Kwanzaa
121 recipes found
Fungi
A staple on dinner tables in the Virgin Islands, this filling, earthy side dish goes well with fish or any stewed protein. In St. Thomas, you can find it accompanying tender stewed snapper or butter-braised conch, acting as a sponge for luscious sauces. Here, chef Julius Jackson, author of “My Modern Caribbean Kitchen” (Page Street Publishing, 2018) and native Virgin Islander, offers a simple, traditional version. This dish isn’t an exact science; some people like it so thick it stands up on its own, while others prefer it thinner, with runny lines of butter. Find which way works best for you by tasting and tweaking as needed. Chilled leftover fungi can be cut into squares and pan-fried in a bit of oil until golden, making a great base for scrambled or poached eggs with bacon on the side.
Trinidadian Macaroni Pie
Macaroni pie is a firmer, highly spiced version of mac and cheese. Quintessential Trinidadian seasonings like thyme and Scotch bonnet pepper give this dish a distinctive taste, while a little less liquid mixed with an egg creates a solid, sliceable texture. A Trini staple for large family gatherings, it’s the perfect addition to a holiday table. And if there are any leftovers, they keep well. Feel free to use your favorite Cheddar, but if you’re able to find New Zealand Cheddar (or “Trinidad cheese” as it’s called on the island), don’t pass it up.
Ale-Braised Collards With Ham
This recipe came to The Times from Hayden Hall, the chef and an owner of Oxbow Restaurant in Clarksdale, Miss. Red pepper flakes and apple cider vinegar give the greens a sharp edge, and ham hock gives them even more succulence.
Brown Stew Chicken
Popular in many Caribbean households, this chicken dish gets its deep rich color from store-bought browning sauce, like Grace, which is made from a combination of concentrated vegetables, seasonings and caramelized sugar. The browning sauce is used in the marinade, where it’s bolstered by brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce and warm spices. The chicken is braised and cooked low with sweet vegetables, like carrots and onions, and yields a thick gravy that’s just as delicious spooned over rice or paired with cabbage.
Sazerac
Rye is absolutely vital in a Sazerac, among the most supernaturally alluring of drinks and frequently a bartender’s favorite. Peychaud’s bitters, which are made by the Sazerac Company in Louisiana, are asked for here, and are lighter than the more commonly found Angostura variety. If you can’t get your hands on some, try using your own favorite bitters. (The New York Times)
Black-Eyed Pea Fritters
The chef Pierre Thiam puts a twist on these traditional Senegalese accara, or black-eyed pea fritters. They are sold on street corners throughout West Africa, usually on fresh baguettes as a sandwich. But Mr. Thiam treats them a bit like falafel and stuffs them into fresh pita bread instead. The spicy pickled carrots he uses as a condiment are based on a recipe from his Vietnamese godfather. Accara are deliciously light and fairly addictive, and they make a great snack with drinks.
Brooklyn-Style Hoppin’ John
Hoppin’ John and greens are two simple dishes that are required eating each New Year’s Day for Southerners (or anyone else, one imagines) who want to bring luck and prosperity.
Sazón-Spiced Shrimp and Okra
Fresh okra is wonderfully versatile, and searing it in a hot pan is one way to lend texture while preserving its shape. This dish comes together entirely within a large skillet; you’ll work in stages to cook the okra and then the shrimp. A dusting of annatto-infused sazón adds aromatic and earthy flavors, and a tinge of spice. Finished with fresh cilantro and a squeeze of lime, this dish is perfect for a light evening meal or as part of any warm-weather menu.
