Geera horse you say??

Geera or “jeera” refers to cumin seeds which are usually patched or roasted before they are used in trini cuisine. To “geera” any meat requires marinating in a spicy patched or roasted geera or cumin seed marinade and then adding more geera when the dish is nearly finished cooking.

But, different people use different seasonings or a different technique in cooking to achieve the same tasty trini dish. Every trini geera meat connoisseur has a recipe that is the best. But, the geera king in Arima is hailed to be David Etienne on Queen Street in Arima according to the Trinidad Daily Express newspaper in April 5^th, 2013.

Cumin seeds or geera on the left; herbs and seasonings used to season the meats

You can also use prepared roasted ground geera instead of grinding your own in a coffee grinder or using a rather ineffective mortar and pestle. But, a traditional East Indian grinding stone combo will do the trick!

The grinding stone or “lohar” as it was called in Hindi which was used for grinding spices or anything else really.

Geera meat is either eaten alone or in hops bread or in coconut bake at a bar usually. Geera meats are served at bars as “cutters” because as one folklore explains, the geera and pepper combo in the meat actually makes you take longer to get intoxicated. Although I haven’t personally tested this, many have attested to its benefits!

 Geera pork in coconut bake

Any kind of meat can be prepared like this, chicken, pork, lamb, shrimp, fish, even horse….according to someone from Grande….where the horse race track was in Wallerfield…hmmm.

And any kind of chicken part can be used from neck to feet to wings to gizzard....

Although it may have started as appetizers in a bar, the humble geera meat can now be served as a main course with dhal and rice at Sails restaurant and pub.

Geera pork

Geera chicken

Geera lamb

Smoked herring - a happy accident?

A riddle, a riddle a-ree: what has fine bones galore, a deeply pungent smokey taste, super peppery, salty and can be eaten with just about any type of carbs? Plus, it’s another Diana power mint classic. Any guesses?

Classic smoked herring

Herring is a small oily fish. Smoked herring is a smoke- and salt-cured preparation of herring fish that is imported into Trinidad. They are often eaten for breakfast in the United Kingdom, Belgium, The Isle of Man, Japan, and a minority of North American regions. Smoking and salting of fish—in particular of spawning salmon and herring which are caught in large numbers in a short time and can be made suitable for edible storage by this practice, predates 19th century Britain. It can be purchased relatively cheaply, prepared simply and does not need refrigeration. Is this another throw-back to our colonial history then?

Dried smoked salted herring fish

It goes with just about any carbohydrate- from dumplings, ground provision, crix, roti, bake, hops bread, green fig, to dhal and rice… To cut the saltiness, several cooks boil the fish first- similar to salt-fish preparation, de-bone, flake the fish, then sautee in oil along with a variety of vegetables to both enhance the flavour and to cut the saltiness e.g. tomatoes, grated carrots, finely sliced onions, minced garlic, chives, chadon beni and hot pepper. Some add a little thinly shredded cabbage too. Serving it with avocado or cucumber slices cools down the taste-buds nicely.

Smoked herring and corneal dumplings

Smoked herring pizza anyone?

http://www.getmecooking.com/recipe/smokedherring-pizza

Dhal and rice and smoked herring

According to Mark Kurlansky, "Smoked foods almost always carry with them legends about their having been created by accident".

Heigh-ho, the derry-o, a-hunting we will go!

I remember all the times my father tried to trick me into eating wild meat. The pale pink, frozen, whole tattoo carcass lying in the sink which he covered with a table cloth and forbade me to look under it. The crying cascadura as he attempted to strip the armour from their little bodies. The stew agouti he brought back from a lime but he told me it was curried beef. The curried deer he prepared but he told me it was curried beef.

Curried deer

But I tasted them all. He grew up eating these exotic meats. His father hunted at night using a home-made, carbide-powered head-lamp that he attached to his head with leather straps (I kid you not, his head), his shotgun in tow (a 20 gauge single barrel shotgun). The lamp not only provided some light in the pitch-black, heavily canopied forest, but it made the eyes of his prey shine bright, exposing its location. It wasn’t for sport. They were poor. It was to survive.

Carbide-powered lamp similar to the one my grandfather used to hunt. He took the reflector part of a car's headlight, shined it to perfection with "silvo" and attached it to the 2 chambers -the lower chamber housed the carbide, the upper chamber housed the water. The entire unit was completely detachable. Credit to the coal miners.

The agouti

There is an authorized list of game species that can be hunted for meat, sport or for sale as pets provided by the GOTT (http://www.biodiversity.gov.tt/home/trinidad-a-tobago-biodiversity/game-species.html). Some of the animals for consumption include agouti, armadillo (tattoo), deer, lappe, wild hog (quenk), alligator, cayman, lizards – matte and iguana. A popular Boxing Day dish usually served curried with paratha or dhalpourie roti, wild meat is highly sought after during hunting season (October 1st to the end of February) with certain animal species costing far more than the now unfashionable poultry depot chicken. Lavish Christmas and New Year’s parties boast of wild meat on the menu.

The lappe

The tattoo

Experts have advised that cooking wild meat is different from cooking domesticated animals. You have to cater for the “gamey" taste of the meat. The meat has to be cut up into much smaller pieces and stronger seasonings must be used. Wild meat can also be tough so cooking smaller pieces and using a natural meat tenderizer like green paw paw (papain enzymes in the green fruit breaks down the protein in the meat) and even coca-cola or pepsi (the acidity of these drinks also helps break down the protein in the meat) will do the trick. Then there's pepper!

The quenk - I imagine so named because of the sound it makes running away from hunters!

The iguana

This animal can get to a magnificent size, enough to stop traffic. Along the route to Santa Cruz one day, I saw 4 young men standing in the middle of the road holding up 3 iguanas in each hand for sale - large enough to be dinosaurs, I swear to you! Traffic extended well into the Croissee. 

Curry iguana - Skin and all....

No, I'm sorry this looks really awful...

The matte

Skinning any animal is part of the preparation but I have seen some not take on this task with the lizards. A big mistake. The skins of some reptiles are tough enough to make shoes for crying out loud!

Pacro water - Pour homme!

Ok so you boil this sea creature while it’s still alive and drinking the broth gives men athletic, if not acrobatic, strength and stamina. Man water! No joke. Trini men do not joke about these things…

Pacro is the local reference to a type of marine mollusc also known as chiton (Placophora) which is abundant in the coastal waters of Trinidad and Tobago. 

Dorsal view of a chiton - clinging to the surface of a rock close to shore

Underside of a chiton

At first I thought my guide was talking about “Paco” which I knew as the men’s cologne “Paco Rabanne” - the manliest perfume in the 80's. He was in fact referring to the purported aphrodisiac, well-known by Tobagonians. How does one look at a chiton and think "Yes, this will be my viagra"?

The animal is also known as “sea cradle” presumably because when you detach it from its rocky support, it curves inward slightly in a protective move I imagine. Apparently, fishermen know about its properties and can fetch a small bucket-full upon special request.

The final product

You boil the animals while they are still alive in water for about 15mins. Strain the broth and retain for use. To the broth, add an alarming amount of chadon beni, big leaf thyme, garlic, hot pepper, lime and salt to taste. You then drink the thin broth basically. I am told that it’s an acquired taste. Hell yeah!

In Store Bay, bottles of the elixir can be bought on the beach.