Culinary Adventures with Camilla

We're pushing ahead in our Cooking Around the World Adventure with a tabletop trip to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. This eastern Caribbean nation is comprised of one volcanic island, Saint Vincent, and thirty-two smaller islands and cays, the Grenadines. Saint Vincent is mountainous with rich volcanic soils, and its volcano, Soufrière, last erupted in 1979— year of their independence from the United Kingdom. Two hydroelectric plants help power Saint Vincent's diversifying economy which has been dependent on exports of bananas and arrowroot. Tourism has been growing steadily, too. Other Facts + Their Flag Population: 111,000 Capital: Kingstown Area: 150 square miles Languages: English, French, Patois Religion: Anglican, Methodist, Roman Catholic, and other Protestant Currency: East Caribbean dollar Literacy Percent: 96 For this dinner, I only made one thing! When researching traditional recipes I kept seeing three recipes pop up - Curried Goat,...

I was reminded tonight why we embarked on this culinary journey when the boys pulled out their atlases as soon as I announced dinner was from Saint Lucia. I remember someone commenting once - at a school meeting - that kids don't use atlases anymore. I beg to differ. My boys can't share an atlas; they bicker over who gets to use it. So they each have their own! from worldatlas.com Saint Lucia is an island nation in the Caribbean; it's considered part of the Windward Islands and gets its name Santa Lucia of Syracuse. A few fun facts... Saint Lucia is approximately 3.5 times the size of Washington, DC; It's volcanic and mountainous with some broad, fertile valleys; The first inhabitants were the Native American Arawaks. Then the Caribs invaded the island. The Spanish first arrived in the late 15th or early 16th century, but they did not establish trading posts until the 17th century; and The British gained control of the island in the early...

Petit Piton refers to two different things on Saint Lucia: a mountain and a national dish. I don't quite get the connection, but I'm going with it. Petit Piton is one of two mountains overlooking Soufrière Bay in southwestern Saint Lucia. It lies towards the middle of the bay, south of Soufrière, north of the larger mountain Gros Piton in the Piton Mitan Ridge. Petit Piton measures 2461 ft tall while Gros Piton is larger by about 150 ft. As for the national dish...it's basically a stir-fry with some herbs and brightened by a squeeze of citrus before serving. The recipes I found specified "meat, potatoes, and mixed vegetables." I used what I had - carrots, green beans, asparagus, and cabbage. 1 lb ground meat (I used ground turkey) 1 onion, peeled and diced 2 T butter splash of olive oil 2 carrots, chopped 2 C asparagus, chopped 1 C green beans, chopped 1/2 C shredded green cabbage 4 potatoes, diced 1/2 C freshly chopped parsley 1 T marjo...

Cocoa tea. It's a ubiquitous breakfast beverage on the island of Saint Lucia made from the abundance of locally-grown cacao. I decided to give it a try as our dessert course from Saint Lucia.  • 2 C water • ½ cup crushed cacao nibs • 1 t freshly grated cinnamon • caviar and pod from one vanilla bean • 1 C milk • Sugar to sweeten (optional) Usually cocoa tea is made with grated cocoa; I had nibs that the boys crushed with a mortar and pestle. Thank goodness for Kitchen Elves. Pour water, crushed cacao nibs, cinnamon, vanilla caviar, and vanilla pod in a medium saucepan and bring to boil. Let it boil for a few minutes. Then remove it from the heat and steep for 10 minutes. Add in the milk and stir to combine. Heat to steaming, but not boiling. Add the sugar to sweeten - I used about 1/3 C organic granulated sugar. Strain to serve. For the smalls, I served as is. For the talls, I spiked it with some dark rum. That's quintessentially Caribbean, ri...

from worldatlas.com We're kicking off the countries that being with 'S' in our Cooking Around the World Adventure ! And we traveled to Saint Kitts to do it. Saint Kitts and Nevis is located in the Caribbean Sea, about one-third of the way from Puerto Rico to Trinidad and Tobago. St Kitts is larger than Nevis. Nevis is just about a single mountain with a height of 3,232 ft. The official language is English since the British settled on St. Kitts and Nevis in the seventeenth century. It finally gained its independence from Britain in 1983. Basseterre is the capital and the population of these two islands is 48,000. The main industries of St. Kitts And Nevis: tourism, sugar processing, salt and cotton. The main crops are rice, sugarcane, yams, vegetables and fish. The main exports include machinery, electronics, food, tobacco and beverages. For our dinner, we made Stewed Cod, Coconut Dumplings, and Spiced Plantains...I started with some traditional recipes I found a...