Laurie Colwin’s Creamed Spinach With Jalapeño Peppers
This recipe is from the celebrated food writer Laurie Colwin, and in some ways it is quintessentially hers. There’s the delicious richness of the dish, its unfussiness and nostalgic value. There is the constant awareness of the plight of the busy home cook, those who would just as soon use a package of frozen spinach if the results are just as good as if you washed and chopped an untold number of bunches of fresh spinach yourself. And there is a twist: the jalapeños, which are a preventative measure against the gloppy blandness of steakhouse creamed spinach, adding sharpness to the dish but not too much heat. You can use either fresh or pickled jalapeños here — the latter add nice zing — and panko bread crumbs are a good substitution for fresh if you don’t have them (or a few pieces of stale bread) in the pantry. (The New York Times)
Fufu (Swallows)
Making swallows can be a labor of love. Throughout West Africa, swallows, which are a satisfying accompaniment to vegetable soups and stewed meats, are traditionally prepared by pounding cooked starchy roots or tubers in a large mortar with a heavy pestle. As the vegetables break down, hot water is added and the mixture becomes stretchy and soft, with a texture like yeast dough. All swallows are not fufu, but fufu is the term commonly used in the diaspora to describe the method in this recipe: continuous cooking, stirring and kneading turns finely milled starch into a smooth, elastic mass. The result, like that of the classic method, is notably neutral in taste and always served warm.
Whole Roast Fish With Lemongrass and Ginger
A marinade packed with aromatics, like lemongrass, ginger, shallots and scotch bonnet chile, is crushed in a mortar and pestle and spread onto a mild white fish, such as a whole branzino, in this recipe. As with most marinades, the longer you let it steep, the better. Using the mortar and pestle is optional, but a highly rewarding process — and encouraged. If you have an asanka, the grooved surface will give the marinade a unique texture, with bouquets rising from the bowl as you work. Serve the roast fish flaked off the bone, over rice or alongside a fresh green salad.
Frejon (Beans in Coconut Milk)
A simple dish of cooked beans puréed with coconut milk, frejon is an ode to the coastal city of Lagos and its rich cultural diversity. Typically served with a seafood stew, it is accompanied here by a vibrant, chunky tomato sauce laced with the heat of habanero, the richness of red palm oil and a hit of umami from dried crayfish, which is optional but highly recommended. A garnish of garri (coarsely ground and dehydrated cassava) adds some necessary texture; lime zest and bright green herbs lends freshness.
Mosa (Plantain Fritters)
The best qualities of very ripe plantains are revealed under high heat — their sugars caramelize, making each bite sweet and creating contrasting crisp and tender textures. In these fritters, mashed ripe plantains, from fruit with all-black peels, are folded into an aromatic batter with cornmeal for a thrilling crunch and sour cream for a pillowy tenderness. A great snack or addition to any meal, they’re also delicious on their own, but can be served with a garlicky fry sauce for dipping if you’d like.
Dora Charles’s Lost-and-Found Lemon Poundcake
The South has about as many poundcake recipes as there are grandmothers. This one produces a higher, lighter cake than many recipes. It came from Dora Charles’s aunt Laura Daniels, who got it from a nursing-home patient she was working with in the 1970s. The patient, Mary Martin, mailed it to her long after she left the nursing home, but because of a stroke, her handwriting was shaky. Ms. Charles found the recipe and deciphered it, and included it in her cookbook "A Real Southern Cook: In Her Savannah Kitchen." You can use lemon juice and zest instead of lemon flavoring, which the original recipe called for, or increase the vanilla by a teaspoon if you are leaving out the lemon altogether. The cake, which is a perfect base for peaches and whipped cream or another fruit topping, gets better after a couple of days and will be good for a week if you keep it well wrapped. It freezes well, too.
Efo Riro (Stewed Amaranth Greens)
Efo riro is a rich vegetable side dish that can accompany various starches and can be cooked with or without fish or meat. It is rich enough that the starches it accompanies — various pounded starches called fufu, fluffy steamed rice, boiled plantains or yams, to name a few — can come very much unadorned. While the leafy, hearty amaranth greens form the traditional base, mature spinach is a great substitute, and, though rare in Nigerian cuisine, collards or kale can also be used. It is crucial to blanch fresh greens and squeeze out as much liquid as possible before adding to the obe ata base of puréed tomatoes, peppers and onions. If using frozen greens, defrost ahead of time and repeat the squeezing process. The last thing you want to do is dilute all those incredible flavors you’ve spent time building.
