Hispanic History Month and Foodways Series: Dulceras

Dulces, recipes below

Iberians in the sugar producing regions of colonial Latin America and Brazil devoured dulces (sweets) created largely by Afro-Hispanic women known as dulceras. About noon they roamed the streets of urban centers with platters of sweets for sale ousted on their heads. They sold cakes, pies, and in the words of one visitor to Havana in the nineteenth century “little bowls and cups of freshly made sweetmeats, preserved guavas and mammees (an apple like fruit), grated coconut stewed in sugar, and a very delicious custard made with cocoanut-milk, besides various other fruit-preparations.” These venders worked for masters who sent them out to hawk their wares as part of what was called in colonial Latin America the jornal system. This system gave enslaved African women who came from societies in which women ran local food markets in Africa an opportunity to use their entrepreneurial skills with the understanding that they would give the majority of their earnings to their masters and keep the rest (say for example, 25 cents of every dollar). The master’s assumption was that their slave would turn in the desired earning percentage. Historic records show stealing as form of resistance to one’s master was rampant and as a result enslaved entrepreneurs working under the jornal system often gained the capital necessary for them to purchase their freedom and start their own businesses. The key here is that these women had lucrative culinary skills that their owners needed and thus provided the enslaved person a degree of leverage within an oppressive relationship. It was dulceras across Latin America that one finds in the historic records as some of the first enslaved people who earned enough income to purchase their freedom, that of loved ones, and often go on to establish profitable eateries such as taverns and boarding houses with employees.

Baked pineapple with coconut dulces recipe: http://canelakitchen.blogspot.com/2010/06/baked-pineapple-with-coconut-and-honey.html

Hispanic History Month and Foodways Series: Cuba

Cuban plantain soup, recipe below

Enslaved African women in Cuba prepared a thick soup for themselves reminiscent of cooks in West African societies. In it they put pounded corn, wild tomatoes, and boiled plantains. Nineteenth century travel accounts show us that enslaved Afro-Cubans cooked for themselves and did the cooking in the kitchens of plantations, inns, taverns, boarding houses, ships, and restaurants on the island. “Soup is always at the Cuban dinner-table; thick stuff that must be eaten rather than taken as a liquid,” said the Northern American traveler James W. Steele in 1881. He went on to say, “The word soup, as understood elsewhere, has no application in Cuba. It is rather in the form of a mess [a sloppy preparation of food].” 

Cuban plantain soup: http://www.tasteofcuba.com/sopadeplatano.html

Hispanic History Month and Foodways Series: Peru

Caigua con Relleno de Pescado (Fish-Stuffed Caigua), recipe below

In 1735, the Spaniard Jorge Juan Antonio De Ulloa, tell us that the city of Lima, Peru consisted of three cast which colonial official tried to keep separate: “whites, or Spaniards, Negroes, Indians, Mestizos [Indian/Spaniard], and other casts, proceeding from the mixture of all three,” he writes. I found this source while doing research for my book Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14638-8/hog-and-hominy. De Ulloa goes on to say, “The Negroes, Mulattoes, and their descendents, form the greater number of the inhabitants.” Now the fish angle, “the negroes and other casts, live tolerably well [on] fish, which is little esteemed by the opulent, selling [it] at a low price,” observed De Ulloa. In short, in eighteenth century Lima, fish was at the center of poor folks soul food dishes—inexpensive great tasting

Caigua con Relleno de Pescado (Fish-Stuffed Caigua) recipe

Caigua is a green hollow Peruvian gourd. If you cannot find one here in the states, use another gourd or sweet peppers as a substitute.

Ingredients

Stuffing

8 medium sweet red or green peppers

2 cups water

1 pound fish fillets, such as flounder, red snapper, etc.cut into 1-inch cubes

4 slices of multi-grain bread, crusts removed, and moistened with soy milk (to make 1 cup)

1 egg substitute or egg, beaten

1 medium onion, sliced thin (1/2 cup)

½ teaspoon sea salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

Sauce

1 tablespoon corn oil

¼ cup sliced onion

¼ cup chopped tomato

¼ teaspoon paprika

2 cloves garlic, ground to a paste with 2 tablespoons water

1 cup reserved fish broth

Method

Cut out a 2-inch round from the top of each pepper and remove the core and seeds. Set aside. Make the stuffing: Bring the water to a boil. Add the fish fillets, cover the pan, and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. Remove the fish and cool. Reserve 1 cup sauce. Pull the cubes apart into threads. In a bowl mix the fish threads with the moistened bread and add the egg, onion, salt, and pepper, mixing well. Make the sauce: Heat the oil in a skillet. Add the onion, tomato, paprika, and garlic paste and stir-fry over low heat for 3 minutes. Add the 1 cup reserved fish broth and bring to a boil. Fill the peppers with the fish stuffing and replace the tops. (Should there be any stuffing left over, shape egg-sized fish balls and set aside.) Place the stuffed peppers in the sauce (with any fish balls from any leftover stuffing). Simmer, covered, over low heat for 15 minutes. Serve hot, with brown or white rice. Serves 8.

