IMITATION JERK PORK

When Massy stores put out these fresh slices (steaks) of pork leg just as I was doing my weekly shopping, I immediately thought “jerk pork.” There was no Walker’s Wood jerk seasoning on the shelf ( and we trines swear that this is the best brand), but I thought that it would be no problem because I always have a supply at home. I was wrong.Be lately I remembered that the last bottle had been transported to the villa in Tobago. So what to do?

The options were:

1. Go look for Walker’s Wood jerk at another grocery
2. Buy another brand
3. Do something else

Being a sort of a lazy guy, I decided on option 3. So I made up an imitation jerk sauce with ingredients I had on hand.

THE BASIC SEASONING

From my kitchen garden I took 10 leaves of shadow beni plus enough fine thyme to fill a table spoon. These seasonings were ground up with 6 clove of garlic

THE OTHER INGREDIENTS

• 2 table spoons of ground Geera
• 2 table spoons of pepper sauce
• 1 tablespoon of mustard
• 1 teaspoon each of black pepper and salt
• 1 table spoon of olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of butter

All ingredients were mixed together and the pork generously lathered with the imitation sauce. It was set aside in the refridgerator for 2 days.

COOKING

• Foil a baking pan
• Base the foil with some butter
• Pre heat the oven to 400 degrees
• Bake uncovered for 15 minutes
• Turn the meat
• Reduce heat to 350
• Bake for another 20 minutes

 

TUNA STEAK SALAD

This dish was inspired by a presentation on TV featuring chef Bobby Flay.

Having feasted on Tobago stewed pork, curry chicken and fish steamed in coconut milk over dumplings, cassava and green figs, yesterday, I was in no condition to enjoy the Tuna steak which a neighbor brought for me last night.  After a small sliver to taste I refrigerated the rest with breakfast in mind.

This morning however, what looked like a delicious steak, had the appearance of something a little withered. Definitely not the most appetizing piece of fish any one would have ever seen. It needed something to brighten it up, make it look more appetizing.

Searching for inspiration in the fridge I spotted some yogurt. Immediately the Bobby Flay program came to mind. In that episode he made a dressing with yogurt as one of the ingredients. So what else was in the fridge?

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tuna steak cooked medium rare and flaked
• 1 table spoon of capers
• 2 hard boiled eggs chopped in quarters
• 4 cherry tomatoes halved
• 1/4 cup of chopped bell peppers
• 1/4 cup of sliced white onions
• 1/4 cup of chopped celery
• 4 stalks of chive, chopped
• Teaspoon of fresh cilantro torn up
• Teaspoon of red pepper flakes

THE DRESSING

• Table spoon of mustard
• Blueberry yogurt
• Tablespoon of olive oil
• Juice of half a lemon
• Teaspoon of black pepper
• Teaspoon of salt

In hindsight I think that a little honey would have made this delicious dish perfect.

 

Chimichurri Chicken Steak With Couscous

Mom has gotten even more selective about the things she would eat. She seems to have lost taste for most things which she had been accustomed eating. Dishes she was enjoying last week, no longer appeal today. She is driving my sister and the care giver up a wall trying to figure out what she will eat today if anything at all. At 88 she needs to eat, maybe more so that we younger McFarlanes need to. Daddy on the other hand is devouring everything in sight as long as it does not contain pepper or curry.

I have joined in the hunt for recipes which might appeal to mom. In a dream last night I was eating Peruvian food. Specifically a Peruvian steak. This is a dish I had had once about 3 years ago at a Peruvian restaurant in Miami. That was my only experience of Chimichurri. While out exercising, I remembered the dream and thought that this might be a flavor which Mom would enjoy. The only challenge is that she is no longer eating any kind of meat, no beef, no lamb, no goat. Chicken, yes, as long as it is not white in appearance when done. So chicken steaks with something would be my next offering for her.

For her I will do the Chimichurri Chicken with sweet potato fries and Cole slaw. But for myself I prepared this dish:

This is Chimichurri Chicken plus couscous with red beans and slices of avocado. Once I had made the chimichurri sauce and put the chicken to marinade in it( ideally for 24 hours) I just had to sample it, so I cooked one of the steaks within 2 hours.

