Golden Apple tarte Part 1

Although this fruit is widely distributed in the
Caribbean region, Asia and Central and South America, the use of mature-green
fruits to make a drink is geographically restricted to the French West Indies
(Martinique and Guadeloupe) and Grenada.
The Golden apple (Spondias cytherea Sonnerat or Spondias dulcis Forst) belongs
to the Anacardiaceae family which includes several important tropical fruit trees such
mango (Mangifera indica L.) and cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.) (Purseglove,
1974). Native to Polynesia, it was introduced into Jamaica in 1782 and nowadays is
mainly cultivated in the Caribbean region, Asia, Central America, South America and, to
Information and Technology for Sustainable Fruit and Vegetable Production
FRUTIC 05, 12 – 16 September 2005, Montpellier France
Post Harvest Technology
84
a lesser extent, in Africa. Golden apple is a medium-sized (15-25 m) tree with olive green
hairless leaves (2-6 cm length) (Fournet, 2002). The fruit is an ellipsoid to ovoid drupe (4-
12 cm length; 3-8 cm diameter) and can weigh up to 450 g (Persad, 1991; Daulmérie,
1994; Fournet, 2002). Structure of an immature green Golden apple is presented in
Figure 1 and its physico-chemical characteristics are given in Table 1. When the fruit
ripens, its skin and flesh turn Golden-yellow, emitting aroma components characterized in
previous papers

Unripe Golden apple fruits are eaten in curries
or green salads or made into pickles (3tbspoons brown sugar
1/8 tsp cardamom
1/4 ginger
1/4 cinnamon
2 0z butter
pinch salt

30 mins

Pan de Jamon- Christmas Bread from Venezuela

Every year for the past four years this Christmas bread from Venezuela has graced our table for breakfast on the morning of December 25th. Oh wait, every year except last year.

You see, we have an electric range and my bread was in the oven about ten minutes when poof! There was a power outage that lasted all day and I was left with raw dough mess.

I am not ashamed to tell you that I cried. Seriously for real, I cried. Do you know how much a ham costs? I was angry that a my money had been wasted on those ingredients. Maria, my Venezuelan nieghbour cried too. She has not had this taste of home for years and was so excited when I told her that I was making it. She was surprised that I even knew about it.

The first year that I baked this I gifted my friend Hannah with a loaf. Every year since then all she wants from me for Christmas is this bread. I have been happy to oblige that is until last year.

This year I am beside myself with joy. I have found a Venezuelan run establishment that sells these! Christmas breakfast has been saved!

Don't have a Venezuelan baker in your neck of the woods, then click here to link to the recipe I used in past years to make these. You will also see a picture of one that I baked. I am happy to report that it's pretty darn close to the real deal.

Merry and...Light!

'Tis the season and every one is busy with Christmas preparations. The countdown is on for the big day. Like many of you I am also planning the meal for the big event. This is the salad that I plan to serve to serve on Christmas Day. Salad? Yikes! Where is the ham? Where are the pastelles, the cake and other edible indulgences of the season? Who really cares about salad on Christmas Day?



Let me plead the case of this humble salad. Trust me it too can be a star of a holiday menu. It's light, crisp and fresh. Oranges are in season now and citrus is perfect for awaking your palette. This salad is a perfect pairing for all that heavy, decadent traditional goodness.


Don't drown this salad in dressing. With all the rich main and side dishes to be served alongside, a sprinkle of salt and some cracked black pepper is all you really need.

Do you have a favourite holiday salad? I'd love if you would share it with me.

Ingredients
Orange Onion Salad
Romaine lettuce (shredded)
Onions ( red or white )
Kalamata olives
oranges (peeled and segmented)
Toss all the ingredients together
Salt and black pepper to taste.

Oven Roasted Ratatouille

This is healthy and delicious version of a french classic. It makes a great side dish and is quick and easy. Leftovers can be stirred into pasta for another meal so that you can cook once but eat twice. The traditional method is a vegetable stew that is made on the stove top. It's not complicated but I prefer to make this in the oven. I like that I can prepare an accompanying dish at the same time that this is cooking in the oven. Also I prefer the use of olive oil instead of the butter called for in the traditional version.



Many recipes say that salting melongene (eggplant) before cooking makes it less bitter but I don't bother. I have never found eggplant to be a particularly bitter vegetable and the family never complains when I cook it. However I must warn you that I generally don't entertain complaints when I cook. If it's not charred beyond all recognition, it's considered edible. Furthermore, if you didn't stand around in a hot kitchen but sat in front of the television waiting for your dinner - you are not entitled to an opinion. Just kidding, everyone is entitled to an opinion. I run a very democratic houshold but trust me, under the aforementioned set of circumstances you are better off keeping your opinion to yourself!

This is one of those dishes where I don't use measured amounts of anything. I just toss stuff together until it looks to be enough. Feel free to use a little more or a little less - whatever.



