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Catherine's Kitchen

Catherine Manning

Fresh is Best

HAVING BEEN BORN to an Agriculturist father and Horticulturist mother I suppose it is natural that I turned out this way, mixed up!

My father's hobbies were fishing and cooking, my mothers were her garden and flowers. He had a small single engine boat and every Sunday he and Blackie(his helper) would go fishing, venturing as far as 40 miles off island. They would leave at 4 a.m. and usually return around 4 to 5 p.m. He had no VHF, no contact with other boats nor any navigational aids. Several times he had engine trouble, and went adrift on more than one occasion. The only food they carried with them was tinned Corned Beef and biscuits and hot pepper sauce. They would have taken water to accompany the rum! And of course the never to be forgotten bait basket!

As a result of his forays we had a never ending supply of fresh fish, Flying Fish, Shark, Mahi Mahi or Dorada, (though we call it Dolphin) Albacore, King Fish, Barracuda, or whatever was in season.

On the plantation side, there was always fresh ground provisions, yams, sweet potatoes, eddoes, pumpkin etc. not to mention our own allocation of sugar fresh from the factory. The orchard was always full of fruit, Mangoes, Avocados, Guavas, Cherries, Limes, Mammy Apples, Sugar Apples, Soursop, Pawpaws,Gooseberries, Plums, Golden Apples etc. You name it, we had it. We were incredibly lucky and so were a lot of people, as my father didn't think to sell the excess, he'd just give it away. So I was brought up with "fresh is best."

The kitchen was very much an integral part of the house. It was very big and we all collected there, as that was where my father generally was when he wasn't out in the fields. He loved cooking and was a very good cook. He would generally leave the starches and vegetables to the cook and the desserts to my mother, but when it came to the meat and fish, that was his department. Our house seemed to be the gathering place for waifs and strays and I don't only mean the four legged ones, so it seems to me that there was always a pot on the stove.

This month I'm going to do two recipes, the first is for:

FISH CAKES (or Stamp and Go)

• Flour:   1 cup
• Baking Powder:   1 full tsp.
• Salt fish:   1 cup
• Onion:   1 large finely chopped
• Chive:   2 oz. finely chopped
• Hot pepper:   1/2 red finely chopped
• Oil for cooking

For the salt fish use a good quality boneless salted cod. Wash excess salt from fish, soak for 2 hours changing water once or bring fish to boil for 10 minutes, change water and boil again. The object here is to get excess salt from fish, but you do not want to completely unsalt it.

Shred fish.

Gradually add about 1/2 cup cold water to flour and make a smooth batter.

Add all the other ingredients and stir with wooden spoon. Adjust seasoning to suit yourself, more pepper etc.

Heat oil in small saucepan and when hot drop in mixture by the small teaspoonful. When browned remove and drain on paper towel. The oil should be hot but not so hot hot that it browns before they are cooked inside.

Serve with hot pepper sauce or sauce of your choice. I sometimes take ketchup and season it and use that to dip instead.

By the way I'm a great believer in doing things my way, so experiment your way. The recipes here are to give you an idea of what to do, after that it's up to you. The second recipe is for Pumpkin Fritters. We use Pumpkin for more than Pumpkin Pie, in fact we don't use it for pies very much, but we do use it for soup, fritters, baking to name a few. Pumpkin fritters are very popular. I'm giving approximate quantities which allows you to experiment.

PUMPKIN FRITTERS

• Fresh Pumpkin:   1 lb. (Steamed)
• Eggs:   1
• Sugar:   4 Tbs.
• Cinnamon:   1 heaped tsp. powdered
• Flour:   5 Tbs. approx.
• Baking Powder   1 heaped tsp.
• salt & pepper
• Cooking oil.
• Extra granulated sugar and powdered cinnamon.

Clean and peel pumpkin, cut into pieces and STEAM. I never boil pumpkin as it makes it more watery, which means more flour making them too heavy rather than light. Cool.

Crush cooked pumpkin in bowl and add sugar, cinnamon, salt and pepper to taste. Beat in egg and add baking powder and then flour gradually till you get a good dropping consistency. Batter should slip very slowly off spoon. Experiment here to make sure that you don't make the batter too loose.

Heat oil and drop by the teaspoonful, fry on both sides till golden. The batter should fry cleanly, if it's too loose add a bit more flour.

Drain and cool fritters on paper towels.

Just before serving, mix powdered cinnamon with granulated sugar and dredge fritters on both sides. Serve at room temperature.

TIP.
Don't add egg to hot pumpkin unless you want scrambled pumpkin!