Ultramar

“Ultramar,” the Portuguese word for “overseas,” was used for centuries to describe the country’s various colonies, including those in Mozambique, on Africa’s southeast coast.  A variant of the term also was applied to residents of those lands, who often mixed Portuguese traditions with native customs.  As history unfolded, the years refined the mixture and led…

More Than Chicken

The islands, and Jamaica in particular, bring their vibrant kaleidoscope of life to the table and have made their cuisine a celebration.  One of their creations, jerk sauce, is of such flavorful exuberance to have gained acclaim far beyond the Caribbean.  Most commonly, jerk sauce enhances chicken, but it works magic for all manner of…

Quite a Gift!

Family tradition going back generations places a tangerine at the tip of each Christmas stocking.  As such, it’s the last treasure children (and other lucky recipients) extract that happy morning.  There are practical reasons for the gift, maybe, in that citrus is in season late December, but where’s the holiday magic in that? The real…

Rainbows of Rice

It’s simple, really.  Start with plain white rice, nothing special, and choose a direction, savory or sweet.  Rice is wonderfully versatile, and readily lends itself to nearly every imaginable culinary impulse.  Oh, and for an intriguing twist, choose a color to match each variety’s “mood.”  More about this shortly. The yellow course, plotted above, follows…

Ah, Here’s the Rum!

As though living and eating on Tahiti weren’t intoxicating enough, the sauce lacing today’s fish filets is generous with the rum.   More than just a splash, half a cup leaves the bottle each time the recipe comes together.  Of course, spoilsports might point out that the alcohol evaporates away long before the cooking is…

Stickin’ with Chicken

Why not?  Poultry is so versatile and, when prepared properly, so juicy and flavorful it’s earned the lead position on these pages.  In fact, chicken likely has appeared more frequently than all else combined.  Part of it too is a personal mission to rescue chicken from the neglect into which it too often has fallen.…