General Tso Chicken A variation

One of our personal favorite web recipe sites is woks of Life. Firstly their recipes are usually actually tasty and work, second they give very good descriptions and third they focus on Chinese cuisine.

The picture is from my wife's version of their recipe
http://thewoksoflife.com/2013/11/takeout-places-general-tsos-chicken/

Now we were surprised they didn't start with frying finely chopped garlic ginger and scallions, so we added that. We also added hot peppers and we cut the amount of cornflour down to 1 tsp, their recipe makes it very gooey. Shown here it is served on cabbage rice, a great recipe and we will put it on soon.

But this captures the sweet/sourness of take away without the nastiness. Its a great recipe.

Jamaica Ackee and Saltfish with Dumplings

The Jamaicans have created a lovely tasty breakfast with this dish. Ackee is a fruit from a large tree and is poisonous if eaten unripe. So its best to buy tinned ackee available from most supermarkets that carry international foods. They are expensive around £4.50 a tin but the consistency and taste cannot be duplicated. In Trinidad there are a few ackee trees but most Trinidadians don't understand them and rarely eat the fruit.

Boil about 1/2 lb of saltfish and drain. In a frying pan slow cook an onion sliced, a sweet pepper sliced and a hot pepper chopped until the go translucent and soft (about 5-10 minutes slow). Add a tin of tomatoes and some fresh thyme and maybe a little water. I also add a teaspoon of sun dried tomato paste and a tsp of sugar. Let this mixture cook slowly until reduced and tasty, add black pepper. then add the shredded saltfish and let this cook into the mix for 5 minutes before topping off with the ackee. Once the ackee is added don't stir much as it breaks up.

To make the dumpling take 8oz plain flour (I use bread flour) and add a tspn of salt and a tspn of baking powder (no more or they will be soggy). Then mix with water to a soft consistency and knead for about 2 minutes. Boil; a saucepan of salted water and divide the dough into 8 pieces. Flatten with the hand or a rolling pin into saucer shapes and drop into the boiling water and cook for 15 minutes.  Serve with Ooft hot pepper of course!

Simple Breakfast Omelet with Ooft! sauce

A breakfast omelet upgraded with Ooft sauce. 
Chip up 4 slices of pepperoni or any sausage, 2 mushrooms, 1/2 a sweet pepper 1 tomato, 1/2 onion and simmer down slow heat until soft and onion translucent. In a seperate pan swirl 2 eggs beaten, add salt and pepper and a half a cup of grated cheese. Let this settle a bit and then put in the veg mixture and weait until the outside of the egg sets so you can turn it. Turn gently to cover veg and after 1-2 minutes serve with toasted muffin....don't forget to dose liberally with Ooft! sauce!! Yummy as Poo would say

Ooft! Hot Sauce has a new home

Readers will know that this sauce has taken my wife and I two years  to take from a family recipe to production. It now has a new web site at http://www.ooftsauce.com/

This is a really good hot sauce made with Scotch Bonnet peppers, garlic, fresh lime juice and daikon.

Very Good Sticky Barbecue Ribs

This recipe was on one of the BBC web sites and I modified it, but it was a good recipe although I was surprised by the method and the ingredients.

Simmer the ribs slowly in a mixture of Coca Cola and water 50/50 for 1.5-2 hours. Drain and cover with the following marinade for at least 2 hours preferably overnight.

1 cup ketchup
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup soy (mix dark and light)
1/4 cup Worcester sauce
1/4 cup sweet chilli sauce
1/4 cup satay marinade
1/4 cup honey
2 tspns paprika
1 onion finely chopped
1 garlic finely chopped
a little water may be needed if its too thick.
Cook marinade until thick and nice about 5-10 minutes slow. This produces a dark liquid thick enough to brush on.

Roast the ribs at about 180 centigrade for about 30- 40 minutes, basting all the time with the sauce until at the end no sauce should be in the pan, it should all be glazing the ribs and they should look shiny and appetizing. Cut and serve. We love them with baked potato and salad but anything tastes good. They are sweetish and sticky and scrumptious

Ooft! Scotch Bonnet pepper sauce

My wife and I have developed a very high quality scotch bonnet hot pepper sauce, after years spent taking an old family recipe of her fathers (a master sauce maker from Maracas St Joseph in Trinidad) and modifying it for commercial production. This is a vatted sauce, i.e. the sauce takes a year to mature in glass vats before bottling, and during that year develops the flavor which is based on Scotch Bonnet peppers, garlic, fresh squeezed lime juice and mooli (also known as daikon) plus other ingredients. See our web site at islandgirl.eu
for more information and ordering. This sauce goes well with many dishes, having the quality of improving flavor and "lifting" a dish.

