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Breadfruit is an extremely popular vegetable in Grenada, and grows throughout the island. It is delicious when cooked and can be prepared and used in exactly the same way as a potato. Breadfruit has a slightly nutty flavor. the main ingredient of the islands national dish "Oil Down"
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Bakes - The breakfast equivalent of American pancakes or waffles on most Caribbean Islands. Made with flour, water, baking powder, sugar & salt. It is either deep fried or baked in the oven with coconut.
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Coconut A fresh coconut has liquid inside, so shake it before you buy it! To open a coconut, puncture two of its “eyes” - the darker dots on one end - with a small sharp knife or an ice pick. Drain all the liquid from the coconut, then tap the whole surface of the shell lightly with a hammer. Now give the shell a sharp blow with the hammer. This will open the coconut, and the meat will now come away from the shell.
Mango A tropical fruit with thick skin varying in color from green to bright red. Its flesh is yellow, firm and sweet, and can be eaten raw or as part of many marinades, sauces, ice creams and sorbets. Green mangoes are a main constituent of the best chutneys and are used in down-island stews as a vegetable. As many as 120 varieties are grown around the world. The exterior skin color ranges from green when unripe, to a yellow- orange and a rich orange-red when ripe. When a mango is ripe, it will give a little to finger pressure and have a wonderful sweet perfumed aroma. Readily available varieties of mango are the Hayden, Keitt, Kent and Tommy Atkins. A cook once related a story to me about mangos back home. He described mango, as an "attitude". He said it was the lazy man's fruit since the mango tree offers shade and sustenance. When mangos become ripe, they fall off the tree to the ground. A man at ease, resting from the hot sun, need only to sit under the tree to receive his delight and refreshment.
Mauby (or Mawby) Mauby is the bark of a tropical tree. It is boiled with spices to make a Caribbean drink of the same name, reputed to lower blood cholesterol.
Papaya Also known as PawPaw, this is a large melon with sweet yellow-orange flesh. It can range in weight from 8 ounces to 20 pounds, and ranges in shape from round to pear-like to long and thin. Very popular ingredient in drinks, salads, and desserts.
Sweet and hot, fresh and dried chilies all belong to the genus Capsicum Annum. Though peppers are native to the New World, they spread rapidly in the trade for roots around the world, handled mainly by the Portuguese spice traders. Chili peppers have become popular in most tropical countries. Scolville heat units are used to measure the heat intensity of a chili pepper. This scale is a subjective rating by professional tasters, used in a similar fashion to a Richter scale for earthquakes, but this scale is measures the heat in your mouth. The range can vary from 0 - 5 units for sweet peppers to 1500 -2000 for jalapeno to 60-80,000 for Tabasco to 100,000 -250,000 for scotch bonnets. Peppers range individually in heat, so taste a little from the small end before deciding how much you'll need for a dish. Much of the extreme heat is in the seeds and ribs.
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Plaintains - Are members of the same family as bananas and bird- of-paradise. They are much larger They must be cooked to be edible; however, they need not be ripe. They are usable in many stages of ripeness from green which have a firm texture and are eaten as a potato-like starch or fried as a chip, to yellow or yellow-brown, which is eaten more as a vegetable.
Plantains are often sliced, cooked in a seasoned batter and deep fried for fritters.
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Roti
Exemplifies the heavy influence Indian cuisine has had on Caribbean cuisine. It begins with a round, Indian flat bread called a “roti” or “paratha” that is wrapped around a big dollop of curried goat, chicken, shrimp, pork or vegetables.
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Saltfish
Saltwater fish which is salted and dried. Most often it is made with cod, but can be made with mackerel, herring or haddock. Salt fish souse is a salted codfish salad made with onions and peppers. |
Cloves
A tropical flower grown throughout Grenada, it is boiled with other ingredients such as cloves, orange zest, and ginger, and then sweetened to make drinks, jams and jellies. The spicy-tart beverage is a beautiful raspberry-grape color, and is a Christmas tradition.
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Allspice, Pimienta
Dark-brown berry, similar in size to juniper, that combines the flavors of cinnamon, clove and nutmeg.
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Bay Rum
The bay rum tree is related to the evergreen that produces allspice. Used to flavor soups, stews and, particularly, blaff, the small dark bay rum berry is called "maleguetta pepper" in the French West Indies. |
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Beans, Peas
Interchangeable terms for red kidney beans, black beans, black-eyed peas, pigeon peas (gandules), and yellow and green lentils. Rice and peas served as an accompliment to most meat dishes. Used in soups and stews or pulped and made into fritters.
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Blue Marlin
The marlin is popular fried and served with bakes.
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Black Pudding
Sausage that may include pigs' blood, thyme and Scotch bonnet peppers. Frequently served with souse, a pork dish that can include any part of the pig. Can be found in Saturday Market in St. George's and St. Andrew's |
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Callaloo
This leafy, spinach-like vegetable is typical prepared as one would prepare turnip or collard greens. Callaloo refers to the leaves of the dasheen plant and is popularly stewed or used to make callaloo soup.
