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Caribbean Street Food Recipes
These Caribbean street food recipes are easy to make at home. Why not throw a party for your friends.
To show how easy it is to cook Caribbean street food at home Grace foods challenged me to cook up the perfect street party spread. I always like a good cooking challenge so was happy to get involved. To help me in the task Grace Foods sent me a hamper of their products to cook with.
There was a great selection of products, some of which I was familiar with and others that I wasn’t. A wide range of spices including tropical seasoning, hot and mild curry powder, hot pepper sauce and jerk seasoning. Some tins of callaloo, which is a spinach type vegetable, ackee, coconut milk and beans and peas as well as some ginger beer and aloe refresh. All I had to do was think of a menu.
My street food menu consisted of:
- Pepperpot Stew
- Rice and peas
- Jamaican patties
- Coco bread
- Tropical kebabs
Caribbean Street Food Recipes
Pepperpot Stew
Jerk is one of the flavours that is found across the Caribbean. It is a hot and spicy blend of all spice, thyme and chilli peppers that is used liberally on meats. As part of my street food menu I prepared a Jamaican pepperpot stew. The stew is simmered slowly until the meat is meltingly tender and takes on a hot peppery flavour due to the jerk seasoning. Dunn River jerk seasoning worked very well in this dish. Take care when adding it as it can be quite spicy, reduce the amount if you are not keen on spicy flavours. The stew also contains a lot of vegetables, I used butternut squash and green beans.
I thought the pepperpot stew would make a perfect centre piece for my street food party. It can be eaten with the coco bread or the rice which gives people a couple of options. Gingerbeer is the ideal drink to wash it down.
Pepperpot stew recipe
Pepperpot Stew
Ingredients
- 700 g stewing steak
- 2 red peppers
- 1 butternut squash
- 400 g runner beans
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 tbsp jerk seasoning
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp sugar
- 400 g passata
- 400 ml beef stock
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- salt and pepper for seasoning.
- 1 tbsp lime juice
Instructions
- Put some oil in a large pan.
- Peel and chop the garlic and butternut squash.
- Deseed the peppers and cut into pieces
- Heat the oil in the pan and add the beef. Cook for five minutes until brown.
- Add the other ingredients.
- Cover and cook for one and half hours until the beef is tender
Rice and peas
Rice and peas is a traditional Jamaican dish that is often served on Sunday instead of plain white rice. Peas is an island way of referring to kidney beans and a tin of Dunn River Peas and Beans was perfect for this dish. It contains a mixture of red kidney beans, blackeye beans & gungo peas. The rice is cooked in coconut milk which gives it a delicate flavour and contains spring onions which add a little bite. The sweet rice is the perfect balance to the peppery stew.
Rice and peas recipe
Rice and peas
Ingredients
- 1 can Dunn River Beans and Peas
- 1 can coconut milk
- 500 ml water
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 spring onions
- 1 tsp salt
- 250 g long grain rice
Instructions
- Add the liquid from the beans and the coconut milk to a measuring jug and add enough water to make it up to a litre.
- Peel and chop the garlic and chop the spring onion
- Add to a pan with the liquid, rice and the peas and beans
- Bring to the boil.
- Turn the heat down and cook until all the liquid is absorbed, takes about 15 minutes
Coca Bread
Coca bread is eaten across the Caribbean. It contains coconut oil and butter which makes them firm on the outside and sweet on the inside. To make the coco bread buttery layers need to be built up as the dough is rolled out which makes it easy to use as a sandwich roll. The sweetness of the bread works well with the pepperpot stew and it would also be a great roll for a fish finger sandwich.
Coco Bread Recipe
Coco bread
Ingredients
- 450 g flour
- 35 g sugar
- 2 packets dry yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- 230 ml milk
- 50 ml water
- 30 g butter plus some extra for brushing
- 30 g coconut oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C, gas mark 4.
- Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl
- Add the butter, coconut oil, milk and water and knead until a dough is formed
- Cut into ten pieces and leave to stand for ten minutes
- Roll each piece into a ball and roll flat until about half a centimetre thick.
- Brush with softened butter and fold in half
- Brush with softened butter again and fold in half again
- Place on a baking tray covered with baking parchment
- When all the rolls are done leave to stand ten minutes
- Bake for 15 – 20 minutes until lightly browned
Jamaican Patties
A good street party will have food that you can just pick up and nibble on. Jamaican patties are perfect for this. The pastry is spiced with turmeric giving it a yellow colour. The mince filling has a spicy flavour making them tasty and satisfying. Dunn River curry powder added a lovely flavour to the filling without being overpowering. They keep well in a tin if you have any left over.
Jamaican Patties recipe
Jamican Patties
Ingredients
- cooking oil
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 chilli
- 500 g minced beef
- 3 tbsp Dunn River curry powder
- 400 g can chopped tomatoes
- 150 ml beef stock
- Pastry
- 450 g plain flour
- 2 tbsp tumeric
- 1 tsp salt
- 225 g butter
- 7 tbsp cold water
- 1 egg
Instructions
To make the filling
- Peel and chop the garlic and the onion.
- De seed the chop the chilli.
- Heat the oil in a pan.
- Add the onions and garlic and fry until soft
- Add the chill, mince and curry powder and fry until the mince is brown
- Add the tomatoes and stock and simmer until the liquid is absorbed
- To make the pastry
- Add the flour, tumeric and salt in a bowl with the butter
- Rub in until it resembles fine bread crumbs
- Add the water and blend to a dough
- Wrap in cling film and chill for ten minutes
- Preheat the oven to 200C, gas mark 8
- Roll the pastry out on a floured sheet and make into ten circles about 5 cm wide
- Add a spoonful of mince to each.
- Brush the edges of the pastry with water and seal together in a semicircle
- Brush with beaten egg
- Place on a baking tray covered with baking parchment and bake for 25 minutes
Tropical Kebabs
The final addition to my Caribbean street food menu was tropical kebabs. These are so simple they do not need a recipe card. To make them I chopped chicken breast into bite sized chunks. These were then dipped in egg and rolled in Dunn River Tropical Seasoning. I then threaded them onto skewers with red pepper onion and mushrooms. The skewers can either be cooked under a grill on in the oven until they are done. The tropical seasoning added a nice spicy flavour to the kebabs and they did not stay around long.
Other ideas for Carribbean Street Food
Ackee is traditionally used in ackee and saltfish, a traditional recipe. Another tasty dish you can make with ackee is hot and spicy chicken with ackee ratatouille which worked really well. A one pot chicken curry is also a great dish and easy to make.
Have you ever cooked Caribbean food? What is your favourite recipe? Let me know below.
Galina V says
Everything looks delicious, but the coca bread is particularly tempting. I love coconut flavours in baking. Patties are fab too.
Dragons and Fairy Dust says
I was pleased by how well everything turned out
Yet Another Blogging Mummy says
This all looks lovely and tasty. I’ve never tried cooking Caribbean food, so must give it a go sometime. My husband lived in the Caribbean for 2 years as a young child and he says Curried Goat is another traditional dish
Dragons and Fairy Dust says
I would love to try some goat recipes but I have no idea where you can get the meat!
Cheryl Pasquier says
Love the look of the pepperpot stew and the Jamaican patties – I’ve bookmarked the recipes to have a go when I’m back in my kitchen !
Dragons and Fairy Dust says
Do let me know how you get on but don’t add too much jerk or it can be very hot!
Heather says
Wow, I really have to try these! The kebabs sound especially delightful. Thanks for sharing!
Dragons and Fairy Dust says
Thank you, they are really tasty