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Show CARIBBEAN CUISINE 1 - """""""""Vis- " 1 The term "melting pot" commonly means a place where in which immigrants of various nationalities and races are assimilated. The U.S. Virgin Islands is such a place. Here, however, the term "melting pot" may also be applied to the exotic, taste-tempting food of the beautiful islands. A multi-national melange of ingredients fuse to form many delicious dishes. One-called One-called "Kalaloo"-is a lulu. Its recipe tells a capsule history of the islands. "Kalaloo" itself is the name of a local form of wild spinach probably native to the Caribbean. The okra that figures prominently among the ingredients is likely like-ly of African origin, as is the majority of the islands' population. The salt meat is a tribute to the ships' stores of the endless armadas from all nations that have passed through these islands. The crab and fish are natural contributions from the sea. And the general "philosophy" of the exotic dish probably stems from a variety of seaside cultures: the French "Bouillabaisse"; the Spanish "Zarzuela"; Louisiana's "Gumbo" and many other nations' thick fish stew-soup concoctions.. On the islands, the recipe varies greatly to accommodate accommo-date individual tastes and seasonal availability of ingredients. in-gredients. Mainlanders, too, can now enjoy variations on the theme once the general gener-al idea is understood. Here's one popular way of preparing prepar-ing Kalaloo in your own kitchen: KALALOO l'j lbs. salt meat (ham , ham bone, bacon) 3 qts. water 3 lbs. fresh spinach 2 garlic cloves 12 fresh okra pods (or 1 pkg. frozen) 1 large onion chopped together with a sprig of parsley and a stalk of celery 1 small hot pepper 2 tbsp. vinegar l'i lbs. fresh or frozen fish fillets 2 cans prepared crab meat Boil salt meat in 3 qts. of water until tender. Put spinach,garlic and okra (from whiph stems have been removed) re-moved) through good grinder. grind-er. Add with chopped vegetables, veg-etables, pepper and vinegar to meat and boil for about 20 minutes. Add' fish and crab meat and continue boiling boil-ing another 10 minutes or until fish flakes easily. Do not skim while boiling. Serve piping hot in soup bowls. This and other culinary creations of the Virgin Islands Is-lands is as lilting asihe native Calypso language which contains con-tains traces of many tongues. |