Creamed Callaloo with Jerk-Seasoned Chicken

This summer, the local farmers’ harvests have been good to me. I’ve picked up early season green tomatoes, some fantastic golden raspberries, fresh garlic, rainbow carrots, and a bounty of other goodies, and to my surprise, one of the vendors was once again selling Callaloo, a green leafy vegetable that grows in tropical climates and is popular in Caribbean cooking, especially when made into a hearty stew bearing the same name (click here for my Callaloo recipe).

The actual species that gives us Callaloo leaves is the amaranth plant, a powerhouse whose seeds nutrient-packed, gluten-free seeds are cooked like grains. Back to the leaves—Callaloo leaves are full of vitamins A and C, and they taste like milder spinach.



Creamed Callaloo with Jerk-Seasoned Chicken

Callaloo leaves

1 T. / 15 mL coconut oil
1 t. / 4 g grains of paradise (also known as melegueta pepper)
1 large brown onion, sliced
1 serrano chile, minced
1 bunch callaloo leaves, chopped and rinsed
1 c. / 230 mL coconut milk
Juice of 1 lime
Salt and pepper to taste
Cooked rice, to serve
Grilled Jerk-Seasoned Chicken, to serve (recipe below)

Heat the coconut oil over medium heat in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. Add the grains of paradise, onion, and Serrano chile. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion becomes soft and translucent.

Add the callaloo leaves and a splash of water. Stir, then cover and reduce heat to low. Cook until the leaves have begun to wilt.

Add the coconut milk, lime juice, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until heated through. Spoon over cooked rice and serve alongside Grilled Jerk-Seasoned Chicken



Grilled Jerk-Seasoned Chicken

20 allspice berries, ground
½ t. / 3 g grains of paradise (also known as melegueta pepper)
1 t. / 4.5 g. ground ginger
2 t. / 9 g cayenne pepper
2 t. / 9 g garlic powder
2 t. / 9 g dried thyme
2 t. / 9 g salt
Approx. 2 lbs. / 1 kg chicken breast tenders, pounded ultra-thin

Combine all ingredients except the chicken. Blend well, then rub the spice mixture into the chicken. Grill over medium heat, approximately 2 minutes per side. Serve with Creamed Callaloo.

Nutritional info: serves six.  425 calories, 14 g fat, 34.5 g carbohydrates, 39 g protein.

Conch Chowder – The Boston Version

Of all the foods I tried in Key West last week, Conch Chowder was the recipe that struck me as The One – the one I had to duplicate, that is. The intermingled sounds of reggae, country, and Cuban jazz competing with each other from the nearby bars, the scents of cigar smoke, fried seafood, and suntan lotion, and the company of friends that I can only see after I’ve been felt up by TSA may have enhanced the flavors of the warm, mildly spiced tomato broth and the bits of salty, rich shellfish, but I did not want that bowl of soup to end.

The soup ended. The vacation ended. While city lights and potty-mouthed cabbies immediately conjure up a strange sense of home in my brain, my tastebuds still longed for the Keys, so I went on a mission to find conch and duplicate that delicious chowder.

This mission, while not impossible, was not fruitful. Tropical Foods, a Latin American/Caribbean Grocer located near Boston’s Dudley Square neighborhood, sells conch. Unfortunately, $55/pound is just not feasible for me, so I ended up back at square one – yearning for conch chowder, no conch.

Quahog

Fate must have been on my side, because just when I had mentally given up on my conch chowder, I spotted live quahogs at the grocery store. For my non-New Englanders, quahogs are large, hard-shell clams that weigh about a half-pound each in the shell. Once shucked, the meat inside is about the size of a golf ball, with a texture resembling calamari more than New England’s beloved steamer clams. Interestingly, one of our first stops in the Florida Keys was Alabama Jack’s, a roadside bar known for its conch fritters and sassy elderly dancers—where the New Englanders among us tried conch fritters for the first time. One girl compared the flavor and texture of conch to our quahogs.

To me, finding live quahogs was the equivalent of having my cake and eating it too – I could have my conch chowder, with a New England twist!


