Steph Food

Time for another Jamaica Discovery!!

This time, we’re taking the more obvious route, and killing it with some JERK! Instead of the standard jerk chicken, we played with some nice white fish. (more…)

Time for some Jamaican breakfast!

Back from a much needed vacation, in a warm climate with a lovely beach and lots and lots of food. Maybe too much food.

We spent nearly a week in Montego Bay, Jamaica. My goal was to have some real Jamaican food, and that’s exactly what I did. Over the next little while, I’ll be showing some of the highlights, including at least one recipe attempt.

Today’s installment begins with Jamaica’s national dish, Ackee and Salt fish. This is a breakfast dish, to the surprise of many of my fellow travellers. We North Americans aren’t really known for having fish at breakfast. It was different, to be sure.
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It all started with the decision that I would make “Caramel Cod”.

Yes, I said Caramel Cod. If it doesn’t sound familiar to you, know that I didn’t come up with it on my own. I stole the idea from the Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror VIII“. What you may not realize – as I didn’t until I did a search – is that people haven’t been going crazy trying to make it. I am shocked. I have wanted to try a caramel cod since the first time I saw that episode.

OK, so I didn’t take a whole fish, put it on a stick and cover it in caramel. Instead, I tried to make something edible – and I think I succeeded! I cut the fish into chunks, coated it in breadcrumbs and cajun spices, seared the fish and then covered in freshly made caramel. It was a little bit sticky, sweet and spicy, and the fish was cooked perfectly.

I was pretty happy with myself, but I didn’t know it wouldn’t be a disaster, so it wasn’t the only thing I made.

We decided to have a ‘spread’ dinner, made up of veggies, dips, cheese, bread, and whatever else we feel like nibbling on. I made two special Hallowe’en-themed dips for the occasion.

The first is a Squeamish Squash dip, a blend of sweet squash and tingly spices. This is a great way to use up leftover squash, or even sweet potato.

The second is a spoooky Green Slime Dip. What’s so spooky about it? Your breath after you eat it — it’s full of garlic and onion!! This dip was inspired by the memory of a dip that my friend Mess and I made for a Hallowe’en party we had in high school. We made all sorts of spooky treats — the Green Slime dip, an ice hand in punch, and lots more!

You can’t have a spooky dinner without some spooky beer! We chose Maudite – the damned – made in Quebec by Unibroue.

According to the wikipedia page:

The label depicts the legend of the Chasse-galerie (the legend of the Flying Canoe). Legend has it that a group of Voyageurs struck a deal with the devil to fly home in their canoes, guided by Satan himself, to make it home in time for Christmas. One renounced the pledge mid-flight, and they all plummeted to the ground.

Yarrr. And that’s the story of the very first caramel cod – and other fun things.

All three recipes after the jump!

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I have a bit of a history with pâté. Growing up German, I ate loads of Braunschweiger, which may be a liverwurst and not technically “pâté” per se… but kinda is pâté in its spreadable variations. I used to gross out my friends, who were normal and didn’t eat weird things like Braunschweiger.

One time in grade school, in particular, I had spooned some into a little lunch container and packed it with some crackers. Knowing what it was, and that people thought it was gross, I showed my friend Heather. She just smiled and made yummy actions. Confused, I asked her if she ate Braunchweiger… also confused, she told me she had thought it was chocolate ice cream. I totally grossed her out by telling her what it actually was. I never did figure out how she thought I kept the ice cream frozen in my bag.

Braunschweiger is one of the weirdest meat things that I missed when I stopped eating meat.

I can’t say I’ve tried to replace Braunschweiger with something veg. I sampled a couple of vegetarian pâtés at the Veggie Food Fair, but I never really felt the need to buy them. Now that I am an occasional meat eater, I haven’t jumped at the chance to have meat pâté again.

Not sure why, but it just hasn’t been on my radar.

Then I got the Daring Cooks‘ challenge for June. Make a pâté -  and like it! I chose to make the trout and shrimp pâté partly because it’s made up of seafood, and partly because the description claimed it was passed down through a variety of nameless people, and possibly their grandmas and their grandma’s neighbours or something. I like recipes that just randomly work their way through people.

The second part of this challenge is to make a bread, which is where the “Team Stephfood” silliness comes in. J is the bread maker in the house, and I’m very happy to leave that to him. We opted to complete this challenge together. For his part, he made a ciabatta bread with his sourdough starter and Vinifera flour. Vinifera is neat, because it’s made from the skins of grapes. It imparts a purplish hue (depending on how much you use, and what you mix with it), and adds a tart flavour.

The bread was amazing, and added some complexity to the pairing. The pâté was very mild, and I thought it needed some extra zazz. The bread definitely helped with that.

I enjoyed this challenge. It wasn’t something I would have looked for on my own, which makes it a good challenge for me. I don’t know for sure that I will make this regularly, but we thought it was tasty and different. It definitely goes well with our ‘spread’ dinners.

Our hostesses this month, Evelyne of Cheap Ethnic Eatz, and Valerie of a The Chocolate Bunny, chose delicious pate with freshly baked bread as their June Daring Cook’s challenge! They’ve provided us with 4 different pate recipes to choose from and are allowing us to go wild with our homemade bread choice.

Soon, I will be off on an adventure in a strange land, eating exotic food and exploring things older than my country.

Dramatic, yes! J and I are off to Turkey, and while there I will be taking in all of the new flavours. In fact, I’ve decided to start early. I bought some sumac, which is used in some Turkish dishes, and I’m ready to explore.

What is sumac like? This sounds kind of silly, but it tasted like smokey fire roasted tomatoes and berries. Weird, no? That’s what I thought of while I was eating it. I think it’s also important to be able to smell it, which is why it’s great to top a dish with it. The smell is at the same time intoxicating and bizarre. Seriously, I can’t think of any other spice that is like this. I think I’m in love.

OK, so I don’t know what constitutes “authentic” Turkish cuisine. Most of the dishes I see include some lamb, which I’m not against trying but will not be preparing any time soon. I’m also not quite ready to make a table full of Turkish mezze. I did a little bit of digging, and found this interesting sounding dish consisting of breadcrumb coated fish and a tomato rice pilaf.

Is it Turkish? Not sure. It sounds inspired by Turkish food, at the very least. It also sounds yummy.

I added some local fresh asparagus, and was ready to roll! How was it? I really liked the coating on the fish, and had lots left over (wish I had more fish to coat!). I had to cook the fish a little longer than the recipe called for, but in the end it was cooked perfectly. I thought that there was not enough sumac in the dish – the smell and taste of the sumac got a little lost in the breading. I added some extra to the bread crumb mixture, and ended up sprinkling it all over the rice pilaf.

Intrigued? You can find the recipes I used at the links below. I used tilapia instead of flathead, I used pecans instead of walnuts, I think I doubled the sumac in the coating and I cooked the fish a little longer than suggested… but yeah, really great recipes from a site that I think I will have fun exploring. Check it out!

Recipes from What You Having for Your Tea?

• Fish Coated in Walnut, Sumac & Paprika Crumbs
• Tomato Pilaf

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