Please share your west Indian recipes!

[Daphine2004]

Hi,

I’m 35 and have two mixed raced kids, 1 and 5. I am very keen for them (and my partner) to have the food I was brought up with regularly but my mum doesn’t cook that any more and can’t remember what she used properly anyway...

She did make chicken, rice and peas. Now, I’ve attempted this loads and it isn’t the same. The rice my mum made turned purple in colour and the peas were just amazing. She suggests I use dry kidney beans not out of a tub - if I have to, I will. Has anyone got a good recipe for this?

Also, for brown chicken stew?

and finally, I’ve been attempting to make my great gran’s rum cake. First time was a success as I had her recipe, but that was years ago and I’ve lost the paper I wrote it on. She is now in her 90’s and I can’t quite get on with the recipe she remembers.

We call it rum cake, but it’s basically a Christmas cake soaked in rum and tastes amazing.

Would anyone be able to help at all?

Thank you in advance, especially if you got to the end!

I'm unfortunately clueless but hoping someone comes along soon. Would love to pinch a few recipes.

@@AMemeByAnyOtherName do you have any suggestions

I'd love a recipe for Bajan macaroni pie, if anyone has one?

I came across this recipe for rum cake, which sounds both easy and lovely!

Oooh, brown chicken! My favourite recipe is to put the chicken pieces in a large bowl, along with an onion or two chopped into quarters, turmeric, salt and ketchup. And any other spices you fancy. Then you put some oil in a heavy based pan/Dutch pot, add some muscovado sugar and heat it until it melts and starts to get darker. Pour in the chicken from the bowl, give it a quick stir and quickly put the lid on. Let it all mix together for a few minutes, then stir and continue cooking until chicken is falling off the bone 😋. I know there are some versions of brown chicken that don't use ketchup so they're not as sweet, but I have a sweet tooth and this is just right for me!

Rum cake, DM used to soak the fruit in rum in a bucket for three days or more. The fruit absorbing so much rum really adds the punch.

I have a particular way of cooking rice that gives me perfect results every time, and yes soaking dried kidney beans gives a much richer flavour. I don't know if it's the way you want though, but happy to share if you think it would help!

It might help you if you actually watched someone good cook a few of those recipes as sometimes the technique matters as much as the recipe. I can highly recommend this Terri-Anne’s kitchen on Youtube - she does a broad range of recipes from across the Caribbean as well as a few Ghanaian recipes on her channel. Here is a video of her doing rice and peas below:

Black cake recipe here:

One of her recipes for brown stew chicken (she has 3 I think):

TeamGhanaJollof these look delish

@BIWI I’m going to get so fat!! Lol. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it and can add ingredients to my online shop this week.

@TeamGhanaJollof you’re right about watching someone make it. I think growing up we just kept out of the kitchen and then I went off to uni, so it was always cooked when I got home. I’ll take a look at those videos - thank you.

@AMemeByAnyOtherName That would be fab - I’d love to know how you get perfect results. I’m just lazy and look for shortcuts constantly, but I guess some hugs just aren’t as good if not done properly.

Thanks again

Grated coconut/dried coconut/coconut milk in rice and peas (kidney beans), and a sprig of fresh thyme on top when cooking 👌

@TeamGhanaJollof her cooking is amazing! I've been following her and collecting recipe favourites. I want her chicken alfredo in my tummy!

@JayDot500 - agreed. Her jerk shrimp Rasta pasta and her chicken pelau recipes are firm favourites in our house. I consider myself a fairly competent cook but have learned a huge amount from her since following her.

@BIWI

I'd love a recipe for Bajan macaroni pie, if anyone has one?

@BIWI here’s a macaroni and cheese pie from Trinidad and Tobago www.homemadezagat.com/2016/01/trinidad-macaroni-pie-recipe.html. Any similarities?

It could be @JingsMahBucket - there's a definite heat/spicy note in it, which could come from the mustard and paprika. Thanks!

I found this recipe but can't see where the spiciness would come from in that one. Yellow mustard is most likely going to be American mustard, I think, which is sweet rather than hot.

@BIWI not necessarily if it's a mustard like Dijon that's hot. Or even Colman's yellow mustard which I could see that being used in Barbados.

I wondered about that - but all the references I've seen to Macaroni Pie talk about it being a US-influenced thing, hence assuming it would be American mustard.

Im mixed race myself. Trinidadian background.

Check out pinterest for Trinidadian macaroni pie. Amazing stuff.

When I'm not sure and my dad (lives halfway across the world) pinterest is a life saver.

Brown stew chicken or beef/ox tail is all about browning the sugar in oil first. I add a scotch bonnet whole and thyme once its stewing down.

Trying to master rice and peas and pileau but I only get burnt pots. And crunchy rice. Any tips I'd also be grateful.

