De Parang Now Start: 2 Days 'til Christmas
Black Pudding & Ginger Beer- Trini Christmas Classic recipes that will level up your plant-based table one at a time.
Happy Saturday, Love!
How are you? How's your holiday menu planning coming along?
As for me, on the 3rd day til Christmas, I forgot to schedule my email. So today, you get not one but TWO Trini Christmas classics: Vegan Trini-style Black Pudding (a breakfast dish) and Ginger beer.
I developed this pudding recipe in 2020 and it still conjures childhood Christmas memories.
Meet me in the kitchen.
Vegan Trini-style Black Pudding
Here’s what you’ll need:
(If you don’t have everything, improvise—we both know, I arrived at this recipe through pure improvisation! LOL! All measurements are approximations because the ancestors guide me!)
2-3 cans of black beans
½ cup cooked quinoa
¼ cup pecans
1 tbsp hemp seeds (optional)
4 large cloves of garlic
½ large pimento —seeds and all
½ tsp liquid smoke
2 tsp molasses
2 tbsp soy sauce
Trini green seasoning
Nutritional yeast (optional)
Dried thyme
Clove powder
Roucou (or annatto seed powder)
Paprika
Sazon
Sea salt
Coconut oil or your favorite oil
Here’s what you’ll need to do:
#1 Boil your nuts and seeds + make pâté.
Traditional black pudding is made from pig’s blood and liver. To replicate the unctuous texture of liver, I decided to make a pecan and hemp seed pâté. If you are nut-free, swap the pecans with pumpkin or sunflower seeds.
I started by boiling my nuts in seasoned water. I used the same blend I use for pecan or walnut meat, a tiny splash of liquid smoke, brown sugar/agave—a tip, a heap of paprika, and a holy ghost shake of garlic powder (plenty). I let the nuts boil until they are soft. Add them to my food processor with a tiny spoonful of the cooking liquid, 4 peeled garlic cloves, half of a de-stemmed pimento, a tablespoon of hemp seeds, a shake of sazon dried seasoning, and a small glug of coconut oil. I use garlic-infused coconut oil but use whichever oil moves you. Blitz until the mixture is smooth and thick like pate. Put in a large bowl. Set aside.
#2 Drain and rinse your beans.
Open your cans, drain, and rinse your black beans. Once your beans are rinsed and drained, take ¼ of them and add to the bowl with your pate. Take the rest and blitz them to a smooth consistency. Take a fork and gently mash the whole beans before adding your cooked quinoa.
#3 Mix it all up.
Incorporate your quinoa, beans, and pate well. To the bowl add all of your seasoning to taste starting with a heaping spoon of Trini green seasoning, a squeeze of lime juice, and two teaspoons of pepper sauce or a blitzed scotch bonnet sans the seeds.
Be careful when adding your liquid smoke and clove powder, these flavors can be overwhelming so add a little bit at a time until you are happy with it. Taste along the way.
The molasses and soy sauce both do double duty. First, they help get the appropriate color, and then the molasses adds a bit of sweetness while the soy sauce adds saltiness.
Except for salt, the dried seasonings you can add as much or as little as you like according to your palette. I shake until my ancestors whisper that is enough!
Overall, your pudding should have a deeply rich and warm flavor with a spicy kick at the end. The clove powder gives a great warm note and the other flavors evoke a slight porkiness. The texture is important too. You are looking for a balance between a smooth pate finish and a crumbly texture when it cooks up. If you need a firmer texture— add more quinoa, if you like the smoother, fattier feel on your tongue add a tiny bit of oil to your mixture and incorporate it well.
#4 Wrap it up.
Put your mixture in the freezer for ten minutes or so to help it firm up. If it's too loose you can add more quinoa, vegan breadcrumbs, or blitzed oats, BUT you don't want it too dry! The texture will be all wrong.
Once it’s chilled, take parchment paper and leaving about an inch of paper to the left, spoon your mixture into it. You need just enough to make a medium-sized sausage roll so about a tablespoon and a half. I made mine much larger but it made it difficult to wrap it well in the paper, don't over stuff as I did.
Once your mixture is spooned onto the paper you are going to use the paper to roll it into a log. Fold the inch of paper over the mixture, massage it into a roll, and then roll it over into the paper once more until it is wrapped. Twist the ends of the paper to secure your sausage. If you have access to vegan sausage casings that's also a great option.
Freeze your pudding until you are ready to use it. Defrost it until you can easily unwrap the paper. Slice it up and fry it up with onions and pimentos.
Serve with bread. I like coconut bake with mine.
Ginger Beer
Here’s What You’ll Need:
1 lb ginger
1 lime
2 cloves
Cold water
White Sugar
Agave/ brown sugar
Here’s what you’ll need to do:
#1 Wash, peel, and slice or grate your ginger. I opted to slice my ginger because I didn’t have time to grate an entire pound of ginger and I’m happy to report that nobody died! LOL! This is cooking; there are no hard and fast rules beside churning out the best possible tasting product. Wash the ginger thoroughly and you can even avoid peeling it if you so choose.
#2 Peel and juice your lime, don’t throw away the peels (zest). You’ll need them to add a zesty kick—pun intended— to your drink.
#3 There are two ways you can do this. The quick and easy way—always my preferred method—is as follows.
In a pot, mix your ginger, water (about 10 cups), cloves, lime juice, agave syrup, or brown sugar and the lime zest. I boiled it for 30 minutes. Let sit overnight or for three to four hours (minimum).
The longer and, I suppose, more loving way is as follows…
In a pitcher, mix grated ginger, water (about 10 cups), cloves, lime juice, sweetener (brown sugar or agave syrup), and the lime zest. Let sit for at least 12 to 24 hours.
The difference between these methods is the depth of the ginger flavor. If you love an intense ginger beer flavor, boiling will get you there really quickly. Mine would put a lil hair on your chest lol.
Whichever method you choose, after the mixture has sat, strain.
Add water until you reach your desired strength and serve over ice.
Enjoy!
As the countdown to Christmas continues, I hope these recipes help to conjure a loving warmth at your table like they do at mine. Share them with your loved ones because food is better in community.
Until tomorrow, remember I love yuh like cooked food.
XOXO
Mel
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