TASTE: British Virgin Islands

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R e c i p e s f r o m Acc l a i m e d B V I R e s tau ra n t s a n d C h e f s

Taste: Recipes from Acclaimed BVI Restaurants and Chefs ISBN: 978-0-9569697-2-9 aLookingGlass © 2012 All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing.

Inquiries should be addressed to: aLookingGlass PO Box 3895 Sea Cows Bay, Tortola British Virgin Islands VG1110 www.alookingglass.com FIRST EDITION First Printing 2012 Catalog-in-Publication Data O’Dea, Traci, editor.

Taste: Recipes from Acclaimed BVI Restaurants and Chefs p. cm.

I. Title

Cover design by aLookingGlass.

Cover photography by Dan O'Connor for aLookingGlass.

All other photography by Dan O’Connor for aLookingGlass except where noted.

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Designed in the British Virgin Islands Printed in China

R e ci pe s f ro m Accl a i m e d B V I R est aurant s and C hefs

Traci O’Dea, editor

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Photos by Dan O’Connor A publication of aLookingGlass Books Tortola, British Virgin Islands

Introduction The more time I spend in the British Virgin Islands, the more I learn about the cuisine of the territory and the unique, locally grown ingredients that make up the cuisine.

This cookbook represents the full spectrum of delicacies available here, provided by chefs who create daily specialties for the visitors and residents of the islands.

Each photo shoot provided me and the aLookingGlass team with an opportunity to visit a different breathtaking locale in the BVI—the hillside of Tortola’s North Shore for staggering sunsets, popular marinas and anchorages throughout the islands, villas perched on oceanfront cliffs, intimate alcoves in dimly lit restaurants, secluded bays aboard a daysail charter, the beachfront of Cane Garden Bay, and even the top deck of the most infamous floating bar and restaurant in the Caribbean.

The book opens on the hills above Trunk Bay with a trip to an organic farm replete with fruits, vegetables and herbs. This fresh encounter sets the tone for the rest of the cookbook which features recipes prepared with locally available ingredients such as avocado, banana, breadfruit, christophine, conch, key limes, lemongrass, lobster, mango, mint, papaya, pineapple, pumpkin, rabbit, sorrel and tamarind. The BVI chefs give readers an opportunity to make true Caribbean dishes with Caribbean ingredients—learning how the flavours mingle with each other.

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The range of culinary difficulty in Taste spans from quick, easy recipes to complex, epicurean challenges. Some of the more complicated dishes include potted rabbit with truffle butter and rabbit spring rolls; pumpkin-crusted ahi tuna with pumpkin wasabi mousse, spicy baby arugula salad and sorrel foam; and seafood tonnarelli with black red-snapper fagottini, but there are still plenty of recipes for those who desire to know how to cook the perfect Anegada lobster or how to denaturize Caribbean conch. To complement the chef’s enchanting creations, Caribbean Cellars provided wine-pairing expertise to the recipes, keeping in mind what wines work best in this climate but are still globally available to foreign readers.

The recipes in this hardcover cookbook highlight delectable, fresh combinations, and the stunning photography—taken on location by Dan O’Connor in most cases—captures the joy of relishing such dishes in the BVI, so aspiring chefs who take the book home can imagine eating dinner while watching the sunset from Cooper Island or Zion Hill or from any of the dozens of locales whose chefs contributed their recipes to Taste.

Meat

Seafood

Pasta

Starters

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Seafood

30 Grilled Anegada Lobster, Anegada Reef Hotel 32 Spicy Garlic Lime Shrimp, Big Banana Paradise Club 34 Yellowfin Tuna with Beet & Candied Walnut Salad, Cooper Island Beach Club 36 Swordfish & Prosciutto Roulade, Red Rock Restaurant & Bar 38 Sizzling Sea Bass with Ginger & Spring Onion, Sunset Watch Villa 40 Famous Awesome Sandwich, Trellis Kitchen 42 Blackened, Drunken Swordfish, The Willy-T 44 Pumpkin-Encrusted Ahi Tuna with Wasabi Mousse & Argula Salad,Yacht Club Costa Smeralda & Marina, Virgin Gorda

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Organic Farming in the BVI

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Meat

48 Grilled Jerk Pork Tenderloin with Banana Chutney, Bananakeet Café

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Starters

50 Rack of Lamb with Papaya & Avocado Salad, Baraka Point Villa

12 Mahi Napoleon with Rasta Rice & Tomato Basil Vinaigrette, Golden Pavilion Villa

52 North Sound Surf & Turf, Bitter End Yacht Club

14 Smoked Bacon, Leek & Gruyère Quiche, Daysail Yacht Kuralu

54 Jerk Spice Pork Chop, Biras Creek Resort

16 International Tapas: Greek Nachos & Asian Chicken Skewers, Myett’s Garden Grille

56 Tamarind-Glazed Baby Back Ribs, Foxy’s Beach Restaurant & Tamarind Bar

18 Conch Salad with Cucumber Garnish, Scrub Island Resort

58 Parmesan-Crusted Jerk Chicken & Mango Slaw, Peg Legs Restaurant

20 Breadfruit Vichyssoise, Sugar Mill Restaurant

60 Rabbit Duo: Potted Rabbit & Rabbit Spring Rolls, Peter Island Resort

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Pastas

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Desserts

24 Seafood Tonnarelli with Black Red-Snapper Fagottini, Giorgio’s Wine Restaurant

64 Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, BVI Culinary Team

26 Magic in the Mix Lobster Pasta, The Rock Café

66 Citrus Granita with Mango-Mint Topping, Virgin Islands Property & Yacht

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More toTaste

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Translations and Conversions

Organic Farming in the British Virgin Islands One of the best mornings I’ve had in the BVI was spent walking around Good Moon Farm with phtoographer Dan O’Connor and designer Nick Cunha as Aragorn Dick-Read showed us his land and the cornucopia of treats growing on it. We stuffed ourselves on fresh-picked snacks of fruit, greens and herbs from a combination of indigenous and exotic plants and trees. “Taste that” and “Try this” were phrases we heard as we meandered through his crops and gardens.

