FineCuisine | DECEMBER 2019
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FineCuisine | DECEMBER 2019
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FineCuisine | DECEMBER 2019
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Editor’s Note
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GROUP CEO (Ag) Noel Wood
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Carol Martindale
HEAD OF ADVERTISING - NATION GROUP Paulette Jones
EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Andrea King
CONTRIBUTORS Writers: The Cakery, Jonathan Cho, Nick Nunes, Racquel Griffith, Natalia Nunes and Cara Briggs
PHOTOGRAPHY Akira Joseph Photography & Reco Moore photography
DESIGN / LAYOUT Kevin Webster – Art Department
ADVERTISING SALES EXECUTIVES Asha Jones – Tel.: (246) 430-5519 email: ashajones@nationnews.com Debbie Brathwaite – Tel.: (246) 430-5518 email: debbiebrathwaite@nationnews.com
ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Wendey Delaney – Tel.: (246) 430-5517 email: wendeydelaney@nationnews.com
CIRCULATION MANAGER Adrian Bowen – Tel.: (246) 430-5500 email: adrianbowen@nationnews.com
PRINTERS PrintWeb Caribbean Ltd
A member of The
t’s that time of year again when we eat drink and be merry with friends and family….Independence and Christmas! Some people still hold that Christmas is their favourite time of year. Others now argue Crop Over – let the debate continue! We all have to admit that there is a special feeling in the air from November onward. First it’s the feeling of national pride; then it’s the feeling of Christmas. Always there is food and drink more than at any time of the year. In November, which is inarguably conkie month, even if we don’t like the Bajan delicacy, we have to acknowledge it’s a food that we have made our very own. Incredibly, there are now two camps which have developed around conkies – with or without raisins. What is a conkie without raisins!? (The only time a conkie should be without raisins is if the maker ran out of them at the time of deciding to do them. I’m showing my bias, aren’t I?). In celebrating our national pride, Fine Cuisine is proud to feature the Barbados Doyenne of Food – Mrs. Carmeta Fraser. Feature writer Racquel Griffith shares a tiny part of Carmeta’s legacy, including two of her signature recipes. This edition of Fine Cuisine also shows another side of that quintessential Bajan condiment, the pepper sauce. There was a time when ham was the Christmas delicacy. There was a time when ‘ham’ meant cured meat from a pig. Today ham is available any time any place, and not just the cured pig meat. Nick Nunes provides some insight on the evolution of the types of ham, and offers a solution to replace pork ham. Many of us are paying more attention to our health and seeking alternatives to foods that do more harm than good. Top Mixologist Dameain Williams provides two of his original recipes for ‘mocktails’, those drinks that anyone – even children – can have, especially for the holidays. Tourism has perhaps made Barbados an even more cosmopolitan country than its neighbours in the region, but one thing which unites us is our food. Natalia Nunes takes a look at how three Caribbean islands celebrate Christmas through their food. Food blogger and qualified chef Jonathon Cho raises a thoughtprovoking question in his culturally attuned contribution, Taking Back Sunday Lunch. Food for thought, food for body, all wrapped up in this final edition of 2019 Fine Cuisine. Happy eating and drinking! Happy holidays!
OCM Group
Fine Cuisine is produced by The Nation Publishing Co. Limited; a subsidiary of The Nation Corporation, which is a member of the One Caribbean Media (OCM) group of companies. Every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained within this magazine is accurate, however The Nation Publishing Co. Limited cannot be held responsible for any consequences that may arise from any errors or omissions. This publication cannot be copied in whole or in part without explicit permission from the Publisher.
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Contents 4
Pepper sauce a fine condiment
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5 baking methods for the at home chef
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The most delicious time of year – ham it up!
