Caribbean Recipe Of The Week – Chop-Up

By Minna LaFortune

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Sept. 2, 2016: As chefs, sometimes we are blessed with such abundance of foods that we do not have the storage space to store all of it. During those blessed occasions I try to give away as much as I can to friends and neighbors.

Other times I try to find new recipes that I am inspired by utilizing the extra foods around.  Depending on the ingredients, I will bake a cake or make a stew or a soup. For example, if I have extra ripe bananas or carrots, I will make a cake and share with friends. If I have extra meat bones, I will make a soup or a  broth and store some for sauces.

Recently, I found myself with lots of freshly grown vegetables from my summer garden.  I had given some to my neighbors and friends but still had a lot of eggplants, tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers and Calaloo.

Then I decided to make a new dish for our family dinner. After searching my cook books and recipes on the Internet, I recalled the Antiguan recipe for “chop up,” a soft vegetable mash of okra, pumpkin, eggplant, and spinach. Given the ingredients I had on hand, I decided to make my version of it. It was so delicious and I served it with polenta and garlic bread.

Today I will share  my version of Chop-Up!

Ingredients

1 large onion chopped

I lb ripe tomatoes

2 lbs eggplant

1 lb sweet pepper

1 small hot pepper

1 lb Calaloo (chopped)

3 sprigs Thyme

1/2 cup chopped scallion

2 cloves of garlic (minced)

I/4 cup coconut oil

Salt

2 tsp black pepper

2 tsp Cumin

Method

Sauté onions, scallion, sweet peppers, hot pepper and garlic.

Add eggplant, calaloo and tomatoes.

Allow all to steam until cook.

Add black pepper, cumin and salt.

Cook for 10 more minutes, stirring all the ingredients together until any excess sauce is reduced.

Serve as a side dish or with rice, pasta , polenta and garlic bread as a main course.

Bon Appetite

EDITOR’S NOTE: Minna LaFortune is a trained Caribbean caterer and also president, Society for the Advancement of the Caribbean Diaspora (SACD). Check out her food group on Facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/bestfoodscaribbean/