For Thanksgiving, a Post about Food

Most days I come home from work with food. Whether it is simply a single tangerine or a whole bag of pears (avocados), most people in the rural areas grow lots of food in their yards and are always willing to share it with me. The forty-ish year old man who loves to attend my youth club meeting in Pratville brings me bags of cane and oranges most weeks. One of the old church ladies in Cross Keys regularly sends me home with at least two different foods. From cho cho (sp?) to pumpkin to bananas, it’s always a surprise what she’ll have for me. The parents at the Basic School have even started bringing things when they pick the kids up if they saw that morning that I was there. This influx of produce has led me to start experimenting with my Jamaican cooking, as I received a bag of gungo peas and some sorrel from some parents one afternoon last week. The next day being my day off I made my most Jamaican meal yet: rice and peas. Jamaicans eat rice and peas more than any other food I have seen. The most common version of this dish is rice and red beans (which they call peas), but the traditional dish is actually made with the gungo peas, that are currently in season and which that mother had picked from her yard to give me. (The red peas version is more common because red peas are cheaper. I definitely prefer the gungo pea version.) Anyway, I knew little about how to make it, but I went to the market and asked the woman who we usually buy our produce from, and she was nice enough to give me directions AND the ingredients for free. In case anyone at home wants to try to make it (with the red peas, since I don’t know if I’ve ever even seen gungo peas at home), I’ll quickly share the directions. I boiled about a cup of gungo peas in a pot with about 4 cups of water and about 2 cups of coconut milk (I used poweder – I wasn’t ambitious enough to make my own milk from a coconut). Anyway, in that pot I also crushed two cloves of garlic and put one scotch bonnet pepper (these really spicy little peppers – I didn’t cut it or anything, just put the whole pepper in like the lady said to do). I also added some chopped scallion and a few sprigs of fresh thyme. After about 5 minutes, once the peas had cooked pretty well, I added 3 cups of rice and let it all cook together on a low heat. 

While that cooked I also cooked some bammy, which I had purchased at the market. I know I’ve mentioned bammy before, but it is one of my favorite Jamaican foods. Made from shaved cassava, it is slightly bitter, but when it is cooked it reminds me of Baba’s pedahaire (I know that is not spelt anything like it really is, but I figured the family might understand what I’m talking about better). One of the boys from my youth group has made me bammy before, and he promised that he’s going to teach me how to make it, but for now it’s a learning experience just for me to buy it and cook it.

 I soaked the bammy in milk and then fried it on a pretty dry skillet. Soaking it in milk gives it a pretty gummy texture, but then the frying makes the outside crispy, just like pedahaire with the crispy outside and potatoes inside.

Anyway, for my lunch that day I ended up having the rice and peas, bammy, AND plantains, since Natalie had been making them at the same time. Also, Kathryn had used the sorrel we received to make the sorrel drink that is so popular here at this time of year. I love the sorrel drink. It is made from these flowers that you take the petals off of and then put into boiling water with some fresh grated ginger. You then add sugar and allow it to cool. It is one of the best drinks that I have had. Jamaicans say that it’s even better with rum, but I’m yet to try it that way. Anyway, to complete my very Jamaican lunch that day I had a glass of sorrel. I’m very excited to know how to cook these things, and I hope that someone will give the rice and peas a try! If not, I’ll definitely cook it for everyone when I get back!

On another note, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone at home. It’s really strange to be here for Thanksgiving. When I missed Thanksgiving when I was in Europe it wasn’t so strange because the weather was at least cold and Tarah and Jenny were there, so it was a little bit more like a Thanksgiving weekend at home. It’s a little bit stranger to be here, but we will be having our own family Thanksgiving dinner tonight as well as a big one at Bosco tomorrow night with over fifty other Americans on the island. It’ll be nice to still have the same foods, but it definitely won’t be the same as Thanksgiving at home!