Caribbean

What better side dish to serve beside Cuban Pig (page 165) than moros y cristianos, or black beans and rice? Black beans are a staple of Cuban cooking, used in soups, stews, and sauces. Black beans can be traced back 7,000 years to southern Mexico and Central America, and their popularity has spread throughout the Caribbean and the southern United States, especially the Southwest and Florida. This spicy and filling recipe breaks the mold on traditional barbecue side dishes but can also be served as a complete meal.

One of the highlights in my culinary career was cooking for a Caribbean and Low-Country Food Festival I catered for Johnson & Wales University at the Middleton Place plantation outside of Charleston, South Carolina. We had just won the International Jamaican Jerk Style/Southern Barbecue Cook-Off, and we were invited to cook the Caribbean portion of the menu. Two 120-pound whole pigs were prepared for the event; one was cooked in the Jamaican jerk style, and the other was prepared Cuban-style with a sour-orange marinade. Once the guests were seated, the pigs were carried from the cooker like ancient royalty in a sedan-chair procession and presented at the head of the buffet. This was the only dinner I have ever attended where the main course, not the chef, got the standing ovation. I love the intensity and acidity of a sour-orange marinade, and over the years I have tried many ways to get these wonderful flavors dispersed throughout very thick cuts of meat. After much experimentation I’ve found that two solutions work best: a generous soaking with sour-orange flavors throughout the cooking process or a simple sour-orange injection. With apologies to traditionalists, I chose the latter.

Some of my favorite times away from Big Bob Gibson’s have been spent learning the secrets of jerk barbecue in Jamaica. The cooking techniques and flavors of this wonderful Caribbean island are truly unique and magnificent. Scotch bonnet peppers, allspice, onions, garlic, and pimento-wood smoke make Jamaica a barbecue destination. By using these same Caribbean flavors on a pork picnic, which is the lower portion of a pig’s shoulder, authentic Jamaican Jerk can be made at home. If you are lucky enough to visit Jamaica, be sure to get out of the cities and locate any of the well-known jerk shacks scattered over the island. Most Jamaican barbecue joints contain two open-air barbecue pits, one for chicken and another for pork. Cooking pork on the chicken pit is strictly prohibited. A cooking grate made from pimento-wood logs laid side by side is placed directly over a bed of pimento-wood coals; to keep the wood grate from burning, the pitmaster hand turns each log every hour, and the pork or chicken on the cooking grate is covered with a thin sheet of corrugated metal. This simplest of cookers proves that it is not the sophistication of the cooker but the knowledge of the cook that produces the best ’Q! In 2003, my wife, Amy, and I went to Jamaica to cook in the International Jamaican Jerk Style/Southern Barbecue Cook-Off. Cooking teams from all over the world, including Switzerland, Puerto Rico, Germany, England, the United States, and Jamaica, competed in the event. Each team was given the same raw ingredients: two barrel grills, two chickens, two slabs of ribs, two pork butts, and two red snappers. The chickens were fresh and free range. I use the term “free range” with a bit of sarcasm because these beauties were muscled-up and tough. When holding the ribs up to the sky, beams of sunlight penetrated this thin cut of meat (Jamaican ribs: SPF 15). The cut of pork was unlike any I had ever seen. It contained a portion of the shoulder and of the neck, and it even had four ribs attached. Nonetheless, we were all on an even playing field—or grill. We had eighteen hours to prepare our entries and serve them to a group of judges comprised of an equal number of Jamaican and international judges. A “blind” judging procedure was used to score each category. By combining local jerk flavors with cooking techniques learned back home at Big Bob’s, we captured the Grand Championship.

Warm, luscious bananas soaked in rum—a little taste of tropical paradise.

This spice and herb blend is great for seasoning beef and turkey burgers, but I especially like it tossed with hot French fries; they are addictive! The turmeric gives fries a gorgeous golden color.

Fried plantains are enjoyed throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. They are a savory—not sweet—treat and you will need to use the unripe green variety for these fries, both for their taste and for their firm texture. I season mine in a Cuban style with lime zest and cayenne to further emphasize their origin, or you can use the Cuban Seasoning on page 118. Needless to say, they are the perfect accompaniment to the Miami Burger (page 51)!

A trip to Miami wouldn’t be complete without stopping for an authentic Cuban sandwich, hot off the press and stuffed with roasted pork, smoked ham, garlicky mayonnaise, tangy mustard, dill pickles, and oozing Swiss cheese. It’s almost enough to make you miss your flight home. Turning this Cuban specialty into an American one isn’t hard to do: just replace the roasted pork with a good old hamburger. Pressing the assembled burger not only yields a crispy toasted bun, but also ensures that all of the elements meld into one cohesive, mouthwatering sandwich.

Gina: This appetizer is a signature dish at beach bars throughout Mexico (where Pat and I often retreat for some serious R & R) and the Caribbean. It tastes like a tropical vacation. Large, sweet shrimp are dipped in coconut, fried until crisp, and then paired with a sweet and spicy peanut sauce. Honey, pass the frozen blender drinks, because I am so there—dipping my feet in the sand.

Gina: Girl, my favorite nut is the pecan! It is the all-American nut, and once you mix in cashews, you’ve got somethin’ rocking. I serve this dangerously addictive appetizer at my “Girl Power” get-togethers because it’s great with drinks (and because we ladies deserve a special treat). The combination of dark rum and soy sauce gives these nuts their exotic flavor. For a true island feel, and a little kick, use a hot sauce made from Scotch bonnet peppers.

