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Original poster

West Indian food

114 replies

Cha · 07/11/2004 14:04

Am bored to death with what I cook and although I have dabbled with West Indian food, it has always been with my friend beside me, telling me what to do. As she can't be there every meal time, I would love some help!
I don't eat or cook meat - major drawback, I know - but am happy to do fish and seafood. At the moment I have 6 plantains in my frige all begging to be cooked, and a forlorn tin of ackee. Any suggestions? Dp's Mum is from Aruba (then Monseratt and Antigua) - are there any good dishes from there that anyone knows?

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MarsLady · 07/11/2004 14:08

what about curried goat or jerk chicken? then of course there's baked chicken ~(used to be fried until we all got health conscious

Original poster
Cha · 07/11/2004 14:12

Don't do meat - sorry! I know, I know, how can I start a thread like this, dumb. Still, there must be some good fish / seafood recipes out there - like can you do jerk prawns??

OP posts:
KateandtheGirls · 07/11/2004 14:14

As you don't eat meat, goat and chicken are probably out of the question!

Your question took me back to my holiday in Jamaica earlier this year. The food was so yummy. Could you do jerk with fish or prawns? And how about seafood curry? I had some fritters, I think they were conch and ackee. Yum.

If you do a google search you could probably find some recipes.

KateandtheGirls · 07/11/2004 14:14

Post crossed cha!

MarsLady · 07/11/2004 14:15

you can jerk anything.

MarsLady · 07/11/2004 14:17

give me a couple of days and I'll have half a dozen recipes for you. I'm sure that walkerswood have a website and you'll get loads there as well

jane313 · 07/11/2004 14:20

I bought some of the west indian brands of food in the supermarket and they had recipes on the back. The salted cod was a bit of a faff but I like the rice and beans one. Basically it was gungo (?)beans mixed with rice but you cooked the rice with coconut milk instead of water. It was lovely.

KateandtheGirls · 07/11/2004 14:20

Here's a website.

Here's another.

Here's another.

And another.

Getting hungry now!

merlot · 07/11/2004 14:21

What's Jerk - sounds interesting!

MarsLady · 07/11/2004 14:22

darling, we call it rice and peas. I know that it is beans, but that's what we call it. It's only a faff until you've done it a few times. Not really anymore difficult than most dishes. But then I did grow up on them, so I'll cut you all a little slack lol

KateandtheGirls · 07/11/2004 14:22

It's marinated in spices - the strongest flavour is allspice, and also chillies. Yum, yum, yum!

merlot · 07/11/2004 14:24

Want some now! Can someone courier me round a batch, my roast chicken could do with some pepping up!

jane313 · 07/11/2004 14:25

Oh yes I remember now! I was thinking of the ones that i had in cuba. I'm not very good at bones so I hated picking them out of the cod. Theres two west indian restuarants near me and they both do lovely rum punches whcih is a bonus. In one they did chocolate chilli chicken which was really different and very nice.

MarsLady · 07/11/2004 14:26

nice websites kateandthegirls. Haven't seen those before. Have bookmarked them. thanks

KateandtheGirls · 07/11/2004 14:27

Jerk chicken

MarsLady · 07/11/2004 14:27

jane you need to get back to that restaurant right now and demand the chocolate chilli chicken recipe. My mouth is watering at the thought. My mother NEVER cooked that!!!!!!!

jane313 · 07/11/2004 14:28

they have a web site I think, not sure if recipes are on it. I'll look.

One of my friends said she used to melt a few cubes of bournville in her chilli.

KateandtheGirls · 07/11/2004 14:29

The rum punch has my mouth watering and it's only 9:30am here!

When I was in the Caribbean I drank Miami Vices, which are half frozen strawberry dacquiri and half frozen pina colada.

Sigh.....

KateandtheGirls · 07/11/2004 14:30

In Mexico they do a similar thing with chocolate in the sauces, it's called a mole sauce.

jane313 · 07/11/2004 14:30

no recipes I can see though, tyme

jane313 · 07/11/2004 14:31

I always wondered what mole meant

incywincy · 07/11/2004 14:33

Try here also recipes . Mmmmm now i'm hungry. The Black cake is to die for.

MarsLady · 07/11/2004 14:33

You can buy jerk seasoning in the supermarket. You can get the dried version or a wet version by Walkerswood. Walkerswood do a mild and a spicy version. Start with the mild and graduate up. It really is spicy. The simplest way to do it is to mix a tin of tomatoes with a dessert spoon of jerk (wet version), pour on your chosen meat/fish and pop in oven. Don't forget to chop onions, peppers and mushrooms (whatever really) and add to mix. Taught DS1 and his class to do this, many grateful parents. DS1 does this for the family once a week. Of course taught him how to do rice and peas as well. Hiring him out. Any offers? lol

KateandtheGirls · 07/11/2004 14:35

In case your son can't come to my house, how do you cook rice and peas, Marslady? My kids love that.

MarsLady · 07/11/2004 14:38

I will probably be shot for this, as different women do various versions. However, the simplest way we've done it at home is this: put your rice in the bottom of the pan, open a tin of kidney/gungo/black eyed peas/beans and drain. Pour on top of rice. Put a small uncut chilli on top. Cover with water. When it starts to boil add some coconut milk (you'll see how much you want each time you do it, as it's according to taste. Quick stir, cover pot and LEAVE IT ALONE. Sorry girls, but too many keep stirring the pot and wonder why the rice doesn't work. When you see the air holes it's done. hth