[Jessica Harris] East and West come together in Porto Spain's markets, where ingredients from Europe,
Africa and the Indian subcontinent, show up on vendors tables.
Asian vegetables like long beans and bitter melon,
turn up on the other side of the world, next to cassava and arrowroot, more typical of the region.
Culantro turns up - but here it is known as Shado Beni or "Chadon Beni,"
a corruption of the French "chardon béni" or "blessed thistle."
It is a part of the green seasoning that is a Trinidad and Tobago culinary basic.
In the market, the smoked herring and salt fish that season some of the Indian inflected dishes,
are sold next to pickled pig snouts and tails that hark back to the diets of the enslaved.
Brightly hued condiments prepared from shaved mango, mustard oil, and hot chilies,
vie for primacy next to dishes tinged yellow with Madras curry powder.
Chef Debra Sardinha-Metivier gives us our first look at the diversity of the Trinidadian market basket,
and a peek at some of the island sweets.
[Chef Debra Sardinha-Metivier] And here we have a lovely variety of some of the items. [Chef Steve Jilleba] Great variety. [Chef Debra] Yeah, uh huh.
So, for the beginning, let's start with this. This is called Seim,
which is a really nice bean that you just basically take, and you want to peel away. So we peeling away that little tough membrane.
Then just cut it up, and sauté it up nicely with some garlic and onions.
Or you can do a very light curry - Madras curry style. Right?
[Chef Debra] And so you called it string beans..... [Chef Jilleba] Long beans.
[Chef Debra] And for us, it's Bodi. [Chef Jilleba] Bodi.
Chef Debra] Right. So this again, you look for the young ones, so these are nice and young Bodi.
And basically just cut it up, and again, sauté with some garlic and onions, as a side.
Or, if you can, put some Geera Cumin in it, and we could also curry it.
And, of course, our callaloo bush or "dashing leaves,"
that give you a really nice Saheena, when we basically put the split pea spread,
and then it's basically rolled, cut, and fried.
And we're going to see that, in a little while, at some of the stalls.
And, of course, Shado Beni, which really gives a
really nice flavor to a lot of the, yes, to a lot of the Indian chutneys and whatnot. And actually
in the stews...because it cooks well in the stews. It gives a really nice balance to the flavors.
So this....And then, of course, our local celery and chives (local pronunciation Sigh-ve).
We call it a "flavoring pepper," here, because it gives flavor without heat.
It gives a really nice balance or.... Um.....
It's not a hundred-percent sweet, but it sometimes.... depending on the heat of the sun, etc.
You will get a little kick, as we see, but it's not like a scotch bonnet. You're not going to get that HEAT.
Sometimes when they cross, you will, but primarily, it's just good for flavoring the pot, getting a really good balance.
Of course ginger, a lot is used. And...uh....
Tumeric, uh, yes gives that nice color. That fresh tumeric to be used in the curries.
[Chef Steve Jilleba] So, so, with this, when you're using this, do you want to use, like......
kind of a variety of colors, 'cuz the different levels of..... [Chef Debra] You can..... [Chef Steve Jilleba] I mean, of the flavor, or of the heat, maybe.
[Chef Debra] You can. The red tends to be a little bit more intense, in terms of that.
Green a little bit more subtle, obviously, and sometimes you just use it for the flavor in terms of the color.
Use the red because you want that pop of color in your stews, etc.
If we're doing like a pickled green fig sauce, or like a pickled green fig.... where we boiled the green bananas....
we add the limes, and we would add a little bit of this.....
I may want to use red, if I want a pop of contrast. Or I may want to use green if I don't want the contrast to happen.
So, this tends to lend itself in the "Trin-Bago" cuisine, I would say,
....this is definitely a staple in the stews, and in most of the cooking, this is this is definitely our....
[Chef Steve Jilleba] I-I-I've got to learn all these new foods terms, again. I know what they are, but now they have all different names! [Chef Debra laughs] Yeah. This is a must-have.
