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.

Aloo Pie

Sorry the picture shows a pie bitten, but they are so good I couldn't wait for the photo!

Boil potatoes and mash with finely and lightly pan fried chopped garlic, onions, and geera (roasted cumin), salt and pepper.

The pie mixture flour, baking powder salt sugar and butter mixed then water to bind to a soft dough.
Roll out into circles and pop a bit of filling in the centre seal with a fork and deep fry for about 3-5 minutes until golden.

This photo shows it served very nicely with a tomato, sweet pepper and cucumber salsa with coriander chopped and salt and pepper, finely chopped hot pepper to taste and lemon juice.

Breadmaker Roti dough

I am fascinated by this breadmaker I acquired. I have now successfully used it to make superior roti dough. My breadmaker has a recipe for pizza dough, and I modified it by replacing the olive oil with ghee. So for me its 450gm flour, 250gm water, 1 tspn yeast 1 dessertspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of ghee melted. I am not scared of lifting the lid during kneading and adding a bit of flour if I think its too loose. Now the reason a breadmaker is so good is it maintains a constant temperature a lot like the professional bakers rising trays. That gives the yeast the best possible temperature to grow. Once it completes which takes about 1.5 hours, I take out the soft dough and split it into 1/8ths as one would for roti and cover it with cling film covered in oil. From then on its roll and cook. Don't forget to brush both sides with a mixture of ghee and oil. I was amazed the first time as the roti puffed up like a ball and tasted very good.

Using a breadmaker to make real bread

I bought a breadmaker a while ago and I have been testing its ability. Using the normal recipes from the book allows one to make reasonable bread but not outstanding. I found that one can fool the breadmaker though as follows. Take 4 oz good stone ground whole wheat flour and mix with one teaspoon of yeast and some water to form a thick paste. Put into the fridge over night without allowing it to rise. The next day take it out for 1-2 hours and then set the breadmaker to 1kg, but use the ingredients for 750gms but add 1/2 cup extra flour and the mix. Run the breadmaker on wholewheat setting and you will be amazed by how much better the bread is, and also it will rise to about the size of a 1kg loaf. The secret is in letting the yeast steal its sugar from the whole wheat flour overnight slowly so that the nuttiness can grow. Using sugar in bread making allows the yeast to ignore the natural sugar in the flour.

A Curry Dinner

My wife and I realised that pictures are a big help so I am posting this picture of a recent dinner. We had curried chicken and potato at the bottom left, Curried chicken liver at top right, roti top right and our own pilau rice made with plain rice, raisins, cardomom and turmeric.

The chicken liver was a simple recipe, fried up some onion, garlic and peppers until softemed, added a tablespoon of curry powder and let that cook up for a couple of minutes before throwing in the livers. I let them fry up and mix with the seasonings beofre adding a handful of chopped coriander, a chopped tomato, water salt and pepper. After about 5 minutes I took out the livers with a slotted spoon and let the mixture fry down to a paste and then added the livers back for about another 3 minutes to cook though.

The recipe for the chicken curry and roti is elsewhere in the blog