Crown Heights lies at the center of Brooklyn’s Caribbean community, home to one of the largest expatriate populations in the US with immigrants from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Haiti, and elsewhere. Nostrand Avenue, running north-south through Crown Heights, is dotted with roti shops and groceries, making it an ideal place to shop for West Indian ingredients.
For a nontraditional, Midwestern, Polish-American (via Brooklyn) Thanksgiving, try these stuffed collards with beef and rice. Soft, succulent, and slightly sweet – the perfect cold-weather meal.
Tamarind is the most popular fruit that you’ve never heard of. Ubiquitous throughout South East Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and Mexico, it’s rarely used or mentioned in the U.S. Learn where in Brooklyn to find this sweet-sour fruit and how to use it at home.
Why is it that pumpkin-flavored food items are always better in theory than in practice? Here’s a pumpkin-flavored thing that doesn’t disappoint: Pumpkin.
Amaranth was brought to the New World by West African slaves, and is a staple of Caribbean cuisine, appearing in Callaloo and also as a juice, in soups, and in places elsewhere occupied by spinach. I used mine in a frittata with goat cheese; for the recipe, read on.
Despite its tiny size, the Sunset Park Greenmarket has a sizeable proportion of produce geared towards the Latin market, with crates of fresh peppers (poblanos, jalapeños, cherry peppers), tomatillos, squash, epazote, and other herbs both foreign and flavorful. Find out what I did with this amazing array of fresh herbs and veggies with a recipe for guacamole and papalo.
Like a fresh version of the tamale, the South American humita is a custard-like mixture of ground corn kernels, packed in its own husks and steamed on top of stripped cobs, sweet and sometimes spicy, often made with quesillo or queso fresco. Stop by your local Farmer’s Market, grab a few cobs and get started on this homemade treat.
