Lesley Enston’s heartfelt new cookbook, Stomach Full, is the whole lot a cookbook ought to be. To start with, I’m excited to cook dinner the whole lot in it…
…like pumpkin fritters and coconut-stewed greens and candy plantain omelettes and meat stews flavored with intense inexperienced sauces. These are shiny, lovely recipes that inform tales.
Enston grew up in Toronto with a Trinidadian mom and Canadian father, and as she received older felt drawn to folks of the Caribbean islands, like Puerto Rico, Dominica, Jamaica, Barbados, Haiti and past. Regardless that their languages and spices differed, she says, “I felt at residence of their meals, their music, and that unmistakable vibe of an individual who grew up with the solar of their face, surrounded by the Caribbean Sea.”
Her 100-plus recipes are organized by 11 key components throughout Caribbean cuisines — beans, calabaza, cassava, chayote, coconut, cornmeal, okra, plantains, rice, salted cod, and Scotch bonnet peppers.
And Enston makes the tales private. The pholourie (deep-fried break up pea fritters) was “100% one among my favourite causes for visiting Trinidad.” For Soup Jomou, Haiti’s “Freedom Soup,” she enlists Haitian-American chef Cybille St.Aude-Tate, who expresses awe at how lengthy her folks have been making it. And — my favourite half — most of the recipes weave by way of the joyous recollections of her household’s residence cooking, like this pelau, under.
“‘Me stomach full’ is a phrase you’ll hear all through the English-speaking Caribbean,” Enston writes within the introduction. “It has an apparent which means — a full and glad abdomen — however can even imply a full and glad coronary heart and soul.”
Pelau (Rooster and Rice)
From Stomach Full by Lesley Enston
Serves 6-8
Says Lesley: Whereas Arroz con Pollo often is the most well-known model of hen and rice exterior of the Caribbean, pelau is the one I do know finest. It at all times confirmed up at household capabilities at my aunt’s home across the nook… As an individual who, previous to having a small little one, by no means had ketchup in my home, I’ve to confess it’s actually the key sauce. You might substitute tomato paste should you should, and I’ve, however the magic will likely be lacking. I’ve eaten loads of pelaus in my life, however this one from Dominica is likely to be my favourite.
3 kilos bone-in hen thighs, pores and skin eliminated, reduce into bite-size items
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons Inexperienced Seasoning, retailer purchased or selfmade (under)
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon freshly floor black pepper
2 tablespoons coconut oil or different impartial oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 yellow onion, diced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 giant carrot, diced
2 teaspoons recent thyme leaves
1 15-ounce can kidney beans, drained
¼ cup ketchup
3 cups water
2 cups basmati or jasmine rice
In a medium bowl, combine the hen with ¼ cup of the inexperienced seasoning, two-thirds of the garlic, the salt, paprika, and pepper, utilizing your palms to verify the seasoning is evenly distributed. Place within the fridge to marinate for at the very least 2 hours or as much as in a single day. About half-hour earlier than cooking the hen, take away it from the fridge to return to room temperature.
In a big Dutch oven or different heavy-bottomed pot, warmth the coconut oil over medium-high warmth till it shimmers, then add the brown sugar. Prepare dinner, watching it consistently and stirring it often with a wood spoon to verify it cooks evenly, for five to eight minutes, till the sugar bubbles throughout, turns darkish brown, and simply begins to smoke. (This may differ from range to range; if it hasn’t occurred by minute eight, simply hold in there; the second will occur shortly after.) Instantly add the hen and take heed to it sing and sizzle. Prepare dinner the hen, uncovered, for five minutes, till it’s releasing its juices, then add the onion, remaining 2 tablespoons inexperienced seasoning, remaining garlic, the scallions, carrot, and thyme.
Scale back the warmth to low, cowl, and cook dinner for 10 minutes, till the greens are comfortable. Add the beans and ketchup and cook dinner till the ketchup has darkened, 3 to five minutes. Add the water, increase the warmth to excessive, and produce all of it to a boil. Add the rice, cut back the warmth to medium, and cook dinner, uncovered, till the water has largely evaporated, about quarter-hour. Give the whole lot a hearty stir to verify nothing sticks to the underside of the pot. Scale back the warmth to low, cowl, and cook dinner for 15 to twenty minutes extra, till the liquid has utterly evaporated.
Pelau is nice instantly and heats up nicely for a number of days after; retailer it in an hermetic container within the fridge.
Inexperienced Seasoning
In a meals processor mix the next till pureed and easy: 1 bunch culantro (about 8 leaves, should you can’t discover it, swap in cilantro); 1/2 cup recent cilantro; 1/2 cup recent parsley leaves; 1 head garlic cloves, peeled; 1 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped; 1 shallot; 5 scallions, roughly chopped; 1/4 cup recent thyme leaves; 1 celery stalk, roughly chopped; 1 (1-inch) piece recent ginger; peeled and roughly chopped; 1 seasoning pepper, seeded and roughly chopped (elective); 1/4 cup recent lime juice. Retailer in an hermetic glass jar within the fridge for as much as 1 month.
P.S. 5-ingredient dinners, and a Brooklyn brownstone impressed by the Caribbean.
(Pictures by Marc Baptiste.)