The new Caribbean food movement

But the diverse queue of customers at the Food Sermon, in a gentrifying neighborhood that has long been home to a vibrant West Indian community, is the latest sign that the next place to spark New York City’s culinary interest may just be the Caribbean, a catchall term for the islands of the West Indies and the Caribbean Sea, as well as coastal countries like Belize and Guyana. More than 1.5 million New Yorkers can trace their roots to the region, where the cooking is often spectacularly bright, complex and flavorful.

Consider Grandchamps, a new all-day cafe in Brooklyn, where the chef Shawn Brockman dips into his wife’s Haitian family cookbook to make sandwiches layered with griot — pork that is slow-cooked, then fried — plantains and pikliz, which is a mess of shredded cabbage, carrots and fragrant Scotch bonnet chilies.

At the two-year-old restaurant Glady’s in Brooklyn, the chef Michael Jacober prepares traditional Jamaican jerk chicken, fish and pork over a high-end wood-fired grill in a modern open kitchen. That grill is fed in part by imported pimento wood, for an authentically smoke-charred, deeply spiced dish with just the right balance of sweet and heat. Jacober plans to open a 4,000-square-foot outpost, also in Brooklyn, next year.

And then there is the success of the two Miss Lily’s restaurants in lower Manhattan, the second of which opened last year. Co-founded by the nightclub guru Serge Becker, the diner-style restaurant has its own line of sauces and a late-night menu featuring $5 rice and peas, sweet plantains and the cornmeal fritters Jamaicans call festival.

That the food of the Caribbean is increasingly being embraced by chefs and diners alike comes as no surprise to Alexander Smalls, an owner of Minton’s and the Cecil in upper Manhattan.

“It’s bold and full-flavored and aromatic and textured food,” Smalls said. The Cecil in particular draws liberally from Guyana and Trinidad, in dishes like a roti pizza topped with soft shreds of oxtail, while the shrimp in chili-tomato sauce over yam flapjacks borrows from the executive chef JJ Johnson’s Barbadian relatives.

Smalls grew up eating the Gullah cuisine found in his native South Carolina, which has deep ties to the Caribbean islands via the colonial slave trade. He has spent a lifetime pondering the culinary legacy of the African diaspora and the effects of “hundreds and hundreds of years of migration,” he said, on countries like Barbados and Guyana.

Although the results vary from nation to nation, Smalls said, Caribbean food is a fusion of influences that may include plantains, okra and rice from African slaves; stir-fries and soy sauce from Chinese migrant workers; pork in all forms from Spanish colonists; puff pastry from the French; and myriad curries and flatbreads delivered with indentured servants from India.

Add in the tropical climate — mountains where high-quality coffee grows, brimming seas, verdant backyards laden with coconuts and sweet mango — and you have the makings of some astoundingly good food, said Guyanese-born chef Raymond Mohan, who owns LoLo’s Seafood Shack with his wife, Leticia Young-Mohan, who goes by Skai.

The menu draws from a wealth of Caribbean influences, including Young-Mohan’s Belizean ancestry, in dishes like boiled shrimp with “coco curry,” flaky thyme-scallion johnnycakes with honey butter or achiote-glazed smoked chicken wings.

“It hits your palate and lights it up every time,"’ said Mohan of the region’s deep flavors. “And don’t forget the chili pepper.”

The chef at Miss Lily’s, Adam Schop, has fallen for the floral Scotch bonnet chiles and other Caribbean “seasoning peppers” like sweet ají dulces or hot Grenadas, now found at several of the city’s Greenmarket stands.

“I chop them up,” he said, “and put them in everything I can get.”

The upscale restaurant menu is a new context for the ingredients and dishes of these islands, where typically only tourists eat out at formal restaurants, said Mitchell Davis, the executive vice president of the James Beard Foundation, who grew up eating Caribbean food in Toronto. These foods were the provenance of home cooks and food stalls, not the professional kitchen.

“My mother had several very close West Indian friends, mostly from Trinidad and Tobago,” Davis said, “and they were among the best home cooks I’ve ever known: pumpkin curries, handmade roti, coconut bread, stewed oxtail.”

A handful of street vendors are carrying on that tradition, younger Caribbean-American cooks raised on New York City’s dining scene, with its mash-ups, food trucks and blogging chowhounds. They have thrown themselves into experimenting with the ingredients they grew up with, or honing the finest details of their technique.

Many of them sell at Smorgasburg, the food markets held around the city, which have added five new Caribbean vendors within the last two years.

One is Island Tingz, where Trinidadian-American chef Dwayne Bovell (who spends his days in the executive kitchen at JPMorgan’s Manhattan headquarters) sells out of his versions of Trini street snacks like the fried fish sandwich known as bake and shark topped with mango chutney slaw, and doubles, two soft fried flatbreads wrapped around curried chickpeas and laced with sweet-sour tamarind sauce.

