Poor Man’s Peace Corps Pesto

So this whole time that we’ve been cooking up random, resourceful recipes the lovely Peace Corps Guyana has had a volunteer cook book. We knew of this manuscripts existence, but out of pride and the fact that we all have Macs (and the book was in Microsoft Publisher format), we were not privy unto it’s contents. However, a benevolent benefactor at PCHQ , who shall not name (only because we really don't know who put it in our box) we now have in our possession. Do not despair, this will not end our culinary explorations, rather it shall deepen them. Here is our first adaptation and discovery. PESTO! I love Italians. I wonder if Columbus brought this to the new world too hmmmm...

2 cups of “Married Man Pork” (Which we have in garden! See photo below. Get the joke with the name? Eh, tough crowd.) Oh yeah, for those of you not Guyanese this is fresh basil or fresh thai basil...Bombness!




About a 1/2 cup of Olive Oil

About 3/4 cup of ground peanuts, walnuts, or cashews (How I miss pine nuts...) I think we even put some walnuts in it (Thanks, Oma for the Granola ingredients!)

6 cloves of garlic

Cut up the garlic and some of the married man pork, maybe ground some of the nuts if they are not ground yet.
Combine into blender (or food processor) and blend it up. I am even thinking about putting some fresh broad leaf thyme in here, but I haven’t tried it yet. Next time. Keep inventing!
-TT.

Chicken/Veggie Stir Fry

So the longer one cooks food, the less nutrients it has. Guyanese like to destroy their food. They pressure or fry their veggies until all semblance of color is dispersed. We try to tell them that when they do this it takes away the nutritional value, but I don’t think they like the hardish texture of not obliterated veggies. For example, we had a salad one time with fresh lettuce, tomato, carrot, cucumber, and a homemade vinigarette, and our Guyanese guest just looked at it and said, “Wha' that!?” Anyway, this is a nice little dish that is quite good and doesn’t destroy the veggies. One of our goals here is try and get some Guyanese to eat healthier and this could be one of our target dishes. However, there will be challenges since carrot is primarily for color, not nutrition here, and bora is rarely served when it’s not in fried rice or chow mein.

Bora (green beans)
Cabbage
Carrot
Tomato
Chicken
Salt and Black Pepper
Butter

If you want Chicken, saute it in some of the butter. Once the Chicken is cooked, take out of pan.
In another pan or cleaned kaharee, saute the bora, cabbage, and carrot in butter. After a few minutes, once some of those veggies have been cooked (you still want them to have texture), stir in Tomato and Chicken. Add Salt and Pepper to taste.

Guy-Nachos

Yes, more Mexican food. Its oozy, cheesy, refried- beany goodness. And as mentioned in the last recipe, Mexican food is one of god’s gifts. So, really, if it’s possible, it should be eaten at least once or twice a week like a church service, you know? My favorite part of this whole recipe is that its all baked! So there are plenty of ingredients on every bite!

Tortilla chips
Refried beans
Cheese
Did I mention cheese?
Tomatoes
Salsa
(Corn)

Make the refried beans, or just buy a can. Grate the cheese (as much as you think you’ll use). Cut up the tomatoes, open the can of corn. Make your salsa.

On a baking sheet (or as we do it in Guyana in a frying pan, sitting on a tawa and topped by a tawa (see enchaladas)) place chips and top with Cheese and Refried beans. (It is also possible if you have a baking sheet to top every chip with some cheese and beans)

Bake for about 10 minutes. Until cheese is melted.

Top with tomatoes and salsa. (you can add other stuff too if you got it like sour cream, guacamole, etc.)

Comfort from the Gods: Mac and Cheese

Comfort food. These two words take on a whole different meaning now. They mean warm bellies, a particular hidden, satisfied smile, and a happy cow shattered silence ( When the consuming silence around the table is broken by occasional “mmmmoos” of pleasure). This is a Tony recipe and its pretty bomb. It’s mac and cheese, man! It’s glorious, for cheese was, of course, the gods’ gift to mankind. I mean it must be up there with fire, creation, mexican food, and pizza, right?

Elbow Macaroni
1/2 lb of Cheese (or more)
Milk
A whipped egg.
Salt
X (Variable Ingredient)

Prep your pasta, boiling it.
Drain pasta, put it pack in the pot. Slowly stir in half of the cheese, watch it melt.
Stir in some milk and the egg. Continue stirring
Finish up the rest of the cheese. Stir until melted and sticky. Heat pot if necessary.
It is also possible to stir in other things, we’ve added pumpkin (thanks Sara!), another time it was bacon. We put some shallot in there once, and even red onion. Use what you think and what you like. It’s mac and cheese! So easy!
-TT

Hummus

As we’ve mentioned so many times before, Guyana has a lot of chick-peas, a.k.a. channa. We’ve dreamt of creating hummus for a while since channa is the primary ingredient, but never really took the steps to make it happen. Until now. We were feeling the slump; a proverbial culinary one. It took several conversations with current volunteers, a few looks at the Internet, and a desire for change to make it happen. And it did. For the betterment of men and womenkind...well, at least, for the Linden 4. Since there is no worse slump than one of culinary proportions.

