Vegan rose petal ice-cream

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Even though I am a believer in full fat heavy cream ice cream. I am usually trying out different vegan varieties. Especially in April since it the month dedicated to no meats.  I am not sure what exactly possessed me to use roses as the flavoring for this ice-cream but here we are.

Pumpkin Carrot Soup

“Pumpkin Everythang”

Welcome to the third year of Octobers Pumpkin month. In 2013 you got the very delicious sophisticated and refined pumpkin leek soup, followed by the rich, flavorful and hearty Jamaican pumpkin chicken soup in 2014. Today I have stepped it up a notch. The most delicious vegan soup you will ever have!  I mean layer, after layer of flavor. One of the most delicious creamy style pumpkin soups I have ever made inspired by the most delicious soup I ever had at a whole foods market…did I say delicious enough?

Curry shrimp with stelline pasta

I love Pasta

Curry, coconut milk, spicy grilled shrimp with a hint of ginger.  You can’t go wrong with this dish that can take on two personalities. If you love cold pasta salads this dish can transform into a cold salad. And if you want a warm hearty pasta dish it can be that as well. This is your Friday two for one special.

Stuffed Swiss Chard

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How about some curry quinoa, chickpeas and cranberries in your swiss chard? Sounds interesting, well it tastes pretty darn good too. As usual these recipe ideas hit me like a ton of brick and change over the course of the week depending on the ingredients available to me up until the time of cooking. This recipe is very hearty and filling, the chickpeas is almost like the meat component to the dish while the quinoa acts as rice. In essence this is a curry chicken and white rice wrapped in a swiss chard leaf…hardly! But you get my point.

Turn Cornmeal two ways

 

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There is nothing more convenient than a meal that can be had two ways. The ‘meal’ I am referring to is Cornmeal.  Today the ingredient of choice takes on two extremely different forms. One is smooth and creamy, the other crispy, both delicious. Turn cornmeal is a Jamaican favorite, even though the sentiment is not shared by everyone. I decided to revamp this common steam fish accompaniment and remake it into something less common in Jamaica, polenta fries.

'Yardie' pumpkin fish pie

“Pumpkin Everythang”

I love casserole dishes, where the meat and carb is baked into one lovely slab of flavor. I had a lot of fun tweaking the traditional fish pie recipe to fit with the pumpkin month theme. And not only that Instead of making the fish pie filling the traditional way, I revamped it to incorporate all the lovely Jamaican flavors of allspice, coconut,  thyme, scallions and scotch bonnet peppers. Its fish pie “yardie” style.

Meatless Stew peas

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Have you ever been to your favorite Jamaican lunch spot to order a stew peas lunch and heard “di meat finish” But you order it anyway because the stew peas is so good? A meatless Jamaican stew pea’s, with no pig tails is such a travesty. However as much as we love our meat recipes, they have to be revamped to accommodate the palates of the “non-meater’s” in our lives. There is really not much to say about this one. I won’t sit here and pretend that this version is better than one filled with pig tails, oxtails and beef. However it does pack a huge amount of flavor considering its lacking in the salted meat department.

Curry coconut seafood n dumplings

Something smells fishy...

This recipe has been in our family since 2007. There was a time where we were making this every Sunday. My cousin in NY looks forward to this dish every thanksgiving, it’s his favorite and for good reason. Who would not love a bowl of your favorite seafood simmered in a creamy curry coconut sauce? And it’s all thanks to a lunch my mother had at the Four Season’s hotel.

Rum and raisin roll cake

"Christmas is coming".

In Jamaica rum is as synonymous with Christmas as that baby in a manger. Its in so many desserts and drinks that are consumed in the season; sorrel, black cake, egg-nog, and rum soaked raisins. The latter is a long standing Jamaican tradition. Households are always stocked with sealed containers full of raisins, prunes and currants soaking in rum from the previous year. There are two types of rum cake. The white rum cake (basically vanilla cake soaked in rum) and black cake or fruit cake, which is made with the addition of the blended rum soaked fruits (and then soaked in rum).

Pumpkin Coconut Leek soup

"Pumpkin Everythang”

Like clockwork  the day I decided to make a lovely pumpkin soup here comes the rain, perfect timing. I had originally wanted to make a pumpkin wonton soup. However when I got to the grocery store they were all out of wonton skins, and ‘aint’ no way I’m making that dough from scratch, so plan B. A few isles down I spotted some leeks and figured, they probably taste like onions or scallions, so they should pair well with pumpkin, not to mention some coconut milk.