Greek Vibes!

Woke up extremely early this morning after falling asleep around 9 pm trying to watch Fringe (my current obsession) on cable. I’ll confess. I was, as we say in Trinidad, trying to ‘play hero’, but when your brain has been running a mental treadmill for more than the usual 8 hours on your day job, it’s impossible. Sleep called, and I answered willingly.

So, refreshed and ready, the subject of Saturday breakfast came up.

I knew exactly what I was feeling for… a nice Greek salad. And odd choice, you say? Well, after eating my tasty cheese paste for the past work week, I definitely wanted a little rest from the bread. I first fell in love with the Greek salad right here at home at a beautiful restaurant – sadly, I cannot remember the name of it, or the location (I pray that’s not the beginnings of senility!) Yet, I can remember the setting, lots of green grass covered grounds, a lovely fountain on the outside and lots of oleanders, frangipani and poinsettias that kept dancing to the breeze. Inside were covered tables and chairs, and smiling serving ladies came to take your orders. I saw the Greek salad on the menu and almost bypassed it, but its trouble-free ingredients called out to me. They were described with such love. Plus, most of the ingredients were things I had in my fridge on any given day, except for the feta cheese of course.  I just had to taste it and see how everything melded together. I was hooked after the first bite.

So I pulled out my salty feta cheese (there’s my cheese obsession coming to the fore again, hahaha), the tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and other players from my fridge. But I soon realised I was missing a few crucial stars in my Greek play, namely…

1)      Red onion

2)      Black Olives and

3)      Fresh lemon.

However, I did possess regular yellow onions (which had a slight sweet bite to them), green olives and lime juice. As we say locally, “When you don’t have mammy, take granny.”

And so, with my reserve players, I began my Greek play.  Will it be a tragedy or happy comedy? Let’s find out. 

Here are some of the stars of my Greek adventure. Normally, I’d use romaine lettuce for my Greek salad, but, thanks to our rising food prices, I can no longer afford it. Iceberg will suffice today.

So, I began with the cucumbers. First I topped, tailed and peeled them, then cut them in half.

With a teaspoon, I scraped out the seeds.

Then I cut each half into quarters.

And then into bite sized pieces.

I set them aside before tackling the tomatoes.

These were simple. I just removed the stem end and cut them into four, then each quarter into three pieces. Voila!

Next, I sliced ¼ of an onion into very thin half moons. This is of course, what would have normally been done with the red onion.

After that, I peeled a few leaves off my head of iceberg lettuce, washed them, rolled them up and tore them into my waiting bowl.

To replace the sweet pepper, I reached for my local pimentoes (which I then de-seeded and julienned). Here they are, resting with some fresh thyme and parsley.

And now for the star of my Greek play, Madame Feta! *cheers and applause*

Now you could choose to cube it, but because it’s so delicate, what I usually do is take the point of my knife and twist off little shards.

Looks beautiful, doesn’t it? Now, on to the olives.

Just spoon about a ½ cupful or more into a small bowl. Normally I’d have a mix of both black and green olives, but either colour can work here.

Dressing time! Normally, the olive oil is poured on the completed salad and some lemon juice is squeezed on before adding pepper and other herbs.This here is my own method for the salad dressing, which is simply two tablespoons of olive oil, one tablespoon of lemon juice (substituting lime juice today), and a pinch or two (each) of parsley flakes, red pepper flakes, oregano and fresh thyme. Then, stir with a fork until blended.

Now for the assembly. Add the cucumbers and tomatoes…

Sprinkle in the onions and pimentoes…

Add the parsley.

In go the olives and feta, plus a little chive I had sliced thinly beforehand.

Toss lightly with a pair of tongs or two spoons till everything is mixed.

Spoon some into a serving bowl.

Then drizzle on a spoonful of the flavoured dressing.

Beautiful!