Channa (Chick Peas either in a can, or as we do it, dried, that have been soaked for 8 hours.)

About a 1 1/2 cups of either the canned channa water, or your water from when you boiled the channa.

4-5 cloves of garlic, cut up a bit

1 Red or White Onion, cut up

Olive oil (round about 2-3 tbsp)

1-1.5 tbsp of Peanut butter (better if it’s natural flavored as opposed to artificially sweetened; better yet if you have tahini sauce. We don’t. But if you want to send us some. Please do!)

Geerah (or as you Am-ER-icans say Cumin.)

X (What is X, you ask? Well it's what you want. We’ve used some green olives the storekeeper near us bought, but we’ve also put some pesto in here. Maybe if you’re feeling it..some curry powder (hmm I’ll have to try that). Basically experiment, I know we will!)



Soak and boil your channa (or just open the can, and put them in the blender)
Combine the ingredients in a blender (or food processor if you’re so lucky). Blend on a lower speed to make sure it’s flowing. You can even switch it to a higher gear if you’re feeling it. Anyway, eventually all will be blended and all will be good.
You can even salt to taste.

-T & C

Roti

Roti? Whaaaa? When I first came to Guyana I didn’t have a clue what this wonderful morsel was. However within the first night at our host families house this atrocity was quickly rectified with our first Guyanese, home cooked meal: Roti and Curry. It looked delectable: these warm tortilla looking things steamed next to a heaping helping of curry. I grabbed my fork and dug in-- well I tried, our host mom quickly stopped me from sullying her food by using a fork, she explained that when Roti is on the plate we don’t use forks. Nice one. I sure did my cultural studies. Not. Anyway, I put the fork down and scooped up the curry with this flat bread and it was delicious. Roti, who woulda thought? So how does one make this delicious treat which we have found can also stand in for our California-centric desire for tortillas? Let us explain.* However, it should noted that this is the short cut way to make roti taught to us by a younger Guyanese generation. A Guyanese elder watching this process would suck their teeth, shake their head, and then do it for you in their own more complicated way with the exact, same result.


Flour
Salt
Baking Powder
Water
Margarine

Put your flour in a large aluminum bowl, the amount depends on how much you want to make we use about 1 to 2 cups. Take a couple pinches of salt and baking powder and sprinkle it onto the flour mixing it all together.
Slowly add water to the flour mixture, kneading it and making it kinda sticky. Once most of the flour has been used keep kneading until its smooth and has the consistency of chewed bubble gum.

Piece the dough into blobs that are a little bigger than golf balls. (don’t worry about making them perfect spheres)

Smear a little butter (margarine), about the size of a pinky nail, over the entire top of the blob. Dust buttered blob with dry flour.

Take blob, stretch it out and then fold it towards you two or three times. (hot dog style for those used to folding paper in classrooms) as seen below.



Rotate blob 45 degrees, and roll folded blob up like a tortilla, or a cinnamon roll. Stand on end, with spiral roll facing the ceiling. See pictures below.




Dust a flat surface, like a cutting board or a flat counter, with flour. Place the rolled dough in the middle. Dust a rolling pin. And then roll the dough flat, like a tortilla.



Heat up the Tawa (or frying pan) Place the flattened dough on the pan, heat for a minute, then flip it, rubbing the slightly cooked side with oil (or butter), flip again, rub the other side with oil (or butter) let it sit on each side, flipping it occasionally until its cooked through. If you want to eat the roti like a tortilla you can stop here. However, if you want to make roti for eating with say, curry, you should place the cooked roti in a pitcher and shake it until it starts to fall apart slightly. The old school Guyanese use their hands to accomplish this stage, clapping it hence the name, but that is way too freaking hot for our little hands!

-T & C

*This if for Clap-up Roti, which is the flat, tortilla-like roti. But there are other versions like Sada which is a roti that puffs up as you cook it, but we couldn’t recall the recipe.

*Cook-Up Rice

*Tony and Sara’s version

Cook-up is rice, beans, coconut milk and lots of other stuff pressure cooked. I must say, it's one of my favorite Guyanese dishes.
However, mine and Tony's version is so much better!! I could eat this multiple times per week.

I dare you to try it!

1 cup rice
1 can coconut milk
1 Tablespoon curry powder
½-1 Tablespoon cumin
1 can beans (whatever you prefer: black, kidney, navy) or dry beans (cook first)
Veggies (bora, eggplant, sweet peppers is what we mostly use) get creative
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
2 small hot peppers
1 inch ginger
A little more curry and cumin and pinches of salt
Olive oil

Rinse rice if needs be and put in a cooking pot. Add the whole can of coconut milk and a little water. Add 1 Tablespoon curry powder and ½-1 Tablespoon cumin, a few pinches of salt, stir well and place lid on top of pan and cook. You can stir occasionally, you know it’s done when the liquid has been absorbed, if it’s soupy let it cook longer or you can add the beans. Either way stir in your canned/cooked beans when rice is almost finished.