Samuel Branch, a Barbadian-American private chef, started the Greenmarket-sourced, handmade Jamaican patty business Mr. Cutters, creating the pastries in flavors like jerk mushroom in a callaloo crust. Branch, who sold patties this summer at Smorgasburg, Brooklyn’s Whole Foods Market and in the archway under the Manhattan Bridge in Brooklyn, hopes to eventually open a restaurant with Bajan food.

Branch said he was inspired by reading about Brooklyn’s artisan food movement, and decided to apply it to his own culinary heritage.

“I’m amazed no one is doing this on another level — why don’t I do it?” he said. “I want to be part of the new Caribbean food movement.”

At his slickly designed Smorgasburg stand MofonGO, Manolo Lopez makes a traditional rendition of that dish, topped with pork and Puerto Rican mayo-ketchup, say, or shrimp in butter-garlic sauce.

This year Lopez finally quit his day job as a product designer to devote himself to crushing thousands of pounds of plantains to order at Smorgasburg. Each weekend, he said, many diners with Puerto Rican heritage stop by to tell him his stall gives them “a lot of hope and a lot of inspiration.”

They also like his mofongo.

“A lot of people say, ‘This is better than my grandmother’s,'” he said. “That’s when I know I am doing a good job.”

Red Stripe-Steamed Mussels

Adapted from Adam Schop, Miss Lily’s, New York

Time: 30 minutes, plus marinating

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

For the Scotch bonnet butter:

1 Scotch bonnet pepper (or use habanero)

1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon thyme leaves

1 pinch ground allspice

For the escovitch:

1 cup red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and julienned (about 1 small pepper)

1 cup green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and julienned (about 1 small pepper)

1 cup chayote, julienned (or use English cucumbers with the seeds removed)

1 cup Spanish onion, julienned (about 1/2 medium onion)

1 cup carrots, julienned (about 2 large carrots)

2 cups rice wine vinegar

4 fresh or dried bay leaves

3 tablespoons kosher salt

1 tablespoon whole allspice berries

1 tablespoon sugar

For the steamed mussels:

5 tablespoons grapeseed oil

3 tablespoons thinly sliced garlic (about 3 cloves)

2 bunches scallions (about 18 scallions), chopped (about 4 cups)

3 pounds mussels

3/4 cup Red Stripe beer (6 ounces)

Salt and pepper

1 tablespoon coarsely chopped cilantro leaves, for garnish

Preparation

1. Make the Scotch bonnet butter: Wearing protective gloves, mince 1/4 of the pepper to yield 1 teaspoon. Thinly slice the remaining pepper and set aside. In a large bowl, combine minced pepper, butter, garlic, thyme and ground allspice. Use a rubber spatula or fork to mix together until well incorporated.

2. Make the escovitch: In a large bowl, combine bell peppers, chayote, onion, carrots, reserved sliced Scotch bonnet pepper, rice wine vinegar, bay leaves, salt, allspice berries, sugar and 1½ cups water, and toss to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and store in refrigerator for as long as possible, at least 2 days. The mix will hold for 2 months and the flavors will become more concentrated the longer it sits.

3. Make the steamed mussels: Put a large heavy pot (at least 8 quarts) over high heat and add oil, garlic and scallions. Cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are fragrant and soften slightly, 1 to 2 minutes.

4. Add mussels and shake pan to mix with the vegetables, then add beer and bring to a simmer. Cover the pot and cook until mussels open, about 3 to 4 minutes.

5. Remove the lid, add Scotch bonnet butter and stir well to melt the butter. Season with salt and pepper. Discard any unopened mussels. Serve straight out of the pot, with the escovitch spread over the mussels in a thin layer and cilantro sprinkled on top.

Shrimp Mofongo

Time: 30 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

For the mofongo:

6 to 8 cups canola oil

2 unripe (green) plantains, peeled and sliced into 1-inch thick rounds

2 garlic cloves, peeled

1 tablespoon adobo seasoning

1/4 cup pork rinds (see note)

For the shrimp:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, preferably cultured butter

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

4 garlic cloves, smashed to a paste in a mortar (about 2 tablespoons)

3/4 pound jumbo shrimp (21 to 25) or 4 tiger shrimp, cleaned, peeled and deveined

1/3 cup white wine

Juice of half a lemon (about 2 tablespoons)

Kosher salt and black pepper

Chopped cilantro, for garnish

Preparation

1. Make the mofongo: Fit a large pot with deep-fry thermometer. Pour in enough canola oil to reach 2 inches up the side of the pan. Heat over medium-high until thermometer registers 325 degrees. Add plantains and fry, turning occasionally, until golden brown, 4 to 6 minutes. Carefully transfer plantains to a paper-towel-lined rimmed baking sheet to drain.

2. In a mortar and pestle, smash 2 garlic cloves, making sure you have a thin coating of garlic on the bottom. Transfer plantains to the mortar, add adobo seasoning and pork rinds and mash until softened and well combined.

