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Herbs and spice
DINING & ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE - JAN 2006
Herbs and spice
Make Bahamian food nice
When it comes to hot and spicy, tangy and zesty, dulcet and piquant, Bahamian cooks have an innate talent for transforming a dish from the mundane to the memorable.
Spices, herbs and seasonings are some of the most important ingredients in Bahamian cuisine.
Peppers, in a bewildering variety
of shapes, sizes, colours and zing
are widely used in Bahamian dishes. Bahamian cooks use them fresh, frozen, dried, ground, powdered
or whole.
Bahamians make pepper sauce by
the gallon - in Nassau alone there are dozens of different varieties, including D'Vanya's Junkanoo Hot Pepper Sauce and Conchy Joe's Inferno Pepper Sauce.
The most commonly used peppers are green, red and yellow sweet garden varieties. Mild sweet peppers are dried and ground to make paprika. Hot peppers such as goat, banana and bird peppers, and a host of others, are used fresh or dried and ground into cayenne or chilli.
Black & white pepper
Black and white pepper seasoning is made from the berries of the tropical climbing shrub Piper nigrum. The dried ripe berries make black pepper, which is more aromatic and flavourable, while the skinned ripe berries are used to make white pepper. The berries retain their zest almost indefinitely, but tend to lose aroma and flavour when ground or crushed. Hence, savvy Bahamian cooks use it freshly ground.
A dish that's synonymous with hot is curry, and Bahamians make full use of it in curried mutton and chicken. Most Bahamians however buy rather than make their own curries. (See box.)
A flavouring trick
Herbs play a relatively small part in Bahamian cuisine, possibly because the flavouring can be a little too subtle. One trick used by Bahamian cooks to enhance the flavour of dried herbs is to soak them for 10 to 30 minutes in a liquid incorporated in the recipe - lemon juice, beef or chicken stock, wine, oil, vinegar, milk or even water. This reconstitution can raise the culinary level of a dish from good to excellent.
Thyme is by far the No 1 herb in The Bahamas, used mainly to flavour rice, especially peas ?n rice. Bay leaves are also popular, while allspice is the preferred seasoning for souse, a Bahamian soup.
About curry
A basic curry includes varying amounts of turmeric and at least two of ginger, cayenne, coriander, cardamom, black pepper and cumin. Turmeric imparts the colour, and can be used in other dishes in place of saffron. It also adds a delicate mild flavour. The amounts of the other ingredients depend on taste and tolerance.
Curries can be specially mixed to complement and enhance the dish being served. A dry mix is used for meat coatings. Other hot, mild or sour combinations can be fashioned for fish, fowl, rice, beans or vegetables.
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