course was a thyme chicken and lime dish. It actually had quite a kick even though none of us could figure out what made it so spicy! Even I coughed on the spice! The chicken was sliced open and the spring onions and thyme dressing poured inside. It was very tasty, but unfortunately quite dry as I overcooked it. I learned the hard way that when substituting chicken thighs for chicken breasts, you need to adjust the amount of time to cook.

The rice had soy sauce, a bit of coriander and a couple of other ingredients that matched the rest of the seasoning for the meal. All in all, I think it was a good meal and I'm excited to add Caribbean to my cooking repertoire.