We found it difficult to tear ourselves away from the first treat of the day— guavaberries—picked from one of a dozen or so trees that dot the property.

Guavaberry trees—not to be confused with the non-related guava trees—bare one of two shades of berries when ripe: bright orange and dark red, almost black.

The orange ones taste fresh and citrusy with a hint of basil whereas the dark red berries have a richer flavour with hints of anise and an evergreen aftertaste which explains why the beverage containing the fruit is traditionally consumed around Christmas. Other indigenous trees on the farm include soursop, papaya (pawpaw), sugar apple, hog plums, West Indian plums and a tree locally known as “cinnamint.”

Cinnamint is one of several types of leaves at Good Moon Farm that are perfect for hot or iced teas—known as “bush tea” in the islands.

After our appetizer of guavaberries and the palate-cleansing cinnamint leaves, we dined on a more substantial course of local red and yellow bananas. Red bananas have more of a honey flavour than yellow bananas, and both varieties of the stubby, chubby fruits taste sweeter, denser and creamier than the supermarket

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variety. We walked with our portable breakfast past the terraced vegetable gardens, the nursery, a cassava zone, and a wall of spinach down to a small plateau with a tall plot of fresh sweet corn, planted from seeds Aragorn bought in Road Town, and a pen full of the largest chickens I’ve ever seen. The chickens, given to the farm from a couple who imported the beasts from South Africa, lay eggs and also serve as mobile fertilizer. The pen is moved around to farm to enrich the soil of different areas of land, from pumpkin patches to flower gardens. No chemical or even commercial fertilizers are used at Good Moon Farm, nor does Aragorn utilize pesticides; rather, he plants the crops “out of sync with the bugs that tend to destroy them” and keeps three cats on the farm for any rodent issues.

As we strolled back up the hill, Aragorn lead us to a dessert of hog plums—yellow, apricot-sized fruits that tasted of mango but less tart—and explained that we were welcome to come back any time and work the farm in exchange for a bag or two of fresh produce, and we all look forward to doing so.

The farm’s main clientele includes private vacation villa chefs seeking gourmet ingredients for their guests, bareboat crews wanting to provision with local produce, local restaurants providing their clients with interesting flavours and BVI residents trying to reduce their carbon footprint. The farm sells their goods at Aragorn’s Studio in Trellis Bay, at the farm in Turbull Estate above Trunk Bay, or through their website.

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Starters

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Ingredients

toRtillAs 2 small tortillas Oil for frying mAhi 4 6-oz mahi-mahi fillets, cut in half 1 Tbs vegetable oil Salt and pepper to taste Rice 1C 1 tsp ½ ½ ½ 2C

white rice vegetable oil red pepper, finely diced green pepper, finely diced yellow pepper, finely diced chicken stock Salt to taste

VinAiGRette 1 C grape tomatoes 3 Tbs shallot, minced 3 Tbs lemon juice 6 Tbs olive oil 2 Tbs fresh basil, shredded Salt and pepper toppinG 1 lb spinach Herb oil and basil leaves to garnish

Mahi Napoleon with Rasta Rice and Tomato Basil Vinaigrette Golden Pavilion Villa

Chef Kate Purdy

Tortillas: Cut small tortillas in half and fry (shallow or deep) until crisp. Drain and set aside.

Rice: Put ½ teaspoon vegetable oil in saucepan over medium heat and add rice. SautÊ for one minute until all rice grains are coated with oil. Add chicken stock and salt to taste. Cover with lid and turn heat to low. Simmer rice for 15 minutes or until cooked through. Turn off heat, add diced peppers and allow to sit for 10 minutes with the lid on the pan. Fluff rice and peppers together before serving.

Vinaigrette: Slice tomatoes in half and season well. In a separate bowl, mix shallots and lemon juice together and gradually whisk in olive oil. Add basil and set aside Topping: Rinse spinach and roughly chop. Place in a saucepan with water still on the leaves and cover pot.

Heat pot over medium heat and wilt spinach for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and season to taste.

Mahi: Heat one tablespoon vegetable oil in frying pan over medium heat. Season mahi well and sautĂŠ in pan for about three to four minutes per side, depending on thickness.

To assemble: Mix the tomatoes and vinaigrette together.

Put one portion of rice in the middle of a plate. Place a piece of fish on top and then a fried tortilla on top of that.

Gently spoon some wilted spinach in the middle of the tortilla and then put another piece of fish on the spinach.

Spoon the tomato and basil vinaigrette over the fish and around the rice. Garnish with basil leaves, and drizzle herb oil around plate. Serves four.

Recommended Wine Pairings: Cloudy Bay Chardonnay (Marlborough-New Zealand) Hugel & Fils Gewurztraminer (Alsace-France) Montes Alpha Merlot (Chile) Robert Mondavi Private Selection Merlot (California)

TASTE | British Virgin Islands

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To purchase contact books@alookingglass.com

From local favourites to haute cuisine, simply the most delectable recipes from some of the best chefs in the British Virgin Islands.