Recipe - Anugilla-Style Johnny Cakes

Johnny cakes are popular in various Caribbean islands.  Apparently, they are also popular in the American south because my mom got really excited when I told her that I made Johnny cakes and she told me about how her gramma would make them and they'd put jam inside.  I enjoyed jammy johnny cakes for breakfast all week after she told me that.

These reminded me a little bit of a very dense biscuit.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 1/4 cup cornmeal
• 2 T baking powder
• 1 T salt
• 3 T sugar
• 1 T butter, melted
• 2 T vegetable oil (I used canola)
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup oil for frying (I used canola)

Directions:

1. Shift flour, cornmeal, and baking powder together with a fork.
   
   
   
   
2. Mix in the sugar then make a little well in the center for the butter and the oil.
   
   
   
   
3. Mix well.
4. Add the water slowly, mixing until not sticky.  If you have too much water, you may need a bit more flour.
5. Kneed for about 5-10 minutes and make into a smooth ball
6. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes.
7. Roll dough into a strip and then cut into about 18 smaller pieces.
   
   
   
   
8. Roll each piece into a ball then flatten with your fingers. 
   
   
9. Heat oil in a pan.
10. Fry 2-3 per side.  I did 6 at a time.
    
    
    
    

References:

• http://news.ai/ref/johnnycakes.html
• http://islandobsessions.com/2012/03/05/lets-make-anguilla-style-johnny-cakes/

Recipe - Pineapple Cornbread

This is an interesting take on cornbread.  Mine turned out a little over done so I changed the instructions from the recipe to only take for an hour instead of an hour and 10 minutes.  But check and go a little longer if you think that you need to.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 2 T baking soda
• 1 t salt
• 2 sticks butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 12 oz creamed-style-corn
• 4 oz crushed pineapple

Directions:

1. Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, cornmeal, baking soda, salt) and set aside
2. Cream the butter and sugar
3. Add the eggs to the butter mixture and beat well after each addition.  If it looks "curdled", that's not a problem.
4. Add the corn, pinapple and cheese to the butter mixture.
5. Then slowly add the dry ingredients, a 1/4 cup at a time.
6. Pour into a 9 inch baking dish.
7. Bake at 325 for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
8. Serve warm.

Reference:
http://www.luluandlattes.com/2013/11/26/thanksgiving-cornbread-from-anguilla/

Recipe - Diced Tropical Fruit

These fruits all grow on Anguilla.  I'm not sure how typical it is to dice and serve them all together, but it was a great way to get the baby to try some new fruits.

Diced Tropical Fruit 

1 avocado
1/2 papaya
1 mango
1 lime
1/4 cup crushed pineapple

Dice the avocado, papaya and mango.
Toss with the pineapple
Squeeze the lime over the fruits

Recipe - Barbecued Fish Steaks

Anguillans are all about barbecue on the weekend.  Chicken and fish are two very commonly barbecued items.  But it's only 12 degrees Fahrenheit here in Chicago today so we pan seared instead.  The recipe that I found called for orange juice and orange marmalade.  It was a great excuse to use up the rest of the marmalade from Algeria week.

The orange was a great flavor on the fish.  I never would have thought to do this.

Ingredients:

• 1 T olive oil
• 2 T mince garlic
• 1/2 cup orange marmalade
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 t dijon sauce
• 1 t tarragon
• 2 T scotch bonnet hot sauce
• 2 thick fish steaks (We used tuna)

Directions

1. Saute the garlic in the olive oil for 3 minutes.  Add the taragon and saute another couple minutes, until fragrant.
2. Add the marmalade, orange juice, dijon and hot sauce and simmer about 10 minutes until reduced.
3. Brush the sauce over the steaks.  It would be better to grill them, but it's super cold in Chicago so we pan seared them for 4 minutes each side.

References:

http://www.recipeisland.com/blog/anguilla-fish-steaks-with-secret-scilly-cay-grilling-sauce/