Dominican Republic - A winter destination

The Dominican Republic is the second largest nation in the Caribbean and it has everything from rainforests to deserts. Of course, it also has white sand beaches and beautiful blue water for those looking to escape to a tropical island. It’s Caribbean’s largest tourist destination and known for its golf courses, baseball, and merengue, the national dance and song. Yes, the word merengue actually comes from the word meringue, a dessert made from whipped egg whites and sugar.

Here in Canada, my friends seem to go to two places to escape the winter blahs: Cuba and the Dominican Republic. From what I am hearing it’s cheaper than going to Mexico or some other Caribbean island. From the little research I’ve done about the island nation it seems like quit a nice place to bath in the sun and forget about life for a while.

My only connection with the country is a memory I have of a friend’s mother. When I was five and six I was living in Lagos, Nigeria and my best friend was a little boy named Tico. His sister Desiree was also my friend and the three of us often played together. Their father was an American diplomat and their mother was from the Dominican Republic.

One story I remember about Tico’s mother was one my mother told. When we first moved to Lagos I was at home with the servants and apparently not being watched too closely. I wandered outside and found a stray dog and decided to take it into our house. I locked our cat and the dog together in one of our bathrooms upstairs, with me in there with them. Our cat went ballistic and bit me on the wrist. The poor dog was so distraught that our cook had to carry him down the stairs.

I got blood poisoning from the cat bite on my wrist. To remedy it I had to have a series of shots. Being that I was five this was the most horrible thing in the whole world. Two people had to keep me still while the doctor administered the shots. Tico’s mom happened to be working at the doctor’s office and helped my mother hold me down. While I screamed and cried my mother looked over at Tico’s mom and saw she had tears streaming down her face. My mother never forgot that.

We all loved our Dominican Republic meal (and we had it with our Dominica soup). It was Asopao de Mariscos, a shrimp and rice dish. It was wonderfully flavored with tomato paste, green peppers, garlic, olives, parsley, cilantro, and chicken bouillon. It was easy to make and you could try other things other than shrimp such as lobster or crab.

Other popular dishes in the Dominican Republic are fried green plantains, fried dumpling with meat and cheese, and Mondongo, a soup made from cow’s stomach.

Here in Canada our short days of winter are getting depressing. You wake up to dreary weather and then it gets dark and your day is over. Many of the Canadians I know are flying off to the Dominican Republic. I must say, that does sound rather good right now.

Asopao de Mariscos

2 lbs shrimp, crab or lobster
1 lemon
2 1/2 cups rice
3/4 gallon water
5 TBSP oil
4 TBSP tomato paste
1/4 cup green peppers, chopped
1 pinch oregano
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pinch black pepper
1/8 cup seedless olives, chopped
1/4 cup celery, chopped
1 TBSP parsley, chopped
1 TBSP coriander, chopped
1/2 tsp thyme leaves
1 cube of chicken bouillon
salt.

Heat oil in a pot, add herbs, olives, spices, tomato paste, peppers, garlic, and salt. Then add the shrimp and stir. Cover and cook for two minutes, then stir again. Add water and bring to boil. Add all remaining ingredients including rice. Stir. Let most of the water evaporate. Add salt to taste. Serve hot.

Dominica - Natural Beauty

Dominica is nicknamed the “Nature Isle of the Caribbean” because of its unspoiled natural environment. The island nation, in the Caribbean Sea, has mountainous rainforests, national parks, the world’s second largest boiling lake and many rare plant, animal and bird species. It could be a great tourist destination, except hordes of tourists would spoil the island’s natural beauty. Maybe it’s a good thing that there are no direct international flights and to travel there requires some island hopping.

Dominica’s cuisine is rooted in Creole techniques. Creole food is influenced by all the countries on the American slave route – West Africa, Caribbean, Eastern coast of South America and Louisiana. I chose to make Callaloo soup, a Creole food, and popular with the Dominicans. The national dish is Mountain Chicken and, no, it’s not chicken but frog legs and from a special kind of frog found on the island.

The soup was delicious. It was perfect for a cold winter day, or sitting on a beach in the Dominica knowing that it’s one of the few island nations in the Caribbean not swarming with tourists.