In a separate pan heat a little olive oil then add diced hot peppers and garlic stir for a few minutes. Then add diced onion and ginger and stir a few more minutes. Add all your veggies and when everything is lightly coated in olive oil sprinkle a little more curry powder. Stir well and cook for about 5 minutes. After that mix the veggies with the rice and beans. Mix well and enjoy!
This dish is full of bursting flavor and oh so yummy!

Creamy Calaloo & Sweet Potato Hash Brown

I really want to make yummy food with the fruits, vegetables, and ingredients found in Guyana. With that being said, I tried to tackle calaloo yet again. I'm pretty sure it comes from the spinach family, although, in my opinion, regular spinach is much better. I had the idea to make creamy calaloo by using milk when cooking the calaloo.

So this is what I did:
Bought 2 steams of calaloo and cut the leaves and placed in the kahari with a little water to steam. Once it started to wilt I drained the water and added milk (just a little, maybe 1/2 cup) to the calaloo and brought to a boil, added garlic, onion and ginger. It was a little too watery still so I added chunks of pumpkin.
It was yummy and I thought it would be good over pasta or with roti however, I was not really hungry after I made it so I put it in the fridge to eat the next day.

I knew I was going to make sweet potato hash brown and scrambled eggs for breakfast but then I remembered my creamy calaloo!
So I made sweet potato hash browns topped with the creamy calaloo. It was so good.
I grated 1/2 of a sweet potato and because I love pumpkin I grated a small piece of pumpkin and mixed with the sweet potato.
I heated my tawa with a little margarine and placed the sweet potato/pumpkin stack, I love the sizzling sound it made.
In my kahari I heated up the creamy calaloo and scrambled one egg. I placed this on top of my hash brown.

Sorry the picture is a little blurry

I definitely want to make more things with calaloo, after all it's full of folic acid and iron!

~Sara

Pumpkin: It's What's for Dinner...

...& lunch & breakfast, & even dessert.

I've had pumpkin in every meal today I love it! (Bare with me if you're not a huge pumpkin fan).

Lunch

Tuna mixed with celery, garlic, onion, tomatoes, carrots and pumpkin, a little salt & pepper & and lemon juice
I just threw everything together in the kahari. I enjoyed it a lot!

Dinner:

Pumpkin, Carrot, Ginger, Coconut Soup

So with all the pureed pumpkin I have sitting around I was just going to make a pumpkin-banana smoothie but I wasn't craving that I was craving more roti. What goes well with roti? Soup. And I got to make something new!

1 cup pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup grated carrots
2 t. grated coconut
2 cloves garlic (diced)
1 inch ginger (diced)

That's it!

I placed everything in my blender to mix and chop things more finely.


Then threw in a sauce pan to heat.

So easy & delish!

I added wheat germ in my flour to make roti


Dessert:

NO Bake Oatmeal-Peanut Butter Pumpkin Topped Cookies

Sugar
Butter
Milk
Pinch of salt
1 Tbsp Peanut butter
½ t. Vanilla
Oats

Heat milk, sugar, butter, & salt bring to a boil for one minute.
Stir in peanut butter, oats & vanilla. Let it thicken and then scoop rounds out on to cookie sheet or cutting board.

Pumpkin topping:
Heat sugar with a very little bit of butter
Stirring well until mixture turns to a liquid and brown, add a little pureed pumpkin and mix. I even add a little shredded coconut.
Top over cookies and place cookie in the fridge to settle.

This little guys are yummy!

~Sara

Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal

Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal with Bananas & Candied Peanuts

Oatmeal is a huge breakfast staple but lets be honest, it can get boring fast. So I've been experimenting with different, fun, and flavorful options to dress up our dear oats.
I love pumpkin and I make it at least once a week. I buy one pound and lately I've been cooking it and pureeing it to add to smoothies, or to bake pumpkin cookies or adding it to my oatmeal.

1/2 cup pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup oats (or how ever much you want)
pinch nutmeg
pinch cinnamon
1/2 t. vanilla
salt & sugar optional

I put a little water in my pan just to cover the bottom and add my 1/2 cup pumpkin, bring to a slight boil. Add oats, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, salt & sugar, stir well for about 2 minutes.
You could also use milk if you like it creamier.

Top with 1/2 sliced banana and candied peanuts (late last night I made candied peanuts and they were so good in today's oatmeal)

Enjoy!

~Sara

Spicy Beans

I found a recipe for spicy bean dip but being hungry and not having enough patients with the blender I settled for spicy beans.

I will most definitely make this again, hopefully I'll have a potato masher and make actual bean dip. When I do make it again this is the recipe I'll follow:

1/2 pint cooked beans (preferably black beans) (or one can beans)
2 1/2 Tbsp curry paste (curry powder mixed with water)
1/2 small can tomato sauce (or I'll make my own)
4 cloves garlic
1 onion
juice from 1/2 lemon
pinch of salt
a few dashes of cinnamon
olive oil

Pre-heat pan with olive oil saute garlic and onions. Add curry paste and tomato sauce, stir. Add beans salt and cinnamon, mix well. Lastly add lemon juice.
You could also add hot sauce or hot peppers depending on how spicy you want it.
To make a dip mash or blend everything until you get the consistency you prefer.

I think if you don't make it into a dip it would be good over rice and/or with chicken.

