The Lucayan people were the original inhabitants but then the islands became a colony for Spain and then Britain. Today 90% of the population is made up from the descendants of slaves and free Africans.
The Bahamas became independent in 1973 although the Queen is still their Monarch and it is one of the richest countries in the Americas.
Bahamian cuisine comprises of seafood and tropical fruits as well as chillies, cinnamon, coconut and, of course, rum! A lot of the traditional food is similar to the American South and is sold from roadside 'shacks' as well as in more expensive restaurants.
We discovered very quickly that Conch is a favourite seafood. We found we could cook anything we wanted as long as it had conch in it! Now conch (or conk as it is pronounced apparently) is not too plentiful on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. We even looked on Amazon to see if we could buy a tin!
So after a great deal of googling we found a conch recipe which suggested we could use prawns instead!
Our daughter and her boyfriend joined us for our Bahamian celebration! We had Cracked Conch/prawns, Peas and Rice, fried plantains and Johnny cakes. All washed down with this excellent cocktail, Bahama Mama.
We had read about Johnny Cakes - they are a type of bread which is eaten with savoury meals or spread with jam at breakfast. While we were looking for conch in the international section of our local supermarket we were surprised to see a packet mix for them. So that is why we made them - or rather our daughter made them!
You just had to add milk to the packet mix and knead it into a dough.
The dough was then kneaded again in small balls and pressed flat.
Finally they were fried on each side and left to cool - we reheated them in the oven when we were ready to eat.
Rice and peas are an important part of the Bahamian diet - they are served with just about everything. Amazingly we were able to find Pigeon peas at our local supermarket
Gary made this dish - I was already sampling the Bahamian cocktail - but by reading the recipe I can see that he fried onion, pepper and bacon together before adding tomato paste, the peas, rice and water and then let the rice absorb the water as it cooked!
Our daughter had cooked plantain before - we had only eaten it - so we left her to fry it in ghee.
It was time to make the cracked conch prawns. They are called cracked because conch meat is quite rubbery and needs to be beaten before it can be cooked and eaten. Obviously our local prawns (shrimp) just needed to be shelled.
Each prawn was then dipped into a whisked egg and milk mixture, then into flour before being fried until brown and crispy.
I must admit we did make the cocktail - Bahama Mama - and sit in the garden sampling it before we began cooking. It's a blend of orange and pineapple juice, coconut rum and dark rum and grenadine. It is very good, if a little sweet and very easy to drink - hic!
Our meal is ready.
Rice and Peas
Bahamian style tartare sauce
Plantain
Johnny Cakes
Mmmmmmmmm!
Our Bahamian meal was good - not the best thing we have made so far, but still good. I particularly liked the batter the prawns were cooked in. We made way too much rice and so there was a lot left over but the prawns all disappeared very quickly - as did the Bahama Mama cocktail!
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