At 4 pm sometime in the late 80’s a little girl use to shout at her mother to get these beautiful tasty fruits to her just before Sesame Street started. The mother would peel a juicy half ripe apple and sprinkle a little salt on the outside and cut it in segments, place it in the bowl and give it to her daughter.
Biting into these apples channels me back to my childhood in Barbados. The sweet juicy apple and the slightly salty coating is a beautiful memory. I cannot begin to describe the taste of this fruit. It is not like anything that you tasted before if you live outside the Caribbean.( I saw the taste being compared to a mix of pineapple and mango) The green golden apple is hard eg raw potato hard. It is light and sweet and slightly tart. There is a prickly seed in the middle that use to punch my lips and gum as a child until I bled (I wanted to eat the seed and my mom let me).The pain was short-lived as the tasty apple made up for it.
The season for the fruit runs from November until January annually.The interior of the fruit has some fibres running through it. Like most Caribbean fruits it is very high in Vitamin C and other nutrients. It can be eaten green, ripe or half ripe. In the photo you can see the green one and half ripe ones. Children love this fruit and so do adults. The most common thing that is made with this fruit in Barbados is juice. The juice is sought after and some people said there is no other juice on this earth that can taste as good as this. I do not agree with these statements although the drink made from this is out of this world. In Trinidad and Tobago they do some more savory things with this apple and I wanted to try it for myself as it was just a bit out of the box for me as I was use to eating this fruit as is. They make golden apple chutney that is used to top Doubles and they also make a simple salad called Golden Apple Chow which is just piece of the fruit with garlic, cilantro salt and Caribbean pepper sauce. Now Trinis ( people from Trinidad and Tobago) are absolutely tolerant to peppers. Seriously, I watch them eat fries laced with pepper like if it is ketchup! This recipe had me worried slightly as I had to crack open my homemade bottle of Caribbean killer pepper sauce…I was not sure my husband would have eaten it but stick around you will see what happened. Back to my Trini friends. I read the blog called Simply Trini Cooking by Felix almost every week. It is not a vegan blog but he tends to do some vegan dishes and a some vegetarian ones.What I love about his blog is so many things. You can see that he loves his food. His cooking is no frills but the result is always beautiful and his blog is very simple and easy to follow plus, he is a big “peppermout”,his blog really showcases Trini foods in the big way that is is, he does step by step tutorials. His recipe for Pomme Cythere Chow caught my eyes a few weeks ago and I vowed to do it once I got some of the first golden apples from the tree outside. Click here to see the recipe for this
Golden Apple Chow
I made mine with a mixture of half ripe and green apples and the results were great. It was slightly strange eating garlic and sweet apples but it started to grow on me after a few pieces. The recipe was very strange for my husband who a. is not a big golden apple eater to begin with and b. it was the hottest thing I ever gave him to eat, but…there is a big BUTT. As killer spicy as this was he found it addictive and we almost ate this entire small bowl on the beach. The only pitfalls were the heat and trying to play beach tennis after eating this but for me it was so worth it.
So where can you get them outside of the Caribbean? Beats me! Lol but, I saw them in some Asian markets in Canada from time to time. Most golden apple trees are organic as you do not need to use anything on them to grow. Golden apples give body to fruit salads and imo would be a fruit that people would like.
This post was scheduled for Sunday. I do not know what went wrong. Anyways it is too late.
This soup is one of my favourite Caribbean soups because of the smoky taste and bits of protein floating around in the soup. It is hearty, low fat, super flavourful and of course spicy. How can you have a Caribbean soup without a slight kick to it? One of my best friends told me to make this for the book as it is her favourite soup so here it is Sunita.
Soup Consumption in the Caribbean
Some of my readers may wonder why the hell people in the Caribbean even drink soup in the first place as it is hot everyday? Well to answer your question they would drink soup everyday or at least 3 times a week if they could. They really do not care if it makes them sweat when they eat it but what they love is the filling nature of soup and all the wonderful flavours that mix together. From my observation many people like to drink soup in the middle of the week for lunch. In Bridgetown you can see many people carrying around their small styrofoam soup containers from all of the restaurants over the city. The vegan restaurant in Barbados offers a different soup everyday the last time I check and the name are very outrageous but it is sold out before noon. You see how serious soup is? This brings about another issue to what is soup to many Barbadians. The soup I have made today may have a few rivals to say it is not Caribbean. The reason for this is because I have blended this soup. This is un heard of as they love soup their soup chunky with veg and flour dumplings cooked inside. I for one do not like this chunky soup at all and I was very happy to see soups in North America and Europe smooth and drinkable. I decided to avoid eating chunky soups and just puree them all to please my palate.
The News
OK finally the news that I have been holding back for all of this time. There is an article written by me in the Winter Edition of The Vegan UK’s Vegan Society quarterly magazine. You would find a recipe that has not been posted on the blog that will be in the book.
So that is it for this week. Until next week. Sorry for all the blog I have not commented on recently. I have been really busy these days but I am reading still. I will make up for it soon. Thanks again to my readers for stopping by. For my Caribbean Readers tell me which Vegetarian Soup is consumed in your island? Others, do you like your soups chunky or smooth?
