Caribbean Chutney Rapture
Chutney, that wonderful Indian invention! I can lay claim to it because My Dad is a Jamaican Indian.
We had chutney every Christmas as both Mum and Dad Love their chutney. they also love pickled gherkins, and those tiny little pickled onions. My favourites were the cranberry jelly and the mango chutney.
During the 1980s, mum decided that she would make her own chutney. There was I, the unwilling ‘helper’, artfully dodging the Caribbean food Queen’s wooden spoon which would frequently scythe toward me when I hadn’t completed a task correctly.
Was it REALLY my fault one year when I accidently left out the sugar? Or the year she left me totally in charge, only to return to the smell of burning metal?
How did these misdemeanors happen?
Well you have to understand – I went nowhere without a book when I was a child, I walked to school reading a book, went shopping reading a book, and was usually reading a book when my parents instructed me to do something. I was a book demon!
The consequences I’m afraid were that I only picked up bits and pieces of what they had said.
Still, I think my mum missed her calling. She should have invented a chutney factory. I can picture it now, piles and piles of over ripe fruit. Vats of vinegar whose aroma would sting one’s eyes like sharp darts. Mountains of sugar you could ski down, and hundreds of Jars eerily humming a low tune as they waited to be filled.
Of course now her chutneys are to die for. At first your taste buds are gently caressed with the honey sweet taste of fruit, after which there is an explosion of peppers, onions and ginger slowly saturating your mouth filling your being with Caribbean sunshine, and leaving you totally satisfied.
Absolutely Divine!
Try the recipe below for a little sunshine happiness:
ANGELI’S CARIBBEAN RHUBARB RAPTURE
INGREDIENTS
50g Fresh Root Ginger chopped
5ooml Cider vinegar
700g Cooking apples
700g Rhubarb
250g Cranberries (I used the ones sweetened with apple juice)
500g onions chopped
650g Raw cane sugar
2 teas chopped garlic
1 tblsp Pimento berries (grind in pestle and morter)
1/2 tblsp black peppercorns (grind in pestle and morter)
2 teas finely ground cinnamon
1 tblsp salt
1 teasp finely chopped scotch bonnet pepper.
2 tblsp Martell cognac.
METHOD
Wash peel and roughly chop apples into small pieces.
Wash trim and chop rhubarb into approx 2cm chunks.
Peel and wash onions, then finely chop.
Now crush and finely chop the ginger. Next using a pestle and morter, or a coffee grinder, grind the pimento berries and peppercorns.
Now finely chop the scotch bonnet pepper.
Put all the ingredients EXCEPT THE RHUBARB into a large stainless steel pan, and on a medium High heat, bring to the boil. Now turn down heat so that everything is simmering and bubbling. REMEMBER, NO LID. Put your timer on for 50mins and give the mixture a good stir every so often as this will prevent it from sticking.
After 50mins add the Rhubarb and cook for another 20mins. Once the time is up turn off the heat and add the cognac. Give another good stir and leave mixture for approx 10mins before putting into jars.
THE JARS.
To sterilise your jars make sure you wash both jars and lids in hot soapy water. You can then rinse them off in the dishwasher on a hot rinse, or rinse by hand in hot water. I usually put them in a solution of milton and water for about 10-15 mins, rinse off and then place in a hotish oven around 150c/fan 140c/gas for about 10 mins.
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A Right Royal Knees Up
It had to be done, William and Kate had decided to tie the knot at last. I waited with baited breath for the announcement. Finally , in November, it came. I could breath again.
April 29th 2011. How fantastic. I decided I would go on a diet and spend a fortune on hair and clothes so that I would look good at the Abbey. What would I bring as a wedding gift? Some Caribbean Food fruit cake? Some Ceremonial Sorrel drink?
The invitation never arrived.
Never mind, I’ve lost a stone in weight, and I didn’t want to go anyway. All those TV cameras. All those people. Braying and cheering at anything that moved.
No I didn’t want to go.
But of course I wanted to see the dress.
We all piled into my brother’s house. Friends, family and hangers’ on – most weren’t intending to watch, but because we had watched the Royal Soap that was ‘Charles and Diana’, It was felt that we had to watch William get married. For Diana. Needless to say, it was really only the women that stayed glued to the TV, the men had lost the will to live.
We were told to bring something to eat, so I made some savoury Caribbean food tarts – Ackee,and Panchetta. Of course there had to be fizz, so I brought a couple of bottles of Pommery.
Oh, it was loverly! It was grand! Nobody in the world does Pageants the way we do here in Britain! Moreover, they didn’t leave us out, reference to ‘Commoners’ were made throughout the broadcast, people were fawning, bowing and scraping all over the place making me feel quite queasy- as if I had been transported back to the Victorian age!
I can now rest easy knowing that the ‘Chelsea set’, and the blue blooded aristocrats, not only had a good time, but that they are seemingly riding out the credit crunch without too much pain, judging by the outfits.