The recipes for Chimichurri sauce are on line. It calls for the following ingredients:

• Olive oil
• Red wine vinegar
• Parsley
• Cilantro
• Garlic
• Crushed red peppers
• Ground cumin
• Salt

These are all blended together to make the sauce. I did not have all these ingredients so my compromise ingredients were:

• Fresh thyme
• Shandon beni
• Teaspoon of curry powder
• Chive
• Garlic
• Scotch bonet pepper
• Crushed red peppers
• 4 pimentoes
• Balsamic vinegar
• Olive oil
• Salt

This is how it looks when set aside to marinade.

The chicken steaks were made from chicken breasts from which the bones had been removed and the flattened into steaks with a meat tenderizer .

The cooking took just 5 minutes in a grill pan. Two and a half minutes on each side, then left in the pan covered for another 5 minutes.

For the couscous couscous I sauted some cooked black beans in olive oil with chopped onions, garlic, pimentos, and pumpkin slices. This was then stored into the couscous couscous which was prepared according to the instructions on the package.

Tomorrow I will know how mom like this dish. I hope that you do.

Trini/Jamaican/Thai Soup

Today I cooked a soup which I am calling Trini, Jamaican, Thai, Soup.

Having promised my family to bring home Thai food for lunch, I drove to the restaurant. Ten feet short of the entrance I was hit by the CLOSED sign. Closer examination of the opening hours sign, advised me that on week-ends the restaurant only opened for dinner from 5 pm. It was then 11am. I turned away very disappointed because I really had my mind set on the Thai Coconut Chicken Soup.

Shaking my head, I shuffled towards the car to return home. As I drove off considering alternatives for the lunch I had promised the family, I spotted a Walmart on the compound. I pulled aside. Thought for a minute and had a “to hell with it,” moment. “I will make my own damn soup.” Cruising the isles of the supermarket section of Walmart I picked up:

1 4 lb chicken

3 cans of red beans

1 large red onion

2 packets of coconut milk powder

1 carton of chicken stock

2 large potatoes

1 packet of frozen corn

1 large casava

These became the basic ingredients for the Trini, Jamaican, Thai Soup.

The total list of ingredients for the soup are:

1. 4 cups of water
2. i teaspoon of pepper sauce
3. 4 tablespoons of olive oil
4. 2 lemons juiced
5. 2 table spoons of ketchup
6. 10 chunks of carrots 🥕,pumpkin, sweet potato, corn on the cob and cassava
8. 1 4 lb chicken cut into chunks to give 16 pieces
9. 3 cans of precooked red beans
10. 32 ozs chicken stock
11. Finely diced quarter of red onion, 6 cloves garlic, large tomato
12. 4 stalks of Spanish thyme
13. Quarter cup of finely diced pumpkin
14. Half cup of finely diced sweet potato
15. 1 and a half packets (3 ozs) coconut powder
16. Handful of fresh green herbs finely diced

PREPARATION

Wash the chicken in the lemon juice. Season with salt black pepper, worchester sauce, the diced herbs, and the pepper sauce.

Set Aside.

COOKING

1. Add the water to a large soup pan and bring to a boil
2. Add half the chicken stock, the corn plus the finely diced sweet potato and pumpkin
3. After 10 minutes add the coconut milk powder and the cassava
4. Heat the oil in a non stick sauce pan
5. Introduced the chicken and allow to cook for 8 minutes
6. Add the garlic, tomato, and onion
7. After 5 minutes add the  red beans
8. After 5 minutes transfer the contents of the nonstick sauce pan into the soup pot
9. Add the thyme, pumpkin, sweet potato and carrots and the ketchup
11. Cook until the provision , especially the cassava is soft.

Note that some dumplings would have made this a true Trini type dish .

By country the contributions are:

Trinidad

1. Provision
2. Pepper sauce
3. Seasoning

Jamaica

1. Redbeans

Thailand

1. Coconut milk

 

 

Parmesan Pork Chops

The menu comprised of an entre of Parmesan Pork Chops surrounded by two appetizers and a desert. This was the dinner menu prepared for my oldest daughter George and her two sons.