 

And there you have it, my easy Greek salad. The recipe for this (with the original ingredients) is as follows:

Halcy’s Greek Salad

1 bunch romaine lettuce, washed and chopped into ½ inch pieces

2 medium cucumbers, peeled, deseeded in chopped into ½ inch pieces

2 medium tomatoes, chopped into a large dice

½ a red onion, sliced into half moons and separated

1 stalk chive, sliced finely

½ a red or green sweet pepper, julienned

½ to 1/3 cup of green olives, left whole

¼ cup black olives,

¾ cup of feta cheese, crumbled or cubed

Dressing

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Pinch of fresh thyme

Pinch of dried parsley

Pinch of oregano

Pinch of red pepper flakes

Tiny pinch of salt (optional as the feta is already salty)

Method

In a large bowl, place all the ingredients in the order they are listed, as in lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. Toss gently together.

In a smaller bowl, place all the dressing ingredients and whisk together or beat with a fork until just combined. (Tip: Let stand for a while at room temperature so all the flavours can meld.)

Serve individual portions and drizzle a tablespoon of dressing over each.

And that, as they say, is that. My Greek play was a success – I even went for an encore! Honestly, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had this delicious Greek salad over the years. Despite not having red onion and black olives, the flavour quotient was still very high, plus, the sweetness from the tomatoes helped balance the saltiness of the cheese. Maybe that’s why I like it so much. There’s so many things going on at once with each bite with the sweet, salty, tangy and peppery… it’s just a delight for me.

Well, I must now take my leave to do some more work on my cookbook and then rest up and enjoy a little peep at the Food Network. So, till my next adventure, enjoy your days and nights and doh forget to mind de pot, my friends. Take care! :-)

A Cheese paste Vaps!

Guys, ever had one of those days when you had a craving for something covered in cheese?

Maybe I should emphasise the fact that I am a serious cheese addict. I’ve eaten cheese on Crix, cheese on toast, cheese and hops bread, cheese and olives, cheese with celery, melted cheese, grated cheese, cheese on pizza, cheese in macaroni pie, sliced, diced, torn, shredded and cooked cheese… *drools like Homer Simpson*

Yeah, I’ve got it bad… :-) But I digress…

The crux of my post tonight (as you may have already figured out, is that wonderful concoction we love to eat as a snack – cheese paste (or cheese spread). No one knows how we learned the recipe, really, but I can truthfully say that you can put 10 Trinis in a room and asked them if they knew how to make cheese paste, each of them will say yes, and tell you their tried and true recipe for the stuff.

My mother and grandmother have made it. My daughter has made it. I’ve seen my uncle make it. Friends have made it. But I’m sure if you ask someone, “Who taught you how to make cheese paste?” the answer will be the same… “I saw (insert name of friend or relation here) make it and then I just decided to make it one day… and I’ve been making it ever since.” Ah lie?

Anyway, the basic cheese paste recipe is simple; some grated cheese, maybe a little butter, some mayonnaise, mustard and peppersauce. Some take it further and add in some garlic flavoured mayonnaise. Others still, go for the unorthodox and put in some parsley, sweet peppers and a little red onion… and then there’s folk like me, who let a serious cheese vaps kick them in the head like a crazy mule and they try to take cheese paste to yet another notch…

Okay, I decided that I was going to make an industrial sized serving of cheese paste, so I gated an entire block (about 375g) of rennet free cheddar. But the purists among us know that ‘rat cheese’ (the Trini equivalent of America’s government cheese) makes a wicked tasting paste.

Here’s where the madness began. I peeled a carrot and grated the living daylights out of him.

This entire bundle of chive (including the thyme and parsley that’s tied to it) is going to get chopped up, along with these five pimento peppers.

Gave them a rough chop…

And into the food processor they went for a quick pulse or two.

Next, I put in the cheese and grated carrot.

Here are some of the stars of my paste; mayonnaise, peppersauce and mustard.

A dollop of mayonnaise went in, then I pulsed it some more – it’s halfway mixed in here.

A squeeze of mustard… then I pulsed it again.

Then I added my “secret ingredient”… a spoon of sweet relish (for a nice tang).

Pulsed it some more, tasted it and added peppersauce, another spoon of relish, a little more mayo and mustard and a spoon of ketchup to even out all the flavours. Here's the finished result!

I then warmed up two slices of whole wheat bread and put on a couple dollops of cheese paste.

Spread it all over, covered him up…

Then took a nice bite. Deeeeee-lish!

