Of course everyone has their own way of making oil down, it's usually passed on from mummy, granny or tantie. My mother doesn't make oil down often, but when she does it's quite amazing. I don't remember any measurements of course, but I've consulted other books and folks for some guidelines. Anita Maharaj, a Trini who read the blog suggested that I add Golden Ray to give it that unique flavour, better known to Trinis as that 'real Creole flavour'. Heather said I should use sweet potato (the white one) to bring out the sweetness in the breadfruit. For those of you who don't know the joy of oil down, I'll give you two recipes.

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The time has come for the great oil down day. I've been itching to cook breadfruit oil down since March, when a completely unscientific poll on this blog revealed it was the dish that Trinis like best. When I ran the survey, I promised to cook whatever people voted as their favourite. And since the summer seems to be disappearing quickly, I thought I should do it before the weather gets totally rotten.

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Today I discovered a great blog from another Trini foodie, Petit Careme, who I assume is a woman! I found her blog when she made a comment on my last entry so I had a look at her blog and at once became green with envy because she was showing off Crix biscuits and Chee Zees fresh from Trinidad. I get more envious when I saw the spread she laid on for her friends over the weekend for which included stew chicken - Sylvia Hunt style! Check out her blog for details.

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Did you know that Trinidad's chocolate is highly regarded all over the world? Chocolate makers really love our chocolate and I was pleasantly surprised to find this chocolate at a friend's home recently.
On the wrapper it says: "Gran Cuova (I think they mean Couva) Cocoa originates from special plantations on the Caribbean island of Trinidad and is one of the world's finest cocoas. When combined with utmost care and the finest ingredients, its unique and beguling aromatic flavour produces a superb extra bitter chocolate."
It makes me wonder if our chocolate is so good, why have we been subjecting our children to the crap of Charles Chocolate for so many years?
But as we're in the Trini vein, I'll talk about two cookbooks I got recently, Caribbean Flavours and Angostura's The Taste That Changed The World. Read the rest of this entry »

My search for a recipe using strawberry vinegar as a key ingredient has taken some interesting twists and turns. At first, I thought about doing seared scallops and gurnard with strawberry vinegar and shallot dressing, but after tasting the strawberry vinegar again, I felt it would be too tart and mask the delicate flavour of the scallops and gurnard.

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