Picture: Taste Atlas
Lucinda Frye
Diverse and indigenous cuisine brought by the many ethnic people to St. Maarten from all over the world piques our interest. To this end, we are on a quest to find where it comes from, if it is used for celebrations, if it is exotic to some but everyday food to others. Anything to do with keeping the body and soul nourished with that which is produced from good old terra firma, is what makes the world go around.
Around the world, one finds some countries have dishes that are totally delicious to the people who live there, but more often than not, when newcomers to those dishes know just what ingredients are in them, they turn up their noses and simply will not even taste them. Adventurous as I am, I have to admit that some dishes just don’t cut it with me. It is the smell that gets me and I can’t get that taste past my nose!
Most often, these dishes have ingredients from the innards of an animal; and may have originated from the times of hardship when cheaper cuts were used. The offal of the animal includes intestines, stomach, brains, blood, testicles and brains – the stinky bits. But sometimes, it is the general animal that smells even before cooking – take rabbit for instance.
I cannot eat rabbit. I can’t even pretend I would try a mouthful. Rabbit stew smells like my friend’s pets she used to keep when I was in junior school. Nope, not for me! Yet, hare and rabbit have been the basic diet of many through the ages.
We used to shoot buck (a permit is needed and it was only allowed at certain times of the year when culling was necessary). The farmers would only eat the most tender parts of the animal. The rest was divided up between the crew. Often, we would choose some of the tougher parts, which we minced and turned into various dishes, but we did not take any offal from these animals.
Chicken heads and feet are cheap and a delicacy in many parts of the world, including here on island. In Brazil, the big supermarkets display the heads (on the long necks) and the feet in the cold section of the store, much as fish is displayed in our big supermarket on island.
Sausages are minced meat stuffed into clean intestines of an animal. You can buy these casings on island. Many sausage casings these days are artificial casings, made of collagen and cellulose.
“The natural casing’s origin may have begun around 4,000BC where cooked meat was stuffed into the stomach of a goat. But today, natural casings are made from the submucosa, a layer which consists of naturally occurring collagen of a farm animal's intestine. The intestines mainly come from pigs, cattle, goats, sheep, and sometimes horses.”
Then there is tripe – this offal is a cut of meat that comes from the stomach lining of cows, pigs, sheep and goats. Cultures around the world have long been using it as a healthy source of protein. This is possibly one of the worst “smelly” foods to me. I cannot even try it. The reason is that when I was young and dog food was not an easy thing to find, my household cooked up “dirty tripe” for the dogs. Coming home from school on those days was a nightmare. This was especially so, as we knew that “clean tripe” would be part of the evening meal. My parents (and many from their era) adored their tripe dinner. Apparently, this came from the days during World War II, when meat was scarce. Clean tripe does not smell as bad when being cooked – but it is bad enough.
Liver and kidneys are a must for some folk. Personally, I love veal and lamb kidneys and chicken liver; but regular liver – no thank you! Perhaps because, if we were ill and looking “anaemic”, we would be served liver as a pick-me-up – “Liver contains a lot of iron,” they said, “you need it for your blood!”
Fried liver and onions is a much enjoyed meal for many. I can’t leave out sweetbreads. These are not bread nor are they sweet. They are savoury nuggets made from organ meat using the thymus gland and pancreas from veal, lamb, beef or pork.
Haggis is a tasty dish from Scotland; it is a dish that is quite tasty. Called a savoury pudding, the ingredients are sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs) minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt. Then a stock is stirred in and this is all stuffed into the animal's stomach.
Brains a la crème (fried lamb’s brains) caramelized calf brains – whatever way it is cooked – some can taste the slightly bitter undertone.
Chicken gizzards, blood sausages, stuffed stomachs, hooves, neck, feet, organs and heads are all much cheaper than those fancy cuts of meat we like to eat.
Why is it that offal is generally not eaten much these days? Well, research shows that the way of eating (in America) started changing from about 1865, as mass produced meat became more readily available. Cooks began to turn to the parts of the animals that were easier to cook in a delicious manner, this being the muscle meat of the animals.
