callaloo

CALLALOO WITH VEGETABLES
The callaloo may be substituted by fresh spinach. The dish is served with rice or roti and an accompaniment such as fried plantain.

Ingredients:
1 lb (450 g) callaloo
1 lb (450 g) pak choy
1 medium-sized onion
2 spring onions
2 medium-sized tomatoes
3 tbs vegetable oil
1 tsp fresh thyme
1 habenero pepper
freshly ground black pepper
1 tin ackees

Method:
Thoroughly wash the callaloo and pak choy/Chinese cabbage. Trim away the thicker stems and roughly chop. Peel and slice the onion, slice the spring onions, blanch and peel the tomatoes, then chop them. Heat the vegetable oil in a heavy saucepan, add the sliced onion and cook until soft. Toss in the chopped greens together with the spring onions, thyme, whole habenro pepper and black pepper. Cover the pan, turn the heat to minimum and cook, stirring occasionally for 15-20 minutes. Do not let the mixture dry out during this time and be careful when stirring not to break the habenro. Meanwhile drain the tin of ackees and steam gently over a pan of boiling water. When the vegetables are cooked, remove the hot pepper and carefully stir in the ackees. Serves 4.

Callaloo is a leafy West Indian staple green vegetable, somewhat like spinach or kale.

In Trinidad, this is also the name of the soup made from said vegetable. In Jamaica, "callaloo" refers to a combination of fried callaloo and salted fish.

As of about a year ago   (please don't ask me to do further research, why can't you just be satisfied with what I give you?), the world's oldest living person was a Dominican woman named Elizabeth 'Pampo' Israel, who was turning 125. She told reporters that callaloo and crab were responsible for her strength and endurance.

Calalloo is also the name of a journal giving "local and global music perspectives on hiphop."

thanks to:
http://www.delphis.dm/thechronicle/991224.htm
http://www.newworldhomecooking.com/calalloo.htm
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~kg6j/vitae.html

Callaloo? Calaloo? Calalloo? Those L's seem to travel about and multiply at will, but the signified does not. Callaloo is a leafy green vegetable commonly used in Caribbean cooking and also a Caribbean stew made with the leaves.

Callaloo are the leaves of any variety of taro plant and are also called dasheen leaves; though one source (www.foodsubs.com) says that the leaves of taro, like the roots, contain the toxin calcium oxalate and so must be cooked for 45 minutes before it can be eaten, no other sources mention this, and since I've never cooked with callaloo I can't confirm this. Any kind of bitter green can be substituted for callaloo: spinach, chard, collard greens, sorrel, etc. Callaloo leaves are apparently much larger than these other greens - over a foot long, says that same source - so must be chopped before being used.

The stew or soup is a kind of gumbo, a melange of ingredients and flavours prepared in different ways throughout the Caribbean islands. The greens are the core of the recipe, and other common additions are okra as a thickening agent, tomatoes, crabmeat or lobster, and bacon or ham. The stew is liberally seasoned with garlic, scallions, thyme, and scotch bonnet peppers, which are really hot, so the stew is very spicy and sometimes called pepperpot. It all sounds great, but I've never eaten or cooked this, so I can't give you a recipe. The one above seems a fairly standard, from what I've seen, except for the ackees and lack of meat.

www.b-v-i.com/Cooking/Callaloo/default.htm has a good general description of the dish, and advocates experimenting, which is where I'd start if I was going to make this.