Conch Chowder – The Boston Version

Quahog, shelled

8 quahogs*
3 slices streaky bacon, chopped
1 onion, diced
1 potato, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
3-4 leafy celery stalks, chopped
8 allspice berries, crushed
2 large bay leaves, torn
1 t / 5 g dried thyme
5 roma tomatoes, diced
1 canned chile in adobo, minced
2-3 carrots, shredded using the large holes of a box grater
3.5 c / 830 mL shellfish stock
Juice of 1 lime
1 green onion, sliced
Large handful cilantro, chopped

First, prepare the quahogs. Place them in a large pot with a splash of water, and steam for about 6-8 minutes, or until the shells open up a bit. Quahogs will not open like small clams or mussels, they simply gape a bit. Remove from heat, and once the shells are cool enough to touch, pry the shells apart and remove the meat. Chop into small bits and set aside.

In a large stockpot, heat the bacon over medium-high heat. Cook 3-5 minutes or until the bacon is crisp, then add the onion, potato, red and green pepper, and celery. Cook for an additional 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables have softened.

Place the crushed allspice, bay leaves, and thyme in a mesh tea ball or in cheesecloth (if using cheesecloth, tie it into a small packet). Add the tea ball or cheesecloth packet to the stockpot, along with the tomatoes, the chile, the carrots, and the shellfish stock. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Now, add the conch meat, lime juice, green onion, and cilantro. Cook for a few minutes, stirring frequently, and serve hot. Note, this tastes much better when served outdoors with cigars burning and reggae on the iPod!


* If you do not live in New England, quahogs may be difficult to locate – the landlocked can substitute a half-pound (500g) regular fresh steamed clams or canned whole clams. For authenticity’s sake, you can also substitute canned conch (available at Amazon.com), but it is quite expensive.

Nutritional information: serves six. 437 calories, 8.2 g fat, 70 g carbohydrates, and 20 g protein per serving.

Stuffed Plantain Rolls with Callaloo, Bacon and Warm Chipotle Butter

This Christmas, Santa brought me some books on Puerto Rican and Floridian cooking. While I'm familiar with the names of most of the ingredients, I haven't had the experience of cooking with some of them, particularly plantains.  I love plantain - whether it's fried, mashed, or grilled, I've always been a fan of their starchy, semi-sweet flavor. So when I saw plantains in my produce department with a "4 for $1" tag, I threw a few into my basket. Talk about an offer I couldn't refuse! 


semi-ripe plantain

For those of you unfamiliar with plantains, they look almost identical to bananas.  However, they do not taste like bananas, nor can they be eaten raw - plantains must be cooked.  The great thing about plantains is that they can be eaten from their green stage to their fully black stage, each stage of ripeness offering different flavors and textures.  When green, they are starchy and potato-like; when black, they are much sweeter and less firm.  I like them best in the in-between phase, when the skins are starting to turn brown and spotted. 

Unsure of how I wanted to cook my plantains, I reached out to my friends and my Baconbutterbooze.com Facebook followers for input, but in the end, a spark of inspiration (and my compulsion to spike everything with bacon) led me to create the recipe below.  If you can find ripe plantains and callaloo, this recipe is one that I highly recommend! 


Stuffed Plantain Rolls with Callaloo, Bacon and Warm Chipotle Butter

4 c. cooked callaloo leaves*
4 chipotles in adobo, minced
1 T. adobo sauce
2 t. ground ginger
1 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. ground allspice
generous amount finely ground black pepper
1/2 t. salt
2 T. bread crumbs
2 semi-ripe plantains, peeled and cut lengthwise in 4 thin slices
8 slices thick-cut bacon
8 pats butter
Warm Chipotle Butter (recipe below)

Preheat the broiler to high, and soak 16 toothpicks in water.  In the meantime, make the stuffing.  If the cooked callaloo has any moisture, drain it in a colander, pressing any remaining liquid out.  Once drained, place it in a mixing bowl with the minced chipotles, adobo sauce, ginger, garlic powder, allspice, pepper, salt, and bread crumbs.  Mix well and set aside. 

Now, assemble the plantain rolls.  Take each strip of plantain, create a ring, and secure with a toothpick, as shown in the photo to the left.  Stuff the center with the callaloo stuffing, packing it in - it should be packed in tightly.  Next, stretch a slice of bacon around the plantain, and secure with a second toothpick.  Push the toothpicks in so that only the ends of each toothpick are visible - they have a tendency to burn.  Finally, top each roll with a pat of butter. 

Broil 3-4 minutes per side, using barbecue tongs to turn.  Turn them over carefully so that you don't squish the plantains or lose the stuffing mid-turn.  Once both sides are broiled, remove from the oven, turn the broiler to low, and finish under the broiler for about 10-15 more minutes. 

