Christmas Time- Family Time

Christmas is family time, but as in so many holidays food is at its core. Fruit cake and sorrel are a favourite for Jamaicans. Other simply delish items for the end of year feast are: ham, bake/roast/jerk chicken, stew/smoke pork, curry goat, potato salad and rice with gungo peas.

Gungo Peas and rice is a very easy to make side dish for many wonderful Jamaican entrees. Gungo beans (also known as "pigeon peas", "cow peas", and "Congo peas"). Gungo peas are a main staple crop in India, parts of Africa, and parts of Latin America. This hearty legume, in combination with cereals, such as barley or oats, can make up a nutritious base for a human diet. In jamaica however we use it in our popular "rice and peas" dish.

• 1 can of gungo peas (pigeon peas), substitute red beans in off-season
• 1 cup of coconut milk
• 2 cups of long grain rice
• 3 green onions, chopped with some of the green tops reserved for garnish
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1 Scotch bonnet pepper pricked with a fork (or substitute habenero)
• water
• Small cube of salt pork (optional)

1. Put the peas to boil. when the peas become tender, then stir in the coconut milk and the remaining ingredients. If you want to add salt pork you may do so.
2. Then add the water until it is a half an inch over the top of the rice. Cook over medium heat stirring once or twice until rice is well cooked.
3. Serve with chopped green onion tops and sliced lime for garnish

MERRY CHRISTMAS

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MAY YOU ENJOY THIS WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS DAY!

Christmas Drink-Sorrel

It has whorled spikes of reddish-green flowers, which bloom in June and July, becoming purplish. The stamens and pistils are on different plants; the ripe seeds are brown and shining.

One of the most refreshing drinks is "Sorrel." This drink is especially enjoyed during the holidays. I have remember my mother in Jamaica telling me she use to handpick the flowers. The seed of the sorrel is covered with fine prickly hairs that eventually find their way into the pads of your fingers.

Sorrel  is our favourite drink for Christmas and New Year.
To my mind  it should not be made thick and sweet, for then it becomes sickly and cloying.
It should be a light, refreshing drink that one accepts gladly during one's
round of Christmas visit and not one to be avoided.
The drink can be made from dried sorrel or sorrel syrup

8cups(3 1/2 pints, 2 litres) Sorrel petals Rum
2 oz (50 g) grated ginger        
Sugar
12cups (5 pints, 3 litres) boiling Water
Place the sorrel and ginger in a large container and pour on the boiling water.
Cover and leave  overnight, then strain through a muslin cloth or a sieve.
Add a little white rum  to preserve and sugar to sweeten. Bottle and refrigerate.
Makes approximately 4 1/2 pints (2.75 litres).