NATIONAL DISH OF ST LUCIA -Green Fig and Saltfish Pie
So I have been slack with posting this year. OK REALLY slack. But that doesn't mean that things are still not happening at The GGJ. Cooking of national dishes is still going on, as is the filming of said cooking. Just the editing and posting of the videos is where the process has broken down. But I'm pushing myself now to get these up before I have to go back to university. So expect a few new posts in a few days. (That is for those that actually read this vlog, do any of you exist?)
Off we go back to the Caribbean today, to the tiny island of St Lucia. St Lucia was named after Saint Lucy of Syracuse, the patron saint of those who are blind. Lucia is derived from the latin word for light and let's just say that they could have used some when they made Green Fig and Saltfish Pie the national dish.
Green Figs are essentially plantains and Saltfish is dried, salted cod. With the added vegetables, this is basically banana and fish pie. A BIZARRO combination if I ever heard one. And apparently it's a breakfast dish. But I climbed off my culinary high-horse and tried to remain open minded about what this dish would taste like. A impromptu BBQ was called at Chad's, so I decided that if I was to experience something "exotic" then I would need some other guinea pigs to sample it as well. So off I went with my fish pie (not a euphemism), which looked marvelous. Chad doesn't like when sweet and savory things mixed, so I had to wait until he finished to inform him there were bananas in it. And with that little omission the BBQ was underway...
So enjoy, or as they say in St Lucia, Enjoy!
For the brave at heart and stomach: http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/Fish%20and%20Shellfish%20MC/Green%20Fig%20and%20Saltfish%20Pie%20%20%20HT%20%20%20MC%20%20%20West%20Indian%20%20%2085mins%20plus%20soaking.htm
Difficulty: 3
Appearance: 4
Taste: 3
TOTAL: 10
The main process for the pie was getting the layers correct and even, which is by no means a difficult thing to do. I do love it when pie recipes don't instruct you to make pastry from scratch.
OK so the end result wasn't really that bad. It looked great and coulourful, and smelled wonderful. The layers added a great look to the dish, I wished that I had taken a photo, but you know how the mind works after a few beers.
The taste was surprisingly good. Not delicious, but by no means horrible. That is my opinion only. The boys (Chad, Sean and Marc) loved it and commented on how even though you would think the flavours would not compliment each other, they really did. This was even after I told Chad about the banana being alongside savoury items. It must have been good though because everyone had seconds. Further proof that one should not look at the cuisine of other nations with judging eyes.
What an interesting sounding recipe. I'm afraid I had my judging eyes on at the combination of banana and fish, but have to say it didn't look too bad! I was also confused after watching, why there weren't any figs involved, and then looked at the recipe and realised green figs were green bananas and not the figs I was thinking! You learn something new every day on the GGJ! Am eagerly awaiting my first GGJ experience Leo! Keep up the good work.
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