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12 recipes

Trinidad ginger beer

In Trinidad and Tobago, Christmas would not be complete without jugs of homemade ginger beer and sorrel in the fridge, ready for every visitor who drops by between Christmas Eve and Old Year's Night. Fresh ginger is grated, steeped with lime, cloves and sugar for about a day, then strained and served over ice. Made this way it is not fermented, so it has no alcohol and children can drink it. It is spicy and refreshing. Chef's tip: grate the ginger with its skin on (just scrub it), as much of the heat is just under the skin.

30 min

Trinidadian Drinks

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Currants rollSpiced currant pastry roll

In Trinidad and Tobago, currants roll is the thing in the bakery case next to the coconut drops and salara: flaky shortcrust rolled tightly around a dark, sticky mixture of currants, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, baked whole and cut into thick spiral slices. Schoolchildren buy a piece on the way home and it is a favourite at Christmas when the house is full of visitors. The pastry is crisp and short, the filling jammy and warmly spiced. Spooning the filling on hot and syrupy makes the roll leak and go soggy, so cool it until thick. Chef's tip: roll the pastry on baking paper and use the paper to lift and roll the log, keeping it tight and even.

75 min

Trinidadian Baking

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Barbadine punchGranadilla milk drink

Barbadine, the giant granadilla, grows on vines over backyard fences across Trinidad and turns up at Sunday lunch blended into a pale, creamy punch. The fruit's soft white flesh and the perfumed seed pulp inside are both used, giving a gentle passion-fruit flavour that milk, nutmeg and a little sugar round out. It is alcohol-free and made for the whole family. A frequent mistake is blending the seeds hard, which cracks them and turns the drink gritty and bitter: pulse the pulp briefly and strain it. Chef's tip: if you can't find barbadine, use the pulp of 6 passion fruit plus 200 g peeled honeydew melon for a similar taste.

15 min

Trinidadian Drinks

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Curry chataigneBreadnut coconut curry

Chataigne, the spiky breadnut cousin of breadfruit, ripens around Divali and Christmas in Trinidad, and its boiled, peeled seeds are curried with coconut milk and roasted geera into a dish many people say tastes almost like meat. It is a fixture at Divali dinners and Hindu functions, eaten with rice or roti. The common mistake is skipping the pre-boil: the seeds stay hard and their thin inner skin stays bitter. Look for chataigne in Caribbean and Asian grocers; tinned jackfruit seeds or chestnuts are the nearest swap. Chef's tip: after boiling, peel off both the shell and the papery brown skin, then split the seeds in half so the curry gets right inside.

80 min

Trinidadian Curries

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Trini fried bodiFried long beans

Bodi, the yard-long bean grown in back gardens all over south Trinidad, is cut into short lengths and fried down with onion, lots of garlic and a little hot pepper until it is tender and blistered in places. It turns up stuffed into sada roti for breakfast or beside rice and dhal for lunch. People often crowd the pan, so the beans steam grey instead of frying bright green with brown edges; use a wide pan. Green beans work if you cannot find bodi. Chef's tip: a pinch of roasted ground geera stirred in at the very end gives the beans a warm, nutty finish.

22 min

Trinidadian Sides

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Trini corn pieCreamed corn and cheese bake

Next to the macaroni pie on a Trinidadian Sunday lunch or Christmas table there is often a dish of corn pie, a soft, sliceable bake of creamed and whole corn bound with eggs, milk and sharp cheese and flecked with sweet pimento peppers. It is spoonable when hot and firms up as it cools, so it travels well to family gatherings. The mistake most people make is cutting it straight from the oven, when it is still loose in the middle; give it 15 minutes. Cheddar is often made with animal rennet, so use a vegetarian cheddar if that matters to you. Chef's tip: add a pinch of nutmeg and a little grated onion; they lift the sweetness of the corn without anyone noticing them.

