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Caribbean
Culinary Crash Course
From
a Cayman Islands Perspective
Caribbean
Cuisine:
With
more than 100 restaurants now open in the Cayman Islands,
visitors will discover menus ranging from innovative New World
fusion cuisine to authentic Thai. However, some of the best
dishes of all originate in our own special Caymanian way of
cooking. There is a cuisine unique to the Cayman Islands,
and many of the traditional recipes reflect a way of life
which is slowly disappearing. Most Caymanian recipes rely
on simple ingredients, but the preparation of these dishes
is often time-consuming. Traditional fare like Bullrush pudding,
custard-topped cornbread, whelk pie, Crab backs and heavy
cake require both a skilled cook’s experience--and patience
to make.
Although
you would seldom find these on any restaurant menu today,
many opportunities remain to sample real Caymanian cooking
in Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. Seafood plays
an important role here and our traditional national dish is
still turtle, served as soup, stew or braised turtle steaks.
However,
no dish better defines Caymanian cuisine than the versatile
conch (pronounced KONK.) This large pink mollusk, still found
in Cayman waters, can be prepared in a variety of ways: cooked
with onions and spices in coconut milk as conch stew; cracked
conch fritters or chowders or sliced raw very thin in a simple
lime and onion marinade and served like ceviche.
A
West Indian specialty Caymanians have borrowed from Jamaica
and adapted to suit our palates is "jerk." "Jerking"
is a cooking method defined by the use of both a fiery blend
of spices (allspice, scotch bonnet pepper, thyme, nutmeg,
salt, garlic, scallions and onions) and a process of slow-smoking
over a low fire, preferably of pimento wood. You can sample
jerk chicken, po k, shrimp and conch--and even try jerk pizza
while in Grand Cayman. Caymanian chefs also owe a debt of
gratitude to other Caribbean countries for their liberal use
of curry powder to flavor many local dishes.
Accompanying
any "meat kind" (chicken, meat or fish entree) might
be rice and beans, breadfruit, cassava, yam and plantain.
For the more adventurous palate, local favorites include cowfoot,
oxtail, codfish and ackee, salt beef and beans, or mackerel
and green bananas. Caymanian Desserts are special too. Heavy
cake, one of the most popular and traditional, is a dense,
sweet, brown sugary confection, called pone or pudding in
other Caribbean countries. Heavy cakes are made from grated
raw cassava, papaya, cornmeal, yam and other starchy products.
Cayman lime or coconut pie are local delicious adaptations
of mainland recipes--here fresh local ingredients make the
difference. Finish off your meal with a potent homemade white
peppermint drop.
Beginner’s
dictionary of ingredients
To
help you learn more, here is a beginner’s dictionary of ingredients
and dishes found in authentic Caymanian cuisine.
Bread
Kind - a collective name for starches such as breadfruit,
potato, cassava, coco and yam.
Breadfruit
- eaten like a potato, boiled, fried, roasted or baked. Breadfruit
is round in shape, the outside is greenish-yellow with a bumpy
skin. The flesh is cream coloured and has a flavour similar
to a potato.
Cassava
- a root vegetable served instead of potato and similar in
taste.
Conch
- (pronounced "conk") - this is the beautiful spiral
shell that tourists always want. Inside is a large edible
mollusc. The flesh is tenderized by pounding it with a mallet.
Conch is served in a variety of ways: fritters, chowder, marinated
or stewed.
Cho
Cho - is comparable to a tropical squash and used
the same way.
Fish
Rundown - fish that is stewed down with breadkind.
Usually snapper or grouper and boiled with breadfruit, cassava,
and dumplings.
Johnny
Cake - is fried dough about the size of and resembling
an American hushpuppy. Served as a beginning course or like
an appetizer with drinks, but a bit on the heavy side; so
don't eat more than the standard order of two syrup, and sometimes
cinnamon.
Patty
- A meat pie enjoyed at all times of day. Americans have a
hamburger, West Indians have their patty. A seasoned flour
shell wrapped around beef and spicy filling. Traditionally
meat but now available with lobster, chicken or vegetable
fillings.
Pepperpot
- originally from Trinadad, this is a spicy soup made
from calalloo (similar to spinach), and potatoes and highly
seasoned with hot peppers.
Plantain
- belongs to the banana family but are not eaten raw. They
are larger and not as sweet - they are baked or fried with
brown sugar.
Pumpkin
- the Caribbean pumpkin has a dark green skin and bright yellow
flesh. Again this is used like a potato, not a dessert as
Americans know it.
Rice
& Peas - (red beans with rice) red kidney beans
cooked with rice, coconut milk, ham bone or bacon and spices,
served with most every entree.
Saltfish
& Ackee - actually the native dish of Jamaica
but adopted by Caymanians. Saltfish is codfish cured in salt
and ackee is really a fruit but cooked as a veggie, resembling
scrambled eggs and likened to the taste.
Source
www.caymans.com
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