Haitian Meal

The CC had been hankering for a Haitian meal and he received a ton of the right veggies courtesy of a friend's CSA so he decided to go all out and prepare a Haitian meal.

He had some vegetarian friends over for dinner so the beef was substituted by tempeh (the only reasonable thing that can stand up to a long marinade, and long cooking times without falling apart.)

Corn Fritters with Pikliz
Rice & Beans
Tempeh in Creole Sauce
(Source: Fine Haitian Cuisine by Mona Cassion Ménager.)

Beef in Creole Sauce

Ingredients

2 pounds beef (rump pot roast, sirloin tip or any beef cut suitable for braising)
1 bitter orange, or 2 lemons + 1 orange
1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 habanero chile
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
pinch of ground cloves
1 tbsp chopped chives
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup white onion shavings
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf pasley
1 sprig of thyme
5 garlic cloves, peeled, and crushed
1 tbsp tomato paste diluted in 1 cup boiled water
4 cups boiled water
1 sliced white onion (for sauce)
1 sliced bell pepper (for sauce)

Recipe

Trim excess fat from beef. Cut meat crosswise into six fairly equal pieces. Rub meat with bitter orange. Rinse quickly with very hot water. Drain carefully. Put meat in a bowl and coat with orange juice, vinegar, chile, black pepper, cloves, chives, salt, onion, parsley, and thyme. Cover with plastic wrap, and marinate in a cool place for 30 minutes to 1 hour in the refrigerator or overnight.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a heavy lidded 5-quart pan over high setting. Reserving marinade, add meat, and saute until beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Add marinade, reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook until juice thickens, about 10 to 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat remaining oil in a 3-quart heavy pan over medium high setting. Add garlic and sautee for 1 minute. Add diluted tomato paste and boil uncovered until all liquid evaporates, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir-fry for about 1 minute. Add 3 cups of boiled water to tomato paste, mix well, and pour it over meat. Cover and cook until all liquid evaporates, about 45 minutes. The sauce should be thick. Remove meat and chile from the sauce. Season sauce with additional salt and pepper if desired. Add 1 cup of boiled water to the sauce, and stir in. Add meat and reserved chile. Reduce, uncovered, over medium heat until sauce thickens, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add onion and bell pepper slices during the last minute. Discard chile. Serve hot.

Rice and Beans

Ingredients

1/2 cup red kidney beans (soaked)
1/4 heaped tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp ground cloves
3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 tbsp minced chives
1/2 cup white onion (finely diced)
1/2 cup shallots (finely diced)
1 habanero chile
1/4 cup red bell pepper (diced)
2 bouillon cubes
1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper
3 cups bean cooking liquid (read below)
2-3 sprigs thyme
1 sprig parsley
2 cups long-grain rice

Recipe

Wash the beans, and bring to boil with 8 cups of water. Cover, and cook over medium heat with the lid ajar until the beans are cooked through, 45 minutes to 1 hour. The beans should hold their shape. Drain but reserve the cooking liquid.

Heat 2 tsp oil in a heavy pan, over medium heat. Add the beans and sauté until the beans are crispy about 7 minutes. Add black pepper and the cloves at the last minute. Set aside.

Heat 2 tsp oil in the same pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté till slightly golden. Add the onion, shallots, chile, chives and diced red bell pepper and sauté for 3-5 minutes. Add the rice and fry to coat with the oil. Add the bouillon cubes, cayenne pepper, thyme, salt and parsley along with the 3 cups of cooking liquid and the reserved beans.

Cook till the rice is done. (You may need to add additional cooking liquid or water.)

Habañero

Not to be confused with habañera which is a Cuban musical genre.

There is only one word for these babies - fire. Use with extreme caution. But they have a smoky, citrusy fiery taste that is both unmistakable and irrestible to the heat-lovers.

Pikliz

This is a Haitian condiment/dipping sauce that packs a fiery punch.

First, the vegetables and spices are layered (cabbage, peppers, cloves, peppercorns, thyme, onions, peas, habañeros, garlic, french beans, carrots) with sea salt thrown in every few layers.

The dish cannot be made without habañeros so if you can't find any, don't bother to make it.

Over this is poured boiling vinegar and the whole lot sealed. It can be refrigerated and will last a long time.

(Oh, and the boiling vinegar stinks up the house but the pickle is worth it!)