Doesn't that look delicious?

I ate mine with carrots and celery. Yes, that's celery...it's very small. It's not meant to be eaten raw it's used as seasoning.

~Sara

Sara's Homemade Frozen

One of my favorite treats during training was Frozen. My host mom made it and every afternoon I had one. I'm pretty sure it was just whole milk, sugar and essence (vanilla) mixed together and poured into Popsicle (or icicles as they are called here) bags and placed in the freezer to get frozen.

With some very ripe bananas, shredded coconut, a little coconut milk, and vanilla I made my own Frozen!

2 ripe bananas
1/2 of a coconut (grated)
1/2 cup coconut milk (or use the liquid from the grated coconut)
2 pinches of cinnamon (optional)
1 tsp vanilla
*I decided not to add sugar to mine but you most certainly could

Use a blended to blend everything together. You want it smooth and creamy.
I didn't use Popsicle bags instead I used small plastic containers and placed in my freezer.
I prefer to eat it before it gets completely frozen.

I couldn't resist it's just so light, delicious and healthy!

"Pone"

There's this yummy, delicious treat here in Guyana known as Pone (whenever I say it people look at me like I'm speaking the most foreign language, that also happens when I say "pawpaw").
Anyway, It's this sweet, spicy, gooey, bread type thing, BUT, it's not made with any flour. When I found out it's just casava, coconut, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, and black pepper (Yes black pepper, that's the kicker!) I was dying to try my hand at it.
I went out and bought all the ingredients and was so excited for get crackin'...



Here's my list of ingredients:
1 lb Cassava
1/2 coconut
1 egg (not sure if an egg is really necessary?)
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Black pepper
Butter (maybe I used 1/2 cup?)
1 tsp vanilla

*Grate coconut & cassava, place in a big bowl
*Add all other ingredients, sorry I didn't measure the spices (this was not as peppery as the 'real' one I had) maybe add a little to begin and taste to see if you like it and add as necessary. You should taste the cinnamon and nutmeg more than the pepper but you definitely want to be able to taste the pepper.


Ok, now the difficult part (for me anyways) since we don't have an oven I just figured I could "bake" it on the tawa, I was wrong! They came out like sweet, cinnamon hash browns, I'm not saying they are bad, I actually think they taste good but they are very far from the bread type of pone that the locals make. I don't know what I did wrong, besides not having an oven...
So if anyone out there knows about pone or tries this in an oven can you please let help me out?!



I think I need to watch someone who knows what they are doing make this before I try it again. But at least I know what's for breakfast tomorrow!

~Sara

Update:
I found a Guyanese recipe for pone. The only thing I did wrong was not beat the egg first and I didn't use an oven.

Chelsea gets Soupy

Yo, Soup's Up!

So you would think that on sweltering hot, Guyana nights you would not want to eat hot foods, right? But for some reason, I have been on a serious soup kick recently. Soup is just so easy to make. Usually you only need one pot and sometimes a blender and it is a great way to use up some of those random items sitting on your shelf. A while ago, I was way too tired to go shopping and so we decided to make soup from whatever we had in our house. This is what my Oma used to do with her leftovers and it used to freak me out. Does this mean I am getting old? Anyway, it was delicious!

And so this week, Tim and I made two new soups: Black Bean and Chicken Potato Peanut. These soups are inspired from recipes on EatingWell.com and modified to use Guyanese ingredients. Enjoy them with something cheesy for us, like quesadillas or grilled cheese sandwiches.

Oma-Inspired Left Over Soup (plus homemade Chicken Stock)

For the ingredient list I will not give you measurements, since we didn’t measure. We just used about equal portions of everything that we had in tupperwares in our mini fridge.

· Homemade chicken broth

· Macaroni noodles, cooked

· Black eye beans, cooked

· 2 carrots, cut into bite sized pieces

· 4 small sweet peppers, chopped

· ½ can corn

· 1 small yellow onion

· dashes of salt, oregano, basil, chili powder, Spike, and sugar

· you can seriously add anything else in here; chicken, potato, milk to make it creamy…you are

only limited by your creativity and supplies in your pantry. The challenge is though to use only left

overs…

First you need a broth. So, never in my life did I think I was going to be boiling left over chicken parts in water every 6 hours to make a homemade broth but I found that it was a great way to use the bones and skin of the chicken that we would otherwise have thrown away (I miss boneless, skinless chicken breasts by the way…). And you can’t exactly find premade chicken or vegetable broth in the stores here. Either way, you’ll need some broth. Here’s what we did:

Start with left over chicken parts in a pot of water. Use a bit more water than you want to make broth, since it will evaporate. Add some salt, black pepper and seasonings and bring to a boil. Cover and leave on the stove. Bring to a boil about every six hours or so, until you are ready to make soup. I usually boil it once in the evening, early the next morning, right when I get home from work and then lastly when I make the soup. Strain out yucky chicken bits and fat and, TA-DA you have a broth!

Bring the broth to a boil and add all of the above ingredients. Simmer for about 5 minutes and enjoy your left over soup! Thanks Oma!

