On the islands, these memorable recipes kick holiday classics up a notch
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Holiday Baking Guide
Stories and recipes for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hanukkah.
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My culinary curiosity always has been linked linked to my upbringing in Trinidad and Tobago.
As a child, my mother taught me about the wonder of diversity, one that is an inextricable part of our country. I saw how the foodways of Africans, East Indians, Spanish, Chinese, French, Syrians, Portuguese and Germans coalesced and were easily integrated with our daily lives.
In our family, we ate in a way that toasted the cultures that formed our island. We partook in meals that complemented the ebb and flow of our physical world. In one week, our dinners would be edible geography, from East Indian sada-roti to North African coo-coo. That was the norm throughout the island and throughout the Caribbean.
Now, I’m a dual citizen of the United States and Trinidad and Tobago. And to this day, I appreciate that my first recollection of “organic” came from my mother asking me to pick a couple of leaves of Spanish thyme from her herb garden outside when I was 11 years old.
Food and the process of feeding our bodies well was an inadvertent education, and Christmastime in Trinidad was the final exam.
A traditional meal
In Trinidad and Tobago, the everyday sandwich of cold cuts and mustard is dethroned by a picnic ham pierced and perfumed with whole cloves and served with a jewel-toned condiment called chow chow.
Chow chow has a consistency as thick as lava, and potentially, depending on the maker, a spicy blast that boasts similar amounts of heat. This condiment is akin to relish, but with a perceivable richness: a quality attributed to the time and patience its preparation necessitates.
But there’s no secret to it, just everyday ingredients – cauliflower, bell peppers, carrots, onions and Chinese long beans (more colloquially known as bodi in the islands) – that are roused and awakened by the process of pickling.
First the vegetables are brined in a salty sweet liquid and then simmered in an upbeat spice blend. The bright, citron color of the chow chow against the rose color of the ham is a visual gift. Each bite of ham and chow chow is a delight, the fat of the ham tempered by the toothsome tang of pickled vegetables and an affable reminder that “Trini Christmas is de best” as the lyrics of a longtime, now household, soca-parang rhapsody attests.
Save room for dessert
Months before Dec. 25, thousands of households gathered roughly 4 pounds of raisins, currants and prunes and baptized them in a boozy bath of rum and a fruit-forward brandy, usually cherry. This soaking of the fruit is the unofficial kickoff to the holidays, because it’s the first step in the process of baking a dark and decadent rum cake.
Black Cake, as it’s known, is a descendant of colonial British plum pudding. Its ingredients – brown sugar, rum and burnt sugar essence, or browning – are culinary guideposts reminiscent of an age where the economic priority of sugar, powered by the ills of slavery, anchored British interest in the West Indies. As such, this cake embodies two extremes: labor and luxury.
Fruit soaking remains a robust tradition alive in our family’s holiday celebrations here in Raleigh. This fruit and liquor mixture is refrigerated, and every week before baking the cake, more liquor is added to the fruit. Prior to baking, the fruit mixture is ground to a thick, luxurious paste and this process gives Black Cake an astonishingly smooth texture. It also rids the cake of dense, stone-like fruit chunks that dog many American versions of fruit cake.
At our home in Trinidad, my mother baked this cake three days leading up to Christmas, usually at nighttime, when the silence of a sleeping house guaranteed success. To awaken the next morning was a sensory gift.
This cake undoubtedly occupied the lion’s share of holiday baking, and once completed, my mother and I tackled less laborious seasonal staples, like that of chow chow and ponche a crème.
Ponche a crème is a creamy type of Christmas punch that has the power to transform the dullest of holiday receptions into a fondly remembered fete. Premium rum is melded with sweetened condensed milk, eggs, warm spices and the indispensable Angostura bitters. The product is a stealth creamy punch that resembles eggnog but is more brazen and definitely more triumphant.
Brigid Washington is the Raleigh-based author of “Coconut. Ginger. Shrimp. Rum.” She can be found on Instagram @withbrigid.
Trinidad Chow Chow
The chow chow is often paired with ham. On the islands, tradition dictates how one prefers ham to be prepared. Some families opt to wrap the entire ham in banana leaves and then bake it, while others employ pineapple slices as an apt enough covering. The common ingredient is the inclusion of aromatic fresh cloves. Long beans can be found at any well-stocked grocery store, including Harris Teeter.
