Saint Lucia: Honey Ginger Shark Parcels with Sweet Potatoes in Aubergine Sauce

Saint Lucia is a sovereign island country in the West Indies. Sitting on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean in the eastern Caribbean Sea, this picturesque island nation is part of the Lesser Antilles volcanic island group. Near neighbours include Martinique to the south, Barbados to the northwest and Saint Vincent to the nor’nor’west. The food of St. Lucia maps the people and cultures that have settled in this idyllic Caribbean country over the last 400 years. 

Native Carib/Amerindian food roots from the island’s first nation people are intertwined with cooking methods introduced by French colonisation (dating back to 1660), and west African slavery. The resulting cuisine is deliciously rustic with an eclectic, creole-style foundation. Interestingly, the British colonised St. Lucia almost simultaneously to the French, yet the food of Britain only appears in the theatre of this cuisine as a bit player. 

Britain traded ‘ownership’ of St. Lucia with France many times. The French & British fought 14 wars over this Island! However, in the battle for supremacy, the French clearly won in the kitchens of St. Lucia.  More recently, St. Lucian cuisine has embraced the culinary practices of East India. This has added new cooking methods, fragrances and flavours to the mix. The island’s unique curries draw on St. Lucian ingredients to create unique curries with a distinctive Caribbean flavour.

St. Lucian food ingredients are rich & abundant thanks to the sea & the island’s volcanic soil which both provide year-round bounty.  Key ingredients include Fish, crab & lobster as well as mangos, avocados, bananas, coconuts, papayas & pineapples. French vegetables such as aubergines & courgettes are plentiful as are European meats such as chicken, beef, pork and lamb.

                                   

Our Saint Lucia menu included

Honey Ginger Shark Parcels

&

Sweet Potatoes in Aubergine Sauce

served with

Steamed Basmati Rice

......................................................................

  

HONEY GINGER SHARK PARCELS 

Ingredients: 

·      4 x 250gm pieces Shark fillet (or Mahi Mahi/Dorado, Cod,Snapper or Sea Bass)

·     Juice of 2 lemons (save the skins)

·     ½ bunch fresh chives, chopped

·     5 tbs soy sauce 

·     2 tbs honey

·     6 stems fresh thyme

·     6 stems fresh oregano 

·     A hand sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled & sliced in long thin pieces 

·     salt and pepper

·     4 sheets of aluminium foil about 40 cm long 

·     1 tbs coconut oil

Method: 

1.    Put the lemon skins & Snapper in a dish, cover with water & soak for about 5 minutes

2.    Take fish out of the water, dry fillets with paper towel then place in a marinating dish

3.    Pour lemon juice over the fish & add thyme, oregano, chives, plus salt & pepper to taste

4.    Mix the soy sauce & honey together & pour over the fish

5.    Marinate fish in the refrigerator for half an hour, turning fish over every 5 minutes to ensure an even marination

6.    Whilst the fish is marinating prepare the foil for the parcels 

7.    Lay the foil out on your bench shinny side down & rub the side facing up with coconut oil 

8.    Take half the ginger slices, divide them by 4 & lay then out close together on the middle of the 4 foil sheets to make a base for the snapper to go on – there will be about 5 thin slices of ginger on each sheet of foil 

9.    Place the fish on the bed of ginger, then top with the remaining ginger – about 5 slices

10.        Turn & pinch the edges of the foil up to make a ‘boat’ that can capture liquids then equally divide the marinade mixture & pour it over the fish ‘boats’ making sure that each parcel has equal amounts of the fresh herbs

11.        Now it is time to make the parcels which are a variation of the French method of cooking called en Papillote(food cooked in a paper wrapping)

12.        Lift the foil up & use your fingers to fold the foil edges together to make a steam-proof seal – it will look a bit like a clam shell

13.        Now you are ready to cook the parcels on the BBQ (or if you don’t have a BBQ you can cook them in a medium heat oven for 20 minutes)

14.        Cook on a medium heat BBQ for 10 minutes, then turn the BBQ to low for a further 10 minutes

15.        The lovely thing about en Paillote food is that all the fragrance of the cooking is captured in the parcel

16.        Serve the parcels straight onto your guest’s plates, so that when they open the parcel they get a beautiful fragrant steam  

This is a Q_Zine original recipe adapted from an original found at:

http://www.stluciacoalpot.co.uk/recipe/sweet_ginger_seabass.htm

SWEET POTATOES IN AUBERGINE SAUCE 

Ingredients: 

·     1 onion, finely diced 

·     2 clove garlic, crushed

·     1 large aubergine (egg plant), cut in 1cm cubes

·     2 sweet potatoes, peeled & cut in 1cm cubes

·     1 tin whole plum tomatoes in juice 

·     1 tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed  

·     1cup coconut cream 

·     1 heaped tsp fresh curry paste 

·     salt & pepper to taste

·     6 stems of fresh thyme 

·     2tbs chopped fresh parsley 

·     1 cup vegetable stock

·      tbs honey

·      1 tbs Caribbean rum 

·      dash balsamic vinegar

·      3 tbs olive oil

·       

Method: 

1.    pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a large cookpot & heat to medium/low 

2.    add onion & soften for 5 mins stirring often with a wooden spoon

3.    add garlic & aubergine & stir well 

4.    add 1 tbs olive oil & gently fry for 5 minutes

5.    deglaze the pot with the balsamic vinegar & rum then add the sweet potato & hot vegetable stock

6.     stir the pot to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pot then cover & allow to cook for about 10 minutes 

7.    now add tomatoes & break them up a bit with the back of the wooden spoon

8.    add the coconut cream, chickpeas, thyme, honey, curry, salt & pepper to taste then stir again to ensure everything is mixed

9.    leave the pot to simmer gently for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent the sauce sticking to the pot but gently so that the spoon doesn’t mash the vegetables

10.        in the last 5 minutes add the parsley & stir gently in

This is a Q_Zine original recipe adapted from one found at:

http://www.stluciacoalpot.co.uk/recipe/sweet_potato_casserole.htm

STEAMED BASMATI RICE

Ingredients:

·     2 cups Basmati rice (or other long grain rice)

·     4 cups water

·     1tsp salt

METHOD:

1.     wash rice in clear running water then place in large pot with water & salt

2.     Bring the pot slowly to boil stirring constantly

3.     Once rice is boiling turn heat back to lowest point, put lid on the pot (do not remove lid after this point until ready to serve)

4.     cook covered rice on low for 10 minutes

5.     turn off heat and leave pot on the cooling element for 10 more minutes

6.     let the pot just sit on the stove with lid on until ready to serve then turn rice out into a serving dish

This is a Q_Zine original recipe