Curry of the Caribbean

It’s been a little while since I last made a post but a lot of family issues have been arising that required more attention. I now live alone since my grandmother was admitted into the hospital due to complications of her cancer and going beyond my ability to tend to her. She’s also going to receive treatment in the hospital for her cancer so under some degree I’m not really all that worried. I am, however, still concerned about her well being but that’s rather obvious.

This recipe, after a long day, was thrown together in an hour after comparing two recipes. I found a recipe for a Caribbean curry but I didn’t think it was Caribbean enough to be hailing from that region so I did more surfing, browsing, and comparing and I came up with this tantalizing recipe. The flavors of the tropics usually involve citrus fruits, spicy peppers, and root vegetables. I didn’t have any citrus fruit on hand but I did have some starches and roots since I’m on a Scandinavian cuisine high and everything married quite well. It’s meatless even though I’ve been consuming meat products now but since Phil doesn’t care for beans, I’m compensating for the lack of bean consumption these past few days.

Red Kidney beans or pigeon peas are the more common variety of beans used in the tropics but I only had black eyed peas frozen which were more swift to cook and they are considered “peas” to some degree, so it works. I’m certain chicken would also taste quite well with the other ingredients. The flavors are quite simple so the chicken would absorb everything nicely. For my grain I used millet, but of course feel free to use rice and switch the vegetable combination if you desire.

Caribbean Curry
½ beans, cooked
½ cup pumpkin, diced
½ medium turnip, diced (or radishes)
½ cup tomatoes
1 shallot/onion, sliced thinly
½ cup bell peppers, diced (I used red and green)
¼ plantain or ½ banana

1 tbsp tamarind paste
¾ cup water
¼ cup coconut milk

Coriander
Ginger
Garlic flakes, crushed
Cayenne pepper
Black pepper
Salt

Few sprigs of cilantro
½ egg, crumbled (optional)

Spray a medium pan with nonstick cooking spray and sauté the onions, peppers, and garlic until sfot and lightly golden. Next, add the longest cooking ingredient which would be the raw vegetables - turnip and pumpkin. Add the tomatoes, water, tamarind, and beans with the seasonings. Cover and cook for ten minutes or until everything becomes tender and soft.

Once the raw vegetables are mostly cooked, add the banana/plantain, coconut milk, and some cilantro then cook for another five minutes with the cover on.

After five minutes or so, remove the cover, adjust the seasonings and serve with more cilantro on top and an egg crumbled. If you prefer instead of the egg, add some coconut shreds for a more Caribbean flare.
Serve over grain of choice.