10 5 Ways to make your drink look like Christmas
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Top Mixologist – Dameain Williams
14 Celebrating Carmeta Fraser 16
Christmas Caribbean stylee
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Taking back Sunday lunch
FineCuisine | DECEMBER 2019
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Pepper Sauce– A FINE
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CONDIMENT!
n this issue of Fine Cuisine Magazine, we highlight a condiment that forms a part of several Bajans’ plates year round – pepper sauce. While most consumers’ involvement in the pepper sauce industry is purchasing and eating, there are a lot of parts that come together to make it all possible. Here are what a couple of local players
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by Cara Briggs in the pepper sauce market had to say about what goes into making a top shelf pepper sauce The Farmer: Haskell Bynoe “To get the best yield, it is advisable to germinate the seeds. It can be a bit tricky to get it right at first, but when successful, it greatly increases the yield and the quality of pepper plant you get. It usually takes 2-4 weeks to get sprouts from the seed. From there, you put the sprouts in temporary pots with soil to allow them to develop root and stem systems. Once the seedlings reach about two inches in height, I expose them to direct sunlight a couple hours a day to prepare them for transplanting in the
ground, and when they reach about four inches in height, the seedlings are ready to be planted. Pepper plants need a lot of phosphorus to grow well and bear fruit. So I make sure to add a lot of organic fertiliser with more phosphorus than nitrogen and I also add in my kitchen scraps as compost to give the plants all the nutrients they need. Once the young plants start to grow and put out blossoms, pinch off the first set of blossoms so the plant will grow taller and stronger instead of putting out fruit while still fairly young. Make sure to give each plant at least an inch of water a week. Keep an eye out for beetles, whiteflies and worms and apply fertiliser and bone meal every two to four weeks to keep plants strong. You will know when your peppers are ripe when they start to turn from green to red. It’s usually best to pick peppers after they have received a full day of sun. It may be just superstition on my part, but I feel like the more sun they get, the better the flavour is.
The guys and I usually start picking in the afternoon and by evening we are done harvesting a section and have them bagged off for our customers to collect.” The Pepper Sauce Manufacturer: Patricia Miller “In my experience, the better the quality of the peppers, the better the taste and flavour of pepper sauce. I use a lot of small farmers and I like to go and see how they grow their peppers, because I find some farmers like to spray and use too many types of chemicals and the chemicals
remove a lot of the complex flavours in peppers, so they end up being just hot, but have no other flavour. From the time I was a little girl, the adults around me always spoke about how pepper sauce should have as much flavour as it does heat, so I knew I had to add aromatics that Bajans loved to taste in my blend. Peppers must be fully mature and firm to meet my standards. I remove the stems, sanitise them, then grind them and place them in my mixing container.
From there I add mustard, vinegar, onions, garlic, salt and a couple other secret ingredients to build the pepper sauce and develop its flavour. From there, I mix it all together, bottle, label and have them all ready for sale.” The Pepper Sauce Consumer: Mark Miller “Man, I just like a nice pepper sauce to eat my food with. It should be hot, but not so hot that it kills the taste of whatever I’m eating. I like it to have a nice taste that will go with the foods I eat, and when I’m finished eating, I like to feel a little tingling to let me know that I had pepper sauce with my food.”
rience, the In my expe uality of q better the the better , rs e p p the pe flavour of d n a te s the ta uce. pepper sa
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5
BASIC BAKING METHODS FOR THE AT-HOME CHEF
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here are so many methods to baking, maybe you’ve wondered why. Each technique is based on the specific ingredients you’re using and what you want your end product to be: from a light airy cake, to one that’s sturdy enough to hold up in wedding tiers. It is a science - no two ways about it. While we all like to get creative with cooking, successful baking is all about accurate measurements, temperature control and the perfect method. Here are five basic methods you can try and perfect at home: Creaming method This method is the most common method used. With the creaming method the fat (butter) and sugar are creamed/beaten together to achieve a pale, creamy texture. After creaming, add your desired flavouring and then the eggs one by one, and finally the flour (which is usually added alternatively with a liquid). It is important to fold in the flour mixture so as not force air out and to prevent over development of the gluten in the flour. This technique is very important as creaming the butter with sugar
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by Jamie and T’shan, The Cakery Gourmet Treats
not only helps the sugar to dissolve into the butter and be spread evenly through the batter, but it helps aerate (adds air) the butter to give a lighter texture to the finished product. Rubbed in method This method is often used in bread and pastry making. It is easy to remember as you have to ‘rub’ the butter into the flour as the first step. To do this, simply use the tips of your fingers or a pastry blender to rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. The remaining dry and liquid ingredients are then added. All in one method This one is exactly as the name says. All the recipe ingredients are mixed together in one go. All the ingredients go into the bowl together and the mixing is done in seconds! Melting method The melting method is normally used for strong flavoured, moist, sticky cakes such as gingerbread, as well as some local dishes including sweetbreads, cassava pone and corn bread. In the melting method, all the dry ingredients are placed in a mixing bowl, while the syrup, sugar and fat are
melted in a saucepan. The melted ingredients are then poured into the mixing bowl and everything is mixed together. The raising agent is bicarbonate of soda, which gives off carbon dioxide to make the mixture rise. Melted mixtures usually contain a large amount of sugar and need a long bake time, so in order to prevent burning, cook in a warm oven. Whisking method This method mainly uses eggs as a raising agent in order to work air into the mix and is ideal if you’re looking for a lower fat and lighter sponge, as they usually contain no butter. The eggs and sugar are whisked in a deep bowl until the mixture is thick and fluffy. After, sifted flour is folded carefully into the aerated egg mixture so that the incorporated air is not knocked out of the mix, otherwise you’ll lose the desired light and airy texture. Now you know these five methods and how they work, you will be able to choose the ideal method for your dessert and become a baking expert! Jamie and T’shan are the pastry chefs at the Cakery Gourmet Treats.