And there you have it… my cheese paste vaps. I’m afraid that I don’t have a set recipe for this one, simply because every time I make it, the ingredients are never the same, other than the main players. You may have noticed that there isn’t any butter in this either, but that’s only because I didn’t feel like putting any this time. I’ll confess… even chadon beni (cilantro) has made it into this cheese paste more than once, but this is one vaps that I am totally enjoying!

So, I really hope you enjoyed my cheese adventure today, and I look forward to sharing even more from my little kitchen. Take care, everyone, and doh forget to mind de pot!

Hugs and love always! :-)

Meeting Cynthia Nelson

On Saturday April 2nd, I had the joyous experience of meeting Caribbean cookbook author Cynthia Nelson, a Guyanese native residing in Barbados, who is currently on a book tour to promote her first publication, “Tastes Like Home – My Caribbean Cookbook”. Her cookbook grew out of her eponymously titled blog ‘Tastes Like Home’ (here's the link: http://www.tasteslikehome.org/ ) where she was basically cooking the foods she loved from her childhood, and experiencing new tastes and flavours in her second home of Barbados. 

Me and Cynthia Nelson at Nigel R Khan's Bookstore in West Mall, Westmoorings.

When she began the blog, she found Caribbean natives all over the world who were in love with the dishes she talked about with such love, and they kept asking her for more. Now, after hooking up with Randle Publishing in Jamaica, she is busy promoting Tastes Like Home throughout the Caribbean. Her book tour began in her homeland of Guyana, and as I write, her Trinidad visit ends today, after which she’ll be winging her way to… oh my, I forgot to ask! Hahahaa!

Cynthia: "How do you spell your name, dear?"

Ever since I found out that Cynthia was going to be in Trinidad, I was truly excited at the prospect of getting her cookbook, and of course, meeting her. There were so many things I wanted to ask her about getting published, just so I would have an idea of what to do when my own labour of love was finally complete – and as you know, it’s been a few years well of rewrites, retesting recipes and reshaping. I long to be able to wake up one morning and go through my lists and be able to say, “Eureka, my cookbook is finished!”

Anyways, I eagerly took my lunch hour on Friday with my friend Crystal and made the trek to Nigel R Khan at West Mall to meet her, thinking that she would have been there that day, but the book signing was scheduled for Saturday instead. But I was glad that I could pick up my copy of Tastes Like Home early and bring it back to the office, where it passed from person to person, each marvelling at the mouth-watering photos of familiar local favourites such as callaloo, tomato choka, rotis and more. 

And photos like this one... Cynthia's Fried Salt Fish (page 110 of Tastes Like Home) looks so scrumptious!

My favourite section though, is the one that precedes the recipes, her food memoirs. I realised that Cynthia and I share a real love of food and the journey ingredients take before preparation. Food is more than just sustenance to us. It’s memories of home with images of Mother (or in my case, Granny) cooking up a favourite dish or two. It’s going to the market and being hit with a combination of smells and lingering odours of shopping bags and stall displays, some cloying, others so fragrant you want to do nothing else but stop and smell the fruit you’ve come to find.

Even as I type and glance at my copy of Tastes Like Home, I am filled with hope that someday I will be in her position, promoting the tastes of my own country’s cuisine and family favourites and sharing that abundant food love. Cynthia’s winning smile alone warmed my heart, just as her dishes will warm happy stomachs. I am glad I was able to discover her blog last year when I was searching for a butter flap recipe from my childhood – I’m really happy that it’s also featured in her cookbook. Even happier was meeting fellow blogger Wizzy the Stick at Cynthia’s book signing, and her own blog Breakfast Lunch, Dinner and Punch” (here's the link http://breakfastlunchdinnerandpunch.blogspot.com/ ) has joined my foodie list. (Thanks again, Wizzy!)  Ah, the joys of food writing; you never know who you will meet!

Well, I must now make my exit. Sadly, I did not do any cooking today. A happy trip to the supermarket with my girl Hazel and her hubby (thanks again, guys) yielded some wonderful finds and inspirations for new blog posts, but after putting everything away, the old knee decided to revisit me with some stiffness and pain. So, I am resting it atop my feather cushion while my boy is off to collect some Sunday Lunch from his sister for the two of us. But worry not, there is still more to come from the ol’ Halcie yet, so stay tuned. In the meantime, everyone enjoy your Sunday and like I always say, doh forget to mind de pot! Much love and many hugs! :-)