Little Foodies Caribbean

This week we've had marlin, tilapia and a West Indies inspired lamb stew. As we're still having torrential rain and flooding throughout the UK the weather has not matched the food, but at least the food had a kick, which has been a welcome warmer, if only for the tastebuds.


Marlin with spicy tomato and onion sauce, with a little white rum, served with potatoes and carrots from the garden and fried plantain. I griddled the marlin steaks, no seasoning, nothing. The spicy tomato sauce was great and we had the leftovers another evening with some salmon steaks from the freezer.
For the spicy tomato and onion sauce with a little white rum...
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped, 1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped, 4 large very ripe tomatoes, 1 tin of plum tomatoes, 3 teaspoons of jamaican jerk seasoning, a glug of white rum.
Sweat the onions and garlic, add a glug of white rum and heat on high for a minute or so, add the jerk seasoning and stir through, add the fresh tomatoes. Cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes then add the tinned tomatoes. Cook for about 10 minutes. (If you're using tinned tomatoes with lots of juice either drain the juice off or cook for longer, until the sauce has thickened). Little and Small found this sauce a bit too hot so they didn't have much of it.

West Indies inspired Lamb Stew (Serves 4 plus plenty for leftovers)
1 kilo of diced lamb
2 onions, peeled and roughly chopped
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 large yam, peeled and roughly chopped (2cm chunks)
1 large sweet potato, peeled and roughly chopped
2 teaspoons of jamaican jerk seasoning
(Don't go mad - 1 beef and 1 chicken stock cube)
2 pints of boiling hot water
Salt and Pepper to taste

Brown the meat in a little oil then take out and put to one side.
Gently fry the onions for 5 minutes, add a mug of boiling hot water then the sweet potato and yam, cook on high for 5 minutes. Most of the liquid will have evaporated and if it starts to go completely dry you need to add a little more (don't let it dry so much it all starts to catch on the bottom). Add the lamb back to the pan with the garlic, jerk seasoning and stock cubes and cook for a few minutes. Add the rest of the water and then cook in a low to medium heat oven for approx 1.5 - 2 hours until the lamb is meltingly tender.

We had this as is, no bread or potatoes. The yam had the texture of soft dumplings, delicious! Little and Small devoured this and had seconds.

No pics of the tilapia. I'm quite glad really as I thought it would look beautiful but after I'd cooked it, well, it just didn't look good at all. I baked it in the oven on a bed of sliced onions and then let it cool. The boys had it cold the next day, shredded on a salad. Little was over the moon to be picking so much fish. He's always loved the fish counter, as soon as he was able to talk he would beg to be taken to the fish counter. I was amazed and still very pleased that he's never lost that. Small doesn't show the same enthusiasm for it but he will eat fish. I think his taste for fish will be a developing one.

We also had a snack of some plantain, it was very green so I peeled it then chopped it into pieces, boiled it for 10 minutes, drained, dried, then fried. Sprinkled with salt - very good!

Edit: Sunday evening - We're not going to be around for a few days so catch up with you all when I return. x