 

A question for you. Whose children, grandchildren and great grandchildren makes chow from every imaginable fruit and who simultaneously love cheeses?

Answer. Those of Andrew and Betty Mc Farlane.

The influence is probably more that of Betty than Andrew because her nephews and nieces who are descendants of her sister Babba, share the same love of chow made from every imaginable fruit.

It is easy therefore to recognize my daughters as being my daughters and as sisters. Like all Mc Farlane, the youngest Dani, loves both chow and cheeses. The oldest, Alyss, who I call George, loves cheeses. Both have shelves full of various cheeses in their refrigerator and like me must have at least one piece every day. A trip to the refrigerator almost always results in a take away of a slice (or 2).

It is partially in recognition of her love for cheese which led me to decide upon the Parmesan baked pork chops as the entree for her mothers’ day dinner today. The second reason for the decision is that she brought home a packet of pork chops which she admits is not a cut of meat she frequently uses. When therefore I thought to make her a special mothers’ day dinner in her new home, to be served on her spanking new mothers’ day gift of a dining table, the choice had to be something which combined cheese and pork chops.

A check on the the internet of the combined words Cheese and Pork Chops, yielded the result Parmesan Pork Chops by Elizabeth Knicely .

This mothers’ day was a very special occasion for the following reasons:

1. This was the very first time that I would share mothers’ day with my daughter George and her two boys the oldest of whom is 21. And if anyone is wondering how this could be, please note that they live in Fort Worth , Texas, USA, and I live in Trinidad and Tobago.
2. This was an opportunity to celebrate with them on their move into their new home.

The home had been acquired on the first of December 2016. It was tenanted with a lease due to expire on May 31st 2017. The tenants left earlier than expected allowing us to have the place in time for mothers’ day. I visited to assist with the fixing and moving.

The decision to visit and help gave me another reason to view this whole period as particularly special. The fixing up and moving was done almost entirely by my oldest grandson Jordan, and me. His mom works two jobs and his brother has school, so we were thrown together landscaping, painting, cleaning, packing and moving. In all of his 21 years, this was the first opportunity we have ever had to be alone together for so many hours. I will treasure these moments to the day I die.PRECIOUS.

As it turned out, Jordan was unable to share the dinner with us. Her works 40 hours a weaken evenings from Thursday to Monday, at a restaurant . And mothers’ day week-end is one of those special occasions when restaurants are extremely busy. He never got home until after 1am.

My special dinner menu was:

• Shrimp cocktails
• Chicken chunks with bell peppers stir fried
• Parmesan pork chops
• Coconut yogurt with fresh fruit

SHRIMP COCKTAIL

For this dish I used pre cooked shrimp, finely diced tomatoes, red onions ,romaine lettuce and a sauce of mustard, mayonnaise and agave syrup .

CHICKEN

  

This was made with chunks of chicken breasts and green and red bell peppers turned in olive oil and seasoned with salt and black pepper.

PORK CHOPS

The recipe for the Parmesan Pork Chops can be found online. Note how ever that I am “ah true Trini.” And Trini’s like to season things so I did.

• First I washed the chops in lime juice
• Next I seasoned them with finely chopped cilantro plus salt and black pepper and set aside for 4 hours
• 
•  I then followed Elizabeth Knickey’s recipe but added some potatoes and carrots to the baking dish

 

DESERT

 

This creation included:

1.Chobani coconut yogurt

2.Grapes

3.Watermellon

4.Cantaloupe

5. Agrave syrup

Ingredients were mixed together then set into the freezer until ready to serve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHUTNEY FOR MY YELLOW FIN TUNA

CHUTNEY FOR MY YELLOW FIN TUNA

About 10 years ago my brother Gerry, took me to dinner at the Legal Seafood restaurant in Washington DC. He recommended the yellow fin tuna, which was prepared rare and seasoned with peppercorns. Heavenly is the adjective, which comes to mind. I have been a lover of this recipe ever since.

 

For my lunch today I decided to make yellow fin tuna with a tossed salad.

 

In addition to preparing lunch, my list of “things to do” included trimming the mango tree and picking the last of this season’s crop. To my great surprise, there were only two mangoes left on the tree. On reflection however, my surprise is in many ways a dishonest emotion because every year the praedial larcenists (read that to mean the dope addicted thieves0 take up to 90% of my crop. So I was fortunate to get even two.