Organ meat became cheaper and cheaper as fewer people wanted to buy it, until it eventually became equated with poverty. Serving offal showed a guest that their host could not afford even the simplest luxuries in life!
During WWII, American government propaganda encouraged Americans to eat more offal (it was patriotic to eat organs). Offal was not rationed by the government during the war, nor was rabbit and other game meats. After the war, offal fell out of fashion again within all economic groups. Meat production grew and organ meat was exported to the countries that still used it.
Asia and Europe still eat many dishes using offal. In Rome, some of the dishes are legendary. Young lamb (abbacchio) is often grilled or roasted. The insides (the pluck of the lamb – heart, lungs, liver, kidney and spleen) are diced and cooked with wine, herbs and sometimes artichokes – a special dish for some.
There are recipes using bull’s testicles and penises and pig’s fallopian tubes (usually fried) to be found on the internet. I will leave you, dear reader, to try those if you like. Here are some more common recipes to try.
RECIPES
Skilpadjies – Little Tortoises
This is a traditional South African appetizer. You can make homemade ratafia by using three parts fresh fruit juice to one part Armagnac! I like to wrap these in bacon strips if I fry them on the stove.
Ingredients
500g cleaned liver
1 cup yoghurt
1 cup Ratafia – see above
50g onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic minced
1tsp freshly chopped thyme
Pinch ground cloves
Salt and pepper to taste
12 pieces of caul fat cut into squares about 12×12cm
Method
Properly clean liver – all tubes and membranes removed.
Halve into two bowls of 250g each; cover one with yoghurt and one with Ratafia.
Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Drain and rinse the livers in cold water, pat dry.
Chop by hand to a rough mince texture.
Add the rest of the ingredients (except the caul fat).
Mix and form 12 balls.
Place the mixture in the centre of the square of caul fat.
Wrap, fasten with a tooth pick keeping the round shape.
Cook 15-20 min over medium-heat coals.
Caul fat should crisp up.
Serve immediately.
Flaki – Polish tripe soup (flaczki translates literally to guts in Polish)
Ingredients
3LBs honeycomb tripe
2LBs beef soup bones
3 carrots, diced
2 large onions, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
10 whole allspices
10 black peppercorns
3 bay leaves
1TBL hot paprika
1TBL sweet paprika
1TBL chopped fresh parsley
1tsp dried marjoram
6oz tomato paste
Salt & pepper
Method
Use clean tripe.
Put tripe into a heavy pot with lid.
Cover tripe with water, simmer 3 hours at least.
Drain, thinly slice tripe.
Return to heavy pot.
Add remaining ingredients, cover with water.
Bring to a boil then simmer an hour at least.
Remove soup bones (pick off any meat and add to soup).
Crumbed Lamb’s Brains – delicious and tender
Ingredients
3 cups chicken stock or water
6 lamb brains
1 tsp salt
½ cup flour, seasoned
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup breadcrumbs
2cm lard or olive oil
Method
Cover lamb’s brains with enough cold chicken stock or water.
Bring to a boil, simmer 2 minutes, then cover with a lid.
Turn off the heat, leave to cool.
When cool, remove from the liquid, pat dry with paper towel.
Trim off fat or tissue.
Separate the brains in half, making 12 individual pieces.
Dip each piece in flour, then egg and then breadcrumbs.
Refrigerate for half an hour or more.
Deep-fry in melted lard or olive oil until crisp and golden.
Serve with lemon wedges and salad.
Torcinelli - stuffed lamb intestines.
Italian version
Clean lamb’s entrails with salt and water, leave to soak for a day.
Clean stomachs and sweetbreads and chop with carrots, onions and parsley.
Stuff into the intestines and steam or grill.
These may then be stewed in a sauce made of tomatoes, onions, basil, and parsley.
Serve over homemade pasta.
Lebanese version
Thoroughly clean entrails with lemon, coarse salt and vinegar.
Make a stuffing of minced meat, rice and spices (allspice, cinnamon, black pepper and salt).
Stuff and place in a pot, cover with water.
Add two onions studded with cloves, a few bay leaves, quartered lemons, and a few black peppercorns.
Simmer gently, skimming the liquid.
Serve in the broth with garlic yogurt mixed with a little dried mint.
