Callaloo and sweet potato cakes

M...eat...less

My health conscious cousin Lauren came over and cooked two sweet potatoes. She was determined to stay away from processed carbs and have curry goat with sweet potatoes. Needless to say she ended up eating curry goat with white rice with a side of bun and cheese. I ended up with two sweet  potatoes in my refrigerator for about a week. So instead of wasting them I decided to make a recipe to utilize them. I envisioned something sort of like a crab cake, soft on the inside with a crispy exterior that would be great with tartar sauce.

Jamaican Lasagna

"JAMAICAN FLAVORS"

It’s always a good day when you make lasagna with totally unconventional flavors. I had to infuse this one with as much Jamaican flavors as I could. The only thing left to go in there was some ackee. It’s loaded with callaloo, plantain, coconut milk, jerk bacon, the works. This might just be better than a traditional lasagna…just might!

Jamaican Pepper Pot soup

M...eat...less

At most restaurants in Jamaica, these are your soup choices: pumpkin, pepper pot or red peas soup. All three of which are usually quite tasty. I almost never order the pepper pot soup, it’s an ok soup to me, but I will choose pumpkin soup all day every day. And while we make pumpkin soup and red pea’s soup at home all the time we hardly ever make pepper pot soup. Let’s face it, not many Jamaicans will take precious callaloo and make it into a soup, instead of sautéing it and eating it with fried dumpling and plantain. We surely don’t,  but today I have tried my best to recreate what I've been  eating all these years at restaurants…minus the ocra.

Callaloo & cheese patty

 Juici...and if you don't know, now you know!
 

Patty number two and it’s all about the veggies. Since I already had the callaloo for the crust, why not use it as a filling as well? This patty combines veggies with some delicious cheese for a very vegetarian friendly lunch and snack.

Ackee and saltfish patty in a callaloo crust

Juici...and if you don't know, now you know!

Just leave it to someone on instagram to inspire a month of recipes. Inspiration comes in many forms and by chance I came across @mrcuttersnyc image of a restaurant kitchen work table lined off with what seemed like hundreds of patties in the making. I was so intrigued, intrigued enough to come up with eight patty recipes, four weeks of awesomeness. And this first one is super Jamaican!

Callaloo and Zucchini Frittata

Breakfast is served
 
No bacon, no sausage, no ham and this frittata is still turnt! After making vegetable lasagna with grilled zucchini last month, I realized how delicious zucchini was. In our family it’s a vegetable that we don’t use at all! While eggplant may rear its ugly head once in a while, zucchini does not exist. Now callaloo on the other hand is a vegetable we serve for breakfast lunch and dinner. So I decided for this frittata to ditch the cured meats and go for a healthy fresh combination of these delicious veggies. You will not miss the meat one bit.

Callaloo Ravioli in callaloo alfredo sauce

Independence Month!

 Here is another Jamaican staple ingredient, the callaloo. With its thick stems and large broad leaves. This is normally sautéed with other veggies and meats like salt fish, then served for breakfast. Its also the star ingredient in a vegetarian soup called pepper pot soup. However today Callaloo will be making an appearance stuffed in ravioli.