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T S O HE M
s u o i c i l e D T
F O E TIM R YEA k by Nic
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Nunes
ho do you call if you’ve over-eaten at Christmas? The hambulance. Terrible jokes aside, ‘tis the season of salted meats. The tradition of curing meats for the winter months goes back beyond any true point in history. The first cured pork leg is attributed to the Chinese around 4900 years before the common era. Today, our word ham comes from Old English where the Gauls spread their smoked pork products around Europe. The Gauls produced precursors to the contemporary world’s renowned Bayonne, Black Forest, and Westphalian
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hams. At the heart of ham is the porcine product as it originally referred to the ‘crooked’ part of the pig, the legs and shoulders. Christopher Columbus and Hernando de Soto brought pigs to the new world nearly half a millennia ago and we’ve been going ham ever since. There are three main methods to the beauty of this femoral dish—dry curing, wet curing, and smoking. Today, many meats line the shelves of our supermarkets that take the names of pork products for those with an aversion to the all-star original ham. Turkey ham, chicken ham, beef ham—today you can
even find recipes that try to claim the ham title and adorn things like lentil loafs with the holy ‘ham’ handle. Personally, I don’t refer to turkey, chicken, or beef breakfast strips as bacon and similarly think that certain titles shouldn’t be trifled with. That’s not to say that these ‘hamitators’ don’t taste delicious and offer a surprising and fresh take on a Christmas table feast. Hey, they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so let’s look at the processes that actually go into the turning of pork legs into ham. The dry cure Raw meat is cleaned thoroughly, dried, and then the meat is covered in what seems like an unreasonable amount of salt. Herbs and spices are added to this process to achieve certain flavour profiles and different curing times, and some have been perfected over centuries, carry the process to completion. The duration of the curing process varies by the type of ham. Serrano ham cures in 9–12 months, Parma hams take over a year, and Iberian ham takes up to 2 years to reach the desired flavour characteristics. The wet cure Here we have the processes of brining. Brine is super salty water. When making a brine solution for the
purpose of curing food, the water can range from around four per cent to 26 per cent salt. For the purpose of making a delicious ham, herbs, spices, and sugar are often added to give the brine a specific flavour profile. The wet cure process usually takes less time and the meat is usually soaked for three days to two weeks. This version is then dried and ready to go. Whichever way you want to cure, it after this is going to be grand. The specialty of smoking Smoking is usually coupled with the other two methods of curing. Not all hams have been smoked, but the most delicious ones are. Smoking a ham is simple. It’s just an extra curing step done by treating the ham to a fragrant wood chip sauna. Cold smoked ham has been hung in a smoker for around 12 hours at a temperature under 100F (37.8C). You can also use the smoking method to cook the ham, rather than popping it into the oven. With all this in mind, it’s fine if you want to break away from the chains of traditional Christmas meals with an unconventional ham. The curing processes of other meats to make them similar to ham will be a bit different, however. Technically a processed meat, “ham” may refer to a product which has been through mechanical reforming. Turkey ham is widely available and
is made from thigh meat that is coloured, cooked, cured, and sliced thinly to resemble ham. The pinkcoloured flesh of turkey thighs and the curing process both contribute to the authentic colour. Turkey ham is relatively low in fat and usually has a lower sodium content. Similarly, you may be able to find chicken ham or you could go through the process of brining a chicken and adding your favoured ham flavours before smoking it to delicious perfection. The best way to get any non-pork product to reach ham heights is via smoking. Beef ham, or even a salmon steak cured in ham-ways to then be smoke-cooked, can be a true delight this Christmas or any time of the year made for familial feasting. Any product you choose to tribute the heavy-weight king of Christmas feasting should be done in the style that most epitomises what you’re trying to imitate. Break out the salt, sugar, syrup, pineapples, cherries, and especially cloves to add that very specific seasoning to your faux-ham for a sensationally new experience. Christmas is coming upon us quickly, so it’s time to get to curing to test out your alternative ham styles to make your dining table a fable to be remembered.
