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 Sweet potato cornmeal pudding

"JAMAICAN FLAVORS"

Who doesn’t love a warm slice of Jamaican pudding. It’s warm, cozy, sweet and satisfying goodness. I have been trying my hand at pudding for a few week’s now. Slowly getting better and better at it. MY favorite pudding is sweet potato pudding so it’s not a surprise that I would attempt to make one. This one is a little different than your average sweet potato pudding. Get your rum cream ready.

Sweet potato Onion and chia seed buns

"Potato Patata" 

I am really sorry to disappoint everyone who came here thinking they would find a burger recipe. Nope its potato month remember? So what you will find here, is a really awesome recipe for a sweet potato onion bun with chia seeds.  I finally decided to do a labor intensive potato recipe, and by labor intensive I mean a recipe using yeast and flour, my two culinary enemies.

Rosemary garlic sweet potato rice

"Potato Patata" 

This month it’s all about potatoes. Potatoes are one of the most versatile starches out there.  You can do any and everything with them. Have you ever mixed it with rice? This is seriously a carbohydrates overload but it’s a really good recipe.

Cinnamon Sweet Potato Salad

Summa Summa Summa time!

This sweet potato salad is all kinds of delicious. The roasted sweet potatoes chick peas and raisins tossed in a deliciously sweet glaze is just perfection. You can have this hot or at room temp, the best thing is there is no mayo, so no worrying.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

 "Christmas is coming"
 

If I had to rank potato cooking methods in order of deliciousness, mashed potatoes would be in my top three. A dish of mashed potatoes is one of the best side dishes and sweet mashed potatoes are even more so. And when I say sweet potatoes, I'm not referring to the Jewel or Garnet yams. In Jamaica we have very starchy red skinned fibrous sweet potato, similar to Japanese sweet potatoes (however the flesh is a pale mustard yellow not white). This savory dish is perfect for your Christmas table. This recipe was totally by accident and I'm so glad I stumbled upon it.

'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.

Crispy sweet potato crusted Snapper

Something Smells Fishy...

Big thanks to Rojo at Spanish court hotel and Calle Ocho in NYC as they both served me a delicious fish that became the inspiration for this post. They both prepare fish crusted with some form of starch. Calle ocho serves "Crispy Snapper", which is snapper filet wrapped in a leaf and fried. It tastes just like it’s wrapped in potatoes. Rojo serves "Sweet Potato Crusted Snapper", which I thought was an even better idea. So here is my home made version, better than any fish n chips Ive ever had.

Foil roasted fish

 

Something smells fishy... 

I will admit I stole this recipe from my aunt, “Miss set it and forget it“. This lady uses any excuse she can to throw food in the oven and leave it there until it’s ready. Especially for reheating, I often shake my head as she warms leftovers in foil for 20 minutes in the oven as opposed to using the perfectly working microwave for 1 minute and 30 seconds….sigh…to each his own. In any case I’m not complaining, because I got this fish recipe as a result of her insanity (or genius).

Smashed potato

"Christmas is coming"

I love instagram, you get so many ideas from this lovely app full of pictures posted by absolute strangers who you pretty much have accepted into your social media family. You see, I was all set to make my garlic roasted Irish potatoes, the same potatoes I make every Christmas and most sit down dinners. Its quick, easy and yummy. Then in scrolling the feeds I see hassleback potatoes and quickly the menu changed. This greedy girl was all set to make her own version of hasslebacks (another item on my cooking bucket list yet to be crossed off) Then in scrolling the feeds (again) I see smashed potatoes, here is where the internal struggle began, I’ve seen smashed potatoes done a few times on food network, but it never really grabbed me, and the hassleback thing I have been wanting to do for so long.  

Sweet potato ice-cream sandwich

Independence Month!

 One of the best Jamaican desserts has to be sweet potato pudding. When made correctly, its a warm sweet treat with a custard consistency on top, a firm center with crispy caramelized edges. As a child we would sneak in the pudding and break off the edges.  For this month’s series of recipes I wanted to include  a dessert twist. And what better twist can there be than to sandwich grape-nut ice-cream between some sweet potato pudding.