Hispanic History Month and Foodways Series: Plantains

Spicy plantains, recipes below

Banana and plantains are indigenous to India. We know that after Asian traders introduced them to Africa during the Christian era, cooks gradually made them a staple across West and Central Africa. African cooks steamed, boiled, grilled, and fried plantains. Some recipes call for green ones which taste more like a potato or you they ate them overripe in they are sweet. African women made plantains into flour for breads and fritters, drinks, fried chips, and as fufu. Like other Asian plants, Africans introduced them to the Americas during the Atlantic slave trade. Travelers to the Andean region found fried and roasted plantains had become a classic dish among poor Columbians and Ecuadorians of various ethnic groups because South America had so many plantains. Thus they naturally became one of the staples foods for all sectors of society. My favorite way to prepare plantains are to slice them into long thin pieces, deep fry them golden brown, and serve them seasoned with grated fresh ginger, cayenne pepper, and sea salt. My children loved them served that way. Below are a host of great plantain recipes:

Plantain recipes: http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/Articles/Ethnic-Unique-Foods-Ingredients-645/plantain.aspx

Hispanic History Month and Foodways Series: Chocolate and Cassava

Cassava chocolate cake, recipes below

In the viceroyalty of Peru, which included modern day Colombia, Iberians in urban centers purchased a sizeable number of enslaved Africans for cooking and other household tasks. Enslaved Africans also worked on large plantation cultivating the cacao plant which produced the key ingredient for making chocolate. People in Cartagena, Colombia loved chocolate so much “that there is not a negro slave but constantly allows himself a [delight] of it after breakfast; and the negro women sell [cakes made with corn, cassava, and chocolate] . . . about the streets,” wrote traveler Charles Stuart Cochrane in the early nineteenth century. The ingredients used to make these popular chocolate cakes illustrate the culinary syncretism that emerged at the intersection of African, Indian, and Iberian influences. Below are recipes for cassava chocolate cakes:

Cassava chocolate cake recipe: http://cookingdiva.net/blog/comments/la_receta_del_dia_cake_de_yuca_al_chocolate_y_coco_mandioca-chocolate_and_c/

Cassava chocolate avocado cake video recipe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfdVfAD5iGw

Hispanic History Month and Foodways Series: Empanadas

Guava Empanadas, recipe below

As a senior in high school, Latin Americans bodegas in North Tarrytown (now Sleepy Hollow) became my introduction to Hispanic foodways. I became exposed to them while working weekends with my father. By my senior year in high school in 1981, my older brothers were out of the house and my dad and I spent lots of early weekend mornings cleaning offices including Frank’s Fuel. Frank’s lay in an industrial section of Sleepy Hollow on the outskirts of a Hispanic neighborhood. The Hudson river side of town has historically been where immigrants from Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic lived. My dad with give me a couple of bucks to get some food. One day, I found this corner bodega up the street from the entrance to the GM plant that had really great fruit empanadas. They had delicious fruit fillings such as pineapple and my favorite, Guava. I’d buy a couple of empanadas and a carton of orange juice and was good to go. Iberian immigrants introduced empanadas to Caribbean and other parts of the Latin America during the colonial period. It wasn’t long before they became a fixture on family tables across Americas with regional differences based on local ingredients. Here’s a link to a Guava empanada recipe: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=656455

Hispanic History Month and Foodways Series: Caribbean Islanders

Curried Yucca Crab Cakes

The Ciboney were a nomadic band of hunters and gatherers who most likely migrated from South America. Historians believed that they represented perhaps the oldest of the tropical forest belt-islanders; the warlike Carib arrived last in the Caribbean. By 1500, their military conquest absorbed all the Arawakan communities of the eastern Caribbean islands. Because they traditionally obtained wives from the Arawak their foodways are similar to the Arawak. The Arawak, whose communities extended from the Bahamas to the coast of Venezuela, were the most advanced of the tropical forest belt-islanders. They co-existed with the Ciboney in some parts. But the greatest concentration of the Arawak inhabited the larger Caribbean Islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. They were a sedentary coastal farming society. Arawak women planted and harvested the fields and prepared the food. The women all three groups of the tropical forest belt-islanders carried out the task of cooking. The Arawak had a diet of potatoes, sweet cassava (also called yucca), corn, peanuts, peppers, beans, and arrowroot. But in general the islanders enjoyed vegetables, fruit, and fish. They seasoned their food with generous amounts of chili and allspice (pimento on Jamaica). They also used annatto seeds to color and flavor oils and sauces.

Curried Yucca Crab Cakes on Arugula with Piquillo Pepper Sauce and fresh Mango-Papaya Chutney

http://recipeisland.com/blog1/recipe-type/misc-recipes/caribbean-curried-yucca-crab-cakes-on-arugula-with-piquillo-pepper-sauce-and-fresh-mango-papaya-chutney/

Coconut Black Bean Stew with Carrots and Yucca Root (gluten free, vegan)

http://www.affairsofliving.com/imported-20100106014405/2009/1/27/coconut-black-bean-stew-with-carrots-and-yucca-root-gluten-f.html