Black Bean Soup

• 1 tablespoon cooking oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 pint black beans
• 3 cups water
• 1 small can of Hernanz hot salsa sent from home by Mom
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 fresh squeezed lime

Soak beans for at least 6 hours. Put beans in pressure pot with enough water to fully submerge beans and pressure for 25 minutes or until soft.

Heat oil in kahari. Add onion and cook until beginning to soften. Add chili powder and cumin and stir for about another minute. Add cooked beans, water, salsa and salt. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in lime juice.

Transfer half the soup to a blender and puree (umm, don’t hold the blender lid without a towel on top to protect your had from freakin’ hot liquid. I learned this the hard way). Stir the puree back into the saucepan.

Chicken Potato Peanut Soup

• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon cooking oil
• 1 can v8 tomato/veggie juice
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
• 1 dried habanero chile, minced
• a dash or two of Spike seasoning
• 1 vegetable bullion cube in 1 ½ cups hot water to make broth
• 1 cup smooth peanut butter
• 3 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces

Peel potatoes and cut into bite sized pieces. Boil until soft. Set aside to cool.

Prepare broth by heating water and adding bullion cube. Put broth, half the cooked potatoes and peanut butter into blender and puree until smooth.

In your kahari (because by now you have this Guyanese stew pot like we do, right?) heat oil and sautee chicken, onion, garlic, ginger and habanero chile with a dash of Spike until chicken is almost cooked. Add can of V8 and bring to a boil. Add half the cooked potatoes into the kahari then slowly mix in the peanut, broth, potato mix from the blender. Enjoy your delicious soup.

Sara's Masala

I had a bunch of eddo leaf left over so I fingured I would just cook it and eat it with channa but then I had an idea....blend it....

Wilted eddo leaf + blender = masala?

Ok, I’m not really sure if masala is even the right word for the dish I’m thinking of…an Indian green, paste, spicy dish that’s really good over rice or with naan?

sorry our pictures don't look appetizing :(

The definition of masala is “mixture”

Anyway, I’m calling this Masala…

Eddo leaf

1 inch Ginger

Carrot

Olive oil

1 tsp curry powder

pinch of salt

I cooked the eddo leaf until it was wilted with water and diced ginger (the ginger smelt so good cooking).

Once it was wilted enough I placed it in the blended along with grated carrot and olive oil (I would have put a lot more olive oil if I had more and I would have added garlic and onion but I was out)

I blended until smooth (I had to add a little more water)

Then I added the curry powder and salt, along with a few chickpeas (channa) and blended some more.

I was so surprised how good it tasted!!

Although, I’m not sure why Eddo leaf scratches your throat…

I topped my day old greens rice with my masala and I’ll have it tomorrow for lunch with chickpeas (channa).

Greens Rice

The other day I ate something that was so good...it was called "Greens Rice" made with eddo leaf, and coconut rice. I've been in the mood to cook more local things and so this was the first thing on my list.
It's actually pretty easy to make and although mine didn't taste as good/like the one I had the other day it was a decent first attempt.

Eddo Leaf (similar to spinach)

Rice
1/2 grated coconut or 1/2 can coconut milk
Garlic 3-4 cloves
Olive oil
Curry* or other seasoning

Cover rice with 1/2 coconut milk and water and cook.
Heat olive oil in Kahari and add garlic than add chopped eddo leaf and cook until it becomes wilted like cooked spinach (at this point you could add other seasoning* i.e. onion, celery leaves, or whatever your heart desires). I added a little curry powder but that's optional. Add the cooked rice with the greens and mix well.

I topped mine with sliced tomatoes.

~S

Peanut Butter Pumpkin Chili

It's the fall season back home but, sadly, there's no change in the weather in Guyana...it's still hot!
A lot of the favorite fall foods we know and love are available year round here...I've been eating a lot of pumpkin and sweet potato for months already. But I've definietly been craving familiar fall foods like pumpkin cookies, pumpkin spice lattes, candied yams, and of course pumpkin pie (I did make yummy pumpkin cookies!). So in spirit of the fall season I experimented with some fall ingredients and whala....
Beans
Sweet potato
Pumpkin
Tomato
Sweet peppers
Garlic
Onion
Ginger
1 tsp peanut butter
Cinnamon
Cumin
Olive oil

Pre-cook beans, sweet potato and pumpkin, until soft.
Heat a little olive oil in kahari or frying pan and saute garlic and onion throw in the pumpkin with a little water, let simmer for a few minutes than add all other ingredients and mix well making sure the peanut butter is melted and evenly coating everything.

I thought it tasted pretty good but to make sure I wasn't being completely crazy (I wasn't sure about the peanut butter) I had Tony try it...he liked it!
It would be really good over rice.

~S

Rice, Bean & Apple Concoction

Once upon time there was a conference that Peace Corps Volunteers had to attend. It was seven days long and there were so many new and interesting ideas presented. And there was scrumptious, well-cooked food and air conditioning in every room. However, before the conference there was a kitchen conundrum that needed to be cleared up: what to do with the perishables in the fridge? Here’s the solution.