Oven Roasted Ratatouille ( serves 6)

Ingredients

* 3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
* 3/4 lb eggplant, cut in chunks
* 1/2 lb zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch rounds
* 1 lb plum tomato, seeded and cut into 4 wedges
* 1 sweet red pepper, cut in large strips
* 1 yellow sweet pepper, cut in large strips
* 2 tablespoons Herbes de Provence or Italian seasoning
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 red bell pepper, diced
* 1 green bell pepper, diced
* 1 yellow bepper, diced
* 2 small zucchini, diced
* 2 red onions, quartered
* 1-2 tablespoon olive oil
* 1-2 teaspoon Herbs de provence or mixed Italian herbs

# Place all vegetables and garlic in an ovenproof dish.
#
2
Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle herbes de provence or Italian seasoning. Mix well to coat vegetables.
#
3
Bake at 400.c for approx 45 mins until vegetables are tender, check after 1/2 hour and stir to ensure even browning.
#
4
If your vegetables are particularly juicy you may need to drain a bit of liquid off half way through cooking.

If I am doing it, I prefer a quickie

It's true. I love food. I love to eat. But I do not love the daily chore that is cooking. (Gasp!) But wait, you have a food blog, you say. To which I reply, yes the occasional foray into food preparation and creating a healthy, satisfying or at times an extravagant, feast pleases me. Having to do it everyday - does not. The duty bound, run of the millness, everydayness; what the French call le train-train quotidien,of cooking can exhausting and as dull as dirt. So like many home cooks, I have developed routines and quickie cheating versions of kitchen tasks that help me cope.

Case in point, let's examine a hugely popular cooking method the world over. There is some evidence to suggest that barbecue was transported to the rest of the world when Europeans observed the manner in which Amerindians smoked and prepared the meats on a grill called a buccan. Wild game was cured with salt and spices, then covered with wet leaves and cooked on a grill of local wood over an open fire pit. This early method of barbecue was adopted by the French and the word boucaniers buccaneer)was used to describe persons who prepared their meats this way. The term eventually came to describe pirates who I can only surmise found this a convenient cooking method that served their swashbuckling, beach lifestyle.

Convenient though it may have been for early colonial settlers. It's a pain in the butt for a working mom of three - maybe four (counting the days when DH might be acting like a kid himself). Here is my big tip for preparing this popular meal: get your significant other to do it for you:-) Easy enough since the modern day grill seems to draw out a man's primal need to rustle with coals and giant slabs of raw meat which must be tamed with secret marinades, spice rubs, slapped with special sauces and then charred, uhmm I mean grilled. Even if the self same guy doesn't know where to locate a fork in his own kitchen (yes M I am talking about you), he will no doubt be the owner of the Mercedes Benz of outdoor backyard grills. What's more he will be more than willing to show you how to use it with swashbuckling flair. BTW gas grills are for sissies, he'll declare through a cloud of smoke thick enough to keep all but the dragonfly sized mosquitoes away.

I love BBQ. Mr H and I tend to get all dewy eyed when we taste meat that has been smoked to a sweet, smoky, succulent, sticky perfection. Spare ribs at Pussers Marina Cay - we'll be back. Unfortunately, the chances of me hauling out a grill, fanning hot coals under an already sweltering Caribbean hot day, getting smoke in my eyes and my hair are really - NEVER! Instead, when friends invite me to a barbecue, I will ask if it's okay to bring extra meat and whatever extra ingredients the cook might need. These extras are grilled and I take them home for later on in the week. Roll your eyes all you want Marguerite Gorden you have never taste my friend J's barbecue.

Finally, as I say in the title to this post, If I'm doing it I prefer a method that does not sacrifice flavour but at the same time gets lunch or dinner on the table in quick time. Oven BBQ chicken is a very popular cheat version that appears often on the table for Sunday Lunch in many homes. There are many variations to suit personal preferences. The only must here is that your herbs should be fresh. Okay so the purists out there are probably firing up their own grills now to roast me for deigning to name my baked chicken, bbq. All I can say is so long as you have that grill lit, May I come over with a few extra pieces of meat ;-)?

So here it is my quickie version of BBQ chicken done in the oven better known as (It's too damned hot to BBQ Chicken recipe! Or for those of you approaching Winter in your country feel free to swap out the word hot for cold.)


3 1/2 - 4lbs chicken, cut up
1 lime
1 tsp salt
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tbs spoons green seasoning
2 cups Hunts bold (or your favourite babbecue sauce
1/2 cup ketchup (optional)
splash Lea and Perrins worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Caribbean pepper sauce ( made with scotch bonnet or Congo peppers)


1) Wash chicken with lime. Squeeze one lime in 3/4 cup of water. Add to bowl of cut up raw chicken and mix. Pour off the lime water.

2) Season chicken with salt, garlic and green seasoning. Leave in the fridge overnight of at least 1/2 hour

3) Place skin side up on a foil lined baking dish. Discard marinade. Sprinkle some additional green seasoning over chicken. Mix the ketchup, barbecue sauce and the pepper. Cover chicken with this sauce and bake for 35 - 40 mins at 325 degrees F.

4) Remove from the oven. Coat chicken with additional barbecue sauce and return to the oven.

5) Cook until done about 15 mins more, basting occasionally until chicken has a nice colour and the sauce is a thick gravy. You could always add a little water to it for a thinner sauce. We like a cooked sauce and this saves us the extra step of cooking one on the stove.

Okay lets talk green seasoning. This is the key to this dish. Cynthia over at Tastes Like Home has already blogged extensively on it so I will point you to her site. So click here to read more about it. I make my seasoning using chives, celery, Spanish, French and Portuguese thyme, Trinidad seasoning peppers, chadon beni and garlic.











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