Cooking Caribbean Style
It was hot. Ridiculously hot. And there, among the organic gardens in the rainforest, a young chef stooped to pick a herb that tasted like coriander, but was twice as strong. Later, in the heated frenzy of the capital’s main fruit and veg market, another older chef reached out for a weird looking plant that tasted like spinach and was destined to become one of the best soups I have ever eaten.
There’s an old saying that goes: “We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us…” And I believe the phrase also covers a person’s adventures in the discovery of food, partly because what you can learn thousands of miles away can easily be applied back at home.
Market in St Lucia
That was what I was thinking a couple of weeks ago on the idyllic island of St Lucia in the Caribbean where I spent a couple of days with two remarkable chefs who work at two entirely separate resorts located at either end of the island, and both - in their own very different ways - are on journeys of discovery that are allowing them to get the very best out of a whole new genre that incorporates genuine, authentic, Caribbean food.
And there is a direct link between what they are doing down there in the Tropics, and what is happening across the UK food scene.
For example, both chefs are discovering pungent and delicious herbs and spices that, until now, have often been ignored by top chefs in the Caribbean but which have been the secret preserves of the local farmers and growers.
You could say exactly the same about the way some chefs and home cooks in Brtiain are discovering the lights of things like wild garlic, which have always grown here but which have been ignored for decades.
If you’ve been lucky enough to go to the Caribbean in previous times you will know that visitors tend to have been served the universal entity loosely called “international cuisine”, with a few dishes like “jerk chicken” thrown in here and there as a bow to local food.
For years, indeed, you could have said something similar about many regional British hotels and restaurants which served the same kind of food you could eat in London, Paris or New York, was punctuated now and again by something local like a Cornish pasty or stargazy pie.
Now the world seems to have woken up from its lengthy culinary slumber. Tired old usual-suspects are beginning to vanish from menus and are being replaced by real, vibrant, local food that speaks or even shouts of the landscape where it was picked or harvested or caught, and cooked.
Here’s how Peter Juma Mahaba put it when I spent a day with him both purchasing local ingredients at Castries market in St Lucia, and cooking them at Rendezvous, the resort where he is executive chef. “The traveller is seeking new and authentic experiences and food is one of the avenues where they can enjoy this. ‘International cuisines’ can be had anywhere in the world and are typically European in background. The local or Caribbean food is one way in which the traveller can connect to the local culture of the islands and experience a piece of tradition that has been passed down from family to family.”
As we walked amid the hot and sweaty stalls of Castries market chatting with the ladies who seemed to be the people in charge of selling everything, Peter went on: “What makes any cuisine memorable is its unique local ingredients along with the traditional and authentic preparation. Using the local products gives us the opportunity to select quality product and have a guarantee degree of freshness for our dishes
Peter Juma Mahaba talks to a stallholder in Castries market
“The products we can see here in the market offer a different texture, taste and uniqueness which cannot be found elsewhere. The herbs that are available - like seasoning peppers, shadow benny, little leaf thyme and cinnamon bark - add a flavourful dimension which is unique to the islands. This gives us an opportunity to offer an authentic ‘farm to table’ experience which is different and exciting.
Peter then cooked me a seven course tasting menu in which each dish featured one of the remarkable items we’d bought from the market. And it was one of the most memorable meals I’ve ever had. Indeed, the Rendezvous is planning to make the market-visit a special feature for visitors who wish to sign up to enjoying a hyper-local meal
Two hour’s drive south across the mountains and through the rainforest, the chefs at Jade Mountain resort do not need to go to the market often because his resort has its very own estate, complete with organic gardens where he picks local ingredients and experiments in growing a ever-wider range with a head gardener who happens to have a doctorate in tropical horticulture.
Jade Mountain
The last time I visited the chef had only been in post at the amazingly beautiful twin resorts of Anse Chastanet and Jade Mountain for a few months - and after a career spent cooking in many exotic parts of the world he is being bowled over by the extraordinary range of vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices he is discovering in the Emerald Estate gardens.
The garden, surrounded by rainforest just behind the fishing village of Soufriere and just under the remains of a massive old volcano, was without the most exotic horticultural endeavour I’ve ever visited, and we spent an entire morning strolling around it with Stefan tasting herbs and spices I didn’t know existed.