Fried Plantain and sada roti

A lovely light tasty breakfast. Take some ripe plantain(they need to be very ripe almost black and in a condition that most people might throw away, even maybe with some mold on the outside), peel and slice on a plate (they will be very soft and take careful handling,  and add salt. Heat some oil in a frying pan and fry the plantain slowly so as to develop the caramel colour. Serve with sada roti (see previous recipes). Of course Ooft! Pepper sauce adds to the taste!

Satay Shrimp and Chicken

I don't often praise a commercial product in these pages but one must give praise where its due. Jimmy satay sauce blend see this link for the sauce on Amazon
is really good and gives an authentic taste.



I blend finely 1tbspn of garlic, ginger, hot pepper and 2 tbpns onion very fine chop. I add 1 tbspn of Jimmy sauce and salt and pepper and use this mixture to marinate shrimps or chicken (the chicken chopped into 3/4 inch cubes. Let it marinade for at least an hour and it can be left overnight.

The thread onto bamboo skewers and as I don't barbecue much, I pan fry in about 2 tbspns of oil quite hot. The reason for the oil is without it the meat/shrimp will stick and ruin the satay. The satay will glaze nicely and look and taste delicious as a starter or even 4 skewers for a main course with rice.

Seasoned Fried Fish - Trinidad

This is our favorite fried fish. It works with any firm white flesh fish, hake is good, the picture is cod bought inexpensively at Tesco as frozen cod pieces. My wife makes the seasoning in a mortar and pestle as she insists (rightly) that the more blended the seasoning the better for fish. Now normally we just chop it fine for seasoning meat, but you could use a blender or a food processor. It needs to blend fine so it will soak well into the fish turning it green.

Coriander( good handful) , garlic (2 cloves), onion(1/2), ginger (1/2 inch piece), salt, black pepper, curry powder (sprinkle), small, medium hot pepper (we use half of a 3 inch red pepper).

Mix blended seasoning into fish and leave overnight or at least 3 hours.

Make up a seasoned flour. I use 1 cup plain flour, 1 tbspn Duns River all purpose seasoning (sell it at Tesco), 1 tspn paprika, two tspns salt, 2 tspns ground black pepper.

Break and egg into a bowl and add 2 tbsns milk and stir until well mixed.

Heat about 1/4 - 1/2 inch of oil in a frying pan until hot (180 if you have control).

Dip fish pieces into egg wash and then roll in flour mixture and fry for 3 minutes a side until golden brown.

We like to eat this with okra rice (see below)

Good Sweet and Sour Sauce

My boys like fish or chicken with sweet and sour. This is a very good recipe for a simple sauce that tastes very good.

1/3 cup Rice Vinegar
4 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbspn ketchup
1 tbspn good soy
2 tspn cornstarch
+
1 chopped onion, 1 chopped green pepper, half a cup of tinned or fresh pineapple and a piece of ginger about 1 inch finely chopped.

Boil the wet ingredients until mixed and sugar dissolved  and then add the choice of veg/fruit and simmer for 20 minutes. Finally add the cornflour mixed in  a little water to thicken. Serve with fried fish, chicken, or pork and rice.

Corn Bread (Johnny Bread)

This is the best corn bread recipe I have found. Its based on one published by River Cottage and is truly scrumptious with a little melted butter. Serve with soup or just on its own.

125gms cornmeal
125gms plain flour
2 tspn baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp bicarb of soda
2 eggs
1 tbspn honey or syrup
150ml yoghurt or cream
150ml milk
25 gm butter melted

Mix dry ingredients in one bowl and wet in another and then when oven is hot (and not before) mix them together without a lot of stirring (its a wet mixture) and put in 10-12 inch glass pan or baking dish. Put in very hot oven at 200+ for 20-25 minutes until knife come out clean

Hot Dog Breakfast

3 hot dogs chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 onion chopped
1 sweet pepper chopped
1 tbspn ketchup
1 tspn pepper sauce
black pepper

For those who only associate hot dogs with a bun this easy to make snack is a real treat.

Fry the onions and sweet peppers down until very soft and then add the hot dog pieces and cook for a minute or two to heat. Then add salt and pepper and ketchup and pepper sauce and stir in. Serve with toast for a scrumptious and easy breakfast snack. Serves 2. Add a poached egg if you want to make it more "breakfasty"

Soy Sauce

There is a huge variation in quality in soy sauces. Some are made up from raw ingredients and some a brewed like beer or wine and these are the best type. The taste difference is extraordinary. You have to go to a Chinese shop to get really good soy sauce. In fact all the best are Japanese and the Chinese buy them. Kikkoman makes a sauce available in all supermarkets but its the lowest quality (still better than most Chinese ones), but they also make a very superior soy made from long fermented beans, if you go the a Chinese shop you will see several different Kikkoman, Yamasa and Shoda all good Japanese brands. Look for a sauce labelled tamari by any manufacturer which is usually the sign of a good long brewed Japanese sauce. The brewed sauce is less salty and much more flavorful.