Remove from oven, drizzle with Warm Chipotle Butter, and serve hot.

* If you cannot find fresh callaloo leaves, canned callaloo can be purchased online. 


Warm Chipotle Butter

3 T. butter
1 T. adobo sauce, from can of chipotles in adobo
1 T. malt vinegar

Melt the butter in a small saucepan.  Whisk in the adobo sauce and malt vinegar.  Continue whisking until the vinegar's aroma has dissipated, and drizzle the hot melted butter over the Plantain Rolls.

Around the World in Eighty Bites - Jamaica

Perhaps I should have saved this post for wintertime, a time when anything that can point one's thoughts in the direction of a warmer climate is greatly appreciated, but my tastebuds go where my cravings take me - I don't plan this stuff.  This week, they went to Jamaica.  Jamaican food is highly underrated in this country, which is a shame because it is creative, distinct, and perfect for the sweltering heat Boston has been getting for the past few weeks.

Jamaican culture is often parodied in mainstream American media through depictions of dreadlocked Rastafarii smoking ganja, paired with thought bubbles containing the words, "Hey, mon!" or "We jammin!" Yes, some Jamaicans smoke weed - so do some Bostonians, but we don't see cartoons of red-haired, pink-faced guys in Sox hats smoking blunts with the caption, "Yeahhhh, bro! Reefahhhh!" Ohhh, stereotypes. Behind this all-too-popular mockery is an exciting culture stemming from collective resistance to one of mankind's greatest wrongs, and out of that culture came inspired cooking.

The slave trade, that brutal scar on humanity's history, is the greatest factor in the formation of Jamaican cuisine and culture. With the slave trade came ingredients from Africa, as well as those brought to the Island by white people. Once the legal slave trade was ended, Asian-Indian labor was used in Jamaica's sugar plantations, and curries became popular on the Island, taking on a Caribbean flavor.

Prevalence of the Rastafarian image in American media does not reflect Jamaican culture as a whole. Hollywood would have us believe that Jamaican food is centered around pot brownies, which is certainly not the case. However, Rastafarians do have a dietary regimen in place - called Ital - which simply bans processed foods.  Was this an early version of the Slow Food movement? 

For this post, I cooked two traditional Jamaican dishes with ingredients common enough in the States that you should have no problem duplicating them. These recipes go from good to great when combined with rum drinks and Buju Banton!
　

Beans & Rice

1 T. coconut oil (or other vegetable oil)
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 can Goya dry pigeon peas
1 fresno chile or red jalapeno, chopped
3 cups cooked rice, seasoned with Goya Sazon
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. allspice powder
2-3 green onions, sliced
salt & pepper to taste

Heat the coconut oil over medium heat in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. When it has melted, add the yellow onion. Cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion has softened a bit.

Next, add the pigeon peas and fresno chile. Cook for another minute or two, just until the pigeon peas are heated through. Finally, add the cooked rice, green pepper, garlic powder, allspice, green onions, and salt and pepper. Stir until well-blended, then continue stirring until it is heated through. Serve with Jerk Chicken.


Jerk Chicken

1 pound chicken breast strips, pounded thin with a meat mallet
1 batch Jerk marinade (see recipe)

Marinate the chicken strips for 1-4 hours in the jerk marinade. Cook on the grill, 2-3 minutes per side, or until cooked through. If you do not have a grill, bake in a 400-degree oven for approximately 20 minutes, turning once.


Jerk Marinade

This is my adaptation of a recipe found in Bon Appetit's July 2011 issue.

4 T. vegetable oil
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
4 green onions, chopped
4 habanero peppers, chopped*
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 T. dried thyme (or 2 T. fresh)
1 T. grated fresh ginger
1 T. brown sugar
2 t. ground allspice
1 t. salt
1/2 t. finely ground black pepper
2 T. malt vinegar

Combine all the ingredients in a blender. Process until a consistent puree is achieved.

* If you can't take the heat of habaneros, you can wimp out and use jalapenos.

Rice & Beans - Global Comfort Food

Rice and beans. Beans and rice. Tomato, tomaahto. Every Spanish-speaking country has its own variation of this staple dish, and there are many, many nuances - with or without meat, black beans vs. red beans, with or without coconut, side by side vs. mixed together. Some recipes carry more symbolism than others - for instance, the Cuban version uses black beans with white rice and is called "Moros y Cristianos," a name referring to the battles between the Moors and the Christians in Spain.  Although true rice and beans is a Hispanic/Latino specialty, other cultures create their own variations - lentils and rice are served in the mideast and in India and Pakistan, and Italians enjoy "risi e bisi," which is risotto with peas.