3. Make the shrimp: Place the butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once the butter has melted, add 4 smashed garlic cloves and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute, stirring frequently so the garlic doesn't burn.

4. Add the shrimp and cook until pink and opaque, 30 seconds to 1 minute on each side. Pour in wine and lemon juice and let reduce on low heat until a thick sauce forms, about 2 to 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Firmly pack the mofongo into a small bowl to mold and turn over onto a plate. Spoon the shrimp and sauce on top of the mofongo and garnish with cilantro. Serve immediately.

Note: You can typically buy pork rinds (chicharrones or chicharron) at a Latino butcher shop. In a pinch you can use the packaged pork rinds sold at the supermarket alongside potato chips.

Stew Chicken

Adapted from Rawlston Williams, The Food Sermon, Brooklyn

Time: About 2 hours, plus 2 hours' marinating

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

5 pounds bone-in chicken thighs or chicken leg quarters

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground clove

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 tablespoon ketchup

4 garlic cloves, crushed

1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice

1 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped (about 1 tablespoon, or use 2 teaspoons powdered ginger)

1 medium onion, quartered

4 scallions, white and green parts, roughly chopped

1 bay leaf

5 pieces of culantro (a Caribbean herb also known as chadon beni) or whole sprigs of cilantro, chopped

5 sprigs fresh thyme (or use 3 teaspoons dried leaves)

4 tablespoons white vinegar

1/2 Scotch bonnet pepper (or use habanero)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

4 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons flour, more as needed, for dusting chicken

Preparation

1. Remove skin and trim fat from chicken. If using leg quarters, cut chicken into serving-size pieces. (Each chicken leg should yield about four pieces.) If using thighs, you can leave them whole.

2. Make the marinade: In a food processor or blender combine salt, clove, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, ketchup, garlic, allspice, ginger, onion, scallions, whole bay leaf, culantro or cilantro, whole thyme sprigs, vinegar and Scotch bonnet pepper. (You should have about 2 cups marinade.)

3. In a large bowl, combine chicken and marinade, ensuring all chicken pieces are coated. Refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours. (For best results, marinate overnight.)

4. Heat oven to 325 degrees, and keep the chicken close to the stove. In an oven-safe pot large enough to hold the chicken comfortably (such as a Dutch oven), add oil and 3 tablespoons sugar and heat over medium until the sugar starts foaming and eventually changing color; this is the beginnings of your caramel. Cook until caramel is a rich, very dark brown, but not burned. (The caramel may start smoking as it darkens.)

5. Quickly add chicken pieces to the pot, moving them around until they are fully coated with caramel. Add any remaining marinade in the bowl to the pot. Dust chicken with flour to fully coat pieces. At this point there shouldn’t be much liquid in the pot; it should have a thick, pasty consistency. If any liquid remains, sprinkle more flour over the chicken.

6. Add enough water to cover 3/4 of the chicken. (The tops of the pieces should barely peek out of the water.) Stir to incorporate all ingredients. Cover pot, transfer to oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

7. Check chicken for doneness. Once chicken is cooked, taste and add salt if necessary. Add remaining 1 tablespoon sugar to balance flavor.

8. Let stew rest for about 30 minutes before serving, or make it ahead and store it in the fridge for the following day; stew chicken tastes even better the day after. Serve with rice (or other grain, such as quinoa) and beans.

Coco Bread

Adapted from Adam Schop, Miss Lily’s, New York

Time: About 3 hours

Yield: 10 breads

Ingredients

For the garlic butter:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

4 garlic cloves, minced

10 sprigs of thyme

For the coco bread:

2 packages active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

3/4 cup whole milk, warmed

1 teaspoon salt

1 egg, beaten

3 cups all-purpose flour

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Oil, for baking sheet

Preparation

1. Make the garlic butter: Melt butter over low heat and add garlic. Raise the temperature slightly and cook just until butter is frothy; do not let the garlic brown. Remove from heat, add thyme and let steep for 5 to 10 minutes.

2. Make the bread: Dissolve the yeast and sugar in 1/4 cup warm water and then stir in milk, salt and egg.

3. Add half the flour and stir, continuing to add the remaining flour until dough can be turned out of the bowl. (You may not need all the flour.)

4. Turn out the dough onto a floured work surface. Knead dough for 10 minutes until smooth but firm. Transfer dough to an oiled, clean bowl. Cover with a damp towel and let rise for 1 hour.

5. Cut dough into 10 portions and roll each piece into a 6-inch diameter circle. Brush each piece with melted unsalted butter and fold in half. Lightly flatten each piece with the palm of your hand, brush again with melted unsalted butter, then fold in half again.

6. Place pieces on an oiled baking sheet, cover loosely with lightly greased plastic wrap and let them rise in a warm place until they double in size, about 1 hour.

7. Heat oven to 425 degrees and set a pan of hot water on the lowest oven rack. Bake bread on upper rack for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Use pastry brush to apply melted garlic butter to the coco bread while still hot.