[Jessica Harris, Narrator] Ask anyone in Port of Spain what chef is working on the creolization or mixing of Trinidadian food.....
and Chef Khalid Mohammed's name comes up.
His restaurants, Chaud, and especially Chaud Creole, present food that plays with Trinidadian traditions and ingredients in new ways.
In Porto Spain's main market, Chef Mohammed gives us a first look at the wide array of condiments that season the nation's plates.
[Chef Mohammed] Then here we have the pimento pepper, which we spoke about before.
We use this in everything. There is no heat.
There is a time of the year when they say the pepper has "crossed," when the pimentos have "crossed" with the hot pepper.....
....And you get a little spice, but in general, it's more flavoring than a....than a spice.
And we have, of course, our Scotch bonnets here, which are very hot.
Because in Trinidad, we call this "hot pepper." That's the name of it: "hot pepper."
You know, "scotch bonnet" or "habanero," it does not exist in Trinidad.
So, growing up, this was a hot pepper, and this was our pimento pepper...Um.....
Yeah, and they're the fun ones. They're a little round ones, they're the small butch peppers, as well.
But it's a typical pepper you see every day, is this pepper. This what we cook with most of all, you know?
We call it Shadow Benny (or chadon benni) in Trinidad. Shadow Benny. This is also called culantro.
It's....it's similar to cilantro, in flavor, except it's much stronger.
It has a bitter flavor.
But this is, like, this is most important herb in Trinidad, by far.
This goes into everything, you know?
It's... it's....it's in everything from raw salads to all our stews, everything....!
And you know, it represents... it's in both Creole cuisine and Indian cuisine.
It's just as important in every aspect of Trinidadian food.
Here we have salted pig's nose. Salted beef, pig's tail, salt fish, smoked herrings....
You know, we use salted meats primarily to to flavor things like beans and stews and rice. We add it to, you know, to add that that flavor.
The smoked herring and salt fish, you tend to use for breakfast items.
Where we.... for the smoke herring, we roast it, and then take the skin off.....
Get all the meat and we add stuff like tomatoes and sweet peppers, hot peppers, and make like a...like a bit of a salad.
We call it Buljol. Which is.... Buljol....B-U-L-J-O-L.
We also do it....the same preparation with salt fish or salt cod. Bacalao.
And except this time, we'd soak it.... We'd soak it overnight and then we'd simmer it.
Take it out.... that's to get out the extra salt, and to rehydrate it a bit.
And then, at that point, we do lots of tomatoes, peppers, pimentos, herbs.....
It's from the Portuguese influence, though. That's a strong Portuguese-influenced dish.
You know. And it's a typical breakfast.
So, a lot of here is real typical season in Trinidad.
We have, what we call "chives," (local pronunciation "Sigh-ve"), which is green onion or scallion.
And it comes in a bundle with thyme and parsley.
We also have what we call, the melee....the melee mix.
The melee mix is a thyme, they're called "broadleaf thyme," which is this. Very flavorful.
And also a type of oregano.
And then we have, like, just thyme, Shadow Benny, which is, as you said, very important to local cuisine.
We call this celery in Trinidad. It's a.... I think it's also called Chinese parsley. Um.....
It does have a....it does have a strong celery flavor.
And this also....What we do really a lot in Trinidad is....
we take all these seasonings, and we puree it, and it makes something called green seasoning.
And that's and that's kind of the flavor base for everything in Trinidad. We use it for everything.
So, we're gonna.... we're gonna get some stuff and demo a green seasoning.
This is green seasoning. So you can actually buy it made already.
I mean, we sell this in the supermarkets, you know? Um....
So, this we'd use to pre-marinate chicken, fish, beef, or whatever. Everything!
So, this will have seif, cilantro, shadow benny, celery, thyme, garlic, vinegar, water, ginger, pimentos, hot pepper......
Everything! (laughs)