Yesterday was a holy day for Rastafarians, so I decided to cook up some food for Jamaica. I didn't get too many pictures since I started cooking so late and the process was very simple. I've noticed that when I make things like soups and stews, there aren't as many opportunities to take cool pictures since most of the process is just cutting up vegetables and simmering everything together.
The soup that I made today is based on the Rastafarian principle of Ital (pronounced like vital without the "v"), which is a set of guidelines for eating vegetarian/vegan, avoiding processed foods, and eating as pure as possible. The idea is to be as close to nature and the earth as possible, so many Rastafarians grow their own food and cook with clay pots rather than metal. There's a short article about it on National Geographic which is pretty interesting. I love finding foods to make that are naturally vegetarian that I don't have to tinker with--although I love putting my own spin on things--since that makes planning a lot easier. So of course I was immediately drawn into the idea of making some "Ital" food.
This soup is simple but the flavors are pretty complex. I mostly used veggies that I already had in my fridge, since I didn't want them to go bad. It starts with a base of garlic and scallions with some ginger, then veggies (carrot, bell pepper, potato) and red kidney beans. Vegetable broth and coconut milk are added for everything to simmer in. For flavoring, I used some Jamaican jerk seasoning that I had on hand, plus some fresh thyme. A bit of allspice and nutmeg helped to add some complexity as well. I then added some fresh chopped jalapeno as well (actual Jamaicans would use Scotch bonnet peppers, but jalapenos are easier for me to get my hands on).
To go along with the soup, I also made some bulla (sometimes referred to as bulla cakes or bulla bread). These are not an Ital recipe, but just a typical Jamaican one. These did not turn out quite how I wanted them to. The recipe I used was definitely off; it's supposed to form a dough that can be kneaded and rolled out, but what I ended up with was more like a batter, way too wet and sticky. I did the best I could to incorporate more flour into the mix and knead it a bit, and they turned out fine, but not how they're supposed to.
The dough is made with brown sugar, butter, and lots of ginger. The taste on these was actually really good, since I love gingery things. My first batch didn't really rise like they should have, and I definitely left them in to long, so they got hard and crumbly but I'm okay with just eating them like ginger cookies, with some tea.
The rest of the dough I just flattened a little bit and put the whole thing on the baking sheet instead of cutting into circles. I took it out before it hardened, so the texture was much better (though dry probably from me adding more and more flour to get the dough stiff enough to work with). Recipes for bulla cakes suggest to eat them with avocado, so that's what we did!
Overall, Chris said if he had a ranking system for the food I've made for this project, he would put this in the top 5! Which is kind of surprising, since it was so simple to make. But I guess for us, anything with coconut milk and ginger is going to be a hit!
Recipes Used: Ital Stew // Bulla Cake
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