Diverse and indigenous cuisine brought by the many ethnic people to St. Maarten from all over the world piques our interest. To this end, we are on quest to find where it comes from, if it is used for celebrations, if it is exotic to some but normal food to others. Anything to do with keeping the body and soul nourished with what is produced from good old terra firma is what makes the world go round.
Food to feed the soul or at least make one feel better.
Lying in bed is so boring when your eyes are feeling scrunchy, one ear is blocked and your neck seems to have been caught in a vice. There is little to do except toss the bedding aside as you feel a hot flush come over you and then pull all the bedding back over you as you start feeling chilled again. Airco on, off, on again! You've slept enough and the body does not want to sleep any more. Toss, turn, get up, feel dizzy, lie down and your mind starts working. Urgh! Yes, flu is a pain.
I know; I have just had a bout of it. The problem with flu is it wipes you out for a few days. Fortunately, I have not had this experience in about eight years at least. Oh, I have had my fair share of colds and coughs, but that is what they were. Flu is far worse in my opinion. (Medically, I have no idea if they are actually different to each other; I just know my experience). And then there is man flu.
Now the point of all this is that you need sustenance to get you through the days you feel you are suffering what is referred to as "man flu" in some households. Problem is you are not a man and it is you who do the cooking for the most part. You are alone at home the whole day – bliss you think; but there comes a time when you need to stagger to the kitchen in search of something to at least drink. You try water in the bathroom – urgh – it tastes awful; milk, you need milk – urgh – it smells as if it has gone off! “Tea, coffee – nope,” you croak out to yourself as you stagger back to bed. I just don't have the strength to hang out while the kettle boils.
Midday – and the prescription the doctor gave you seems to be working; so you crawl out of bed again and make your way back to the kitchen intent on having a fizzy vitamin C drink you remembered you had. Opening the fridge door, you spy some leftover crab cakes and hungrily take a bite. Before you can say yum, you are almost screeching in pain as your throat burns as the potato and crab cake go down. You take another bite because your tummy is overriding your throat with hungry rumbling sounds, a third wee bite and that's it; you can't deal with it any more. If only there was some lovely soup lurking at the back of the fridge; that would have suited the situation much better.
Back to bed, you fall into a deep slumber only waking up to find it is dark and your nearest and dearest is home. You croak out, “There are leftovers from last night, help yourself.” Within a short space of time it seems, he is at your bedside with an offering of a crab cake. You feel obliged to take a bite and feel surprised it did not affect you the way it did at lunch time, so you greedily wolf down the rest of it and feeling very full and much better indeed, you turn over to go back to sleep. Not surprisingly, you don't get a wink of sleep during the night; obviously all the sleep during the day had filled your quota of shuteye. You toss and turn wishing you could just get up; you are feeling so much better actually – if only sleep would come!
The sun starts peeking through the curtains as you realize you are sobbing yourself awake. You sit up suddenly hearing the ambulance approaching and hoping it was going to help the person you vividly saw fall off a wall and smash her head against a wall lower down, you know she did not survive! You realize the sound is the alarm going off and the accident must have been a dream. You lie down gently realizing one ear is blocked, one hand has pins and needles and your throat is again on fire. Your other half helps you with more medication and you fall back into a deep sleep.
The house is silent when you awake feeling a lot better, but the ear is still blocked. You wander into the kitchen almost beyond being hungry. There is nothing comforting to eat or drink in the fridge or pantry. Yes, there are loads of tins, frozen meals to be reheated and dried goods, but your taste buds don't want to know. You still do not have a cold, just this dull ache all over. You grab a soda which surprisingly does not taste that bad and make your way back to bed.
Sleep descends. You wake up some time later round noon and you feel quite chipper. Making a pact with yourself, you go back to the kitchen and start cooking some food, something to tire yourself out so you get a good night’s sleep. The dream still stays with you; you can't turn on the TV, or the Internet to distract your thoughts, because... there is no power. So you cook and bless the day you had decided on a gas cooktop!
Recipes
Stir-fried rice
The secret here is to cook a pot of rice. Once cooked, pop it in the fridge while you prep the other ingredients. I like to make a quantity of basic stir-fried rice first. Each time we eat a portion of it, I cook the protein we want to add, like chicken or shrimp, then add the serving of rice just to reheat. This can be made totally vegetarian of course by adding any greens you wish or use both greens and protein. This is a perfect dish to nibble on when you are not feeling on top of the world.
Ingredients:
The quantities of each depend on what you may have on hand and how much you want to use – cooked rice; thin slices of red, orange and yellow peppers; finely sliced shallots; finely sliced celery; finely sliced water chestnuts; smashed ginger and garlic; sliced mushrooms.
Heat a slug of peanut oil in your wok or large frying pan until it just starts to smoke.
Add the garlic and ginger and give them a stir.
Add the rest of the ingredients, stir this too,
Add the quantity of rice you want and give it all a quick toss.
Make a well in the ingredients and drop in a well-beaten egg; once it is cooked, stir all ingredients together.
Now add the sauce you have mixed up.
Sauce:
4 tbl soya sauce
1½ tbl fish sauce or to taste
1 tbl rice wine vinegar
1 tbl sherry
Chilli – fresh if you have – or a tsp end of sambal oelek – to taste
Pour the sauce over the rice and vegetables and stir until everything is covered.
Eat as is or set it aside.
When ready to serve, add another slug of peanut oil to the wok to heat while you season some chicken tenders that have been cut into bite size pieces; alternatively, you can use shrimp, beef or just green veg like broccoli, green peas, asparagus and snap peas.
Season with some Chinese 5 Spice Powder and a little salt. (I added a tbl of white sesame seeds too.)
Toss in the hot oil until just about cooked
Add stir fried rice, as much as you want to serve and toss to heat through.
Serve with a splash of sesame oil or sweet chili oil.
Pop the rest back into the fridge to eat tomorrow or later in the day.
Chickpea and Lentil Soup – Coconut milk makes this soup one of the best comfort foods to let sore throats sip on all day. Remember when you are not feeling well enough to go out, you must use what you have; so if you don’t have fresh, substitute with frozen or canned.
Ingredients
½ tbl coconut oil
1 can chickpeas
1 zucchini, quartered and chopped (I did not have any.) I used some slices of red and yellow peppers.
A small handful of baby carrots, thinly sliced
1 big handful of frozen spinach chopped – kale would be good instead
3 cloves garlic, peeled, smashed
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, grated
2 shallots, finely sliced
1 tbl heaped curry powder
¼ tsp turmeric
¼ tsp cumin
¼ tsp coriander
⅓ cup rinsed, uncooked red lentils
4 cups stock (I used chicken stock)
2 cups water
1 can coconut milk (I happened to have frozen coconut milk that I had made from my garden coconuts last week, which I used)
Cooked white rice
Method
Heat oil
Add chickpeas, zucchini, shallots, peppers, carrot, ginger and garlic
Stir until garlic becomes translucent.
Add curry powder, turmeric, cumin, and coriander.
Stir and cook for 2 minutes.
Add red lentils, stir for another 2 mins
Add stock and simmer for 15 minutes – set the timer if you need to go and lie down again!
If you need more liquid, add as needed.
After about 15 mins, add the can of coconut milk.
Bring back to a simmer for another 5-8 minutes.
Add rice, spinach/kale, and cook for 1-2 minutes.
Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary.
I felt the need for smooth soup so whizzed some, but of course you can eat it as is,
Serve with paratha.
