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Sabrina, Racquel, Kathy, Anna |
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Key ingredients laughter and smiles |
11-21-16
Any successful cooking lesson needs fresh ingredients,
sufficient equipment, wise instruction and generous helpings of laughter. We had all those with the last being in
abundance.
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Prepping the chicken |
Kathy on sv Inishnee had been talking to the cook at
Baganara resort about a possible cooking lesson. Paul the manager said ok and cook Racquel
agreed. She asked us to come up with a
list of items we would like to learn.
Paul raves about her Chicken Curry Roti so that was high on our list
along with Coconut Bake, and the meatball thingies we have been eating in
Bartica on each shopping trip. BTW - First
lesson – those meatball thingies are called Cassava Meatballs. It’s basically minced meat mixture surrounded
by mashed cassava and fried up. However,
as we would soon learn, there is much more to them than meats the
eye…..meats….get it? Bahahaah. Also on our list were many things to “ask
about” as we were cooking – clarification on the various roots (cassava, eddo,
dasheen, sweet potatoes), sour sauce, plantains, saheena and Racquel’s pineapple
salsa.
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Coconut cracking lesson - use the back of the cutlass |
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Easy Peasy boyz |
She suggested we go into Bartica with her to shop for the
ingredients. Fantastic! A personal shopping lesson as well –
Score! Going to the fresh market with
her was great as she has her favorite vendors that she deals with. We only had to stop at three stands total. Kwesi our boat driver carried all
the bags for us. Soon we were headed
back to Baganara Resort to cook.
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Peeling and cutting up cassava root - FYI you DO NOT use a veggie peeler |
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Coconut grater or wall sconce - your choice |
“Ok, I will cut up and cook the chicken, grate the coconut
and peel and chop the cassava in preparation and then you can come get me and
we will start to cook.” Racquel said. “Oh…..um……we want to learn from the first step including those you just mentioned. You cut up chickens different here in the Caribbean than we do in the USA and we have NO clue how to prepare a coconut and cassava.” I said. "Oh. Okay, ok, ok.” We had hoped to cook in the kitchen at the
resort as our boat galleys are tiny. My
galley is a one butt galley and as we were soon about to find out, Kathy’s is a two
butt galley, but we managed. We ended up
cooking on sv Inishnee. I sat on the steps and took notes and
pictures. Anna off sv Giraff joined us
as well. We all rotated in and out
taking turns trying the various techniques Racquel was teaching us; grating the coconut, peeling the cassava, rolling
out the roti, making the cassava meatballs.
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Picture taker - another shot of the coconut wall sconce grater |
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Note taker |
This was Racquel’s first time on a yacht. Kathy showed her around and explained the
“challenges” of cooking on a boat like….limited space (D-UH), limited
equipment, how to handle trash (biodegradable and other), the need for
efficient use of cooking gas and water.
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Making roti while keeping a watchful eye on the other dishes |
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Anna tried her hand at making Cassava Meatballs |
Then we got down to business and started cooking. Racquel guided us through, shifting from dish
to dish and then back again as we prepped and then started “cooking”. She had NO notes, it was all in her head, “ a
tablespoon of this, 2 teaspoons of that, mix with your hands like this, it
should feel like this” and so on and so
forth.
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Coconut Bake ingredients |
The first big giggle of the day occurred right off the
bat. Racquel brought her coconut
grater. It is a large one, about a foot long
with wooden frame and rounded tin with tiny holes cut in it for the
grating. It actually looks like a wall
sconce you might find at an art fair in New Mexico. In fact, Kathy said “Why do you have a wall
sconce with you?” Racquel nearly fell out
laughing and we giggled about it the rest of the day. My comment to her was “Just think of all the
funny stories you will have to tell you family and friends from your day with
the crazy cruisers.”
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Racquel's secret way to roll and cut roti |
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My turn to try rolling out the roti |
Tom hung out in the cockpit with Jim waiting like cats at
the kitchen door. However, Racquel did
put them to work early on when she taught them to crack open the brown coconuts
and remove the meat. They also cleaned the coconut grater aka wall sconce. Poor Jim had the big clean up at the end but it was all worth it. We continued mixing
and stirring. Soon the coconut bake was
rising, then we were cooking up the chicken curry, then mixing up the roti,
then draining and mashing the cassava pieces, etc…..
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Kathy shaping the cassava |
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Kathy adding the meat under Racquel's watchful eye |
I took notes as detailed as I could. However, directions alone would be
tough. We all agreed that you really
have to SEE the techniques and try it with an experienced cook like Racquel to
really understand how to do all the things involved. Her grandmother and mother were cooks so she started cooking at an early age. She attended formal cooking school in Suriname. It is in her blood to cook.
Four and half hours later the dishes were complete and we put a
call out on the VHF to Peter on sv Giraff and Bruce on sv Wild Matilda to join
us. Jim said to Wild Matilda “We are
having a tasting of the things the ladies made today from the cooking lesson if
you want to come over and join us.” He didn't have to ask twice, Bruce said immediately “I am on my way.”
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Clapping the roti |
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This gives it that ROTI texture |
We all sat around the cockpits silently savoring the day’s
work. It was all simply delicious. The chicken and potato curry was tender with
a wonderful depth of flavors. Turns out, I have been doing my curry all wrong.
The cassava meatballs were everyone’s favorite. The best of all the cassava meatballs we
have tried ashore since coming to Guyana!
And we helped make them! The
coconut bake was light and golden with just enough nutmeg to make you
smile.
Racquel confessed that we were her first cooking lesson
ever. It never showed. She was so calm, collected and patient. She said we were good students. We thanked her profusely, took more pictures
with big smiles of success on our faces.
We paid Racquel for her time, had a round of hugs and Jim delivered her safely back to
shore.
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Coconut bake - cooking |
What a fun and interesting day. Thank you Racquel!!
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"It smells SO good!" |
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Chicken and potato curry with roti |
*I will try to post the recipes and directions on Beyond
Burgoo but without personal instruction, it might be hard to understand the
techniques involved. But give them a try
if you want. It was all so yummy.
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Clean up crew - in more ways than one as there was not a morsel leftover |
How cool! I bet that was a great day, fun and educational; and you got to eat the results! I hope you'll post the curry recipe (or tips) as I found your comment about doing curry all wrong interesting. I know what a good cook you are, so I am curious what you learned.
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