15 West Indian Recipes You’ll Want Tonight

Callaloo Soup

Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, callaloo is an extremely popular Caribbean dish made with okra, and green leafy vegetables.

Ingredients

2 lbs. spinach (or young dasheen leaves)

2 teaspoons salt

1 doz. okra

1 ham bone or pickled pig tail

2 tablespoons butter

6 cups water

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 small crabs

1 sprig fresh thyme, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

¼ teaspoon pepper

Directions

1. Boil ham bone covered with water for about half an hour, or if pig tail is used, cook it until it is soft. In the meantime, chop spinach, okra and onion and set aside. If you are using dasheen leaves, remove skin from stalks before chopping. Then prepare crabs (live), clean and wash thoroughly discarding backs and break into fairly large pieces.

2. Then in separate skillet melt butter, then add thyme, onions and garlic and saute for a minute. Then add crabs and saute for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside. When ham bone or pig tail is ready, add enough water to make 6 cups. Then add spinach and okra and cook over medium heat until tender. Then swizzle mixture or pulverise, so that a smooth thick liquid results. Then combine spinach mixture with crabs and simmer slowly for about 20 minutes.

3. Add pepper and salt as required. Serve very hot with Ton Ton and salt fish souse. Salt fish is roasted and then made into souse. Note: Dumplings and Tanias may be added at simmering stage.

Source: CaribbeanCooking.com