Oh I am feeling generous. I have a mid- week post. I choose to highlight this dish as it is the time of the year for many to be eating hot casseroles and this is a good recipe idea.This is an “international” favourite of mine I put the quotes because that is relative. I have veganized this dish but layering cooked eggplant and courgettes with thinly sliced potatoes. To bind I used a white sauce slightly flavoured with nutmeg as suggested by a friend and the results were stellar. You can choose to use spinach ,pine nuts of sunflower seeds to top your moussaka and bake it to perfection.Click here to read more about Moussaka.
The second picture is one I took 2 years ago(when I did not know how to take pictures well and used flash!!!). It was the first one I made with a lattice type top using the spinach. Many
blogs also have Moussaka. I remember I first met Bianca at Vegan Crunk through the Moussaka post she did on her blog as I posted the recipe to mine the same time as she did. Mine has a bit of island flair to it I must admit but I tried to stay close to the original scope of the recipe. I think the real one uses lamb I think and I remember getting into a big argument with someone who told me how dare I make something like Moussaka vegan.I never had the original version as I never had lamb in my life but I am sure the recipe would please many of your omnivorous friends. If you want this recipe leave me a mail or comment.Oh and there is no fake cheese being used in this recipe. The crispy top is just from the rich white sauce.
I scheduled the next post for Sunday morning so it is Caribbean food as usual and the announcement.
Have a great week.
This is kind of a repeat post with new photos and reflections. I decided to do this post today because this recipe is very elusive and very difficult to replicate at home and I made it over 6 times just to get it right. I will be eating salt breads all next year with the amount I have stored in the freezer:(. Once you get it right it will be a staple for bread baskets and picnic lunches.
Salt Breads are yeasted buns found in Barbados. Every island has a roll that is a staple eg Trinidad has the Hops bread, Jamaica has their coco bread and Barbados has its salt bread. These are savory buns used to for almost any filling you can think of. When baked, the resulting bread has a thin soft crust and the inside is soft and pillowy. Salt breads are sold in 5’s in clear plastic bags and you can find them in supermarkets, bakeries or some people sell them at the side of the road. A sandwich made with a salt bread is not called a sandwich or a sub but a “cutter”.
The holidays are coming up and I am heading home. A ham cutter is what most people wake up to on Xmas morning. For the last couple of years I did not wake up to any cutter because I went vegan and I felt out of place and could not come up with new traditions that I loved. This holiday I will be waking up to the cutter in the photo made with home-made seitan spiced ham topped with a beer and pineapple glaze. Although the ham I am speaking about is not photographed as it is in my mind that is what I will be eating hopefully. Standing in for my seitan ham is YvesVegan Ham Slices (which by the way the supermarket started to bring because I sent them an e-mail….also 6 different vegan cheeses and a bunch of vegan hotdogs.. off topic). It is nice to be able to enjoy this simple cutter again and trust me it is not about pork but the smoky flavours of the vegan slices and the pepper sauce and the soft salt bread. For me it is just the wonderful flavours that can be replicated without killing animals.
The yellow sauce you see on the ham is Barbadian pepper sauce which has a mustard base. Will definitely be in the book as it is a batch I made a few months ago. Finally the strange beverage that you can see at the back is unfermented ginger beer and lime syrup.Ginger beer is a wonderful addition to your holiday menu as it is spicy and it really warms you up. If you want the recipe for the fermented ginger beer or unfermented ginger beer drop me a comment telling me this.
So that is it for this week…. and more holiday ideas will be coming up soon.
My husband had a big dislike for Chinese takeout and I did not understand why. The sweet sauces and the grease would get to him. In some islands Asian indentured servants were bought to the Caribbean and like most things their cooking style rubbed off on the locals. Veggie chowmein is one of them. Do not let the look of this dish deceive you. It does not taste like Chinese take out but very Caribbean. You see the Caribbean locals liked the chowmein but they used their own herbs and spices to make the sauce and this is the result. Veggie chowmein, something you can get at most restaurants in the English-speaking Caribbean. Slightly spicy , moreish and hearty and one of the only white pastas I eat at least twice a year. It is a bit difficult to find chowmein. Check a Chinese supermarket to get a good tasting egg free chowmein. The one I used was made in Guyana which is in South America but generally speaking it still makes up the Caribbean. Sometimes Chinese shopkeepers would make chowmein at home but this practice has phased out due to health and safety issues as they needed to dry it outside. Now chowmein is made in factories where good manufacturing practices are observed. Before white pasta came main stream in the Caribbean housewives only used chowmein and macaroni for cooking. Seitan pieces, pressed tofu of faux chicken strips can be added to make it a complete meal. Lets just say my husband was asking for seconds and thirds for this dish.
I hope you guys had a good weekend. Here is another one that is currently a work in progress. Your friend salt bread is back again and it is stuffed with a spicy veggie home-made burger. As an accessory there are some yellow flesh sweet potatoes. This is great after a long day at the beach when you just want to indulge. Although I did not have this burger the recipient that I made it for was very happy. Missing from the photo is some home-made bbq sauce that is slow cooked for a few hours. This salt bread here is a soft bite salt bread which is tender and almost pillowy. I will let the testers decide which salt bread recipe makes it into the book. The leaf at the top of the bread is a coconut palm which gives the bread its rustic appearance and characteristic smell. If I was to be a bread I would be a fresh salt bread. There are 3 more places open for testers so come forward ..if you dare…
Have a good week.
This blog would be updated weekly now so check back every Saturday or Sunday.
