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Aruba Keshy Yena

Keshi Yena - Recipe from Aruba

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To make Keshi Yena, clean and season chicken with lime juice, salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, and onion. Let it marinate, then broil or bake until cooked, debone, and set aside. Sauté tomatoes, onions, green pepper, parsley, and seasoning, then mix with olives, capers, raisins, piccalilli, and ketchup. Simmer until thickened, then cool and combine with beaten eggs.
Prepare a cheese shell or line a casserole with Edam or Gouda slices. Add egg, then layer meat mixture and hard-cooked eggs. Top with cheese slices or the cheese cap, seal with more egg, and cook in a double boiler or water bath. Once set, invert and serve warm to preserve texture.
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Cook Time 3 hours
Course Main Course
Cuisine aruba, Dutch Caribbean
Servings 6

Ingredients
  

  • Scooped Edam cheese rind
  • 1 lb. chicken breasts
  • 1 lb. chicken thighs
  • Salt and pepper
  • Poultry seasoning
  • Minced onion
  • 4 quarts water
  • 2 tsp. salt
  • 12 peppercorns
  • 1 or 2 onions
  • 1 celery stalk with leaves bay leaf bruised
  • 3 tomatoes peeled and chopped
  • 4 onions sliced
  • 1 large green pepper chopped
  • 1 Tbs. parsley minced, or a few drops Tabasco sauce
  • Salt and pepper
  • 2 Tbs. ketchup
  • 1/4 cup pimento olives sliced
  • 1 Tbs. capers
  • 1/4 cup raisins
  • 2 Tbs. piccalilli
  • 3 eggs reserving about 6 Tbs.
  • 1 or 2 hard-cooked eggs

Instructions
 

  • For the chicken filling, rub with the juice of several limes:
  • Season the breasts and thighs with: Salt and pepper, Poultry seasoning, Minced onion
    1 lb. chicken breasts, 1 lb. chicken thighs, Salt and pepper, Poultry seasoning, Minced onion
  • Let stand for several hours then either arrange the pieces in a shallow baking dish. Brown the chicken under the broiler and then bake it for one hour at 350.
  • Debone when cool enough to handle and set aside.
  • After the chicken has been prepared by one of the above methods, sautee two tablespoons butter, 3 tomatoes, peeled and chopped, 4 onions, sliced, 1 large green pepper, chopped; 1Tbs. parsley, minced, or a few drops Tabasco sauce and Salt and pepper.
    3 tomatoes, 4 onions, 1 large green pepper, 1 Tbs. parsley, Salt and pepper
  • Add and stir in well along with 2 Tbs. ketchup, 1/4 cup pimento olives, sliced; 1 Tbs. capers, 1/4 cup raisins and 2 Tbs. piccalilli.
    1/4 cup pimento olives, 1 Tbs. capers, 1/4 cup raisins, 2 Tbs. piccalilli
  • Simmer until the tomatoes are reduced, about twenty or thirty minutes.
  • Remove from heat and let mixture cool.
  • Preheat oven to 350 and begin heating water in the bottom of a double boiler.
  • Beat and add to the meat mixture, 3 eggs, reserving about 6 Tbs.
    3 eggs
  • Generously butter a casserole or the top of a double boiler before placing the cheese shell in it.
    Scooped Edam cheese rind
  • Spoon three tablespoons of the reserved beaten egg into the bottom of the container. Half fill with the meat mixture and add 1 or 2 hard-cooked eggs.
  • Fill shell to the top with remaining meat and cover with the original cap of the Edam, from which the wax has been removed, or a few slices of cheese. (Never use soft young cheese for keshi yena)
  • Drip the remaining three tablespoonfuls of beaten egg over the top of the cheese as a sealer.
  • Place the lid on the double boiler.
  • Set the casserole in a pan of hot water or the double boiler top over the simmering water.
  • Cook for one and one-quarter hours. Reverse keshi yena on a heated platter and keep warm for the cheese becomes hard and unappetizing if permitted to cool.
  • NOTE: In place of the cheese shell, two pounds of Edam or Gouda slices may be used to line the cooking container. The slices should overlap and create the same effect as the shell. Add filling cover with additional slices and follow direction.