Original Flava: Caribbean Recipes from Home

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There really is much to love here, especially if this is a cuisine you want to try as the recipes look both delicious and accessible and cover a range of scenarios and influences that will make you drool.

I know a lot of people who love to cook, myself included, but I don't know a single person who owns a kitchen scale. Think Potato and C hickpea Curry with Roti, Jerk C auliflower Wings, Coconut, Black-Eyed Pea and Sweet Potato Stew, and Plantain Cookies . There are plenty of recipes to try: I'd certainly like to try cooking the Vegan shepherds pie, a giant patty and Rasta Pumpkin pasta to start with. In April 2016, they launched the Original Flava brand, sharing videos of them cooking simple Caribbean recipes. We also like to twist it up a likkle to give dishes our modern spin, so you can find recipes for Honey roastedjerk-spiced salmon, Plantain beanburgers and Banana fritter cheesecake.I received an ARC of this book from the publisher, and I have to say that for someone in the Caribbean, this would probably be a good recipe book. Just to note (because I often make the mistake of not reading recipes fully until I come to make something! True, there’s an argument for the blanketing stodge of Beige Food, too, but it’s not a case of either/or). Mackerel Run Down a traditional dish that combines tender fresh and dried mackerel with sautéed vegetables and a rich spiced coconut sauce. Special thanks to netgalley and the publishers for a arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t really understand why the ingredients are listed after the method, either, as it’s a bit weird tbh. As with their first book, Original Flava, it draws on the generous tradition of Caribbean food, though its focus — or perhaps it would be more accurate to say its inspiration — is Ital cooking; the “ital” derives from “vital” and denotes the Rastafarian approach to eating, with its emphasis on fresh, unprocessed food and and its celebration of the earth’s bounty. It also features a wide variety of fresh fruit and vegetables like plantain, yams, jackfruit, guava, and plenty more, making it perfect for vegan recipes. and pepper pot stew (though I had to add some umami stuff for depth of flavour - I think they left that out either cos they're not vegan or they wanted to make the recipes as simple as possible) and my fav recipe for spinner dumplings and the use of plantain is so bloody fun! Some recipes just say to "cook the ingredients" while others actually provide temperatures, but those temperatures are sometimes in Fahrenheit and sometimes say "Gas 3" or "Gas 6" etc.Now, in Natural Flava, they're spreading the love, offering Ital inspiration and punchy Caribbean flavors to the feel-good, plant-based diet taking the world by storm. Cook until browned, then add the scotch bonnet, thyme, spring onions and tomatoes and stir everything.