Yahneake Sterling, Staff Reporter
Yendi is all smiles as she shows off her finished dishes. - photos by Yahneake Sterling
Welcome to Food's new monthly feature, 'Cooking With ...' , where we take you inside the kitchens of well-known Jamaican personalities and find out some of their culinary secrets. We will find out what their favourite foods are and watch them prepare and serve them as well as share their recipes with you. Our first guest is Miss Jamaica World 2007, Yendi Phillipps.
She doesn't like to wash dishes but she loves to cook.Clad in a flirty Caribbean inspired dress, Yendi Phillipps, the reigning Miss Jamaica World, smiles as she welcomes Food into her cosy pad for a morning of cooking.
Phillipps is no professional, but can find her way around the kitchen. After all, she got her influence from her parents whom she describes as excellent cooks. Mom Sonja (deceased) was a great baker and dad Haleem passed on Chinese and Syrian cuisine.
She started experimenting in the kitchen at an early age, her first memory of a meal she prepared is 'jelly pork', a dish which with pork sausages cut in small portions and coated with a sauce made of ketchup, sugar and spices.
Laughing at the memory, Phillipps tells Food what is on the menu. "They're my favourite dishes," she notes:
Cream of pumpkin soup
Grilled fish fillet
Garlic shrimp
Garlic mashed potatoes
Steamed vegetables.
Ideally, she would serve a glass of home-made lemonade with these dishes, and vanilla ice cream to top it all off.
As she prepares to cut the pumpkin into small cubes, she tells Food laughingly, "I'm not a measuring cook. I use sight and taste. I measure for baking but when I'm cooking I just throw."
A very cheery Yendi starts out preparing the pumpkin soup (this is fully explained in the method that follows her recipe). While that is cooking, she gets the potatoes ready. "I like chunky mashed potatoes," she informs. That done, it's time to get the fish on the grill (full method also explained below).
Special seasonings
One can tell she knows what she is doing as she carefully wraps the fish in foil with special seasonings and places it into the oven.
She stops to check on her other dishes, then shifts focus to preparing the curried shrimp. "Shrimp cooks in four minutes," she says.
Time is a major factor when Miss Jamaica gets into the kitchen. "What I like about these dishes is that they are quick," she adds.
And in two hours, all the dishes were ready to be eaten. Mmmmmm. Absolutely delicious, this girl knows how to cook.
Reporter's take
Cream of pumpkin soup: very tasty. There was a hint of pepper and the other spices were not over-powering. The texture was perfect, not too thick and not too watery. It left a great aftertaste in my mouth.
Curried shrimp: Mmmmmm. Finger-licking good. Just a hint of pepper and garlic.
Grilled fish: tasted like my grandmother's home cooking. It had the right amount of spices that had my mouth watering for more.
Garlic potatoes: the taste of garlic was evident but it was not overpowering. It was a bit chunky, just as Yendi likes it.
Steamed: this dish was really interesting and tasty with the balsamic sauce.
Recipes as observed
Cream of pumpkin soup
Ingredients
1/4 of a medium-size pumpkin
1 sml onion
thyme
1 stalk scallion
2 tsp salt
A dash black pepper
A dash garlic and ginger spice
2 tbs coconut milk powder
Method
Boil pumpkin with seasonings until soft.
Remove from pot and blend until smooth.
Pour blended mixture into a pot.
Smooth coconut milk powder with 1/4 cup pumpkin mixture and pour into pot.
Add additional seasoning to flavour to your liking.
Serve.
Grilled fillet of fish
Ingredients
3 pieces fish fillets
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp fish spice
1 tsp salt
2 pegs garlic diced
1 small onion diced
1 stalk scallion
1 small scotch bonnet pepper chopped
Cilantro
Olive oil
Method
Season fish fillet with powdered seasoning (preferably done overnight).
Place fish on foil.
Put a generous amount of fresh onion, garlic scallion and cilantro on the fillet
Pour a drizzle of olive oil on the contents.
Carefully fold foil and place contents on grill.
Grill for 10 minutes.
Open foil and broil fillet for three minutes.
Remove from oven and serve.
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients
4 medium-size potatoes
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp salt
Method
Boil peeled potatoes until soft.
Drain water.
Crush cooked potatoes with milk and butter.
Add garlic and black pepper.
Cream to liking.
Serve.
Steamed cauliflower and snow peas
Ingredients
1/2 cauliflower
A handful snow peas
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
Method
In a vegetable steamer, bring water to boil.
Place vegetables in the steamer and sprinkle salt and black pepper over vegetables.
Steam to desired softness.
Remove and serve.
Balsamic glaze
Ingredients
Balsamic vinegar
2 tsp sugar
Method
Pour a generous amount of vinegar in a small pot.
Allow to simmer and add sugar.
Simmer until mixture coats spoon.
Pour over vegetable.
A generous serving of grilled fish fillet and curried shrimp.