Crispy Yam Fries
Not to be confused with American sweet potatoes, West African yams are large, starchy root vegetables found at most West African, Caribbean or Latin American markets. Check the yams for freshness by pressing down on their skin before purchasing; the root should be firm with no soft spots. The brown skin peels off easily with a sharp knife or vegetable peeler to reveal a stark white flesh. These yams are larger, much starchier, denser and less fibrous than American yams or sweet potatoes. Crispy yam fries are a well-known Nigerian snack and side dish. They can be shallow-fried in oil or baked in the oven for a slightly healthier variation (see Tip). Serve fries warm with some obe ata or your favorite condiment on the side.
Feijoada
The mix of meats is personal to each cook. Have your butcher cut the feet and tails for you; they’re highly recommended for their rich gelatin and ‘‘piggy’’ flavor, but if you prefer, you can use more sausage, fresh pork belly or other cuts instead. Don’t be tempted to use too many smoked meats, though; the feijoada’s flavor should be beany and porky, not smoky.
Avis Johnson-Piper's Red Fish
Creole Gumbo
Leah Chase, the chef and owner of Dooky Chase in New Orleans, gave an interview to Matt Lee and Ted Lee of The Times back in 2000. It was about her gumbo, which is brackish and silky and delicious, and for which she offered a recipe. Ms. Chase told them about giving a dinner in 1942 for a group of Tuskegee Airmen who refused to eat the gumbo she and a friend had prepared for them because they thought the file powder she put in the pot was a voodoo potion intended to ensnare the men. “One of the men was telling the others, ‘Don’t eat the gumbo! If you eat that gumbo, you’ll never leave New Orleans.’ ” Perhaps! (Sam Sifton)
Machuca
Machuca is a staple of the Garifuna, descendants of intermarried Africans and Carib natives who live on the Atlantic coast of Central America. It's a sticky, satisfying mash of sweet and green plantains, rolled into bites and dunked into flavorful soups, similar to the fufus of West Africa.
Southern Black-Eyed Peas and Cauliflower
This sweet and savory black-eyed pea dish, from vegan cookbook author Chloe Coscarelli, calls for canned beans so it comes together in about a half hour. Serve with Ms. Coscarelli's super-easy biscuits. Leftovers, if you have any, can be eaten in a bun, sloppy-Joe style.
Lamb-Shoulder Mafe With Fonio
The Senegalese-born chef Pierre Thiam makes this lamb mafe with meat from the shoulder, on or off the bone, which goes tender after a stretch of unattended, gentle simmering. Adapting the dish in New York, Thiam thickened it with jarred peanut butter, which lends the sauce its characteristic creaminess, and Vietnamese fish sauce, for salty depth. Though he leaves the Scotch bonnet whole, if you want a more intense taste of it, crush it apart with a wooden spoon, and you'll tap right into its bright, floral heat. You could serve the stew with rice, or a number of other grains, but Thiam serves his on a heap of warm fonio, a tiny, tender, ancient grain that can be found partly cooked and dehydrated in many West African grocery stores, as well as specialty food stores and health food markets.
Edna Lewis’s Corn Muffins
After reading that Edna Lewis preferred extra-fine cornmeal, I adapted her recipe to use corn flour. (Be sure to get corn flour, not pure white cornstarch.) These muffins have great corn flavor, and they have a very tender, creamy texture when hot and stay moist when cool. If you’re using regular cornmeal, the muffins are still delicious, especially warm; just reduce the buttermilk to 2 cups.
Corn Fritters
Corn is the One True Vegetable of American summer. Vine-ripened tomatoes are thrilling, but not ours alone. And zucchini, while pleasant, does not make anyone’s toes curl. But the crunch and suck of ripe local corn on the cob is, so far, confined to the Here and Now. Once you’ve tired of piled-high platters of cobs, turn to corn fritters, which are always greeted with surprise — joy, even. And they are forgiving, because they can be made with fresh, or leftover cooked, kernels. Frying on a hot day isn’t anyone’s idea of fun, so my recipe has evolved into a hybrid of fritter and pancake, cooked in shallow oil. It goes with everything on the August table and, with maple syrup, peaches and bacon, is an ideal breakfast for dinner.