Cooked Beans
Rice
¾ of an apple, diced
1½ onions, diced
4 cloves of garlic
1 sweet pepper (bell)
Basil
Oregano
Spike
Salt
Pepper

Sauté (with oil or butter) the prepped apples, onions, garlic, and sweet pepper in a Kaharee

Season with a little Spike (cheating, I know, but so good you should be able to get it at many supermarkets in the States)
Toss in some basil and oregano (maybe some broad leaf thyme if you had any)
Pinch in Salt and Black pepper.

Stir it all around, coating all the food with seasoning.

Stir in rice and beans coating the rice with the seasoning, spreading the peppers, apples, onions, and garlic throughout.

Taste. Is it good? You’re done. If not add more spices until it’s “how you like it.” (Didn’t Shakespeare write that one? “To eat or not to eat, never shalt one let food go to waste.”…)

IS that Apple and Onion...hmmm interesting...but soooo good.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes w/ Salad & “Sausage”

Here’s a renovated oldie from the States. It was inspired by a meal of turkey patties, mashed potatoes and salad, but we couldn’t find any turkey so we used “sausages” instead. However, we like to add our own little touch to our mashed potatoes and make them not only creamy but breath freshening, garlicy.

5 potatoes
5-6 clove of garlic
Margarine (or butter)
Milk
Salt
Black Pepper

Boil the potatoes until they are mashable. About 20 min? I am not sure, we usually check them with a fork and then drain them.

While it’s boiling chop up your garlic.

Start mashing the potatoes in a bowl

Add butter/margarine and garlic

Salt and Pepper to taste

Mash some more.

Add milk

Finish off with a good healthy mixing and mashing. (as you desire)

The salad consists of: Cucumber, Carrot, Lettuce, tomatoes, and shallot, with a homemade dressing made from apple cider vinegar, olive oil, spike, salt and pepper (sometimes a little basil and oregano for some aromatic tantalization)

Don’t ask for Hot Dogs, ask for Sausage

A more remote purpose of this blog is to share our observations and epiphanies of another culinary culture. One happened just recently. On one of our first days here in Guyana, right off the plane, we were staying at a nice place off one of the few highways that cuts through this country. Being new and it being morning, we asked what was for breakfast. One of the cooks, smiled and in her thick creolese responded, “ Oh, sausage, bai.” We were ecstatic, we had no idea one could get sausage. Of course, we’re thinking Farmer Johns, or another brand of the little links of love that decorate our breakfast plates in the States. However, as we stepped in line, the “sausages” were mini Vienna hot dogs. From a can. This was one of our first epiphanies.

It’s been 8 months now and time erodes memories as new experiences take place and, really, we never were big hot dog fans anyway, so we only got them when they’re catered to us. But recently, we had a hankering for one of our home cooked comfort favorites: cooked turkey patties, mashed potatoes, and veggies. Unfortunately, we were not too sure where to get ground turkey here, so we looked for alternatives. Chicken Dogs, perfect! It all fell into place and we asked around at our shop across the way for hot dogs. We were told that they didn’t have any but that the Bakewell truck (bakewell being a brand of bread here) just dropped off some at the bread shop around the corner.

Hmmm, we thought, a bakery truck has hot dogs. Sure why not, this is Guyana, its new, exciting, different, so yeah maybe the truck would have some. So we went to the bread shop and asked for hot dogs. They placed a packet of Hot Dog Buns before us. We stared in stunned silence. Was there a miscommunication? Did we not speak clearly enough? Oh, wait. As memories do at the most inopportune times, it all came flooding back and hit us, feeling like an “A ha! Moment” in a short story: they’re not called hot dogs here, but sausages.

So moral of the story: When in Guyana ask for “sausages” when you want some hot dogs.

Below is an image of a common breakfast food here: Hot Dogs…well sausages. They are on wheat bread slathered in ketchup and mustard (and if we were real Guyanese, they’d be covered in grated carrots and cabbage, with a splash of pepper sauce and mayonnaise.)

Pineapple/Mango Fried Rice

My mouth waters thinking about this dish; the sweet surprise of several bits of pineapple in every bite, clashing with the savory of garlic and sweet peppers, but also living in harmony with the thyme and onion; only to be magnificently masticated for my pleasure. Before living in Guyana I never ate pineapple and my experience with mangoes consisted of Mango-a-go-goes. But then Chelsea thought of this magnificent dish, it reminded us of home because there was a great Thai place near our apartment in San Diego that served something very similar to this. Did I think we’d ever be able to cook it? Never. But resourcefulness is always birthed from necessity, and that is the point of our blog.

Rice (our culinary compatriot Ngia says it should be at least a day old, we’ve done it both with fresh cooked and day old rice…both are pretty awesome)
Garlic (3 cloves 4? Depends on your taste)
Onion (1) or Scallions
Pinapple (only need about ½ of one, the other ½ consume as a healthy snack! Or put it on one of your home-made pizzas.) Or use about 3 Mangoes
4 Sweet Peppers (or a bell pepper or two)
½ a can or more of rinsed corn.
Broad Leaf Thyme
Salt (sometimes soy sauce if you’re saucey)
Black Pepper

Cook your rice, as you prefer (or a day in advance if you are so inclined)

Dice up your Garlic, Onion, Pepper, and Thyme



Sauté, in some oil, onions, garlic, peppers, corn, and thyme (in pan or Kaharee)



Stir in your rice, then season or soy sauce to your taste.