Callaloo Soup

1 lb Callaloo leaves, Chinese spinach or Swiss chard, chopped
1 celery stalk with leaves, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
2 med. Onions, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp thyme
1 sweet pepper, chopped
1/2 lb okra, sliced
1/4 tsp ground cloves
4 cups chicken or vegetable stocl
1 cup coconut milk, unsweetened
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp hot pepper sauce

Put chopped greens, celery stalk, green onions, garlic, thyme, sweet pepper, okra and cloves into a pot. Add stock and coconut milk and simmer until the vegetables are soft, about 30 minutes. Puree soup. Add salt and pepper and pepper sauce. Serve hot.

Antigua and Barbuda - Vacation destination

Okay. I may have said I wanted to live in Andorra (I have a feeling I'm going to find lots of places I want to live), but Antigua and Barbuda is where I want to have a vacation home!

Close your eyes and imagine this: warm white sand, crystal blue water under a blue cloudless sky, palm trees blowing in the wind. If you have the time, look up Antigua and Barbuda on the internet and check out the pictures. Can you imagine the first explorer to discover this one?

Antigua and Barbuda are located in the Eastern Caribbean and Antigua is the largest of the English-speaking Leeward Islands - and large it ain't. It's 14 miles long and 11 miles wide, encompassing 108 square miles with a population of 68,000.

Barbuda, a flat coral island, is only 68 square miles. The nation also includes a tiny uninhabited island called Redonda - now a nature preserve.

Check out this climate: Temperatures range from the mid-seventies in the winter to the mid-eighties in the summer. It is also the sunniest of the Eastern Caribbean Islands and has low humidity year-round. I'm there!

On tonight's menu we had pork chops with banana and bacon and sweet potato mash. Antigua and Barbuda recipes are typically heavy - meats and stews and accompanied by starchy vegetables, which is unexpected. For island life I think light meals, don't you?

Dinner got high marks from all of us, and my kitchen stayed relatively clean. Kevin helped by grilling the pork chops and the banana and bacon skewers. Having a cook-out on a Friday night turned out quite nicely (and I didn't plan it that way).

Julia had a friend stay over for dinner. Warning: If any of you come to dinner at our house in the next year, we WILL be serving some sort of ethnic dish and there is no guarantee that it will be good, and it may be weird. I'm sorry, but if I'm cooking than it's from a country on my list. On the days I don't cook an ethnic dish, I don't cook.

Anyway, Julia's friend lucked out because our meal was good and was not weird. Julia's friend told her mom that my Antigua dinner was yummy.

During dinner I took a survey of what everyone liked the best. The winner was the bananas wrapped in bacon, and coming in second was the sweet potato mash.

Excuse my pictures this time. On both the pork chops and the bacon and banana skewers, I served everyone's food before I realized I forgot to take a picture of it. I tried to put some of the food back on the serving platters, but I just couldn't make it look pretty.

PORK CHOPS WITH BANANA AND BACON

4 pork chops, about 1" thick
3/4 TBSP cumin
salt and pepper
juice of a lemon
2 TBSP softened butter
2 large bananas
6 strips of bacon
Beer (optional)

Combine the butter, salt, pepper and cumin. Rub mixture into both sides of the meat. Saute the bacon briefly, until some of the fat has rendered. Remove and drain. Peel bananas and cut into 1 1/4 " chunks. Place bananas on a dish and sprinkle with lemon juice. Cut the bacon strips into lengths just long enough to wrap around each banana slice. Place bananas on skewers, threading where the bacon slices overlaps. Place the pork chops on a hot grill, for 15 minutes, turning once. Turn grill down to medium, adding the bacon and the bananas; grill another 10 minutes, turning both the meat and the bananas. For extra flavor, baste with beer, while the meat cooks.

SWEET POTATO MASH

1 sweet potato
2 russet potatoes
1/2 cup milk
2 TBSP vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 pimento pepper, seeded and chopped (I couldn't find a pimento pepper so I used chopped pimento in a jar.)
1/4 cup chopped chives
1/2 cup grated cheese (optional) (I grated a mixture of cheddar and parmesan)

Peel both types of potatoes, boil and mash. Add milk, salt and freshly ground black pepper and combine. Heat the oil in a small frying pan and saute the onion, garlic and pepper for just a minute. Add to the potatoes, and add the chives and cheese. Place in an oven proof dish and sprinkle with cheese. Broil until the cheese is melted and the top is browned. Garnish with chopped chives.