1/4 cup salt
1/3 cup sugar plus 1 tablespoon
1 cup cauliflower florets, chopped
2 medium carrots, fine diced
1 cup long beans, fine diced
1 red bell pepper, fine diced
1 green bell pepper, fine diced
4 pimento peppers (red or green), chopped
1/2 cup Vidalia onion, chopped
18 grains of cloves
2 tablespoons turmeric
2 1/2 cups white vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons mustard paste
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoon cornstarch
1 1/2 tablespoon ginger, grated
In a large, ample-sized bowl, dissolve the salt and sugar in about two quarts of water. Add all of the chopped vegetables and allow them to soak overnight, refrigerated. Add more water if needed, ensuring that the vegetables are submerged.
The next day, into a heavy bottom stock pot, over medium high heat, add the cloves, turmeric, vinegar, mustard, cinnamon, cornstarch, remainder of the sugar and ginger. Using a whisk, mix this blend until it starts to boil, working to remove any lumps that might have developed. Allow this mixture to simmer as it thickens. Continue to whisk.
Strain mixture into a bowl to remove the cloves. Return the mixture to the same pot. Reduce heat to medium low. Drain the vegetables, discarding the brining liquid.
Add the vegetables to the stock pot, and using a wooden spoon, stir well to incorporate. Increase heat to medium high and allow the chow chow to thicken, for about three to five minutes. Stir occasionally. Once this pickled vegetable condiment has thickened to desired consistency, remove from heat and store refrigerated in an air-tight container.
Yield: About 4 cups.
Trinidad Black Cake Recipe
1 pound prunes
1 pound dark raisins
1 pound currants
1 pound dried cherries
4 oz. mixed citrus peel
2 cups cherry brandy (Manischewitz Concord Grape Wine is an apt substitute)
4 cups dark rum
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup boiling water
1 pound unsalted butter, plus more for preparing the pans
1 pound dark brown sugar
10 eggs
2 limes, zested
3 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 teaspoon almond essence
1 teaspoon Angostura bitters
1 pound of flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
In a large air-tight container, combine the prunes, raisins, currants, cherries and dried citrus peel, all of the brandy and 3 cups of the rum. Stir to combine and set aside for at least three days and up to one year. Stir once every week.
When ready to bake, working in batches, place the alcohol saturated fruit in a food processor. Pulse to a rough paste, ensuring that some of the fruit remains somewhat intact. If needed, add more brandy to thin the consistency. Continue this process until all of the fruit has been processed. Set aside.
Next make the “browning.” In a heavy-bottomed pot over high heat, add the granulated sugar and stir with a wooden spoon until it has melted. Continue stirring until the sugar darkens. It will indeed smoke. When the sugar is almost black, carefully stir in the boiling water. Take caution, because it will splatter. Turn off heat.
Prepare cake pans with butter and a double layer of parchment paper. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. (Note, because this cake is so dense, it seldom rises. As such, employing relatively shallow baking pans are necessary).
Via hand, or in a mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar until fluffy and well aerated. One at a time, combine the eggs, then the lime zest, essences and bitters. Transfer this mixture to a very large, ample-sized bowl. Then, in a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. Fold the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Then stir in the fruit and a 1/4 cup of the browning. The batter should be dark brown. If it is too light, add in more of the browning, a tablespoon at a time.
Divide batter among prepared cake pans. The batter will not rise much, so fill pans a hair off the top. Bake for one hour, then reduce heat to 225 degrees. Following this, bake for 2 1/2 to 3 hours longer. Check for completion using a tester, which, when inserted, should come out clean. Allow the cakes to cool on a wire rack.
Ten minutes after the cakes have been retrieved from the oven and they are cooling on the wire rack, brush the top of the cakes with more rum and allow it to soak in. Continue this process about every 30 minutes while the cakes cool.
The cakes can be served one small slice at a time, as is custom in the Caribbean. To store, wrap them in wax paper first, then wrap the cakes in foil. These cakes keep for up to a month in a cool dry place.
Yield: 3 9-inch round cakes
Ponche a Crème
6 large eggs
Zest of 1 lime
3 (12-ounce) cans evaporated milk
2 (12-ounce) cans sweetened condensed milk
2 cups rum (light or dark)
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 tablespoon Angostura bitters
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and lime zest until frothy and very well combined, about 2 minutes. Next, add the evaporated milk and the condensed milk and stir until the milk and eggs are fully incorporated. Still stirring, with one hand, slowly stream in the rum and continue stirring for about another 2 minutes.
Add in the nutmeg and Angostura bitters. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and transfer to an air-tight container. Refrigerate immediately. Serve on the rocks with a sprinkle of nutmeg.
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
From “Coconut. Ginger. Shrimp. Rum.: Caribbean Flavors for Every Season” by Brigid Washington. Copyright 2017 by Skyhorse Publishing. Used by permission of the publisher. skyhorsepublishing.com
This story was originally published December 9, 2017 at 5:57 PM with the headline "On the islands, these memorable recipes kick holiday classics up a notch."