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5
WAYS TO MAKE YOUR DRINKS LOOK LIKE CHRISTMAS
by Jonathan Cho
Christmas is one of the most beautiful times of the year. Everyone’s in a good mood and people take the time to make an effort. Everything gets a facelift for Christmas and your drinks should be the same. Use these tips to make your drinks look like they are brimming with Christmas cheer.
1. Rim The Tops Rimming the tops of drinks is a classic way to make them look great. Sugar and salt are the standard. Regular salt and sugar can make your drinks look frosted easily. For an added touch get coloured sugar. Green and red-coloured sugars are a simple touch that will make your drinks look extra Christmasy easily. If you want to take it even further, crush some peppermint candy into very small pieces and use that to rim your drinks.
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2. Use A Candy Cane To Stir Another great tip is to use a candy cane as a drink stirrer. For tall glasses use a full candy cane and for a shorter low ball glasses try mini candy canes. This trick is good for drinks that you also want to give a small Christmas taste to. The longer the candy cane stays in the drink the more it will melt.
4. Ribbon Around The Glass After all the gifts have been wrapped there is always left over ribbon. No matter how exact you try to be there is always extra. This year, use that extra ribbons to tie around your drinks and make them all look like presents. Even better, use the ribbon to tie on a name card to personalise each drink, so no one forgets which drink is for them. This is a great idea for glasses with a stem, for example wine glasses where it would be easy to slip on a piece of ribbon.
3. Coloured Ice Add a drop or two of food colouring to your water and stir it in before you freeze it in an ice tray. This will create coloured ice which you can use in your cocktails for some Christmas flair. This works especially well with frozen cocktails or slushy type drinks where you blend the ice. Making a frozen margarita with green ice is a Christmas treat everyone will appreciate.
5. Sugar cookies on the side Since it is Christmas you will probably be making sugar cookies. With the left over dough, make smaller cookies with a slit on the side to put on the rims of your drinks. This is a great decoration and garnish for your drinks. This works best with milky drinks that pair well with cookies such as hot chocolate or Baileys. For an even more festive feel, you can use small cookie cutters like Christmas trees and you can decorate the cookies as well. This is a drink and dessert all in one! Spreading Christmas cheer is always fun and with these decoration ideas for your drinks it can be a little easier. With a little preparation all your drinks can look like a scrumptious Christmas treat. Everyone you invite over this season will appreciate the extra time and effort put into making their drinks a little more festive. FineCuisine | DECEMBER 2019 13
& Mixologist Entrepreneur
Dameain s: lianm Wil Bar ow er
• dor nd Ambassa a r B • for Plantation guide Rum • Tour t Indies at the Wes y • Bar er Rum Distill P Services rovider
M
ixologist Dameain Williams has always been a man ahead of the curve. He became a mixologist two years before the term became vogue in Barbados, and understood the business opportunities inherent in his profession. Today, as an observant and increasingly shrewd businessman, Barbados benefits from
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his creativity through his 12-year profession as a mixologist. “Mixology is generally accepted as a refined and in-depth study of the art and craft of mixing drinks. A mixologist gives an experience with liquid art. I love seeing lasting positive impressions left on customers’ faces. I love to entertain through my mixology hospitality,” he responds to the question of what he loves about his skill. It’s a skill that is inspired by some of Barbados’ best mixologists, since the profession got a dedicated title ten years ago. Dameain names Chesterfield Brown, Ryan Adamson, David Barker and Jamal Bowen as other mixologists whom he admires. And it is also a profession through which he travels at least twice yearly.
