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I thought I would do something fun and whimsical for today's blog: a foodie, and Caribbean food staple blog post. I consider photography fun and oftentimes, whimsical, but some may say, what does food have to do with art? But don't you consider food an art form? I do, especially, when it involves beautiful color, textures, shapes, and a cohesive composition. Today, I'm featuring a food date with my dear, fun and long time friend, Carmen Acosta Hudson. You will learn more about her later.
As you can see, the picture above really captures numerous elements of art: color, shapes, texture, composition and what I look for in art and photography: simple beauty!
Above Carmen is crimping the pastry dough for our feature foodie dish, Caribbean beef patties.
Carmen and I have been friends for over fifteen years (our boys grew up together
and each have three year old sons (our grandsons) born the same month within days of each other.
Carmen and I share a lot in common: we are wanderlust people, who love life, having fun and are very spontaneous! Carmen is originally from St. Croix, Virgin Islands. She is a Crucian with a Puerto Rican mix with Spanish as her first language.
Yesterday, Saturday evening, Carmen and I decided to spend time together at my apartment for what started out as few snacks and some wine, but quickly turned to a mini, international foodie feast that lasted 7 hours of having fun! It began with my text message request to Carmen to make an Island dish. You see where I'm going with this; I had bigger plans! When she offered to make beef patties, my heart sung a song, but when she offered to prepare them at my place after making some for her college age daughter; my heart sang a full chorus! Needless, to say I was happy!
Sorry, the above picture is a little blurry but I didn't want to leave the picture of the meat filling out. Burry picture or not you can see the vibrant color and juicy texture of the patty filling, which is a flavorful meat mixture for those who still enjoy eating meat. The aroma filled my kitchen.
Normally, I only eat chicken and fish, but believe me the exquisite taste of this Caribbean Island staple may make you think twice. In the beef mixture are all kinds of spices, tomato sauce, cayenne pepper, dash of hot sauce, and other spices. Carmen loves a little spicy food.
Long minutes of kneading the dough with her small dainty fingers,
Carmen puts love and almost effortless labor into getting the pastry dough prepared. And reminiscent of my beloved, Southern grandmother, Carmen pulls out a fork and crimps the
edges of the turnover. I don't think we called it crimp back in the day, but it works!
The big surprise was the multiple burst of flavors from the sweet taste in the
turnover pastry itself from the multiple spices found in the beef.
Here's Carmen, all smiles in her pretty white summer dress! She's all done and now cleaning up
the prep area. Now it's onto cooking the turnovers. I skipped that part for taking pictures because
I actually got so excited watching her and waiting for the end product!
Well, after forty or so minutes of kneading and crimping; and frying here are the Caribbean Beef Patties. Aren't they beautiful: golden brown puffy turnovers! Carmen says it's best to eat them while they are hot, straight from the skillet. She didn't have to tell me twice!After, snapping a quick picture, I grabbed one and bit into. And what came afterwards was a burst of temperature hot, sweet, spicy and spice hot flavor pulsating through the crispy-thick, sweet dough. It was blissful eating at its best! Absolutely, better than I expected! Awesome! Thanks to my friend Carmen, she came through on this impromptu dinner date.
For my part, I pan fried our salmon using light seasoning. Presto, done in a few minutes golden brown. I do not use much seasoning on Salmon because I like its distinctive taste. The rice-vegetable medley, also only took a few minutes to prepare on top of the stove. It came from my favorite store, Trader Joe's in Cincinnati: it's called Biryani Curried Rice Dish. I love this rice dish and my boyfriend loves it too! When he found out I was going to Trader Joe's he ask me to pick him up a package. This is his! :)
All natural; no preservatives. This curried rice dish is bursting with unexpected flavors and ingredients: red bell peppers, onions, raisins, apples, green peas, and spices (sugar, salt and natural spices). My boyfriend says "each time I eat it, it's surprising!" The flavor doesn't change, but it's hard to believe that something out of a bag has such great flavor; a combination of a sweet and smooth taste.
...so a couple of weeks ago, before our spontaneous dinner date it came to my mind while I was eating to add...
Mango fruit with Trader's Joe's rice dish and it was heavenly! That is sliced mango next to the curried rice. I seriously couldn't believe the flavor: a cool sweetness against the warm, sweet rice medley. I haven't tried it on my boyfriend yet, but I'm sure he will like it. I did try it on Carmen. Of course, being from the Virgin Island she loves Mango. But the two of those flavors hitting up against each other: the mango and the curried rice was a foodie and Caribbean girl's dream. Carmen loved it!
We sat eating and praising each other over our international meal! My motto of simple beauty raises to this food occasion and describes our meal and time together!
And as you can see, Carmen is quite happy! After our meal, we talked and laughed for hours on end!
Do you have any great international foodie recipes you would like to share? Let me know!
In the meantime, here are some great links for more information:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/jamaican-beef-patties
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_patty some interesting cultural history on beef patties
And my favorite store: http://www.traderjoes.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Croix,_U.S._Virgin_Islands
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