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Recipes with dasheen

3 recipes that use dasheen, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Jamaican hard food, takes 45 minutes. It is most often cooked with garlic, green bananas and onion.

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Tobago pacro water

Along Tobago's rocky windward coast, pacro (chitons) are prised off the rocks at low tide and made into pacro water, a light, herby broth with green fig, dasheen and dumplings that islanders swear by as a strengthening soup. The flavour is clean and briny, somewhere between clams and whelks. Pacro is seasonal and its harvest is restricted in places, so only use pacro gathered legally; clams or whelks make a good substitute. The common mistake is skipping the long scrub and soak: pacro carries a lot of grit. Chef's tip: once cooked, pull out the pacro, chop the meat small and return it, so every spoonful gets some.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Jamaican hard food

From Kingston cookshops to farm kitchens in the hills, "hard food" is the plain boiled base that sits under ackee, callaloo, stew peas or a fried egg: green bananas, a wedge of yellow yam, dasheen and chewy flour dumplings, all from one big pot. Each piece keeps its own character, from the banana's firm, faintly tangy bite to the yam's floury softness, so nothing is mashed. The usual mistake is dropping everything in at once; the roots cook at different speeds, so they go in stages. Peel green bananas with oiled hands or gloves, as the sap stains. Chef's tip: if the bananas fight you, boil them in their scored skins for 2 minutes first and the peel slips straight off.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Trini callaloo soup

Callaloo is Trinidad and Tobago's national dish and part of the classic Sunday lunch, served beside rice, macaroni pie and stewed peas. Dasheen bush (young taro leaves) is simmered with okra, pumpkin, coconut milk, onion, garlic, chives and thyme, then beaten smooth with a wooden swizzle stick into a thick, velvety green soup. It's usually cooked with crab or salt pork; this vegetarian version leaves them out and adds a pinch of smoked paprika for depth. Spinach and Swiss chard can replace dasheen. Chef's tip: cook the dasheen leaves for at least 25–30 minutes. They must be very soft, both to swizzle silky smooth and because undercooked dasheen leaves make your throat itch.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Goes well with dasheen