He has represented Barbados at events hosted by the Barbados Association of Washington DC, the Barbados Tourism marketing Inc, at events like Pubs in the Park BTMI, Rum and Rhythm Festival in New York, Tales of the Cocktails in New Orleans, and is off to France early next year. As a Barbadian, it is not surprising that his favourite drink to mix is rum. “I love to mix a good ‘rum old fashion’ – just to emphasise, we started it all! I also love to drink a good gin and tonic with kola tonic and lemon juice,” he revealed, adding that Barbados’ rum is distinct because of its fermentation and distillation processes, in addition to the climate and atmosphere, and the soil.
xMas Mocktails!
It’s a drink for all ages. It’s a drink for everyone. It’s the designated driver drink; the k; pregnant lady drink; the dieters drin the teetotaler drink. It’s a drink even those who love alcoholic beverages would want! Mocktails - those drinks that look like alcoholic drinks but are not, and do look like the real thing. There’s sophisticated mocktails, mocktails for children, mocktails for diabetics – mocktails for everyone! Top mixologist Dameain Williams shares two of his own recipes that are festive any time of year. Bottoms up!
The Xmas Surprize A complex blend of ingredients l comes together to form a cocktai s. ciou deli that is simply • 2 oz Plantation Grande Reserve Rum • 1 oz Fresh Lime Juice • 2 oz Homemade Sorrel Juice (no sugar added) • 1 oz Ginger - Coconut Syrup • 1.5 oz Loyd Sweet Plumb Tea • Garnish: Sorrel Flower Fresh l. A tasty, light and ambrosia mocktai with ion etat veg y fruit of tour a y Enjo balanced hints of citrus. • 2 oz Ugli Fruit Juice (Bajan Citrus) • 1 oz Lime juice • 1 oz Carrot Mango Syrup • 2 oz Tangerine Juice • Touch of Grenadine • Garnish: Carrot flower • Non alchoholic
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CELEBRATING
Carmeta by Racquel Griffith
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R
ight on the heels of Independence and gliding into the Christmas season, the legacy of Senator Carmeta Fraser is still vibrant in some of the healthiest and tastiest dishes on the island. Several years before gluten-free products were all the rave, Carmeta popularised the use of cassava, sweet potato and breadfruit flours in Barbados and delicious recipes from these types of staples. Today, those locally produced flours have become a brand and are being used in homes and restaurants
providing gluten-free meal options to meet growing consumer needs. But who was the woman behind the brand and the delicious recipes? The late Carmeta’s message was this: “Let’s eat what we grow, grow what we eat”. In the 80s and 90s, Carmeta advocated for a move away from the sugarcane business towards more diverse products. Under her role as Food Promotion Specialist at the Barbados Agricultural Marketing Corporation (BADMC), she used her radio programme, books, recipes and courses to promote the benefits of investing in our own agriculture and production. She believed that local produce was the way towards a healthy and sustainable society. Whether it be the use of meats, seafood, fruits, vegetables or jellies, Carmeta believed that Barbadian food products were marketable both locally and internationally and they were essential to Barbadian cuisine. She encouraged kitchen gardens where people could grow their own produce, creativity and techniques for new products, dishes and food preservation, and the supplying of restaurants and hotels with local produce to influence tourism authentically. She is most known today, however, for her promotion of gluten-free products which BADMC launched under a brand called Carmeta’s in 2013. Carmeta’s range of products promotes the locally produced foods and beverages of farmers and manufacturers. With gluten-free products on the rise, it’s more likely today to find families and chefs making cassava pancakes, cassava sponge cake, sweet potato coconut bread or even breadfruit great cake, some of which have been detailed on the BADMC’s website. Carmeta’s own recipes capture a rich local food culture. Why not use the holidays to try one of her signature recipes?
