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?

marslady - cornmeal porrige sounds interesting could I trouble you to post the recipe here- dd loves rice and peas and I 'd like her to try other foods we are a bit limited in that we are vegetarian

Cornmeal porridge. This is how I do it, bear in mind it takes a few attempts to get it right. Boil the kettle put water in a pot. Half a cup of cornmeal mixed with cold water, vanilla essence and nutmeg. When pot starts to boil, tip in and stir. Keep stirring until thick. Add milk and sugar to taste. Leave alone. The milk will change the colour of the porridge. You don't need a lot it's just for colour and taste. It's very filling so don't go overboard in giving it to children. It's lovely in the winter. DD2 absolutely loves it. The others aren't too fussed. hth

gothicmama, haven't had time to look out my veggie recipes (almost a completely carnivorious family). Will try to remember, especially as I promised someone else.

Marslady - would you have any idea what this could be - exp's sister made fried chicken with rice and peas and a really tasty salad. On the side there was some green stuff - I think it was similar to guacamole but not if that makes sense??

not sure, will investigate. does sound like guacamole though. maybe it is with hot pepper sauce. liking the sound of that

Never thought of that - that does sound good!!!

Mars lady, I made myself a rum punch yesterday (with half strawberry nectar and half banana nectar as the sweet component). Yummy!

Now that sounds nice kateandthegirls. Really nice. I hope you drank a glass for me.

he he he - what a FABULOUS chat - Marslady have you got any ideas for green banana - I want to give it to my dd but I'd like to make it more interesting than just mushing it up with sweet potato - any thoughts?

Mars - what kind of food do you give your little ones? I'm changing the way we eat - ideally buying fresh instead of supermarket. What kind of west indian food is there i can give to dd and ds (3.7 and 13 months)

swiper my darling you can give them anything. The DTs love rice and peas, jerk chicken, sweet potato, fish.... you name it they love it!

Just make sure that you chop it up enough. If they don't like the spices add a little plain yogurt.

I'd forgotten this thread. lol

Sorry I didn't get back to you heymissy. I imagine you worked out your green banana problem. Did you remember to use it as finger food?

Thanks Mars

Was about time this one was revived!!!!

This is a great thread! Well done Swiperfox for breathing a bit of life into it!! DP is a trinni, so i'm allowed to be thick enough to ask this.

Is plantain the same as green bananas or is it a different variety?

Have moved from nr Brixton to Kent and not finding the food variety upto my usual standards! Thank goodness for Walkerwood tho!

Plantain is ripe and green banana is not!

I'm not a big fan of green banana so I have to confess that I don't cook it.

However, I love plantain. Fried plantain is best. With fried dumplings!

I also love saltfish, but am no fan of ackee. DH and DD1 are though.