Curacao-ian Stuffed Cheese

Curacao: It's actually part of the Netherland Antilles, but I'm counting it as its own country because I can.

I found this on Recipe Island - it was either stuffed cheese or iguana stew, and I'm all out of iguana.

The recipe said the cheese would keep its shape. It didn't.

But it was delicious - sweet and rich and perfect with some fried plantains:

Keshi Yena (Stuffed Cheese)

1 sliced onions
2 garlic cloves
1/2 chopped green pepper
4 small Edam cheeses
3 tomatoes, chopped and peeled
1/4 cup sliced olives
1 tablespoon capers
1 tablespoon parsley
1/2 cup raisins and cranberries
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons butter
3 eggs

Slice the top off the cheese and reserve. Gently scoop out the inside, leaving a 1/4 to 1/2 inch shell. The cheese should resemble a hollowed out pumpkin.

Sauté the remaining ingredients, except the eggs, in the butter.

Beat the eggs and stir into the mixture. Spoon it into the cheese shell, replace the top.

Grease a shallow baking dish and fill it with about 1 inch of water; set the cheese in the dish and bake at 350° F for ~1 hour, or until the cheese starts to brown on the top.
Serve hot with fried plantains.

Netherlands Antilles Applekoek

The Netherlands Antilles are two small groups of islands in the Caribbean. Ruled by the Dutch since the 17th century, the islands absorbed much of Dutch cuisine, including this fantastic applekoek breakfast bread.

What a magnificiently delicious coffee cake! The cut-in butter makes the cake flaky and soft, a cross between a muffin and biscuit, and the sweetness of the apples makes it a perfect morning bread. This is my new favorite coffee cake.

Recipe: Netherlands Antilles Applekoek
Makes 1 8-inch coffee cake

1 1/2 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 Tbsp sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
2 apples, peeled and cut into wedges
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in the butter. In a separate bowl, mix the egg and milk, then mix into the flour mixture. Pour batter into an 8-inch round cake pan. Press the apple wedges into it in a spiral pattern and dust with cinnamon.

Bake for 25 minutes, until apples are golden.

Bermuda: Johnnycake Corn Bread

Johnnycakes are apparently quite popular in Bermuda. There is nothing exotic about them – just regular cornbread.

Johnnycake
Makes 1 8-inch Square Loaf

1 cup flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
3/4 tsp salt
5 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp oil
1 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F).

Mix the flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, and baking powder. Mix in the egg, oil, and milk. Pour batter into greased 8-inch square pan. Bake 30 minutes, or until the bread begins to brown on top.

Bahamian Baked Banana Custard

I remembered half way through making this that I hate custard. But I had already whipped the eggs, so I went ahead anyway – and I actually liked it. The bananas soften the egg taste that I usually find so overwhelming in custards. The tiny black threads that come with the bananas are a little off-putting visually, but few custards are pretty affairs anyway.

Bahamian Baked Banana Custard
Makes 1 8-inch round custard

4 very ripe bananas, mashed
2 tsp lemon juice
dash of nutmeg, optional
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 cups milk
3 eggs, lightly beaten

Mix the mashed banana, lemon juice, nutmeg, and 2 Tbsp of the sugar. Spread over the bottom of a greased 8-inch cake pan (with very high sides). Cover with breadcrumbs.

In a saucepan, warm the milk. Mix with the beaten eggs and the rest of the sugar. Pour over the mashed bananas. Bake at 350 degrees for about 60 minutes, or until the custard has set.

Bajan Sweet Bread – A Dense Coconut Bread from Barbados

Bajan (“bay-junn”) is the Creole dialect spoken in Barbados, a mixture of West African and English that apparently sounds like a Liverpool accent.

This recipe has been sitting in my To Bake pile for a long time, waiting for a can of evaporated milk to materialize in my cupboard. The can appeared this weekend, so I baked the little devil.

When it came out of the oven, I was disappointed. It tasted like a sponge. I thought miserably: This is what I poured 2 1/2 cups of grated coconut into?

But I can’t bring myself to throw out edible bread, so I dragged it to work the next day, and miserably sat down to eat it for lunch.

And it tasted fantastic. The day after that, it tasted even better. And by the third day, I was actually looking forward to it. After that, it started getting a bit stale – but this is certainly a bread that should be allowed to cool a few days.

Bajan Sweet Bread
Makes 2 loaves

2½ cups grated coconut
4 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cups sugar
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 egg
11/4 cup evaporated milk
1 tsp almond extract

Grease two 9-by-5-inch loaf pan and preheat the oven to 350 (F).

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, coconut, sugar, and raisins. In a separate bowl, mix the melted butter, egg, evaporated milk, and almond extract. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry, divide in half (the dough will be very thick), and place in pans.

Bake until golden, about 1 hour. Let cool completely.

Anguillan-Style Black-Eyed Peas

Anguillans seem to like lobster. I don't blame them. I loved lobster before I met that chicken on the subway.

This recipe is modified from Bob Green's Anguilla News website, submitted by Ijahnya Christian. Thanks Ijahnya!

Recipe: Anguillan-Style Black-Eyed Peas
Makes enough for 1

1/4 cup rice
1/2 cup black-eyed peas, canned or pre-cooked
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 small red sweet pepper, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 medium onion, sliced
1/2 stalk celery, chopped
2 Tbsp lime juice
1/2 avocado, sliced

In a medium saucepan, cover the rice with water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and cook for about 10 minutes, until the rice is tender but not falling apart. Add everything but the lime juice and avocado. Cook until the sauce has all been absorbed by the rice and beans, another few minutes. Spoon into a bowl, mix in the lime juice, and top with the sliced avocado.