LIGHT AND DARK
Dark soy sauce is used to give color and strong flavor to a dish. Light is more salty and can be added to improve most dishes. I use dark for seasoning meats for stewing as it gives them a dark shiny color and tasty flavor. Avoid almost all the soy sauces except Kikkoman and Lee Kum double deluxe in supermarkets, they are not brewed but made up from chemical products mixed together and do not taste good.

Very Good Chilli

1lb ground beef
2 tins of tomatoes
1 tspn sun dried tomato paste
1/2lb mushrooms chopped
1 large onion chopped
half a garlic peeled and chopped
1 sweet pepper or pimento peppers chopped
1 tin of red beans drained or 1/2lb of dried beans soaked and cooked.
1 small chipottle pepper
1 tablespoon chilli powder
2 tspn paprika
1 sprig of thyme
salt and black pepper

Slow fry the onions garlic and peppers until soft then turn up the heat a little and brown meat until no raw showing. Add tomatoes and chop them up plus other ingredients. Add at least 1 tspn fresh black pepper and 1 tbspn salt.  Cook slowly for 45min to 1 hour. If it gets too thick add a little water. Serve with warm french bread or soft rolls and butter. Tastes better the second day when flavors have had time to adjust. Recently we went to a chilli cookoff in Edinburgh and went to 7 restaurants and tasted their chilli and ours was much better than any of them.

Ponch a Creme

This Trinidadian mixture puts the heat of the Caribbean into egg nog. It is very popular around Christmas and New Year in Trinidad and many people have recipes. They are all similar in combining eggs cream and rum.

To Make 1 rum bottle full of Punch

1 pint of dark rum
3 eggs
1 tin of condensed milk
1 cup of thick cream
1/2 cup milk
(in Trinidad they use evaporated milk, in the USA half and half would work)
A good teaspoon and a half of fresh ground nutmeg
The zest of a lemon or lime
tspn Angostura Bitter (if you don't have this don't worry)


Blend until thoroughly mixed and bottle for a day or two before drinking.

IDEAS
This is the basic recipe, I have speculated that heating slowly in a bain marie until the eggs thicken might help the consistency but be careful not to overcook. Most people make two bottles at a time as that uses up one whole bottle of rum and provides a spare bottle to fill. The rum quality is not that important, people will tell you only use Trinidad rum but a good dark demerara such as Navy rum is fine.

Hunan Chicken

for 4 people
two chicken breast cut into bite size pieces
1 tbspn cornflour
1 tspn salt
Soak 4-5 dried mushrooms in 1/2 cup boiling water for 1 hour and then drain the water and add in a bowl to
1 cup chiken stock
2 tspns sugar
1 tbspn light soy
1 tspn dark soy
1 tspn rice vinegar and mix and set aside

Chop into bite size pieces 1 green sweet pepper, 6 asparagus, the mushrooms, 4-6 normal mushrooms and 4-6 spring onions cut into 2 inch pieces.

Chop 1 inch of ginger and 4 cloves of garlic and some hot pepper finely


This is a lovely chicken dish that goes well with noodles or rice. The basis is marinating the chicken breasts chopped into bite size pieces for 2-4 hours in cornflour, salt and a small amount of 5 spice. I emphasise this as it doesn't need much 1/2 tspn.

When ready to cook, heat oil in a wok, add ginger/garlic/pepper mixture and let cook for 1-2 minutes, add the chicken and stirring briskly cook until golden brown (see picture above), its best to cook in portions to keep oil hot and as each is done take out.

Remove from pan and add vegetables and let fry for 3-5  minutes and then add stock mixture bring to boil and let cook for 3 minutes then add the chicken and a little cornflour and water mixed to thicken. Stir until chicken is coated and shiny and serve.

 Stir frying vegetables

Final dish

Crab and Dumpling

This is a must if you visit Tobago. In Trinidad they use land crabs, sold at the roadside by small boys on long poles about 6-8 to a bunch. In the UK we use medium brown crabs. It is essential they are live crabs, hard to get in the UK unless you know a fisherman. Take off the top shell with a knife and split the crabs in two and clean everything soft away until your left with two halves. Crack the gundies or large claws with a rock or pestle. Season with
1/2 whole garlic, 1 onion, one WI Pepper all finely chopped, two sprigs of thyme, and 1 inch chopped fresh ginger, 1 chopped tomato, and 1 tspn  sun dried paste
1 Bunch coriander chopped, salt and black pepper and teaspoon of curry powder
After a time (at least 2 hours but can be overnight). Heat oil in a pot and add 1 tbpsn curry powder mixed to a paste with water. Let cook down a little to gain fragrance and then add the crab and stir gently. After about 5 minutes add a cup of Heineken or similar lager, water and coconut milk. About maybe a pint or so all together, enough to cover. Add 1-2 teaspoon of sugar. Turn down heat and simmer for twenty minutes, uncover and reduce at high heat until gravy thickens, also add a bit more coriander chopped.

