A Trip to St. Thomas

~  Menu  ~

Tuna & Sweet Potato Salad in Chilli Lime Mayo

Amstel Light 

(but I really wanted white wine)

My Real Man likes, in these climes, a tuna sarnie for his lunch but, unfortunately, I recently bought a few cans of The Wrong Type; chunky white albacore, I’m afraid.  I am, therefore, trying to use them up like the good girl I am.

Luckily I had the end of a sweet potato in the fridge plus a few fingerlings so I cooked them a couple of hours before lunch (sweet potatoes cook quicker than normal so I added them after the fingerlings had been simmering a few minutes), drained them and immediately tossed them in some mayonnaise flavoured up with a little hot sauce and some grated lime zest and juice.  It is best to dress potatoes salads when warm as they absorb the flavour and fluff up a bit – a lot of people know that!

I’ll be frank with you – I’d have preferred this salad if it had been just sweet potatoes; the fingerlings didn’t seem to be right in it.  For a finishing crunchy touch I sprinkled over the crumbs in the bottom of a packet of Ritz Toasted Chips which I have just discovered and which I hope are available in the UK.  Let me know if you know!

On Thursday last I went to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands for a girly day out with my friends.  We went to a fabulous place at Havensight called The Barefoot Buddha where I drank a delicious Cubano coffee and ate the vast piece of Cinnamon, Pumpkin, and Enormous Chocolate Chip Cake pictured below.

Lovely place including a shop section full of excellent clothes and jewelry.  If you are in St. Thomas give it a go – I recommend it.

Later in the day my friend Mrs. Gweenie (which is not her name but I call her it anyway – just to confuse her) ate a delicious Feta and all sorts of Mediterranean Stuff Pizza and a fruity, nutty salad for lunch at Calico Jack’s in Charlotte Amalie.

St. Thomas is very different from Tortola, much busier, much more American (which I suppose it would be), not such a small Caribbean community type of place.  It’s great and useful (K-Mart etc.) to visit but I’m glad we spend our time in the BVI.  Some of waterfront Charlotte Amalie is pretty, however, and easy to see its Danish history in the narrow lanes and architecture.

Oh, and the ferry ride over's good too. 

Toasted Coconut & the Meaning of Life

THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN POSTED YESTERDAY BUT I COULDN'T GET ONLINE

~  Menu  ~

Spicy Tuna & Mango Koftas

Bit of Salad and Mayonnaise

Amstel Light

Coffee

2 squares from our Cadbury Stash

Yesterday my friend Clarky and I held a bit of a do for Roberta’s birthday – here is a picture of the table laid for dinner, nice setting or what!

We ate Seafood Mixed Grill (swordfish, fresh tuna, wonderful big juicy shrimp and red snapper), roasted Fingerling Potatoes, Salad, Spicy Mayonnaise and Crusty Bread followed by Homemade Toasted Coconut Ice Cream Birthday Cake and Fresh Fruit Salad spiked with rum and fresh lime. 

The mixed grill is something I started doing when I worked at the Tamarind Club; a selection of fish and shell fish marinated in olive oil and lemon and then chargrilled.  I used to serve it with grilled lemon halves but last night, for a change, we grilled sliced of fresh mango which worked really well with the fish. 

I bought the bread in the supermarket; it looked great but was so, so stale – Lawd a Massy!– so I ran it under the tap and then re-baked it alongside the fingerling potatoes and it came up a treat.

Toasted Coconut No-Churn Ice Cream 

This ice cream used to be a staple on my menus out here, using sweetened shredded coconut imported from America. It is difficult to find in the UK but worth seeking out, desiccated coconut just isn't the same BUT it’s OK, don’t worry, just see the note below. ***

500ml double cream

50ml rum or coconut rum such as Malibu

200g condensed milk

200g sweetened shredded coconut or see below

~  Preheat oven to 350˚F/180˚C. 

~   Spread the coconut in a shallow pan or tray and bake for about 10 minutes, checking and stirring often till a lot of it is golden brown.    The sugar in the coconut will make it burn easily so be astute.

~   Cool.

~   Whisk together the cream and the rum till thick. 

~   Fold in the condensed milk together with almost all the toasted coconut – keep a little back to sprinkle on when serving. 

~   Freeze.

For lots of easy, no-churn ice cream recipes, information, tips, ideas, serving suggestions and accoutrements see my Genius Ice Cream Recipe book here.

*** How to Make Desiccated Coconut much Nicer!

200g sugar

120ml water

200g desiccated coconut

~   Stir the sugar and water together over low heat till the sugar dissolves.  Bring to a boil.

~   Add the desiccated coconut and stir all together – the coconut will absorb the syrup.

~   Spread the moist coconut in a shallow lower on a sheet pan and set aside to dry, which will take all day or overnight, depending when you do it.  It can be stored in the fridge for several days or frozen at this stage.

Spicy Tuna & Mango Koftas

Today’s lunch was made from last night’s remains, of course.  I coarsely chopped about 3-4 oz leftover fish which was mainly tuna – cooked pink to please everyone, and it did – and the one leftover slice of grilled mango.  To this I added about 1 tbsp mayo and a few drips of West Indian Hot sauce and mixed in enough fresh breadcrumbs to bind the mixture.  I made little balls with the resulting goo and fried them till crisp in a little olive oil.  I was not disappointed and the sudden sweet tastes of mango were excellent.

Whilst eating lunch I listened to a nearby parrot pretend to be a telephone, watched pelicans splooshing into the sea and noticed a boat parked father out than us that put everything into perspective …