 

The thieves in my neighborhood don’t just take the fruit, they really boldfaced in the manner in which they do so.

 

Unknown to one of them I was at home one day when he came over the fence to raid the tree. He even brought his own rod. Quietly I stared unseen as he carefully walked around the tree visually examining which fruit would be most mature and which would therefore fetch the best price. Having made his decision he began to pick.

 

I allowed him to accumulate about a dozen before revealing myself via a loudly shouted question, “Hey, yuh ent leaving any for the owner?” His response was to select 4, which he placed on my porch before making his escape over the wall with the balance secured in the small bag, which he had brought with him.

 

If you were thinking that after this incident that the thief would not show up again for a long long time, you would be very wrong. The very next day he was at my door bearing gifts of 6 limes (neither he nor his family owns a lime tree), and asking if I had any food to share because he had not eaten for the day. I had not yet completed cooking for that day but he was grateful to accept a can of tuna, 6 slices of bread and a sweet drink.

 

The greener of the two mangoes, which I was fortunate to get today, was used to make the chutney to accompany my yellow fin tuna meal.

 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 slice of mango finely chopped
• 2 table spoons of finely chopped white onion
• 2 table spoons of finely chopped bell pepper
• Half a teaspoon of very finely chopped hot pepper
• 1 table spoon of very finely chopped cilantro (substitute chandon beni if cilantro not available)
• 2 cloves of garlic very finely chopped
• 1 table spoon of white sugar
• Teaspoon each of salt and black pepper
• The juice of half a lime

PREPERATION

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Set-aside until ready to use.

SERVING

Ladle unto the cooked fish.

 

 

 

 

Stewed Tomatoes with Chicken Steak and Penne Pasta

Today I Cooked For My Parents

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Stewed Tomatoes

Chicken Steak

Penne Pasta

Steamed beet Root

Stewed Tomatoes

Ingredients

• 10 ripe tomatoes cut into quarters
• ½ red onion finely chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 4 pimento peppers finely chopped
• ¼ cup loosely shredded celery
• 1 table spoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 table spoons olive oil
• 12 olives chopped

Cooking

1. Sauté onions, pepper, garlic until soft. About 5 minutes
2. Mix in the tomatoes
3. After 2 minutes reduce heat and add salt and sugar
4. Cover the pot and allow simmering for 30 minutes. Add small drops of water to avoid sticking if necessary
5. Turn off fire and sprinkle on olives and celery

Chicken Steak

Ingredients

• 1 large chicken breast deboned
• 2 cloves of garlic grated
• 4 shadow beni leaves (cilantro) finely chopped
• 2 table spoons of red wine vinegar
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1tea spoon salt
• 2 table spoons of olive oil

Preparation

Wash chicken with the lime juice. Pat dry and rub in seasonings plus the vinegar. Set aside for at least 2 hours before cooking.

Cooking

1. Heat oil in a non stick pan
2. Cook for 8 minutes. Four minutes per side

Pasta

Ingredients

• 2 cups of water
• 1 cup of penne pasta
• ½ cup grated vegetable cheese
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 table spoon butter

Cooking

1. Boil pasta in salted water for 12 minutes
2. Drain and empty into a mixing bowl
3. Add butter and cheese

CHARDONAY STEAMED FISH

CHARDONAY STEAMED FISH

Monday, July 13, 2015

 

TODAY I COOKED

 

Chardonnay steamed fish

Stewed red beans

Boiled cassava

Basmati rice

Did I ever tell you about my Dad, how at 4 months shy of his 93^rd birthday he survived two operations on the same day? The man is strong yes.

.

One year ago, August 2014, it was thought that Daddy’s neurological condition, a neuropathy that had crippled him some 15 years ago, had returned. Consultations between his Tobago Doctors and their New York counterparts resulted in us rushing him back to the big apple and directly to the Hospital.