Jerk is a style of cooking native to the island of Jamaica that transforms ordinary chicken into a flavorful, highly aromatic eating experience. Meats are dry-rubbed with a spice mixture called jerk seasoning, then grilled. This seasoning relies principally on two elements: allspice and Scotch bonnet peppers (among the hottest peppers on earth). Typically, whole pieces of bone-in, skin-on chicken are barbecued over wood—usually over the wood of the allspice tree. The skin is omitted here—and with that goes about 80 calories per portion.

You can also make these in a pitcher and serve them as the evening’s party drink. They have the perfect balance of tart and sweet. Great in the summer.

The novelist Julia Alvarez grew up in the Dominican Republic; her husband, Bill Eichner, is the son of tenant farmers in Nebraska. Dinner at the couple's Vermont home is a study in how far-flung flavors have enriched the simple sturdy fare of America. Dr. Eichner spent hours coaxing Alcarez's mother, her aunts, and her cousins (not to mention, Ana, the family cook) into giving him the broad outlines of their family's dishes—sweet-and-sour carrots, spicy Caribbean chicken, red beans and rice, and bread pudding. He tested the recipes on his parents, Ruth and John, who now live a couple of minutes away. Ruth, herself an accomplished cook, really liked the recipe for sweet-and-sour carrots.

Editor's note: Chef, nutritionist, and cooking teacher Lourdes Castro shared this recipe for Cuban coffee, or cafecito, as part of a festive Cuban party menu she created for Epicurious. No Cuban meal is complete without a cafecito, or Cuban coffee. More than just an espresso, a well-made cafecito has sweet crema floating over strong espresso coffee. Despite its name, crema has nothing to do with cream—it's actually foam made from sugar that's been thoroughly beaten with a splash of coffee. Many don't realize that it's the technique for making the crema—not the type of coffee beans used—that makes the coffee Cuban. But for the full Cuban experience, Castro recommends using Café Bustelo espresso.

Editor's note: Chef, nutritionist, and cooking teacher Lourdes Castro shared this recipe from her cookbook, Latin Grilling. It's part of a festive Cuban party menu she created for Epicurious and a great way to use up leftover grilled pork . As soon as someone finds out about my Cuban background, a Cuban sandwich question is never far away. It's no wonder, since Cuban sandwiches have recently popped up on menus all over the country. While many have gotten close to re-creating the real thing, I feel most miss the mark. So here is a step-by-step guide to creating an authentic sandwich Cubano. This is also a great way to use up the leftovers from your Cuban pig roast!

Editor's note: Chef, nutritionist, and cooking teacher Lourdes Castro shared this recipe from her cookbook, Latin Grilling. It's a classic Cuban dish and the centerpiece of a festive party menu she created for Epicurious. If you have leftover pork, Castro recommends making Grilled Cuban Sandwiches . Cubans love their pork. It's hard to find a Cuban or Cuban-American who doesn't have a memory of spending hours waiting for a lechon, a whole pig, to finish cooking in someone's backyard, and then sharing it with family and friends (I am certainly no exception). What sets Cuban-style pork apart is the use of mojo criollo, a highly seasoned marinade made up of tangy citrus juice, vast amounts of garlic, cumin, and oregano. And while roasting a whole pig is deliciously fun, smaller cuts are far more manageable and easier to work with.

Editor's note: Chef, nutritionist, and cooking teacher Lourdes Castro shared this recipe from her cookbook, Latin Grilling. It's the first course in a festive Cuban party menu she created for Epicurious. Here I have taken a Cuban classic, camarones al ajillo (shrimp in garlic sauce), and adapted it for backyard entertaining. I was also inspired by the crowd-pleasing mounds of cold poached shrimp with sides of cocktail sauce you see at buffets. So I grilled jumbo shrimp, piled them on a platter, and served them with mojo, the addictively delicious citrus-garlic sauce that has become synonymous with Cuban cooking.

Editor's note: Chef, nutritionist, and cooking teacher Lourdes Castro shared this recipe from her cookbook, Latin Grilling. It's part of a festive Cuban party menu she created for Epicurious. Plantains, ripe or unripe, are a staple of Cuban cooking. And while everyone loves the ripe ones (maduros), no one ever wants to make them. Typically deep-fried, they are a mess to make and never seem to come out with that candylike coating you get at good restaurants. This recipe solves the problem: simply grilling very ripe plantains and basting them with a butter-sugar glaze is all it takes to re-create the good stuff. These are a must at all my family cookouts.

Editor's note: Chef, nutritionist, and cooking teacher Lourdes Castro shared this recipe from her cookbook, Latin Grilling. It's part of a festive Cuban party menu she created for Epicurious. Salad greens are hard to come by in Cuban cooking. But an avocado salad—simply made by topping sliced avocado with red onion slices, olive oil, and vinegar—is both traditional and refreshing.

Editor's note: Chef, nutritionist, and cooking teacher Lourdes Castro shared this recipe from her cookbook, Latin Grilling. It's part of a festive Cuban party menu she created for Epicurious. This dish gets its name from the wars between the dark-skinned Moors (moros) and the lightskinned Spaniards (cristianos) that occurred during the eighth century in Spain. It's a very popular Cuban dish, and it's perfect for outdoor entertaining, as it can be made well in advance and be served at room temperature.