-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Recipe developer and food writer Lesley Enston's new cookbook "Belly Full: Exploring Caribbean Cuisine Though 11 Fundamental Ingredients and Over 100 Recipes" delve deep into the staple ingredients which make up the rich tapestry that is Caribbean food. From Trinidad and Tobago to Cuba, from Antigua to Jamaica, from Barbados to Martinique, Enston details the classic cuisine of each country, both disparate and uniting in its familiar base flavors. Enston specifically references eleven ingredients — beans, cassava, coconut and rice among them — which make up the backbone of Caribbean cuisine at large, including unique recipes and varying uses for each staple ingredient based in the history and culture of each country.
Related "Culinary activist" Lelani Lewis on how human injustice shapes culinary culture As Enston told me, to her, is holistic: "[it means] both a full belly and a full heart. It means satisfied and satiated and like all is right with the world." Salon Food had the opportunity to speak with Enston about her favorite Caribbean dishes, the aforementioned eleven staple ingredients, a formative moment when she embraced food and cooking, her most used ingredients how her experience with the Haiti Culture Exchange influenced her cooking (and this book! and much more.
The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Belly Full: Exploring Caribbean Cuisine Through 11 Fundamental Ingredients and Over 100 Re.