The admitting Doctor thought that there was more wrong than just a return of the neuropathy. A Neurologist was summoned. Discussing Daddy’s condition with my nephew Stanley, the specialist and I discovered that Daddy had a head injury some months previously. His cut was sutured and he was sent home. A cat scan was ordered. It revealed a large accumulation of blood around his brain. Surgery was required.

Dr. Kim, the Neurologist advised me the next morning, just prior to operating, that had it been a younger person that such a large accumulation of blood would have been fatal. Four hours later Daddy was in intensive care.

Two hours later, they are asking me to authorize another operation because there is a blockage preventing the discharge of urine. Even when I exercise heavily I don’t perspire a lot, but in seconds, I was drenched. What to do? How can a near 93 year old survive another operation within hours of the other? I asked for time. I consulted with my Cameron medical family and reassured by them, I signed.

August to the middle of October was spent in New York helping my brothers and sisters with Daddy’s convalescence. He had several return visits with the surgeons plus an assigned Neurologist. When he was discharged, we were warned, “Don’t let your father fall and hit his head again.” He was given a walker, a cane and a wheel chair.

By the time he celebrated his 93^rd birthday on December 15, 2014, Andrew Mc Farlane was looking and acting stronger than persons20-30 years younger than him. He made a new kitchen garden and grew tomatoes and peppers. We were fearful that gardening might be a bit dangerous and kept watch to make sure that he was not taking a tumble.

It was not his garden, which proved to be his undoing last month (June 2015), no not at all. It was the simple act of a midnight trip to the bathroom, which led to a fall and to his hitting his head. He has been hospitalized, had several tests, x-rays, ECG’s cat scans and will be seeing a Neurologist again this week.

The fall left him a little disoriented, generally tired and sleeping a lot.

So I am back helping out my Mom, sisters and brothers and the helper Tricia, with his care. Basically I cook lunch every day. I try for a varied menu and have come up with the following:

DAY 1

 

Steamed lobster tails

Sweet potato salad

Green papaya salad

DAY 2

 

Conch soup

DAY 3

 

Baked Rosemary flavored chicken

Stir-fry cauliflower

Pasta

Roasted tomatoes

DAY 4

Baked chicken chunks with shadow beni and lemon juice

Steamed vegetables

Corn on the cob

DAY 5

 

Salt fish buljol

Green fig

Yam

Dumplings

Cabbage chow

Tricia advised me that since I started cooking for them, that both parents are eating more than they had been in recent times. Hopefully this is strengthening them and assisting their healing (Mom has a cast for her carpal tunnel syndrome). Good food however was not enough to prevent Dad’s seizure.

Early Saturday morning my sister Val, via a terse, “just come quickly”, summoned sister Bridget and brothers Harvey, Richard and I. Dad had what the Doctor later diagnosed as a “partial seizure”.

Now you have to see the funny side to all these happenings.

Later that afternoon, Daddy, Harvey and I are sitting out on the porch talking. Remember what was said earlier “dat man real strong yes”. Daddy is recalling the happenings of that morning; he says, “I know everything that was happening you know. I know when Val lifted up my hand and it fell lifeless to my side. And your Mother raise up mih foot and it fell lifeless to the bed. Then they were talking and I am hearing everything they were saying and I am powerless to answer them. I am saying to myself, good God, like they going to bury me alive yes”.

A senior nurse and a doctor visited. They both assured us that Daddy would live to 100 years just like his mother before him. Four months from now he will be 94.

 

CHARDONAY STEAMED FISH

 

2 Fish steaks – Tuna

1 cup Chardonnay wine

6 cloves garlic – diced

¼ red onion – diced

Salt

½ cup water

2 tbsp. ketchup

¼ cup grated pumpkin

Black pepper

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 square of butter

1 lime

PREPARATION

 

Gently wash the steaks in water and the juice from the lime

Season steaks with salt and black pepper

COOKING

 

• Sautee onions, garlic and pumpkin in a deep saucepan
• Cook until pumpkin begins to melt
• Add butter and stir mixture until it melts
• Add water and wine and bring mixture to boil
• Lower the heat and add the tomato ketchup
• Fry steaks for 1 minute on each side
• Place steaks into the saucepan
• Bring liquid up to a boil
• Cover saucepan
• Lower the heat to medium
• Allow to steam for 20 minutes.