Cultural traditions aside, rice and beans is one of the most nutritionally sound dishes you can serve. The ingredients are inexpensive, easy to come by, and easy to store, and the preparation couldn't be much simpler. This was one of my "broke college kid" staples, but even though I can afford more expensive food now, I still go back to this dish because it's comfort food. Try my version or play around with your own variation of this dish!

Rice & Beans1 T. bacon fat

1 small onion, diced

1 lb. chorizo, sliced into bite-sized pieces

2 jalapenos, diced (or 1 green bell pepper if you prefer a milder flavor)

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 can pigeon peas

2 t. cumin seeds, toasted

2 t. Goya Adobo seasoning (I like the variety with bitter orange)

1 t. oregano

1/3 cup chicken broth

2 cups hot cooked rice, seasoned with 1 packet Goya Sazon

salt and pepper to taste

handful chopped cilantro

sour cream, to serve

In a large, heavy-bottomed pan, fry the onion and chorizo in the melted bacon fat over medium heat until the onions have softened. Next, add the jalapenos, red pepper, pigeon peas, cumin, Adobo, oregano, and chicken broth. Mix well and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the chicken broth is fully evaporated. Now, add the rice, salt, pepper, and cilantro. Stir until the rice is fully incorporated, then serve in bowls with a dollop of sour cream.

Callaloo Recipe

I promised you my Callaloo recipe, so here it is for those of you interested.  This recipe was adapted from the Joy of Cooking 75th Anniversary edition - I used their ingredients but did not follow the proportions (all the measurements given below are estimates).  It is very simple - if you can chop and stir, you can make this recipe.  It goes together rather quickly, but the prep work is time consuming, so this isn't a stew to make if you're looking for something quick.  Save this for a rainy weekend and freeze the leftovers.

Callaloo:
5 strips bacon, sliced into 1/2" pieces
1/2 red onion, minced
1 small bunch green onions, sliced
1/4lb. ham, diced

1 large bunch callaloo, leaves only, cut into bite-sized pieces*
4 cups chicken or seafood stock (seafood stock recipe follows)
1t. fresh thyme
1/2t. chile flakes
1 can coconut milk
1 cup fresh or frozen okra**
1 fillet tilapia, sliced into bite-sized chunks
1/4lb. crab or shrimp
salt and pepper
boiled rice, to serve


* If you cannot find fresh callaloo, canned callaloo can be purchased online.

The first thing I did was prepare the ingredients.  This took about half a decade, but I am admittedly very slow at doing prep work.  That's what happens when you get a neurotic cook who needs to have every slice of onion the exact same size...

First step to the cooking is to fry the bacon in the bottom of a large stock pot until it crisps up.  Then, add the red and green onion and the ham, stirring regularly, until the onion turns translucent. 

Next, add the callaloo, seafood stock, and thyme.  *If you are using fresh okra, add it during this step.  You probably won't be able to see any of the liquid, but this is OK - the leaves cook down quickly. Think of them as edible shrinky-dinks. Place cover on your stockpot, bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer and cook gently until the callaloo leaves have wilted down.

Once the leaves are cooked down, stir several times, then add the coconut milk, tilapia, crab or shrimp, chile flakes, and salt & pepper to taste.  **If you are using frozen okra, add it during this step.  Cook for 5 - 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the fish is translucent and flaky. 



Serve over hot boiled rice.

There you have it - a yummy stew.  Although this was good, I felt like it needed something else, but I couldn't place my finger on what.  Next time I make this, I'm going to try adding a little lime juice - I think something acidic could give it a little punch.  Don't get me wrong, the stuff is rather delicious.  Thank God, because I have enough to feed me for the rest of the week! 

Here is how to make a basic seafood stock:  Anytime you eat fish, shrimp, lobster, etc., save the shells, bones, and trimmings.  Also, some markets sell fish heads, which are perfect for making stock.  You can make as much or as little as you'd like - whatever the measurement of seafood bits you use, use 1.5 times as much water (i.e. if you use 1 cup of shrimp shells, use 1.5 cups water).  Boil it with a little salt & pepper and a squirt of lemon juice, reduce to a simmer, and taste throughout - simmer less time for a milder stock, and simmer longer for a stronger flavor.  It freezes well. 

Vamos comer!