ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 17, 1996 TAG: 9601170012
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO SHRIMP AND TOMATO
SOURCE: JILL WENDHOLT SILVA KANSAS CITY STAR
When award-winning cookbook author Steven Raichlen lived in Boston, he would get together with friends and throw a beach party in the middle of winter.
``We'd crank up the heat to 85, and then we'd get sunlamps out and tell everybody to come in bathing suits and their shorts,'' he says.
Some reggae music, a tumbler of rum-spiked punch, some Caribbean-style munchies, and it was time to chase away a chill.
Those of us just digging out from recent snows might find Raichlen's hot-weather party idea kind of cool.
Raichlen is currently touring to promote his new ``The Caribbean Pantry Cookbook'' (Artisan, $25). He moved to Miami five years ago, where in the midst of a tidal wave of interest in fusion, New World and Florribean cuisine, he found Caribbean hot sauces, marinades, spice mixes, jams, jellies and chutneys lapping quietly at the shore. For a decade Raichlen also had been traveling to the Caribbean island of St. Bart's where he runs ``Cooking in Paradise,'' a weeklong cooking school he likens to a summer camp for grownups.
The 70 recipes in ``The Caribbean Pantry'' reflect the influences of Europe, Africa, Asia and the New World as Raichlen takes readers island-hopping through the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago. Using a ``pantry approach,'' he puts the emphasis on spices, seasonings, condiments, tropical fruits and fresh vegetables, which reiterates the theme in ``High-Flavor, Low-Fat Cooking,'' winner of a 1993 James Beard Award. Raichlen also devotes a chapter of the book to the long-standing tradition of making homemade jams, jellies and chutneys, including recipes for such from tomato, banana and sweet potatoes.
``I was really interested in the idea of - rather than examining dishes - examining the quintessential flavors of the Caribbean. I felt like if you could master those then you could `Caribbeanize' your food without having to sort of slavishly follow recipes that you may or may not have ingredients for,'' Raichlen says.
And not all of the ingredients in ``The Caribbean Pantry'' are going to be easy to find. For instance, the ajilimojili, a Puerto Rican cilantro sauce, contains two ingredients - cachucha pepper (also known as rocatillo or aji dulce) and culentro (similar to cilantro, but more bitter). But, if they are unavailable, the recipe works with bell pepper, cilantro and onions available at the supermarket.
``I'd rather people get 90 percent of the dish and make it and enjoy rather than think they have to go the whole 100 percent of the way and not make it because they can't get all the ingredients,'' Raichlen says.
``My bottom line is I want people to cook this food, and I want people to use my recipes. Some of my best dishes have come out of substituting one ingredient when I couldn't find the first. I am absolutely not a purist that way. I want to tell you the right way to do it, but I want to encourage you to do it any way you can,'' Raichlen says.
In that spirit, the following recipes, while not all from the Caribbean all capture its flavors. And, as Raichlen's attitude toward cooking as well as his mid-winter parties demonstrate, often all that matters is the mood.
- Food editor Almena Hughes added information to this story
Recipes for:
SHERRY PEPPERS
SPICED CHANNA
SWEET POTATO JAM
SHRIMP & TOMATO RISOTTO
PINEAPPLE-TOPPED BACK RIBS
LENGTH: Medium: 72 linesby CNB