Our Holiday dinner: Suggestion, be honest with yourself: How much do you really want to work entertaining? Chopping onions and garlic will maim the merriness in your eggnog. Sure, making the shrimp and pumpkin bisque, an outstanding dish we made for Thanksgiving as well, sounds lovely, but it requires shrimp shelling and steaming the Seminole pumpkins harvested this fall. Both of these tasks consumed a lot of time.


Another time thief: guava glaze for turkey. Tip: use beer. Guava jelly in guava glaze takes a long time to reach a temperature that will melt the jelly into the sauce. The original recipe in Eat Cuban! calls for water, but not much. Of course, using a lot of water risks making the sauce watery. Beer does not have this danger. And more liquid (in this case beer, but let us know what else you tried) gets the jelly warm faster. Furthermore, with more liquid there is less chance of what happened the first time we tried this recipe: burnt sugar on the bottom of the jelly cube [www.caribbeancruisine.com/guava-delicious.htm]. Even at a low-medium heat, sugar will caramelize and blacken on the bottom, yet the jelly cube will look happy and pink on top. So easy on the heat! Easy on the heat means it can take a long time to melt, even if you chop into several small pieces. In summary: have no fear with the beer.


Regarding shrimp bisque: no shame in using store bought shrimp stock and pumpkin puree. If, however, you get a special air about you because you did it yourself, in your garden, in your soil, like we do, then we suggest doing tedious tasks in larger batches and freezing. Save your shrimp shells over several months, and make a copious amount of shrimp stock. Same goes for pumpkins: steam, puree, and freeze. Done and ready! Stock and steaming are mundane tasks you can do while checking email or any other task worthy of semi-divided attention. You don’t want to go back to work un-rested, under–eggnogged, and over-basted, do you?


One time-smart thing we did do, however, is cook only part of turkey. You get the tradition without the toil.


The standout dish turned out to be the Key West Shrimp in Keys Cuisine. The biggest question surrounding this recipe was: does mace have a place with shrimp? Will the flavors in marinade outdo the flavor of shrimp itself? Will the paint destroy the canvas? None of these fears were merited. The spices were subtle and popped on the palate in succession. Sweet, tangy, smooth and you could still taste the shrimp all the way through. Spectacular. The black beans were fantastic but we are not convinced there is much point in chopping so many vegetables. A few hot peppers, garlic, Madeira and smoked turkey; sauté; dump in crock pot. Done. We doubt this would come out much inferior to the intricate process called for in the original recipe. Also the original recipe calls for ham and bacon, but turkey necks seemed healthier and equally flavorful….flavor doesn’t always require much sacrifice.


The coconut relish was nice company, but not marriage-worthy. Furthermore, cracking a fresh coconut and grating is not worth the effort in terms of flavor. If, however, you want to show off your hammer in front of guests, then go for it… but relish would be just as good without coconut. The cumin butter was a dud. It may be because we used sherry instead of white wine and not enough butter. But really, the beans and shrimp are outstanding on their own. Cumin butter is gratuitous. The full recipe name is: “Key West Shrimp on Toasted Cumin Butter with Black Beans and Chile, Pineapple, and Coconut Relish.” Also, why doesn’t the relish call for pineapple as an ingredient if pineapple is in the title? If you run into Linda Gassenheimer, please ask her and let us know what she says. One last tip on this one: marinade will be left over. It could be boiled, then simmered, reduced, and spooned over rice (with a bit of butter).


We took great care in researching many coquito recipes. Some call for coconut milk, some for cream of coconut. Apparently, a common cream of coconut product is offered as Coco Lopez Cream of Coconut. In our experience, you are more likely to find Coco Lopez in a liquor store than a grocery store. We opted for a style of coquito that involves poaching spices in water before mixing with three milks: condensed, evaporated, and coconut. We feel that equal proportions of condensed and evaporated, as some recipes suggest, will be too sweet if the condensed milk is sweetened. As for poaching, don’t waste white rum in the poaching like we did. The real advantage is allowing the flavors in the poached liquid to blend evenly throughout the concoction without the coarse texture of ground spices. We used half of a vanilla bean and whole sticks of cinnamon. Cloves might have been interesting. Some recipes call for it. We were a bit skeptical and too anxious for relaxation time for modest experimentation at that point. Some recipes call for eggs; it is our understanding that eggs are used in ponche, common in Venezuela, but less so in Puerto Rico. We have no healthy suggestions for Coquito except to lower consumption by adding more rum and having fewer servings. Also, guilt is not good for your health….so enjoy!


The rub in the turkey guava recipe in Eat Cuban! is, by itself, a winner. We used leftover rub on some shrimp. Excellent. We would recommend deglazing at the end with some white wine and butter, which we did not have on hand at the time. Oh well.

Key West Shrimp On Toasted Cumin Butter with Black Beans and
Chili, Pineaple and Coconut Relish

Pan-Fried Turkey Breast with a Piquant Guava Glaze
Caribbean Tabouleh

I’m off to listen to some Holiday Tunes:
John Holt’s Reggae Christmas Hits Album – I love his white Christmas version. For dinner, I suggest Luis Villegas’ Guittarras De Navidad

Feliz Navidad and Caribbean Love
Cassandra Centeno