Caribbean Starches: not quite what you’re eating at home… | Sequatchie Cove Farm

I met a woman the other day who owns a restaurant here in the village (which is really great because it can mean a few things. It could be a nice big establishment complete with health code-esque qualities or it could just be a little shack that you drive or walk by everyday and never even know a wee restaurant dwells inside. I think it was the latter- she said it was the one up the hill that has the sign that says, well there WAS a sign but it fell down, I mean to put it back up but I haven’t yet…) She said she was very happy to see me because she had heard I really liked to cook. Or maybe she said someone told her I was a really good cook- which is more likely. I usually respond to that with- well I really LIKE to cook. That means I don’t go around telling people I am a really good cook because I don’t want to seem arrogant but also I think if you really LIKE to cook then of course you are a good cook.

Anyway. Because she heard I really liked to cook/was a great cook we started talking about food. I said it was really interesting to cook here because I had never used with most of the ingredients ever in my life, much less seen half of them. I’ve never even known people who know how to cook with them. So it is almost like I am learning to cook all over again (which, by the way, means that that is all I ever want to do). At home, even when I experiment and try new things I still have that old grounding telling me how it is ‘traditionally’ made. It takes a lot of effort to do things differently even though I taught myself how to cook (with help, of course, from my mother, father, and grandmothers). But here I have NO IDEA what I am doing. I have to do a little research to make sure I’m not going to kill myself and everyone around me by eating something raw I shouldn’t but other than that I am free of any inhibitions.

And she said- I KNOW, like, here at my restaurant I can cook the octopus. The older people they pound it to tenderize it and me, I don’t pound it, instead, I use lime juice. And they all say- why didn’t you pound the octopus? …. Sounds like me at home.

I actually have heard of most of the things I use- coconuts, pineapple, avocado, chayote squash (except here they call it something different), citrus… Of course I’ve never had them so fresh or in such glorious excess but I have at least seen them. But there are all these starches that I have never seen. They are all called ‘provisions’ around here and usually boiled and put on the plate in vast bland quantities. Provisions are yams (the real ones, which are gigantic and hairy and NOT sweet potatoes), sweet potatoes (which are usually the white kind), plantains, breadfruit, and dasheen (I think if we ever see it we call it taro)

So far I’ve begun on breadfruit and dasheen. I’ve got some sweet potatoes from market sitting on the counter but I think I know what those are by now. The breadfruit was first. Supposedly you can eat them green or ripe but I have yet to see a ripe one- I think they are super perishable when they get that far so they are just harvested green most of the time. They are these gigantic green bumpy things that have a sticky white resin on the outside. They kind of look like a really big pomelo but a lot bumpier. The trees are big and tall and have these huge dramatic jaggedy edged leaves.

The first day, thanks to a recipe in this awesome binder that Bruce put together of photocopied recipes that all have to do with Caribbean food, I made a salad of cucumber, breadfruit, tomato, and basil. I cubed the breadfruit and boiled it and chilled it and mixed it with the other stuff (the cucumber and tomato were from the market and the basil was from right out front the house) and threw in some lime juice and salt. The breadfruit was supposed to be kind of interesting ‘almost like eggplant’ but it wasn’t almost-like-eggplant. It was a little chewy, a little gooey, and super starchy. (All the starches down here HAVE to double as wallpaper paste or they just won’t do. Unfortunately I don’t think wallpaper would do very well down here either because it is so humid it would just mildew in a second) It WAS interesting though, and despite my description actually not that bad. The gummy/gooey-ness isn’t like the kind you get when you beat a potato too hard- that is REAL wallpaper paste. It almost tastes and feels like there is a whole bunch of melted cheese in it (which is fine by me). Breadfruit has a nice rich creamy taste. So we choked that down and the next day I thought I’d try it mashed. I had just made some coconut milk so I used that instead of regular milk and proceeded as with mashed potatoes- plus some coconut pieces and fresh ginger. That was alright- there was still that texture of a whole lot of melted cheese but it was a little more appropriate here.

Ok. I have to stop and admit something. Much to my potato adoring mother, boyfriend, best friend’s dismay(s) I really don’t get that excited about starchy food. Of course potato chips and French fries I love but I bet you can guess what about it is that draws me to THEM. I like really good bread and pasta too but other than that I could just do without (o, I also love risotto). So. You are getting a very biased view about all of this.-

Anyway. The NEXT day I took that smashed up breadfruit and added an egg, some flour, some sugar, and nutmeg and cinnamon from the market and made doughnuts. Now THAT is how to cook breadfruit. Done. I figured that one out. (Actually the next day I took the remainder of the smash and mixed it into a pancake-y batter that was also passed the test).

So the second market I moved on to dasheen. There are about eighty varieties of it down here but the variety I bought was a short, squat, hairy tuber (some of them are bigger or longer). The skin on it will make your hands really itchy and burny if you aren’t very careful. I just hold the top with a couple fingers and pare off the outer part. I did get a little on my hands and they itched a lot but I survived. Having learned my lesson from the breadfruit I started off first thing with the frying approach. I made dasheen chips (or ‘crisps’ as they call them down here- like the British do) sliced on a mandolin- something I’ve also never used at home and I am very excited about. Those were (of course) absolutely wonderful, sweet, salty, and crunchy but I felt like I had cheated myself by using the easy way out. So the next day I tried to mash dasheen. I added garlic this time instead of ginger. It was alright but gummy like the breadfruit and not quite as complex and rich in flavor. So the next day I cubed it up, boiled it, and then sautéed it with some cubed pumpkin and garam masala (brought from home) and coconut milk. That was pretty good (although I favored the pumpkin) but the next day I reverted to my evil ways. I smashed everything up with a little more coconut milk and an egg (dasheen can absorb absolutely amazing amounts of liquid) and made them into little fritters fried in coconut oil (not the tablespoon I made myself- that is another story). And it was then that I realized that my evil ways are defiantly the best way. These were not deep fried like the doughnuts and chips- just kind of sallow fried/sautéed. So I bet I could make those every time. They are also pretty good cold which is nice….

And there is my story of starches, as far as it’s gone….

Hope everyone is doing great and wonderful and eating lots of sweet potatoes.

Filed under: Local Food Letter on November 19th, 2009 |