When it is almost done, in order to not make the pineapple too mushy but still warm, stir in your pineapple (or mango) and cook for a few more minutes.

Serve (we usually serve it with a dash or 4 or Guyanese Pepper Sauce.)

Guyanese Chow Mein

Don’t let the name fool you, this isn’t your run of the mill Chinese variety from Panda Express or any other restaurant back in the States, rather it’s wholly Guyanese. (Granted, I never made chow mein back home, but I can imagine it may be slightly different.) It’s fairly easy (minus the time consuming prep) to make (though it may appear complicated) and it’s extremely cheap and will feed us for a few days. It is a great "go to" dish, but sometimes we need to mix it up. As Sara says, “I don’t want feel like we’re in a food rut” so we constantly want to try new things for no one likes being in ruts, especially of the culinary kind.

Package of dried egg noodles (usually from Champion or a factory on the West Demerara)
5 cloves of garlic
1 to 2 onions (if you want)
Scallions (or shallot)
4 Sweet Peppers
Some Pak Choy (Bok Choy)
A carrot
Rinsed Corn from a can
A bit of Broad Leaf Thyme
A bit of Ginger (if available)
Some pinches from a package of Chow Mein Seasoning (a blend of Paprika, Salt, Garlic Powder, Black Pepper, Spice, Herbs)
Salt or Soy Sauce (if it’s available.)
Pepper.

(If you want a protein you can use Tofu, (Soy Chunks here), or any kind of meat besides fish.)

*Sometimes I try to add a bit of flavor here and there with some cumin or curry powder, but recently we’ve left these out in order to have the ingredients sing for themselves with the Chow Mein Seasoning being the primary spice. They also have "Chinese Sauce" here which Tony uses when he makes it. Moreover, if all these ingredients aren’t available at your site, the recipe can be simplified to what you have available.

Heat up water for the noodles, when it’s boiling or fairly hot put the noodles in. Drain and set aside the noodles when they’re done.

Dice up the onion, garlic, peppers, and scallions and leave them in their separate piles. Grate the carrot and a little ginger, slice up the thyme and Pak Choy (what they call it here).





(If using a protein sauté it in the Kaharee first, and with soy chunks add some seasoning (whether it be chow mein or your own blend. And then the onion, garlic, and pepper)

Put some oil in the Kaharee or pan and when it’s hot sauté the onion, garlic, and peppers for a few minutes. (If using meat add these as you’re cooking it. )

Add the ginger and thyme, and some seasoning to the sauté, stir it all together.

After a minute or so, add the Pak Choy, carrots, and corn and mix it all up, stirring constantly.

Add your noodles stirring it in to the heated mixture. Add more seasoning, trying to coat everything.

Stir in some soy sauce.

Heat up and Serve.

This isn't the best picture but you get the point. I will see if I take a better one.

Sour Sauce

In Guyana you are either a pepper or sour person (I’m talking sauces here). These sauces just add a little extra kick to foods. For me (Sara), I love sour (I’ll let someone else write about pepper sauce). I think it’s the combination of spicy and sour and the fact that it’s made from mangoes that does it for me.

When we first moved to Linden we were given a 2 liter bottle of sour and I think that got us through the first month or two...we tend to add sour and pepper to just about everything. Needless to say, we have been without sour for months…sigh.

It was a Friday and I knew we were going to have pizza for dinner and I was really craving some sour sauce to dip my pizza in so I decided to give it a shot and make my own. My first batch, which I used 3 really unripe mangoes, one whole cucumber and 2 hot peppers didn’t taste like I was hoping for so I tried again. I made some modifications and it was closer to how sour should taste (the end result is the ingredients below). It’s still not as perfect as I would like but it’s tasty. I’ll keep experimenting and if I get it just right I’ll re-post.

2 green mangoes
2 cloves garlic
½ cucumber (grated)
2-3 hot Guyanese peppers (depending how hot and spicy you want it)
3-4 finger pinches cumin
½ cap full vinegar (optional)
1 cup water

Peel and cut mangoes place in one cup water in a pan bring to a boil.
Grate cucumber, dice garlic and peppers.
Throw all ingredients in a blender with enough water to cover the blade and blend.

Top on any foods you desire!

Potato Curry

Curry used to be such a foreign concept to me. I mean, we had it on special occasions and what not, but not regularly. However, when we came here it seemed like everybody ate it! So much so that we were sick of it during our first two months here, which I didn’t think was possible. It’s not a regular staple on our Guyanese menu, but, from a cultural standpoint, it is a noteworthy one. It’s worth a shot if you feel like stepping out of your metaphorical, cuisineial, cultural box or you just want something different.

Diced and peeled potatoes

Garlic

Onion

(Sweet/Bell Peppers)

Curry Powder (you can make it from scratch, but we buy it pre-mixed)

Ground Cumin

Oil

Water

Heat up oil in a Kaharee or pan. Sauté Garlic, Onions, and Sweet Peppers. Then, add the potatoes, adding some cumin and curry powder until the potatoes are covered.

