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Seasons & seasonings
DINING & ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE - JAN 2005
Seasons & seasonings
Fruit, herbs, pepper, limes
For everything there is a season. In The Bahamas, the best fruit pickings are to be had in the summer and fall.
This includes the juicy, exotic mango, which is used to flavour every style of dish in The Bahamas ? including mousse, ice cream, roasts, jams, jellies and chutney.
Mostly, however, islanders eat the ?peach of the tropics? straight from the tree and warmed by the sun.
For other exotic and colourful Bahamian fruit treats, try our seasonal sugar apples, sapodillas, mamey sapote and starfruit.
Breadfruit, which appears in the late summer or early fall, can be prepared as a delicious, nutritious substitute for bread and/or potatoes.
Guavas are yellow or yellow-orange on the outside and pastel pink inside. Sometimes called vitamin bombshells, they boast about five times as much vitamin C as a normal citrus, plus a supply of vitamins A and B, calcium and iron.
You can peel and eat a guava minus its multitude of black seeds, juice it, boil it, or use it to make jam.
Papayas ? or papaw ? are playing an ever-increasing role in the Bahamian agricultural economy. Their leaves are said to make a fine poultice for minor injuries, and the pinkish-orange flesh is sometimes used as a meat tenderizer.
Home-grown herbs
Bahamian food seasonings are mostly the home-grown variety. Several top chefs pride themselves in growing their own herbs in a bid to boost Bahamian cuisine to new heights.
The most Bahamian of flavourings are hot peppers and key limes. Most island gardens wouldn?t be caught dead without a bird pepper plant loaded with red spikes and looking like a miniature Christmas tree.
Bird peppers are somewhat seasonal and no Bahamian wants to be caught pepper-less. So they are gathered in plastic bags and frozen.
Local backyards, chances are, will boast a key lime tree with an abundance of fruit for flavouring quintessentially Bahamian boil? fish, conch salad or seafood in general.
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