60 min

Trinidadian Baking

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Trini geera porkCumin pork

At a Trinidad lime, the bowl of geera pork on the table is usually empty long before the drinks run out. This is pork shoulder cut into small cubes, marinated in green seasoning and garlic, then cooked down in its own fat with a generous amount of dark-roasted ground cumin (geera) until the pieces are coated in a dry, aromatic, peppery glaze. Eat it hot with toothpicks or with sada roti. The usual mistake is using raw ground cumin, which tastes dusty; roast the seeds yourself until nearly black-brown. Chef's tip: let the liquid cook away completely at the end and fry the pork for a few more minutes, as that sticky, slightly crisp coating is the whole point.

80 min

Trinidadian Meat

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Trini peanut punchPeanut butter milk drink

Bottled or blended fresh at roadside juice stands, peanut punch is what Trinidadians reach for after a long cricket afternoon, a hard gym session or a Saturday market run. Peanut butter is whizzed with cold milk, a little condensed milk, vanilla and a scrape of nutmeg until it is as thick as a milkshake and properly filling. It contains no alcohol, despite the name. The common mistake is under-blending, which leaves gritty clumps of peanut butter at the bottom of the glass. It contains peanuts and milk, so check for allergies before serving. Chef's tip: blend the peanut butter with just a third of the milk first to make a smooth paste, then add the rest.

10 min

Trinidadian Drinks

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Trinidad cocoa teaSpiced cocoa milk

In the cocoa-growing hills of Trinidad and Tobago, breakfast often starts with a mug of cocoa tea, made from home-rolled cocoa sticks or balls of ground roasted beans grated straight into the pot. Simmered with cinnamon, nutmeg and a bay leaf, then softened with milk and sugar, it tastes deeper and less sweet than shop hot chocolate, with a film of cocoa butter on top that everyone stirs back in. It is drunk with coconut bake, fry bake or hops bread. The mistake to avoid is a fast boil once the milk goes in, which scorches the bottom and makes it bitter. Chef's tip: whisk in a teaspoon of cornflour slaked in cold milk for the slightly thicker cocoa tea of Tobago grandmothers.

20 min

Trinidadian Drinks

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Trinidad pastellesCornmeal parcels with spiced meat

Trinidad's Venezuelan-rooted pastelles are a Christmas ritual: families gather in the kitchen, press thin cornmeal dough onto banana leaves, spoon on a filling of minced beef and pork with olives, capers and raisins, then fold and steam dozens at a time to freeze for the season. Once cooked they are soft, savoury and slightly sweet, with the leaf perfuming the dough. This version uses beef and pork mince; a lentil filling makes a vegetarian pastelle. The most common mistake is pressing the dough too thick, which turns the parcels stodgy; it should be thin enough to see the leaf's shine through. Chef's tip: pass the banana leaves over a flame for a few seconds until they turn glossy and pliable, so they fold without tearing.

150 min

Trinidadian Meat

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Trini curry duck

Curry duck is the dish of the riverside lime in south and central Trinidad, cooked in a big iron pot over a wood fire while friends cool off in the water. The duck is chopped small, marinated in green seasoning, then "burnt" into a curry paste fried until almost black, which gives the sauce its dark colour and deep, slightly bitter edge. It's served with rice, dhal and sada or paratha roti. A common mistake is serving it before the duck has fully broken down: duck is chewy and needs long, slow cooking. Chef's tip: spoon off the yellow duck fat that rises during cooking and keep it for roasting potatoes.

130 min

Trinidadian Curries

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Curry channa and alooChickpea and potato curry

Curry channa and aloo is a staple of Trinidad's Indo-Caribbean home cooking: chickpeas and potatoes simmered in a turmeric-gold Caribbean curry until the potatoes start to break down and thicken the sauce. It's what fills a dhalpuri or buss-up-shut roti in roti shops from Chaguanas to Penal, and it's at every Hindu wedding and Divali feast. It isn't an Indian chana masala: there's no tomato or garam masala, the curry powder is the Caribbean kind, heavy with turmeric, coriander and fenugreek, and it's finished with shado beni (culantro) and green seasoning. Chef's tip: 'chunkay' the curry. Fry the curry paste in hot oil until it darkens, turns grainy and the oil separates before you add the chickpeas. Raw curry tastes dusty and flat; fried curry tastes rich and round.

45 min

Trinidadian Curries

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