Belly Full
Exploring Caribbean Cuisine through 11 Fundamental Ingredients and over 100 Recipes [A Cookbook]
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A delectable exploration of Caribbean cuisine through 105 recipes based on eleven staple ingredients, featuring powerful insights into the shared history of the diaspora and gorgeous photography.
“Lesley’s recipes inspire in the ways they approach, transcend, and unify cultural boundaries on page after delicious page.”—Hawa Hassan, author of In Bibi’s Kitchen
Across the English-speaking Caribbean, “me belly full” can mean more than just a satisfied stomach, but a heart and soul that’s full too. In Belly Full, food writer of Trinidadian descent Lesley Enston brings us into the overlapping histories of the Caribbean islands through their rich cultures and cuisines.
Eleven staple ingredients—beans, calabaza, cassava, chayote, coconut, cornmeal, okra, plantains, rice, salted cod, and scotch bonnet peppers—hold echoes of familiarity from one island to the next, and their widespread use comes in part from the harrowing impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade and colonialism. As Lesley delves into how history shaped each country and territory’s cuisine, she shows us what we can learn from each island (such as Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago, and Cuba) and encourages us to celebrate the delicious differences.
Belly Full provides basic knowledge on choosing, storing, and preparing these ingredients as well as a mix of traditional and creative adaptations to dishes. Recipes are mostly gluten-free and plant-based and include:
• Cornmeal: Pen Mayi from Haiti and Conkies from Barbados
• Okra: Callaloo from Trinidad and Tobago and Fungee from Antigua
• Plantains: Mofongo from Puerto Rico and Tortilla de Plátano Maduro from Cuba
• Salted Cod: Ackee and Saltfish from Jamaica and Accras de Morue from Martinique
Belly Full, with its breadth of stories, recipes, and stunning photography, will leave your stomach and heart more than satisfied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Enston's colorful and heartfelt debut celebrates and illuminates Caribbean cuisine by focusing on 11 "key ingredients" central to the region: beans, calabaza, cassava, chayote, coconut, cornmeal, okra, plantains, rice, salted cod, and Scotch bonnet peppers. Recipes span countries, especially pulling from Trinidad, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic, with amiable introductions reflecting Enston's Trinidadian roots and personal connections to the dishes. Noting that the Caribbean is a "delightful, complicated, layered place where pain and joy live side by side," Enston offers thoughtful historic tidbits throughout: salted cod came to the region as a source of protein on slave ships, while split pea fritters were brought to Trinidad and Tobago by indentured servants from India. Calabaza is used to make Soup Joumou, or Freedom Soup, to commemorate Haiti's Independence Day, and cassava is featured in a flatbread that "has been around since about 2000 BCE" and is made across the Caribbean. Trinidadian fried okra is sure to convert "slime haters to the okra cause," while scotch bonnets spice up mango salad, jerk chicken, and shrimp. Handy tips on buying, cooking, and storing ingredients include instructions for making coconut milk to use in coconut pudding. Home cooks are sure to be inspired.