@TeamGhanaJollof - do you have a good jollof recipe please? I used to live near to an amazing Ghanaian restaurant and could have lived off jollof, spicy fish and shito

Rice and peas on the stove is a science I have never mastered. Bought a rice cooker and lo and behold - perfect rice and peas.

@MrsCrosbyNRTB - I’ve provided how we make it below - it always goes down very well so I hope it works for you Please remember that every Ghanaian or Nigerian will probably have their own special mix of seasoning so feel free to tweak this it to suit your taste. Note, like my ancestors, I don’t do measurements (unless I’m baking)

I made a big batch of Shito last week, had some with my fish and chips this evening. Shito goes with everything, fact!

Ingredients
-- Vegetable cooking oil

• Onions and shallots
• Fresh thyme and rosemary (home made Caribbean green seasoning works great here too)
• Fresh garlic and ginger
• Scotch bonnet peppers (to you heat preference)
• fresh tomatoes (vine ripened is better, try not to used tinned as it can be very acidic)
• tomato purée
• Sweet red pepper
• anise seed
• Maggi cubes (shrimp is better or any stock cubes / savoury seasoning of your choice)
• Star anise
• Curry powder
• Smoked paprika
• Ground shrimp / Shrimp powder
• Basmati rice

Base Stew
NB: You will need a fair bit of oil for the stew, it’s the oil that will help properly cook the tomatoes and balance the acidity. It will also prevent your jollof from tasting of nothing but tomatoes. You can skim off the excess oil when the stew has finished before you add the rice.

• Chop up half the onions and shallots. Fry in the oil with the anise seeds until it’s the onions are browned
• Blend the remaining onions, shallots, ginger, garlic, fresh herbs and scotch bonnet chilli together and add to the oil. Let it cook until most of the water is gone
• Add the tomato purée and let cook until it’s dark red in colour
• Blend the fresh tomatoes and sweet peppers and add to the fried mixture. Let it cook for a bit more
• Add the rest of the seasoning - curry powder, paprika, ground shrimp, star anise and stock cubes. Check for salt, it shouldn’t need it but add if required.
• Cover and let cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally until all the oil rises to the top. The stew will spit as it’s cooking so watch out for this and have a wet cloth ready. It should also be quite a deep red in colour when it’s fonished. This will take a while so be patient. If the stew is bright red, it’s not ready - this is the secret to OK versus GREAT jollof.

Meat stock

• Another secret to great jollof is the stock you will use to cook the rice. Never use plain water as you’ll ruin the stew and your jollof will probably end up quite bland. Most Ghanaians use chicken, goat or beef as we’re unapologetic meat lovers but you can of course use non meat stock. My SIL is pescatarian and I’ve taught her to us dissolved Maggi shrimp in hot water or Knorr vegetable stock cubes instead. Skip the below if not using meat stock,
• Blend some onion, ginger, garlic, thyme and other herbs of your choice together and pour over meat of your choice. Add seasonings of your choice (I do a bit of curry powder, some all purpose seasoning or crumbled maggi cube, and some fresh ground black pepper). Let this simmer for a bit without adding any water until the seasoning has been infused in the meat. Add hot water and let cook until the meat is about half done. Remove the meat and finish cooking in the oven. Retain the stock

Cooking the rice

• Wash the rice until the water runs clear and drain off all the water. Add it to the stew. Stir and let this cook for a bit to infuse the stew in the rice
• Add the stock. The amount of rice you used will determine how much stock you need to cook it - e.g. 4 cups of rice to 4 cups stock. You shouldn’t need anymore than this as your stew will already have some liquid - you can always add more liquid later whilst cooking but if you start with too much, your rice will be mushy. You want your cooked rice to be ‘one by one’ as my grandmother used to say. That means not sticking together.
• Cover the rice and bring to a boil on medium. As soon as it starts to boil, turn the heat down to the lowest it will go. Cover the rice with some foil and place the lid on. Leave it to cook on low, forking every 10 or so mins until the rice is fully cooked.
• Enjoy!

This YouTuber makes it pretty much how we do so you can also follow her if easier:

I am white, DH is black and was taught to cook by his Jamaican mother who sadly passed away. Some Jamaican friends of ours recommended www.amazon.co.uk/Real-Taste-Jamaica-Enid-Donaldson/dp/9766370214?tag=mumsnetforu03-21 for providing authentic recipes so that he could cook the meals his mum used to cook that he wasn't so confident making like stew peas.

Also Mr Brown's curry powder for curry goat or chicken has great flavour, DH used to travel great distances to get it until I found it online.

He uses our pressure cooker this one to cook many of the meals as it speeds up the process of softening the meat and it also makes great rice and peas.

I'm white but my ex was black and I made this fantastic rice and peas for him using this recipe. It's delicious! Especially with curry Chicken.

www.foodandwine.com/recipes/jamaican-rice-and-peas