Culinary Adventures with Camilla

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...

We brought D's Pasticiotto [click title for the recipe post] to our friends' house for dinner. It was a hit!  For the adults, they got to sip some limoncello with their slice. Nice job, Wombat.

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...

Tomorrow I'll post a photo of this sliced and ready to devour! My littlest Kitchen Elf loves watching Cake Boss . Ever since he discovered it in our Netflix stream, he's been (borderline) obsessed. And he is slowly making his way through the seasons when he has a chance. In one episode, Buddy and his baking crew make what they called 'pastachote.' At least that's what it sounded like to D.  "Mom, it's a Southern Italian pastry. You had to have had it when you lived in Italy!" he insisted. "Can we make it?" First, I don't love sweets, so if I ever did see that pastry in Italy, I probably didn't buy it. And since I don't love sweets, I didn't learn to make very many while I lived there.   Tiramisù is an exception; that I made many, many times while I was there...and many, many times since. Second, what on Earth are you saying?!? That doesn't even sound Italian!  Then I remembered that Italian-Americans have an irrit...

Last week I took part in a linky party for National Margarita Day. Click for my post...and the other offerings: here . All of the recipes looked fantastic, but The Little Ferraro Kitchen 's Lilikoi Margarita with Li Hing Mui had me dreaming of lilikoi (passionfruit) all weekend. from wikipedia.org I mused aloud, Where can I find passionfruit? My little Kitchen Elf looked at me, exasperated, "Mom, they have it at the Filipino store. Remember?!?" Well, now I do. Let's go! They didn't have any fresh ones, but they did have pulp in the freezer. Perfect! I defrosted one bag and decided to use some of it in our Monday morning MOffins. Then I made a lilikoi syrup for serving. These were lip-puckeringly delicious. I love lilikoi! Thanks, Samantha, for reminding me of this fruit. MOffin = mochiko (sweet rice flour) + muffin. This makes for a quick and portable breakfast. I served these with some yogurt and fresh strawberries. Fast and tasty! ...

Roasted Chicken with Fresh Herbs inspired by Laurey Masterton's  The Fresh Honey Cookbook: 84 Recipes from a Beekeeper's Kitchen Ingredients 2 t fresh ginger, minced 1/4 t fresh ground Indian long pepper 1 T sea salt 1 sprig of rosemary, de-stemmed and chopped 1/4 t dried sage, crushed 3 sprigs of thyme, de-stemmed and chopped pinch of ground sumac 1/4 t dried, ground Thai dragon pepper 1 chicken, cut into pieces 2 T champagne vinegar 2 T local pine honey Procedure In a bowl, combine the first eight ingredients and rub both sides of the chicken with equal amounts of the mixture. Drizzle each side with 1 T champagne vinegar. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Cover your baking dish with foil and roast for an hour. Turn up the heat to 450 degrees. Drizzle with honey and return to the oven, uncovered, for 10 minutes. The chicken should be crisped and golden. Serve hot.