A Haitian Meal (Part 4)

Gluttonous, and happy, the CC and his friends sit.

The house smells like tomatoes.

The CC is deliriously happy, and is behaving like the average 7-year old (and the friends are too drunk to care!)

Thank goodness for stone walls, floors, and ceilings!

A Haitian Meal (Part 3)

RICE & RED BEANS

Deceptively simple, and yet utterly beguiling!

Ingredients

2 cups red kidney beans

2 cloves garlic (minced)
4 large shallots (diced)
1 large onion (finely diced)
8 cloves
8 whole peppercorns

4 cups long grained rice (the CC used basmati)

2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
salt to taste

Recipe

Soak the beans overnight (or at least 8 hours.)

Pressure cook them with salt till tender but not soft. (This is a tricky assignment!)

Heat the oil, and fry the onions and shallots till soft. Add the garlic, and fry till golden. Add the cloves and peppercorns, and fry till they "plump" slightly.

Add the rice, and fry for roughly a minute. Add the beans, thyme, and salt, and roughly 6 cups of water. Bring to a simmer, and let it cook until the rice is done. (roughly 10 minutes. You may need to add a little bit more water.)

A Haitian Meal (Part 2)

LAMBI

Ingredients

1 lb squid (cut into rings)
Juice of 13 limes
2 habañeros (chopped coarsely)

4 lbs tomatoes (quartered)
1 tbsp tomato paste (homemade, but substitute commercial you wimps!)

1 large red onion (cut into semi-rounds)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
2 small green bell peppers (cut into strips)
2 small red bell peppers (cut into strips)

1 tbsp olive oil
salt and black pepper

Recipe

The recipe really goes in three stages: marination, preparing the tomato puree, and cooking the stuff.

Marinade the lime with the squid and habañeros for at least 4 hours.

Prepare a pot of boiling water. Dunk the tomatoes for 4 minutes or so. Pass them through a fine food mill, and collect the puree. (A deceptively large amount of work is hidden in this rather innocent description.)

WARNING: If you use heirloom tomatoes like I did, they have seeds that passed through the finest grade of my food mill. I had to pass it through a sieve lined with cheese cloth again!

Heat the olive oil, and fry the onions until limp, and translucent, and the garlic, and saute until it turns light golden.

Add the tomato paste, and fry for about a minute. Add the puree, and half of the both of the bell peppers, salt and pepper to taste, and turn the heat as low as possible.

At this point experienced readers should know what to do.

Skim, baby, skim.

Add the rest of the bell peppers, and turn off the heat, and take the pot off the hot stove.

Dump the squid, and a bit of the lime (but not the habañeros) in there.

The last instruction may seem a tad mysterious but it isn't. One of the culinary crimes that this country commits is "overcooking the squid". Squid should not be rubbery! You are dumping it into a hot puree, it will cook by itself. Of course, if you cook with different seafood, the instructions will change.

The idea behind adding half the bell peppers later is to create two textures, one slightly crunchy, and one more "soggy".

A Haitian Meal (Part 1)

A friend of mine has been begging me to write about this forever, but alas destiny intervened, and those that know the CC know that when destiny calls, the CC calls destiny back, and screws destiny to the wall.

However, that is tedious and time consuming.

But summer is here, and so are the good tomatoes. Since this recipe is tomato-heavy, the CC wandered down to the Farmer's Market to get some heirloom tomatoes. Once again, the guy berated me, "You weren't here last week. You expect me to sell these heirloom tomatoes to these proles?"

The recipe is somewhat time consuming but obviously worth it. If you think it's not worth it, we'll settle it like gentlemen, "Chocolate soufflés at ten paces."

I first had this meal at a Haitian restaurant. I desperately wanted to reproduce it so I consulted my two Haitian cookbooks.

They agree on the fundamentals, but differ slightly on the details.

Two things stand out:

[1] Haitian food is heavily influenced by French cooking. Not a big surprise there. The same themes stand out : skimming, rouille, etc.

[2] However, they adapted it to native fish, vegetables, etc. Shouldn't be a big surprise either.

I chatted with the woman who runs the restaurant, and she said while it was traditionally made with conch, it's really adaptable to any kind of seafood, and once you see the recipe, you will see why.

I made it with squid although I plan to make it with conch now that she told me where in New York I can find it.