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West Indian Pumpkin
Terms for a number of large squashes or pumpkins used in island stews and vegetable dishes. Butternut squash are similar in flavor and make the best substitutes.
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Cassava
This tuber is also known as manioc and yuca. A rather large root vegetable with a 6- to 12-inch length and 2- to 3-inch diameter, cassava has a tough brown skin with a very firm white flesh. Both kinds of cassava can appear as meal, tapioca and farina and can be bought ready made as cassava or manioc meal, which is used to make bammie. Sweet cassava is boiled and eaten as a starch vegetable. Bitter cassava contains a poisonous acid that can be deadly and must be processed before it can be eaten. This is done by boiling the root in water for at least 45 minutes discard the water). Alternatively, grate the cassava and place it in a muslin cloth, then squeeze out as much of the acid as possible before cooking. Bitter cassava is used commercially but is not sold unprocessed in some countries.
Chili Peppers
Members of the Capsicum genus ranging from medium to fiery hot. Scotch bonnet pepper, the most widely used, can be replaced with serrano, jalapeno or other hot peppers.
Chorizo
Spanish sausage that combines pork, hot peppers and garlic, and is similar to longaniza.
Christophine, Chayote, Cho-cho, Mirliton:
A small pear-shaped vegetable, light green or cream colored, and often covered with a prickly skin. Bland, similar in texture to squash and used primarily as a side dish or in gratins and souffles. Like pawpaw (papaya, it is also a meat tenderizer.)
Coo-coo (or cou-cou):
The Caribbean equivalent of polenta or grits. Once based on cassava or manioc meal. It is now made almost exclusively with cornmeal. Versatile coo-coo can be baked, fried or rolled into little balls and poached in soups or stews.
Coconut:
This member of the palm family, which is native to Malaysia, yields fruit all year long. Coconut is edible in both its green and mature forms. Both the water and the "jelly" of the green coconut find their way into island drinks, and meat from the mature coconut gives desserts a Caribbean identity.
Conch:
These gastropods are a beloved part of the cuisine as far north as the Bahamas and Florida. When preparing conch soup, conch salad or, best of all, spicy conch fritters, you must beat the tough conch flesh into tender submission with a mallet, the flat of a cleaver or a wooden pestle before cooking. The job can sometimes (depending on the recipe) be made easier by using a food processor.
Coriander, Cilantro, Chines Parsley:
Intense, pungent herb that looks like parsley. The seeds are used in curries.
Creole, Criolla:
Creole refers to the cooking of the French-speaking West Indies, as well as to southern Louisiana and the Gulf states. Criolla refers to the cuisine of Spanish-speaking islands. Both terms encompass a melding of ingredients and cooking methods from France, Spain, Africa, the Caribbean and America.
Dhal:
Hindu name for legumes; in the Caribbean, it refers only to split peas or lentils.
Darne:
The Caribbean name for kingfish.
Dasheen
Also known a coco, taro and tannia, dasheen is a starchy tuber that is usually served boiled or cut up and used as a thickener in hearty soups. While considered by some to have a texture and flavor superior to that of a Jerusalem artichoke or potato. Potatoes can often be used as a substitute for dasheen in recipes. Dasheen is often called coco, but coco is actually a slightly smaller relative of dasheen.
Escabeche:
The Spanish word for "pickled." It usually refers to fresh fish (and sometimes poultry) that is fried, then picked in vinegar, spices, hot peppers and oil.
Goat:
Goat meat is eaten with enthusiasm in only a few places in the world, and Jamaica is assuredly one of those places. Some credit immigrants from India who search din vain for lamb to prepare their beloved curry. Finding no lambs, they latched onto the next best thing--and curried goat became a Caribbean classic. Most first-timers find goat milder in flavor than lamb and an excellent substitute for lamb in most recipes. Of course, if you can't find goat, you can substitute lamb.
Guava, Guayaba:
Tropical fruit that has over a hundred species. It is pear-shaped, round and oval; yellow to green skinned, with creamy yellow, pink or red granular flesh; and has rows of small hard seeds. The smell and taste are intense and perfumy. Guava is used green or ripe in punches, syrups, jams, chutneys, ice creams and an all-island paste know as guava cheese.
Hearts of Palm:
Ivory-colored core of some varieties of palm trees.
Hibiscus, Flor de Jamaica, Sorrel:
A tropical flower--not to be confused with the garden-variety hibiscus--grown for it crimson sepal, which is used to flavor dinks, jams and sauces. It is available dried and fresh during the Christmas season.
Jack:
A fish family of over two hundred species, these colorful saltwater fish go by a host of varietal names such as yellowtail, greenback, burnfin, black and amber jack. These delicately flavored fish tend to be large, weighing a much as 150 pounds, and readily available in waters around the world. Tuna and swordfish make good substitutes.
