dawi: hello.
me: yaw... wuh scene?
dawi: no scene.
me: you call me dis mornin?
dawi: yeah... wham to you?
me: was sleepin nah. long weekend yuh know.
dawi: steups... how you go be sleepin? steups. anyway, wuh we go do?
me: we could cook someting.
dawi: aight. what?
me: a soup?
dawi: yeah. dat soundin like a plan.
me: well come een.
dawi: yeah. aight. bless.
dawi makes a wicked corn soup, and within the context of a small lime, it hits the spot. quite fulling, tasty and relatively inexpensive in the realm of feeding multiple people.
his method begins with chopping up stuff to make a base. pumpkin...
garlic...
onion...
pimento.
then to shake some flavour into it, he adds some black pepper...
salt...
and some of the good ol' all purpose seasoning.
then it's time for the key ingredient... split peas.
add some water, a little golden ray cooking butter and let all that bubble like... well... like soup.
notice there's no pressure cooker on hand. the idea is to cook this down a bit, then put it in a blender.
the thick end result looks like this, and goes into a big pot on the bubble. now we're really cooking. time to stretch it out with a little more water and add some more ingredients.
crunchy things like carrots...
flavour makers like maggie vegetable cubes...
and maggie garlic onion cubes.
he doesn't usually add coconut milk to it, but this time was special... i guess.
he mixed that in.
then gave it a taste to make sure everything was up to scratch.
it was, so in went more ingredients. corn...
potato...
now all this time, the dumpling dough was laying low in the cut, getting ready to make a grand entry. it's the usual dumpling scene: a little white flour, some salt, some water... done.
it was that time now, so he rolled it out between his palms...
then cut them into little pieces
splashing is optional, but it looks cool.
next, let it bubble. they say watch pot doh cook, so he covered it down and let it simmer on a low fire with a few check ups for floating dumplings. they float up when they're done.
soon after, it was finished. and we had disposable cups to give it the authentic "side-of-de-road-corn-soup finish". well, more so because disposable cups mean less things to wash up after the enjoyment.
niceness on the holiday.put yuh own twist to it. a lil meat if you'd like. or maybe things that we forgot to buy like shadon beni, thyme and green seasonings like that. make it your own. there's a lot to try.
leh we bubble!
Q, I see like you fellas now learning to cook.
ReplyDeletelemme share some secrets, thos boullion cubes are pure MSG, you can get rich flavour without them.
Boiled food is never as good as lightly sautee'd food. Next time grate or finely chop the garlic, let it cook ina little olive oil, or regular oil, next, add onions, THEN add the dhal (aye I doh call that split peas), and veges, sautee those.
Add your water and seasonings next. Forget the cubes, put as much fresh green stuff as you like, some spanish thyme works well here, chive, bandania.
Real flavour? Add a tablespoon of roasted geera. That is the real flavour of dhal, and it will add a nice dimension to your soup.
Thias meh secrets there, if allyuh try it, let me know how it goes.
Also, leave out the golden ray. I used to swear by it, but it eh good for yuh and you will not miss it with the tips I just give yuh.
will try dat out randy. soundin good.
ReplyDeletewe now learnin to cook years now.
so sayin randy, i never tried to make dhal, and i love a dhal an buss up shut. hate roti with potato. dhal and meat is it.
ReplyDeletei thinkin yuh tricks there is a good base for it???
i endorse the sauteeing thing for flavour
ReplyDeletemy favourite part of this post was the styrofoam cup - add that authentic touch :-D
adding you to my links, it's always good to find some more trinis cooking online.
Tried the Geera Randy... Bess!
ReplyDelete