West Indian food

[Cha]

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?

got your cat. currently feeding dt1. dt2 in bed. surely you can be more adventurous than that. I have a rum punch recipe for you if you'd like it

Definately!! Anything at all - trying desperately to think of the names of stuff she used to cook me - half the time I didnt have a clue what I was eating but wasn't allowed to leave the chair til I eaten it lol was all so good though!! Just putting dd to bed and will have another good think!!

Rum punch recipe please MarsLady! I bought a bottle of Appleton's rum back from Jamaica but haven't opened it yet.

Ok Kateandthegirls. Strictly speaking you should use Wray and Nephew, but Appletons will do (are you sure you don't just want to invite me around to drink it with you?). There is a little rhyme that you say when making the punch. It also helps you remember the contents. Here goes: 1 sour, 2 sweet, 3 strong, 4 weak. The sour is lime juice, the sweet is the strawberry syrup, the strong is the rum and the weak is water. The numbers represent how many "parts", eg 1 sour = 1 cup of lime, 2 sweet = 2 cups of syrup. You may find that 3 strong is too much, so use 2. Remember though that rum punch is stronger than you think. Don't drive, operate machinery or try to walk too far after drinking. lol

I grew up in california and we chewed on raw sugar cane too. I've found that it's not quite so exciting as an adult....

zephyrcat, i'll try to pick some up this week. Let me know if you end up getting it from marslady instead.

I grew up in california and we chewed on raw sugar cane too. I've found that it's not quite so exciting as an adult....

Hi guys - sorry i disappeared last night - after convincing dd there were no monsters and finally getting her to sleep ds decided it was time to wake up and play The joys of parenthood!!!
I'm going to make that rum punch for dp without a doubt!!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you MarsLady.

Of course if you're in the neighborhood, please feel free to drop by and drink it with me!

I'll have to see if I can find strawberry syrup now. There is a West Indian section in my local supermarket. I'll take a look.

Am expecting lots of meals out now. Have bus pass will travel lol

Will your bus pass get you to Florida?

Seems I'm going to have to upgrade my bus pass lol

Hiya MarsLady - Am back on form tonight - both kids fast asleep!! And a proper list of the foods i loved .... but was scared to ask the recipe for!! Dumplings and patties, Roti, proper jerk chicken (not supermarket sauce!) and Banana foster pudding......... Bit better than last night's feeble 'anything chicken'!!

okay Zephyrcat. Calm down now dear. Aunty Mars is here (but not for long dh has ebay business to conduct and I may escape for a little salsa)

Are there any Caribbean mumsnetters in Manchester? Only there's a Jamaican version of Cinderella on at the Library Theatre in January - Cindy-Relisha and the DJ Prince if anyone's interested.

no worries

Let's start with dumplings. Self-raising flour and a little sugar (helps it brown). Add water slowly and mix together with hands to form dumpling. A little oil in the pan, place dumplings in and cook slowly. Turn regularly. Lovely with ackee and saltfish.

Never heard of Banana foster pudding, but will investigate. Tend to be lazy with the jerk seasonings, so little time in life to be caught up with it, but will get my mum's recipe for you.

I've never actually had ackee and saltfish would you believe??!! Is it worth a try?

yes! go on, if I'm gonna give you recipes then you need to eat them

without a doubt!! dp has just confessed he used to get curried goat from a takeaway in Islington and loved it - so now he's gonna get bombarded with west indian dinners!!

I couldn't find strawberry syrup at the store today, but this website suggests using simple syrup or grenadine for the sweet part. I'm going to have a play around. By the way, MarsLady, I bought some coconut milk today and I'm going to make rice and peas tonight. I'll let you know how I get on.

Mmmmm.... grenadine!!!

Hi Kateandthegirls. You are a font of websites. Fantastic. Strawberry syrup is what I use, if grenadine works for you then fantastic. The joy of rum punch is that you use the syrup that you want. Different syrups give different tastes. Just remember that rum punch hardly tastes alcoholic, but it really really is.

Zephyrcat, good to hear that you are going to try rice and peas. When you cook curried goat you can use mutton. Most of us do. Kisses