Karolin Troubetzkoy, executive director of Anse Chastanet and Jade Mountain resorts also serves as president of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association, and she told me that tourists increasingly ranked food as a primary motivator in their travel decisions.
“Visitors to our Caribbean region are looking for unique culinary experiences and locally sourced products. Increasingly, our culinary offerings are driving destination traffic alongside established factors such as accommodation and scenery,” said Karolyn.
Back at his kitchens at the unbelievably stylish Jade Mountain, the chef showed me a local fish he’s keen to buy from the fishermen who hunt the coral reefs. It’s called a lionfish and the catching and eating of it represents a true win-win situation. Staff at Jade Mountain had discovered that lionfish have been decimating populations of other marine creatures ever since it had been accidentally introduced to the Caribbean. The chef also discovered that it was delicious to eat.
Lionfish
Now the kitchen pays local fishermen to catch these predatory but delicious marine creatures and stage a special event at which the lionfish is prepared in a variety of ways and eaten.
To me, this story symbolises all that food should be. By eating good local ingredients we aren’t wrecking the planet - we are helping it to thrive and also putting money into the pockets of local farmers, gardeners, meat producers and fisherman instead of big greedy corporations.
Beach at Anse Chastanet
Recipes from the Rendezvous resort in northern St Lucia
Many of the stranger sounding items like bitter gourd in these recipes appear in larger supermarkets nowadays and certainly in West Indian markets in British cities. Shadow bennie taste remarkably like coriander, only stronger.
Avocado and bitter gourd salad
Ingredients serves 4
1 piece avocado cut into wedges
½ piece bitter gourd (4oz)
1 teaspoonful sugar
1 cup coconut milk
1 table spoon olive oil
2 cracked bay leaf seeds
1 star anise
1 whole, squeezed orange juice
chairman’s reserve rum
For tamarind dressing
1 piece tamarind- deseeded and shell removed
1 sprig shadow bennie - finely chopped
Grated nutmeg for taste
1 oz onions – finely chopped
4 oz olive oil
¼ green tomatoes, seeds removed and finely chopped -
Salt pepper
Method,
Mix all the ingredients in a gastronomic bowl and chill before serving
Method
Cut the bitter gourd in half lengthwise, remove the seeds with spoon and slice thinly
Soak the bitter gourd in coconut milk for 20 minutes
Cook the bitter gourd in salted boiling water for 5 minutes,
Pour olive oil in a sauce pan and caramelise the onions, sugar, star anise and cracked bay seeds
Add orange juice, bitter gourd and rum, then toss for 1 minute.
Chill until required
Serve with avocado, organic lettuce and tamarind dressing
Grilled Chicken with Mango KuchelaIngredients serves 4
4 pieces chicken breast
¼ piece garlic clove cut into two
1 whole mango-half ripe, peeled and finely diced
1 bunch shadow bennie, roughly chopped
garam masala
1 oz onions – grated
1 green chilli -f inely chopped
salt pepper
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and chill before serving
For the baste
½ oz extra virgin olive oil
2 medium cloves garlic, mashed with a pinch of salt into a paste
¼ oz lemon juice from about 1 lemon
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh oregano
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl
Method for the chicken,
Baste the chicken breasts and allow to chill for 30 minutes. Place the chicken on the hot side of the grill, directly above the coals. Sear the breasts for four minutes per side, turning only once and brushing with baste, until golden brown. If the grill flares up, move them to the warm, or indirect, side of the grate. When the breasts are properly browned and cooked, remove from grill. Test for doneness.
Serve chicken breast with shadow bennie (or coriander) rice, mango kuchela and celery gravyZepina (or alternatively, spinach) soup with jerk shrimps
Ingredients serves 4
1/2 lb fresh zepina (or spinach) leaves
¼ piece garlic clove cut into two
bouquet garni
½ pint of vegetable stock
salt and pepper
¼ pint coconut milk
2 oz celery diced
3 oz onions – roughly chopped
2 oz double cream
4 oz shrimps
1 table spoonful jerk marinade
olive oil
Method
Sauté the onions, garlic and the zepina leaves in olive oil.
Add the bouquet garni and vegetable stock and cook until the leaves are tender.
Remove the bouquet garni and puree the soup in a blender
Strain the soup and add in coconut milk,salt pepper and simmer for 10 minutes
In a separate pan, sauté the shrimps with jerk marinade and cook for 3 minutes.
Garnish the soup with jerk shrimps
