This post was first published February 8, 2009. It has been updated once since then.
What do you get when you combine Fried Eggplant with the skill and experience of a world class chef? These out of this world ‘Eggplant Cutlets’. Like many of the Mario Batali dishes that I have tried, this recipe provides rich flavour and a satisfying contrast in textures, through what appears as relatively few ingredients. Although Batali’s recipes uses breadcrumbs, I substituted that with cornmeal so that this dish would be gluten-free. The change in …

July 5, 2010: Sometime between when this post was originally written in 2007 and now it appears Saveur Magazine selected this recipe as one of its ‘Best Of The Web‘, and Trinigourmet.com as one of its ‘Sites We Love’. I can’t explain how much this means to me as it has always been my hope and aim to disseminate Trinidadian cuisine to the wider world. It really makes the long hours cooking, writing, photographing and editing, not to mention the ongoing expenses, worth it. Thanks so much!

Yum Yum …

I see plenty of recipes for accra in West Indian Cookbooks but often they bear little resemblance to Trinidad Accra. My Jamaican mother tells me that what she knows as accra is a saltfish fritter, flat, fried brown. Here in Trinidad however accra is a puffy fried dough ball, made of a highly seasoned dough into which shredded saltfish has been mixed. I’ve had it at weddings, gatherings, and of course bought it from street vendors. This recipe comes together quite quickly once the saltfish has been boiled and picked. …

Hummus is a never-fail crowd pleaser and so deceptively easy to prepare! I love to offer hummus as a starter at Purim because chickpeas figure so prominently in the Purim story. This recipe comes from one of my favourite cookbooks The Sephardic Table: The Vibrant Cooking of the Mediterranean Jews (you can read my review here). Although I have tried many hummus recipes and am not opposed the occasional variation, this is the one I return to time and time again.

Hummus
Source: The Sephardic Table: The Vibrant Cooking of the Mediterranean …

Blog Party #43 is here! The theme this month is “Spice It Up”. According to the event’s host Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness:
The chill of February has definitely gotten to me. I’m cold. I’m tired of being cold. I want warmth…but it looks like the only place I can find that is in the kitchen!
Well there are definitely no chills here in Trinidad, unless you count the damp rainy days we’ve been having here on an almost non-stop basis. Although the rain may be worrying the Carnival die-hards, I find …

February is Black History Month and with it comes A Taste of Ebony, a food challenge hosted by Joelen of Joelen’s Culinary Adventures highlighting the work and recipes of Black chefs and food celebrities. When I began TriniGourmet Black food personalities were almost a shadow presence, and though I am glad to see, over the past year, the Food Network integrating African-Americans into its lineup, it still strikes me as unfortunate that an actual chef such as Marcus Samuelsson is relegated to a tundra timeslot on a niche channel such …

I made these traditional Indo-Trinidadian appetizers last year as part of my Eid menu. Chopped spinach stirred into a splitpea flour base and then fried, delish! I prefer mine relatively light , especially when fresh out of the oil, but some make theirs denser. The final result will depend on how thick your prefer your batter. Saheena are perfectly paired with your favourite chutney and some hot pepper sauce, plus since there is so much spinach in them you can tell yourself that it’s practically a salad… right? …

I first made these fritters as part of last year’s Sukkot menu. They are much sweeter and lighter than one would expect. And the soaking of the onions in the batter ensures that the onion flavour mellows and evenly distributes. It also makes the onion much softer, so that it almost melts in your mouth. I don’t know about you but I just hate when I bite into an onion ring and the onion pulls out between my tooth, as hard as if it just rolled off the supermarket shelf! …

Growing up in a cross-cultural household there were many moments when you realized that your home was a little ‘different’ from many of those around you. As a kid I went to a variety of private schools with large international populations so those differences seemed quite ‘normal’, however when I began public high school I began to realize that maybe I was a little bit ‘odd’ Growing up with a Jamaican mom not only was my vocabulary for local fruits and vegetables at times quite different from my …

Here I am sitting in front of the television watching Wolf Blitzer and his fierce beard interrogating various political pundits. It’s a gorgeous sunny and quiet Sunday afternoon. The kind of weather that we call ‘beach weather’, but I’m indoors. I’ll be heading to the supermarket in a while though to buy some ingredients for my first full day of ‘raw eating’. You see I’ve decided to try and raise my consumption of raw food to at least 50% of my weekly consumption. I’m a little nervous and excited, and …