Carmeta’s recipes Yam Bakes 4ozs. Instant Yam 1oz. sugar 1pint hot water or milk and water mixed ½ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon spice ½ teaspoon vanilla essence 1 tablespoon margarine 1 teaspoon baking powder 2ozs. flour Oil for frying Method: Sift the flour, salt, spice and baking powder in a mixing bowl. Rub in the margarine. Mix the Instant Yam with the hot liquid, add the sugar and add this to the flour. Add essence and beat well. Drop mixture by the spoonful in hot oil and fry until golden brown, serve with roasted saltfish. Belleplaine Bonanza 25 cooked biscuits 1 green hot pepper 1 large onion ½ lb. cooked saltfish 2 ozs margarine ½ green sweet pepper , Seasoning, eschalot, thyme per margarine, salt and pep to taste For decoration: 1 tablespoon chopped parsley, ½ red sweet pepper Method: Boil the seasoning with the saltfish and fry in the s. margarine for a few minute and uits bisc ked coo Add the cook over a low flame for three minutes. Serve hot, decorated with parsley and red sweet pepper.
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CHRISTMAS CARIBBEAN
“Stylee” by Natalia Nunes
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he Caribbean Sea is a HUGE body of water separating each island from the other, necessitating either planes or boats to transport us to our neighbouring brothers and sisters. Yet, we never tire of saying, it’s such a small world. Fight as we do for our own island individualities, we are all linked by a common Caribbean chain and one of those many links is food. Some things are so right, they’re not meant to be changed – like celebrating Christmas. For me, it IS, “The happiest season of all!” We celebrate the birth of Christ, the Saviour. It’s a time for family gatherings where food is shared along with gifts, good wishes and love. Families scattered throughout the globe is not a recent phenomena and for that reason Christmastime is often marked on calendars for reunions ushering the “foreigners” home, spreading mass delight throughout the entire family and really, which parents aren’t happy having their entire litter together? So, paddling in that same boat, here’s my invite to you as I weave three Caribbean Islands together - JAMAICA (I’m a Yardie), ST VINCENT and TRINIDAD. We’ll be exploring how individual yet how
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very much the same we are. My adopted home is Barbados and as we’re just up the road from Trinidad, mek we start there nuh, and head up the chain. Trinidad and Tobago are like a packaged deal – it’s a dual-island in the Caribbean and is so close to Venezuela, you can actually see that mass from some points. Because of this fact, we can expect some parallels not only culturally, but food-wise. Pastelles which is a version of tamales, often with a sweet twist – raisins, is of Venezuelan origin, and has found its way into the Trin-bago Christmas experience. Not to be left out is ponche-de-crema, which is what we in Jamaica call eggnog. Big Venezuelan influence; Trinis even keeping the name in Spanish. The thread we’re seeking is sorrel. That is common amongst all three islands under comparison as well as eggnog. It seems unnecessary to mention rum and other alcoholic beverages as who doesn’t know that island people are boozers? Ham, sometimes turkey, garlic pork and baked chicken (no stuffing) and, I’m told even wild meat, and curry duck is the Trini Christmas tradition meat-wise. Word has it that the Trinibagonian Christmas meal includes fruit: apples and grapes, as well as a
homemade bread called hops, which pairs well with the ham and a mustard mix called chow-chow. A must, Caribbean-wide, is black fruit cake, which folk take very seriously, starting their favourite recipes a whole year in advance by soaking the fruit in whatever liquid spirits they swear by to make theirs THE BEST. Same story for St Vincent and Jamaica; don’t mess wid di people dem fruit cake! Head up with me slightly northwest. This one is a main Island – St Vincent – with a chain of smaller islands called The Grenadines. So for their Christmas meal the Vincies prepare baked chicken rather than turkey (not exclusively though, since turkeys
are available but seem to be challenging to come by), ham and roast beef. Stuffing for the Vincie birds is made of seasoned biscuits – like crackers, not what Americans refer to as biscuits. Boiled or steamed green bananas and other root vegetables are also on the Christmas table, along with rice – either with peas or, a seasoned rice. Similar to the Bajan jug-jug, Vincentians enjoy a dish made from pigeon peas which they make into a stew with the peas remaining whole; not crushed. They too drink sorrel as well as rum punch, alcohol in general and mauby, along with Christmas fruit cake for dessert.
