This is a traditional national Bajan dish that is a Saturday favourite for many.
Currently during covid times the beach is only used for exercise at specific times and any forms of leisure is prohibited.
This dish is delicious anywhere not only on the beach! It can also be made with chicken or prawns, some people also use chicken feet to make this dish. Below are the ingredients I used.
Souse (cooking meat)
Joints/pieces of pork of your choice 4 lbs
Squeeze a lime and some salt on the pork and let it sit for at least 15 minutes. Clean it thoroughly and wash. Put in a saucepan and pour in enough water to cover the meat. Add 1 large onion, spring onions, 1 green pepper, 1 seasoned pepper , 1 large scotch bonnet and salt. Let this cook for a while because you will be using the broth when making your steam pudding. Make sure the meat is really tender!
Steamed Pudding
4 cups finely grated sweet potatoes
1 large onion
4 sprigs spring onion chopped
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sliced scotch bonnet pepper
2 teaspoon finely chopped broad leaf thyme
1 1/2 tablespoon finely chopped thyme
3 tablespoons oil of choice (olive oil)
1/2 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
Dried herbs (Italian) 1 teaspoon
2 1/2 teaspoons mixed spice
2 teaspoon ground clove
2 tablespoons browning (add more depending on how dark you wish your steam pudding to be
2 cups broth (used from cooking pork) The broth has salt so therefore there is no need to use salt. Add enough to make the mixture easy to stir but not too runny!
Mix all these together and place in the microwave!
It actually took 22 minutes to cook in my microwave. The key is to remove it every three minutes and stir it so that the cooking is distributed evenly. Each microwave will vary.
Souse
6 small or 3 English cucumbers (chopped finely)
1 very large onion chopped/ not grated finely
3 scotch bonnet pepper deseed and sliced in small bits
1 cup finely chopped curly/not flat parsley 🌿
5 limes squeezed and added to mixture
Salt to taste. Add about a tablespoon but use to your required taste
Before adding your meat, please remove some of the fat and any residue. Then dice the meat to your required size. Pour the cucumbers mixture over your pork/meat and give it a good mix
Breadfruit
Peel, slice and cook in the same water that you cooked your pork. Remove the broth for your steam pudding before cooking breadfruit. This should be the last thing you do. The breadfruit is a great accompaniment to the dish.
Enjoy this Barbados delicacy 🇧🇧