Culinary Adventures with Camilla

We're entering the 'B's - of this Cooking Around the World adventure - with a Bahamian dinner. Jake is even getting into the spirit of this adventure. We're listening to Caribbean steel drums. Sweet. 'The Bahamas' is actually the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and is comprised of more than three thousand islands, cays, and islets. Like most Caribbean nations, they have numerous recipes for conch. Conch chowder, conch fritters. Since we had just done the conch fritter from Antigua, and it was too warm for soup, I kept looking for inspiration. We ended up making a Cauliflower Custard . We topped the custard with Crayfish Curry. And though this dish is a complete fabrication on my part, i.e., not to be found in any compendium of Bahamian recipes,  I think the flavors melded with the rest of our meal. I whipped up a green papaya-mango salad: shredded green papaya, julienned greenish mango (not totally green, but not ripe either), diced red bell peppers, tossed...

When Dylan and I started talking about what to make for our Bahamian dinner, he vetoed any and all conch recipes...not that we would be able to get our hands on conch anyway. He agreed to cook crayfish. To Bahamians, "crayfish" refers to Maine's tropical cousin, the rock lobster; we used langostino , a squat lobster. Close enough. So, the next question was: soup or curry. Dylan picked curry. Interestingly enough, the Bahamian curry uses stock or boullion as its base. No coconut milk, no other spices. It seemed fairly plain. Dylan wanted to add in some vegetables. He added carrots and celery and I spiced it up and served it over Bahamian Cauliflower Custard . minced garlic minced ginger sliced carrots sliced celery langostino tails ground curry powder ground cumin chicken boullion tomato wedges Cook the garlic and ginger in a large flat-bottomed pan in a splash of olive oil till they are completely softened. Add in the carrots and celery and cook, again, till softene...

As we move our way around the globe, I realize that processes are almost universal. In this case, you beat the egg, you mix it with milk/cream, and you bake it till firm. The Italians call it a frittata ; the French put a crust around it and call it quiche ; the Bahamians use less egg and more cream and call it custard. I still had some romanesco leftover and figured that was close enough to cauliflower to make it quasi-authentic. But since it didn't fill up my baking dish, I added some parboiled red potatoes to the dish. What I liked about this version was the addition of nutmeg and garlic to the beaten egg. Delicious!