While the crab is cooking take a pound of plain flour and add salt and a pinch of baking powder, mix with water to form a firm dough. roll to a cylinder about 1-5 inches and slice into pieces to make about 10-12 dumplings. Add to boiling salted water and boil for 20 minutes then drain.

Put dumplings on plate and spoon crab over. This is a messy but satisfying meal where the real taste is in the dumplings and gravy and any crab you can suck is a bonus really.

Tomato Choka

1lb (about 6) tomato. 1 onion, 4 garlic, 1/2 a WI Pepper all finely chopped.
Boil tomatoes until skin splits and then drain. Remove skins and pound (I use a pestle, but a rolling pin end works fine) until mashed up. Fry the fine chopped ingredients until starting to brown and then add tomato mixture and mix. You don't want the onion garlic pepper mixture to brown but to be on the edge. The taste should have a rawness to it, but if you use all raw ingredients its too raw. Serve with Sada roti.

Trinidad Breakfast

If your not eating doubles, then in Trinidad your probably waking up to tomato choka, potato and saltfish and sada roti. I have been experimenting with a new recipe for potato and saltfish which is quicker and makes a better product than the traditional way in an earlier blog entry. After all when one gets up in the morning one wants to have breakfast quickly. In Trinidad Indian women are up at 4am making all this for their working husbands and children, but that a lot of work. This method works well and can all be done in 30 minutes. The work pattern is first start the roti as it need to sit, then boil potato while doing saltfish and chopping, this way it comes together quickly at the end.

1lb potatoes chopped small and boiled until soft
1 piece of salt cod put in a bowl and pour boiling water over, leave for 20 minutes, strain and chop.
1 onion, 2 cloves of garlic and half a WI pepper all finely chopped

Add all except potato to a small wok on low to medium and heat until it starts to brown, it needs a slow heat. Then turn it up to high and add potatoes and immediately begin to break the potatoes down into the mix until it is close to mashed. What you are looking for here is to brown the potato (not burn), so watch the heat. It should take about 10 minutes tops.

Serve with simple sada roti.

1lb plain flour 1 tbps baking powder, 1 dessertspoon salt, little butter maybe 100gms. Mix this up until butter disappeared, then add cold water and mix for a soft dough. leave for 20-30 minutes to prove and then split into about 6-8 pieces and roll out thin and cook in a frying pan with no oil at medium heat. As soon as you put the roti in the pan pour a little oil on the top and spread with your fingers to cover. After 1 minute (small bubbles should be visible if you have the heat right) turn and again rub some oil into the surface (I use a piece of =kitchen towel soaked in oil). After 1 minute again turn and the roti should start to bubble and rise, it might even go completely bubble which is nice but not essential. Let it cook for another 2 minutes and then put into a bowl with a towel and some kitchen towel and cover while you do the rest. 

Stewed Fish Caribbean

It is hard in Britain to get whole fish, most places only sell fillets. But Sainsbury sells whole hake a lovely and underrated fish. Buy a nice piece or have the fish man chop it into pieces about an inch or so thick, take care as its a fish that falls apart easily. Season the fish with salt pepper and chopped cilantro (coriander), chopped thyme and chopped parsley, chopped onion and chopped fine garlic. Leave for at least an hour.

Fry the fish coated in seasoned flour in about 1 inch of oil until nicely brown and cooked. Then take a fresh frying pan and cook slowly some onions, garlic, sweet peppers sliced and about three big tomatoes chopped up until its starts to soften and brown. Add about 1/2pt of water and let it simmer for 20 minutes until the tomatoes have broken down, also add 1 good tspn of thick sundried tomato paste, season to taste with salt and black pepper, and then lower the fish pieces into the mix and let it warm up and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Serve with rice for a lovely meal. To add more to this Caribbean meal buy Eddoes (Chinese shops) and peel and cut into 1 inch cubes and boil until soft. These add a warm wholesome flavor to the mix. In fact one could just serve the fish with the eddoes. Below are 3 photos showing the stages, the final dish ready to serve with rice, the fried seasoned fish and finally the start when the onions and peppers have cooked and the tomatoes and water added in a pot.