Caribbean Dinner Party: Part Two

  First of all, I apologize for the lack of pictures! I wanted more, but I am currently working with my temperamental phone's camera, and I am lucky it stays on long enough for a two minute phone call let alone a ton of pics!

  The dinner itself, however, was a success! The food was delicious, and though we had a few small emergencies involving sauce spitting from pans and aubergines that refused to cook (at first), everything turned out well in the end.

  Tip: As was proved on Wednesday night, sometimes when you plan to eat at seven 'o' clock, circumstances (and limited stove burners) cause the supper to not be ready until half past seven or later, and you may have ravenous guests on your hands...What do you do? ALWAYS have an easy appetizer ready, even if you didn't need one for your dinner. I was grateful that I had a Caribbean-style snack waiting in the wings, so as I struggled to finish my task at hand, I could ferry banana chips, chocolate covered raisins, and a mixture of tropical fruit and nuts out to the living room, and feed my company.

The menu breakdown:

Crab Cakes with a Spicy Tomato Sauce

Problem: Fresh crab meat costs $$$$$ and seeing as I had less time than I planned on that day, I didn't have the time to make them from scratch.

Solution: I made the Spicy Sauce from scratch, but when I went shopping at Adam's to pick up the produce, I went to their fishmonger and picked up eight  Adam's own crab cakes, made with real bluegrass...it cost less than buying the ingredients from scratch, and were amazingly delicious.

For the tomato sauce: Take half a sweet onion, two cloves of garlic, one chili pepper (green or red) and a can of plum tomatoes (drained), and chop them all up. Saute them in a saucepan together until they are warm and soft, then, puree them in a food processor or decent quality blender. Whala! AMAZING crab cake sauce!

Aubergines with Tomatoes and Garlic

For those of you who only speak American English, Aubergines = Eggplants.

This dish was simple: half of a sweet onion (chopped)  and a clove of garlic (minced) get sauteed with a bit of butter (NOT margarine) until they are soft, then you add to that 2 lbs of cubed eggplants...then, you add 2/3 of a cup of chicken or vegetable stock. After the eggplants are nearly soft, add 1/2 a diced red bell pepper, and 1/2 a diced green chili. Eat and enjoy!

Caribbean Corn Bread

  This dish is a savory, buttery delicious cornbread, containing sauteed onions and fresh mozzarella cheese. The result: moist deliciousness!

And now....Drum roll please! Everyone's favorite dish of the night:

Okra Fried Rice

   Everyone had second helpings of this! The secret ingredient in the okra fried rice was Chinese Five Spice. (To learn more read this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-spice_powder ) To try the recipe for yourself, saute half a red onion (chopped), two cloves of garlic (crushed) with 2 tbs of butter. When they are soft, add 4 oz of okra, cleaned and sliced. Let the okra cook to crisp-doneness. Then, add two cups of cooked long-grain white rice, 1/2 a chopped red chili, and 2 tbs soy sauce...Combine well. Then, add Chinese Five Spice to taste. When it is all well heated, serve it. It is REALLY, REALLY good! For any of you skeptical about okra, you should really give it a chance in this recipe.

What should the theme be next month? Indian? Moroccan? Japanese? If you have any ideas, leave me a comment, or email me at forsythiapink@gmail.com !

Thanks for reading!