Furthermore, when I’ve lost my job, as most of us ‘commoners’ will in the next couple of years, at least I can sleep well at night knowing the Royal Family will be able to survive yet another generation. Hurrah!
Gawd bless you all suh!
Celebrate with me by making my caribbean food savoury tarts.
Angeli’s Supreme Caribbean Food Ackee and Panchetta tart.
It is nigh on impossible to get fresh Ackees unless you are in the Caribbean, so we always used tinned.
1 x 500g tin Ackee
1x teas chopped red scotch bonnet pepper
1/4 teas thyme
1 teas chopped garlic
2 plump ripe tomatoes chopped
1 teas freshly ground black pepper
3 rashers of panchetta , or bacon thinly sliced into 2cm long pieces.
1/2 teas salt.
1 packet of puff pastry (375g)
Oven temp 22oc or 200c(fan)
METHOD
Open tin of Ackee and drain off liquid. Put ackee into bowl of hot salted water and leave
Fry off the Panchetta/bacon for aprox 3 mins on a med high heat.
Next add the onion and fry for aprox another minute.
Now add the tomato, garlic, thyme and scotch bonnet and cook for aprox 2mins
Finally, gently strain off the water from the Ackee, and carefully add to the tomato mixture.
Turn down heat to med low and cook for about 2 mins.
Remove contents to a plate and sprinkle the black pepper over the mixture. Leave to cool.
PASTRY
Roll out the pastry until approx 0 .5 mm/1/4 inch thick.
divide pastry into 4 rectangles – each about 8cmx12cm or about 6inx4in. and place onto a non-stick baking tray.
Pile the cooled mixture onto the rolled and scored pastry and put into oven for about 15mins.
(it is very important that you score the inner area with a knife so that the pastry under the mixture doesn’t rise).
Now serve as a substantial starter, or as a wonderful snack and enjoy!
Love, Laughter and Food for All
Angeli 
Roman Catholics and Dominoes.
As a child, Easter was a very important date in my Caribbean food diary.
Firstly, I would be on school break. Secondly, it was a time when my mum would make her Heavenly Easter Bun, and thirdly, my dad would have bought some new music which he would then play – in true Jamaican DJ fashion – very, very loudly. So loud in fact, that the windows would vibrate and dance in time to the beat.
There would be friends round, and dominos played with gladitorial intent – my dad and his mates obsessively eyeing their ‘cards’ and then staring intently at each other as if to bore a hole through their opponants’ heads. They would consume large amounts of bun and cheese together with fish and bread, washed down with large doses of overproof rum – always with water added of course, no self respecting Caribbean food lover would drink overproof rum neat.
My siblings and I loved it. We would charge up and down the stairs, chasing each other in whatever world we had just made up, shouting and making strange noises to suit. Occasionally, we would miss our footing and bounce down the stairs like loose bowling balls. This would inevitably drive my mum absolutely mad, so that she would subsequently ban us to the garden, or bedrooms depending on the weather.
Before all this frivolity and fun however, there was Good Friday. Always a solemn day.My mum being a Roman Catholic, meant that we would observe the Roman Catholic tradition of fasting until 12.00 noon and abstaining from meat. We always had fish.
My mum would always drag me unceremoniously along with her to the fishmongers one or two days before Good Friday. After what seemed like hours of regally pointing, haughtily smelling, and tenaciously haggling, we would finally emerge, mum satisfied, me totally bored.
During our Fishmonger visit, Mum would have picked up a couple of kilo of sprats which she would then deep fry . They were gorgeous! I could never get enough of them! I would guzzle them down with some fragrant Hard dough Bread, layered with butter, and sweet fried onions, the juice would have drizzled down my face and covered my hands, but it was always worth it – My mum is a Caribbean food magician! She would also perform magic with our evening meal; serving ambrosial, spicy, red snapper with soft, waxy, green bananas, fluffy, melt-in-the-mouth yellow yams , and satisfyingly gelatinous boiled dumplings.
Perhaps you fancy a change from fried, baked, or poached fish. Why not try my Salt Cod Pate? Absolutely divine with fried plantains.
ANGELI’S Caribbean Food SALT COD PATE
INGREDIENTS
250g Salt Cod – or any salted white fish
100ml Creme fraiche
2 tablespoons Mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Anchovy paste
1/2 oz chopped and de-seeded scotch bonnet pepper
1 teaspoon crushed black peppercorns
1 oz chopped coriander leaves
2 cloves of chopped garlic
METHOD
Soak the salted fish for aprox 3hrs, changing the water 3 or 4 times – this will wash out most of the salt. Next shred the fish.
Put all the ingredients into a food blender and blitz until fine.
Serve as an appetizer or a starter and enjoy!
Love, Laughter and Food for all
Angeli