I was recently inspired by my good friend Tre Chic. She is of Chinese-Jamaican descent, loves to cook, loves to eat and has been a big supporter of my blog. She loved the dumpling post I did a few weeks ago. So I decided that I would make a Chinese-Jamaican meal in her honour. The menu included; jerk chicken dumplings, tostones (not Jamaican but certainly Caribbean) and then a salad which was pretty basic but none the less, its winter in Canada and you need to eat whatever fresh veggies you can get.
Below are a few pictures. But the recipe for the dumplings is very straight-forward. The filling of the dumplings is chicken breast, green onions and jerk seasoning. I was going to make my own jerk seasoning but once again I was screwed by a local grocery store that didn’t have scotch bonnet peppers. So I used some Bush Browne’s jerk seasoning which was quite good. I served the dumplings with some plum sauce which complemented the jerk seasoning quite nicely. Check out my previous post which goes into more detail about dumplings. All you need to do is replace the ginger and garlic from the dumpling filling with jerk seasoning and… *presto* you’ve got Chinese Jamaican jerk dumplings.
As for Tostones, they are double fried plantain cakes. They are easy to make and are a great and versatile side to a Caribbean dish. They look like bananas and I found they taste a lot like potatoes so would be great with a little something on top of them or beside jerk dumplings or jerk chicken. I got the recipe from a Puerto Rican site which looks to be quite good.
Ingredients
3 green plantains
Below are a few pictures. But the recipe for the dumplings is very straight-forward. The filling of the dumplings is chicken breast, green onions and jerk seasoning. I was going to make my own jerk seasoning but once again I was screwed by a local grocery store that didn’t have scotch bonnet peppers. So I used some Bush Browne’s jerk seasoning which was quite good. I served the dumplings with some plum sauce which complemented the jerk seasoning quite nicely. Check out my previous post which goes into more detail about dumplings. All you need to do is replace the ginger and garlic from the dumpling filling with jerk seasoning and… *presto* you’ve got Chinese Jamaican jerk dumplings.
As for Tostones, they are double fried plantain cakes. They are easy to make and are a great and versatile side to a Caribbean dish. They look like bananas and I found they taste a lot like potatoes so would be great with a little something on top of them or beside jerk dumplings or jerk chicken. I got the recipe from a Puerto Rican site which looks to be quite good.
Ingredients
3 green plantains
oil for frying (I used a Teflon pan so used about 1 tbsp of oil)
garlic powder
salt
Directions
Slice the peeled plantains diagonally into 1" slices. Fry the slices over medium heat until they soften. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels. I folded some parchment paper, but the fried plantain in the parchment paper and then flattened with a plate to about a half an inch in thickness. The key is cooking the plantains enough so they are soft. Don’t rush this process. They should be nice and caramelized on both sides. It is best to press all the pieces first before going on the next step. Dip each piece in warm salted water and fry again until crispy. Remove from the oil and drain on paper towels. Salt them. You can then serve them with some salsa on the side or kethup or BBQ sauce. For some reason I could also see serving these with a nice artichoke dip.
Special Thanks to Tre for her inspiration for this meal and to my sister for leading me to the Tostones recipe. When they both visit Montreal next I promise to make them this meal.
2 comments:
Nice to see that you've tried the plantain chips. They are part of my favourite foods, but please, do not serve them with ketchup or BBQ sauce. I'll get you mom sauce receipe. Ketchup shold not be applied on every food. Keep it for fries, not plantains!
Howdy! First time blogger, long time food eater. For a long time I've wondered how to do plantains other than eating them like I was in the wild. I will give this one a shot! And if there's a homegrown sauce for this too all the better.
Post a Comment