No stopping now driver; we trekking upwards and west to Jamaica. Christmas lunch or dinner is a similar meal with usually three or more meat kinds: ham, turkey with stuffing - which consists of either mashed potatoes and/or a cornbread mix
with some of the giblets chopped finely, roast beef with gravy and sometimes, curried goat. Rice ‘n’ peas is a must using either dried or green gungu peas (pigeon peas) or red kidney beans cooked in coconut
milk. Potato salad, sweet potato pie topped with marshmallows and/ or corn pie, pickled beetroot and a vegetable dish in a cheesy, cream sauce are the usual suspects. Christmas pudding (black fruit cake steeped in alcohol and lit just before serving) with a sweet, cold Brandy sauce on the side, as well as fruit cake sprinkled with powdered sugar is dessert washed down with sorrel, eggnog, rum punch and/or other spirits leaving us moaning at having eaten way too much. One would think Father Christmas would deny us gifts if we didn’t stuff our faces with food, but that’s so not the case: it’s all voluntary, merry gluttony. I have no doubt it’s the same happy scene on all our sister Caribbean Islands as we tell ourselves, “Gym tomorrow for sure”! NB - all gyms closed on Boxing Day.
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TAKING BACK
SUNDAY
S
unday lunch was essentially a feast. It was usually the one day everyone had off and people could actually relax; however, there was no time for relaxing. The house must be cleaned and the food must be cooked. Everything usually got finished well after lunch, but by that time there would be a feeling of accomplishment, because your
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Lunch by Jonathan Cho
belly would be full and things were in order to start the week right. Everything did not always work out this perfectly and there would be usually some rebelling in the middle where you tried to avoid some chores, but for the most part that’s how Caribbean families ran on a Sunday. At the time it seemed like a hassle for no good reason, but in hindsight there is so much good there. Everyone is busy during the
week, the house does not always get the attention it deserves, and we tend to eat less healthy because that often feels like the only option. Those old Sunday rituals of cleaning house and making tons of food were actually excellent ways to deal with those problems. No matter how many people showed up there always seemed to be left overs for days. When you are younger that
may seem like a pain because you don’t want to eat the same thing you had yesterday; however, as an adult it is fantastic to just have good food easily available to you in the fridge. If cooking more on a Sunday was such a great idea, why don’t we do it anymore? The simple answer is probably because we are the ones who have to do all the work now. Mom could whip out a feast in three hours that could feed the whole neighbourhood for two days, while the generation below her have a hard time boiling rice just right. Home-cooked food is the best food, but we don’t always appreciate it until we have left home for good. Also, it isn’t trendy to spend all day cooking on a Sunday. Since it is the one day we get to relax, we tend to do other things like brunch. There’s nothing wrong with that; however, there is more wisdom to our mother’s madness than we realise.
Cooking that much food at once is basically meal prep. No matter how late mom had to work on Monday, if she cooked up a storm on Sunday you know there is macaroni pie and beef stew in the fridge, so nobody is allowed to complain that they are hungry. It is cooking large batches of food that can be eaten later. This helps to avoid stopping to buy food because you know you have food in the fridge, which can save a lot of money. Since we now live in a more health conscious world, we know to make more nutritious food that can better fuel our busy lifestyles. Cooking our own food ensures that the food we eat is actually good for us. Furthermore, we can make it to our taste. Making a huge Sunday lunch gives you that control to fix your diet instead of being tempted by salty fries instead of going for that side salad. Although, the initial investment of a couple hours may seem like a long time to ‘waste’ on cooking, it may actually be a time saver in the end. Spending three hours in the kitchen
cooking food means there is food in the fridge for the week. That food can be heated up within seconds with a microwave. Three hours over six days is about 30 minutes per day. Thirty minutes for a good healthy meal is a steal considering it is common to spend at least 15 minutes to drive to a fast food place then another 15 back, not even considering the wait time. Sunday lunch may not be in vogue right now, but if it saves you time, money and health, it really should be. There is a lot of wisdom behind the way things were done in Barbados. Also, the more you practice the better you will get at executing these Sunday feasts. Moms didn’t get that good overnight. It came from consistently cooking like that over decades. Try starting with a big batch of rice, steamed vegetables, and baked chicken. That’s a relatively simple meal that you can easily portion out for every day. Plus, if you really miss brunch, invite your friends over to eat with you. Just make sure to portion out your meals for the week before anyone gets seconds.
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