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SOUL FOOD RECIPE FROM THE BAHAMAS

Soul Food Cooking in the Bahamas

By Nicole A. Farrington

There is an ancient saying that goes, “The eyes are the window to the soul” and I can agree with that. Yet, I have found another form of access to the soul of a man. Auntie Rie said, “That’s why the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” Over the centuries and throughout the world and every culture food and the sharing thereof tends to warm the heart and knit the soul. It is a platform for business transactions, family negotiation and just friendly fellowship.

It is no different down here in the islands of the Bahamas. Yes, we cook soul food in the Bahamas. And as I travel through the various 700 islands and cays I have gathered Bahamian Soul Food recipes on my way. Down at Regatta in Georgetown, Exuma I grabbed a recipe for potato bread and I learned how to get that conch just as tender and succulent as ever. So when I make appetizers such as conch fritters or conch bit I am sure to wow my guest. Oh yes, I can’t forget that bread recipe I got from Sister in Rolletown, Exuma.

Many of the breakfast recipes I use came from my Auntie Rie. You have to get some of these recipes from Bahamas. The recipe for Stew Fish, Stew Conch and Stew Vegetables I got from Auntie Rie, but my friend Caroline from Abaco showed me how they do it there. One thing you can never get enough of in the Bahamas is the wide variety of Seafood dishes available. We have seafood salad like lobster salad, conch salad, crab salad and every island adds its signature to the dish. Many times it takes half the day to recover from a Bahamian Breakfast only to be faced with a monster meal called lunch.

Lunch dishes in the Bahamas tend to overlap with dinner. And because it’s ‘No Problem man’, you can eat anything you want any time of the day. We eat chicken souse for breakfast; stew fish for lunch and it’s no big deal to have a heaping bowl of boil fish for dinner or last night snack. Compared to today, where pasta seems to be the buzzword and main staple, back when I was growing up the only pasta we knew was the elbow pasta Auntie Rie used for her famous baked macaroni and cheese. But, I’ll tell you what, I could never figure out how Auntie Rie found so many ways to cook rice: Peas and rice, conch and rice, crab and rice, rice below or dirty rice and the list goes on. It you want to get some more you need to ask Auntie Rie for her recipes from Bahamas.

Now you may be asking, “So what about the soups?” Here’s how we do soups in the Bahamas. Everyday is a good day for a bowl of soup, but no day is more perfect for some good ole Bahamian soup than on a rainy day. When the sky gets overcast or the weatherman predicts a 40% chance of rain. My Auntie Rie would head straight for the market and we all knew what that meant. Yes sir, it was Soup Day! Auntie Rie would be the first one at the door when the market opened, salt beef, ham bone, cabbage, okra, cassava, sweet potato, yam, green peas, thyme, spare ribs; nothing less than a extra large pot would do. I was responsible for the drinks, my cousin and me. Of course, you have to have a big pitcher of ‘switcher’ or lemonade, some Gully Wash, that’s coconut water and milk, Bush tea and more. Then there was dessert.

I remember my summers in Nassau, Bahamas. Mama used to bake to her hearts content and because we didn’t like to see things waste us kids would handle the proper disposal of the pastries, pies and cakes. I became the official – ‘under the table’ pie dough taster. Guava Duff, Coconut tart, potato bread, Johnny Cake, jams, jellies and preserves were all a part of the soul food I grew to love.

So when I think of a Christmas Dinner in the Bahamas, I will certainly say that mama and Auntie Rie cooked up some good ole soul food. I can see the table now: by the time we woke to open gifts that morning a Bahamian breakfast was waiting to be eaten. Then old family recipes were pulled from the draw and lunch preparation was shared among the members of the family by age and rank: bread, desserts, rice, seafood, turkey, ham, salad, pastries, pies, drinks and soups were assigned. Many of the items being prepared were not for lunch but were to be eaten for dinner that night. This was the feast of all feasts and it always did my soul well. Soul Food. cooking from Bahamas

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