Pholourie with Spicy Mango Chutney

My Culinary Arts students cooked up a Caribbean feast, including Caribbean style rice & beans, Caribbean jerk chicken with tropical fruit, and these pholouries with mango chutney. They did a great job -- and my World Literature students, who were in the middle of our Caribbean Literature unit -- benefited deliciously from the C.A. students' efforts!

Pholourie Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup dried yellow split peas (soaked overnight and drained)

pinch of saffron threads

pinch of turmeric

salt and pepper to taste

½ Tbsp whole cumin seeds

1 tsp active dry yeast

½ tsp baking powder

½ - ¾ cup hot water

Pholourie Directions

Combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl until a smooth and thick batter is formed. Drop the batter into a preheated deep-fryer by the teaspoon. Fry until golden brown and crispy-approx. 5 minutes. Remove from heat and place onto absorbent paper. Season with salt and serve with the spicy mango chutney.

Spicy Mango Chutney Ingredients

1 hard mango- peeled and diced

1 clove of garlic, chopped

1 cup water

pinch of salt

1 tsp sugar

1 whole hot pepper

Spicy Mango Chutney Directions

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan, bring to a simmer and continue to cook for 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat and remove the chili pepper. Allow to cool and serve with pholourie.

Caribbean Rice & Beans

My Culinary Arts students cooked up a Caribbean feast, including these Caribbean style rice & beans using a recipe from the Food Network. We also made Caribbean jerk chicken with tropical fruit, and pholouries with mango chutney. They did a great job -- and my World Literature students, who were in the middle of our Caribbean Literature unit -- benefited deliciously from the C.A. students' efforts!

Caribbean Jerk Marinade

I've made it often before and taken it to family dinners. So, at my brother's request, I'm posting it now. I could give you a 'from scratch' recipe (sugar, salt, onion, red pepper flakes, allspice, thyme, turmeric...) but there are good, premixed jerk seasonings available in the spice aisle at most supermarkets. There are also prepared jerk marinades (liquid, in jars/bottles). My favorite--and what I've brought to family dinners--is McCormick brand dry spice, but others will work too.  I mix it up like this:

Ingredients:

2 Tbls McCormick Caribbean Jerk Seasoning
1 Tbls oil
2 Tbls vinegar
2 Tbls brown sugar
1 Tbls soy sauce

1 to 2  lbs of chicken, pork, beef or seafood

1 or 2 15-oz cans of Dole Tropical Mixed Fruit

     (or fresh, diced tropical fruits of your choice)

Directions:

The meat can be diced or left to cook in whole portions. Place meat in a single layer in a 9x13 casserole dish. Combine all of the ingredients for the marinade. Pour over meat. This can be cooked immediately, but ideally it should marinate 2-4 hours before cooking.

Just before cooking, add tropical fruits. Adding the juice (optional) stretches the marinade, and dilutes and sweetens it. To include flavor without thinning, add 1 tablespoon of corn starch to the cold juice from each can of tropical fruit before pouring it over the meat.

Cover with foil; cook (350°) until the meat is cooked through. (45 min to an hour? depends on thickness of the meat). If marinade/juice is too thin – or there’s too much liquid – uncover for all or part of the cooking time.

My Culinary Arts students cooked up a Caribbean feast (for my World Literature students, when we were in our Caribbean Literature unit)...including jerk chicken with tropical fruit. We diced the chicken -- it can serve more people in small pieces -- but I often leave the chicken as whole breasts, thighs, or tenders.

Grilled Beef Anticuchos - Anticuchos de Carne

Anticuchos are a popular party food in South America, especially in Peru. The most traditional Peruvian anticuchos are made with beef heart, but they can also be made with chicken or steak. Anticuchos are seasoned with garlic, vinegar, cumin and aji panca, a mild red chile pepper with a smoky flavor common in Peruvian cooking. You can often find a dried aji panca or jarred aji panca paste in specialty stores or Latin food markets. Anticuchos are best if they are marinated overnight.

Makes about 12 skewers

Ingredients:
12 cloves of garlic
1 Tbls+ a pinch cumin
¼ C mild chile pepper paste (aji panca, if available)
½ C vinegar, divided
1 Tbls salt
2 tsp pepper
½ C vegetable oil
2-3 lbs steak (sirloin, tenderloin)
~  wooden skewers

Directions:

Place skewers skewers in water to soak.

Cut beef into 2 inch chunks and place in a nonreactive bowl or dish.

Mash the garlic into a paste. Add a little water if necessary to make a paste.

Make the marinade: In a bowl, mix the crushed garlic, ¼ C of vinegar, chile pepper paste, cumin, salt and pepper. Pour marinade over beef and mix well. Marinate beef overnight in refrigerator (or, if short on time, 1 hour at room temperature).

Place beef on skewers (4-5 pieces per skewer). Make a basting mixture of ½ C vegetable oil, remaining vinegar, and a pinch of cumin. Grill skewers for about 5 minutes on each side, or to desired doneness. Baste beef several times during cooking.

http://southamericanfood.about.com/od/maincourses/r/beefanticuchos.htm

Peruvian Causa

Peruvian Causa is so named because when Peru was at war -- fighting for independence from Spain -- women would make this layered potato dish, and sell it in the streets to raise money for 'the cause' and support their husbands/soldiers. The recipe below (from allrecipes.com) uses canned tuna. That may not be the most traditional form of fish/seafood, but it's easy to get and worked for our purposes in Culinary Arts.

The recipe indicates a layer of hard boiled egg slices on 'top' before inverting the causa, so they end up on the bottom. We liked it better when the egg slices -- and a sprinkling of cilantro, common in other causa recipes -- were added after the causa was inverted so that they were visible on top.

INGREDIENTS:

8 russet potatoes, peeled 1/2 cup vegetable oil, or as needed 2 tablespoons minced aji amarillo salt and ground black pepper to taste 2 (5 ounce) cans tuna, drained

1 small red onion, diced small 1/2 cup mayonnaise, divided 2 avocados, cut into thin strips 3 hard-boiled eggs, thinly sliced

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Place potatoes into a large pot and cover with salted water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain.
2.	Mash potatoes with a ricer or hand mixer until smooth. Gradually stir in oil until potatoes come together; add aji amarillo, salt, and pepper. Cool potato mixture in the refrigerator, about 20 minutes.
3.	Stir tuna, onion, and 1/4 cup mayonnaise together in a bowl.
4.	Line a casserole dish with plastic wrap. Spread 1/2 the potato mixture on the bottom of the dish. Spread 2 tablespoons mayonnaise over the potatoes, spread the tuna mixture over the mayonnaise, and place the avocado slices in a single layer on top of the tuna mixture. Spread the remaining 1/2 of potato mixture over the avocados, and top with remaining 2 tablespoons mayonnaise. Place sliced eggs over the top. Cover casserole dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.
5.	Invert casserole dish onto a serving dish or baking sheet to remove potato casserole from dish. Remove plastic wrap and cut casserole into squares.