Belly Full: Exploring Caribbean Cuisine Through 11 Fundamental Ingredients and Over 100 Recipes

Enston’s colorful and heartfelt debut celebrates and illuminates Caribbean cuisine by focusing on 11 “key ingredients” central to the region: beans, calabaza, cassava, chayote, coconut, cornmeal, okra, plantains, rice, salted cod, and Scotch bonnet peppers. Recipes span countries, especially pulling from Trinidad, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic, with amiable introductions reflecting Enston’s Trinidadian roots and personal connections to the dishes. Noting that the Caribbean is a “delightful, complicated, layered place where pain and joy live side by side,” Enston offers thoughtful historic tidbits throughout: salted cod came to the region as a source of protein on slave ships, while split pea fritters were brought to Trinidad and Tobago by indentured servants from India. Calabaza is used to make Soup Joumou, or Freedom Soup, to commemorate Haiti’s Independence Day, and cassava is featured in a flatbread that “has been around since about 2000 BCE” and is made across the Caribbean. Trinidadian fried okra is sure to convert “slime haters to the okra cause,” while scotch bonnets spice up mango salad, jerk chicken, and shrimp. Handy tips on buying, cooking, and storing ingredients include instructions for making coconut milk to use in coconut pudding. Home cooks are sure to be inspired. (Sept.)