Dominica: Banana Mango Bread

This looks just like banana bread, but has the most subtle, deliciously zestly spring to the flavor. I've never tasted a bread like it before. I absolutely love it.

It's best hot from the oven. Once it's cooled, it still tastes delicious, but the zesty mango taste is more subdued.

Dominican Banana Mango Bread
Makes 2 loaves

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups brown sugar, packed
3 eggs
3 cups cake flour (all-purpose will work too)
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 very ripe banana, peeled (the riper, the better)
1 small very ripe mango, peeled
1 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two loaf pans (8 1/2 x 4 1/2).

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

In a blender or food processor, puree the banana and mango.

Mix by hand the dry ingredients with the butter mixture in three parts, alternating with the pureed fruit. Fold in the walnuts and raisins (I like to sprinkle the walnuts on top - they're pretty that way). Mix just until incorporated – not too much! Pour batter into the pans and bake for 50 – 60 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then dump out onto wire cooking racks and let cool completely.

Ducuna: Sweet Potato Odd Balls from Antigua and Barbuda

I found this recipe on a website called Caribbean Choice. The person who submitted it spelled out the ingredients and the instructions in standard recipe format, but added at the end: "Hope you like it."

Many recipes online end with a similar sentiment, but for some reason I was touched by this one. No exclamation point, no overly excited and exuberant home cook – the period at the end of the sentence made it sound quiet and almost humble: "Here's my recipe. I hope you like it."

I do like it. These ducuna are sweet little creatures that remind me, for whatever reason, of the innards of an apple pie. The texture, flavor, and consistency is almost identical – except that this is not apple, it's sweet potato.


1/2 large sweet potato, grated
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup flour
Dash of all spice
Dash of cinnamon

Mix the grated sweet potato with the sugar and set aside, covered for about 10 minutes. Mix in the flour and spices until a soft dough forms. Spoon the dough into 3 packets of aluminum foil, folding the foil so little water will get in. Place in boiling water and boil for about 45 minutes, until they are firm. I, too, hope you like it.

Okra Fried Rice from Trinidad and Tobago

The first time I ate okra, I had unwisely cooked it with polenta. No bean can be at its best when cooked with polenta. I forgave it.

I still had half a bag of frozen okra getting freezer burn, so last night I dove into okra yet again with okra fried rice from Trinidad and Tobago.

This is an interesting take on fried rice, with some wonderful flavors from the fennel, cloves, and garlic, but overall it was missing something. It feels very close to being delicious, but instead falls on the side of just "good."

Still, I think I will forgive okra again. I will give it another chance soon. It's such a cheerful-looking bean. It was brought down by its associates. And besides, I still have a third of a bag of the stuff getting freezer burn.


Okra Fried Rice from Trinidad and Tobago
Makes enough for 2

1 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp butter
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 onion, chopped
2 oz frozen okra, sliced
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground fennel
1 tsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro
1 cup cooked rice

Heat the oil and butter in a large frying pan, then add the garlic and onion. Cook for about 5 minutes over medium heat, until the onions are transparent. Add the okra and cook for another 5 minutes. Add everything else and cook until the rice is warmed through.

A Coconut Confection from the Dominican Republic

Will it never stop raining in Boston? A week of solid downpour and counting.

Time for a reminder that some places in the world have coconut trees.

This recipe is from Caribbean Choice ("Your Gateway to the Caribbean"). They called it a biscuit, I call it a scone. It is warm and soft, with a fantastic sugary texture and a pleasing crunchy crust.

Makes about 15 medium scones

1 3/4 cups packed shredded coconut
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine, softened
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F).

Mix the milk, coconut, and almond extract. Set aside.

Cream the margarine and sugar, then add the egg and vanilla.

Combine all the dry ingredients. Mix into the margarine mixture in three portions. Mix in the coconut mixture.

Drop by the spoonful onto a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake 25-30 minutes, until light brown.

Coconut scones, coconut scones, tra la.

Arbuan Bananas: Peeled, Sliced, Boiled, Baked, Eaten

Hooray for mashy, mushy, marvelous messes. Achieving these messes is surprisingly easy, especially when you're boiling bananas.
This Arbuan recipe suggested serving these bananas with ice cream, but I wanted breakfast, so I used only 1/4th the sugar. Nice try, girl-o, but these are still dessert.

Serves 4
4 ripe bananas
2 tbs cinnamon powder
3 tbs vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
4 cups water

Peel the bananas and boil them together with the cinnamon, vanilla extract, sugar and water for about 20 minutes.

Bake the bananas in the oven at 400° (F) for 10 minutes.

Serve with ice cream, not for breakfast. They look hideous, but are truly delicious.

British Virgin Islands: Okra Fungi

"Fungi" apparently means polenta in the British Virgin Islands.

Okra and polenta. Sounds like a strange combination, until you bite into it. Then you're absolutely certain that it's a strange combination. Why someone would combine these two foods in the first place is beyond me, but why they repeated it . . .

It doesn't taste bad. It tastes like polenta mixed with okra. I'm glad I ate it once.

Makes enough for 8

10 ounce package frozen cut okra
5 cups water
1 1⁄2 cups yellow cornmeal
2 Tbsp butter
1⁄4 tsp salt

Boil half of the water, remove from heat, and add the okra. Let it sit while you prepare the cornmeal.

In a saucepan, boil the other half of the water. Add the cornmeal in a slow, steady stream, stirring constantly with a whisk. Stir constantly for about 5 minutes, until the polenta is done, then mix in the okra, butter, and salt.

The recipe I used suggested serving this with Boiled Fish West Indian Style. I suggest serving it with more butter.