Add water to the potatoes and company along with more curry and cumin powder

Heat until it boils, and then bring it down to a simmer.

Cover and let it “curry” for about 20 minutes or so (or until you think the potatoes are soft enough). (Add a bit more water if it seems to be reducing too much.)

Serve over/with rice or Roti.

That dish on the side is a stir-fry Sara concocted. It was pretty grand.

Home Made Pina Coladas

One of Guyana’s hidden gems is their Rum. We’ve been in country for little under 7 months, and the first time we had Guyanese Rum was our first night here. I fell in love. Several times I have said that I appreciate alcohol in all its forms. From the fermented goodness that is beer (so much so as to brew it back home) to the grape-wonders of wine (thinking of learning how to make it) to the warmth and fruity flavours of spiced spirits (or any spirits for that matter from Gin to Rum to Whiskey). However, there isn’t much variety here and one can only mix so many things with Rum, but on one blessed Friday night the Linden 4 were sitting around after a wondrous meal and a thought occurred: What’s in a Pina Colada? Being Bartender back home I said "Primarily coconut milk, pineapple juice and rum." Wait? What things does Guyana have no lack of? That’s right Pineapples, Coconuts, and Rum—let’s make some Pina Colada’s from scratch!

Pineapple
Coconut
Rum
Sugar
(Passion Fruit)

Peel and cube a pineapple and place in blender with some sugar. Blend it up until it has a liquid consistency. (if you have passion fruit, peel it, cut it and de-seed it and blend that too). Set aside.

Crack open a coconut and grate/cut out the “meat.” Place the meat in the blender with some water and blend it up fairly fine. Strain out the chunks of coconut from the blender set aside.

You can either put some rum in a glass with some ice and pour equal parts of the pineapple juice and coconut milk and stir.

Or you can place some coconut milk and pineapple juice in a blender with some rum and maybe some ice and blend it up.

Serve.

The pineapple juice and coconut milk

Birthday Enchiladas

To continue our Mexican food extravaganza I wanted to share with you our most recent concoction. We made these for Chelsea’s birthday, and I have to say it was quite impressive. However, we may have cheated a little bit because we had to use some enchilada mix from the States, but birthdays are special things, right? Happens only once a year or something. Well, this meal made me wish everyday was a birthday. Heck, maybe I will just make up celebrations like “Gooey-Melted Cheesy Day” or “Christopher Columbus Brought Pasta to South America Day” or “It’s Hot and Humid in Guyana Day” Let’s celebrate with some enchiladas! Just thinking about them makes me want to celebrate their existence with a Christmas tree. They were real good.

6 flour Roti (or tortillas if you got 'em)
Enchilada Mix (we used powder mixed w/ water, you can also use canned sauce)
Cheese
Chicken
Black eyed Beans
Corn (We got the canned stuff rinsed as to lower the sodium content)
Diced Onions.

First, you want to butcher your chicken. Unfortunately, we don’t have boneless breasts here so we have to cut it away from the bone. Once you have it off the bone (or if you’re a lucky individual who can get it boneless than by all means do it (and know my envy for you)), then dice up the chicken into cubes.

Mix the powder with water and boil it. Add the diced chicken into the Enchilada Broth. Continue boiling until chicken is cooked. (We had to add some water and more powder due to reduction. But we also didn’t know how much broth to make, the Mix came in an unmarked container…Thanks, Emily and crew J …so if you know the measurements it should be okay. Or if you have the canned sauce, cook the chicken in that.)

As the chicken is cooking you can make your “tortillas” or in our case Roti. With flour, water mixed together, folded into balls (with some margerine), and then rolled out and placed on the tawa to cook (more in-depth instruction to come). If have some pre-made tortillas you can skip this step.

When the chicken finishes, remove it from the pan (or Kaharee in our case) with some of the sauce, then sauté the onions in a little of the enchilada sauce that's left in the pan.

Now here comes the fun part: putting the enchiladas together! If you have an oven you can probably use a pyrex type cassorole dish; however if you’re in Guyana without an oven you must be resourceful. We used two tawas and a cooking pan (see photo below)

Place an open tortilla in the dish or pan (perhaps a little butter or oil on the bottom of the pan/dish to prevent sticking). Add the cheese, chicken (covered in sauce), corn, and onions (also covered in sauce) into the tortilla and add a bit more Enchilada sauce. Roll the tortilla up with the open sides against the bottom of the pan, so it doesn’t roll open. Do the same procedure with all your Roti/Tortillas, organizing them so they all fit into your pan/dish. *

As you fill up your dish/pan pour the rest of the sauce on top of the enchiladas then cover with a copious amounts of cheese.

Place them in the oven (not too sure about temperature), or in your pan sitting on a tawa and covered with a tawa. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until you think they’re done. Serve.**

* to make it vegetarian you can leave out the chicken, add more cheese or whatev, it will still be good.

**try them with the salsa obsession or some rice on the side. It will melt your face off with flovour.

Here was our makeshift oven. My kingdom for an Oven!

The finished product all gooey and good. Happy B-day Chelsea! This was served with lots of love.