Limes:
Caribbean limes have light yellow skins when ripe, though they are often picked green because they go bad rapidly when ripe. When overripe, they turn yellow and are an excellent source of vitamin C. For this reason, the popularity of these citrus fruits grew with the realization by the British Navy that they cured scurvy. Now limes are one of the most important ingredients in Jamaican sauces and marinades, and are used to perk up dishes from savory to sweet. Chicken and fish turn glorious with a mere squeeze of lime. And beverages, cakes and preserves wouldn't taste the same without it.
Lobster:
In Jamaica, it's the spiny or Caribbean lobster that is found--the same delicious crustacean as the langouste in France, and aragosta in Italy, and the langoasta in Spain. Although the texture of this cooked meat is consider in some to be inferior to that of the Maine lobster, the flavor of the spiny lobster meat more that makes up for the inferior texture.
Malanga, Yautia:
A relative of dasheen or taro, this tuber is prevalent throughout the Caribbean.
Mamey Apple:
The large tropical fruit, native to the New Worked, yields edible pulp that's tangerine in color. With a flavor similar to that of the peach, mammey turns up most often as jam.
Ñame
This giant tuber could be called by any of a variety of different names. The Spanish translation of the word ñame is yam. The outer skin is brown and coarsely textured, while the insided is porous and very moist. The ñame grows to enormous size and is considered to be the "king" of tubers.
Nutmeg
Jamaican cooks are insistent--when cooking their recipes, skip over the pre-ground nutmeg sold in supermarkets and buy the spice whole, grating it only as needed. Nutmeg, the inner kernel of the fruit is more flavorful when freshly grated. The spicy sweet flavor of this aromatic spice makes it an excellent addition to cakes, puddings and drinks.
Okra, Okroes, Bhindi, Lady's Fingers, Gumbo:
This finger-shaped vegetable, green-ridged and three to five inches in length, is fried as a side dish, used as a thickening agent in callaloo or mixed with cornmeal to make coo-coo.
Papaya
This native of South America is still called ""pawpaw"" by some Jamaicans. The papaya has an orange color when ripe, and it's bland flavor resembles that of a summer squash, making it a nice complement to the shaper flavors of other fruits. Green papaya is often used as an ingredient in chutney or relishes and makes a nice main dish when stuffed. When ripe, it is eaten as a melon, or served in fruit salad. Papaya juice makes a nice drink when sweetened with condensed milk or sugar.
Passion Fruit, Maracudja, Granadilla:
Oval-shaped fruit that has a tough shell and a color range from yellow-purple to eggplant to deep chocolate. The golden-yellow pulp is sweet and tropically exotic, and must be strained to remove the seeds. Used primarily in juices, desserts, drinks and sauces.
Scotch Bonnet Peppers
The fiery Scotch bonnet pepper, ranging in colors from yellow to orange to red, is considered the leading hot pepper in Jamaica, though several other varieties have recently been developed. Some peppers are sold whole, others are dried and ground, and still others are processed into sauces, such as Jamaica Hell Fire. If you can't get your hands (wash them
Sorrel:
Brought from India by way of Malaysia, this unusual plant was introduced to Jamaica by the British soon after 1655. Also known as roselle and appealingly, flor de Jamaica, sorrel always blooms in December, when its deep red flower becomes an unrivaled floral decoration for two to three weeks before it evolves into Jamaica's traditional holiday beverage. At that time, the flower are dried and then steeped in water to make a bright red drink that has a slightly tart taste and is the color of cranberry juice.
Soursop
Elongated, spike-covered fruit, slightly tart and delicately flavored. It is used mainly in drinks, punches, sherbets and ice cream.
Is grown in Jamaica and Grenada and is a powerful sweetly aromatic spice.Use a small grater to obtain the spice from the nut.
Unripened these are usually found oversized with firm deep green skin and light green to pink flesh, and are used as a vegetable. Ripe papaya is available from the Caribbean, Mexico, and Hawaii. The pulp is sweet and can be eaten uncooked. The flavor is somewhat tropical floral.
Star Apple:
An important part of a traditional dessert known a as matrimony, the star apple is a succulent round fruit about the size of an orange. Native to Jamaica and the Greater Antilles, the skin of this fruit is either a shiny purple color or a less eye-catching green. No matter what color, the flesh of the star apple is delicious.
Stinking Toe
Actually a pod that resembles a human toe, this bizarre fruit possesses an evil-smelling and rough exterior. The sugary power inside can be devoured on the spot or turned into a flavorful custard or beverage.
Sugar Apple, Sweetsop:
An interesting challenge to eat, the flesh of the sweetsop is actually a collection of black seeds surrounded by sweet white pulp. The sweetsop is native to the tropical Americas.
Tamarind:
This decorative tree produces brown pods containing a sweet and tangy pulp that's used for flavoring everything from beverages to curries and sauces.
Walking Cocoa:
A traditional method of tumbling the cocoa beans as they dry on flat racks in the sun. Workers shuffle through the bed of beans every few hours to maintain full exposure of the entire bean. This has been done for 60-odd years at Belmont Estate and Pleasant Estate in Grenada.
Yam
Similar in size and color to the potato, but nuttier in flavor, it is not be confused with the Southern sweet yam or sweet potato. Caribbean yams are served boiled, mashed or baked.
