Not on a Beach? Recipes for Getting the Bahamas Vibe at Home
/Grab the flavor of the Bahama’s out islands
SKy Juice.
Words and photos by Susan Able | Edible DC
My husband and I fell in love with the Eleuthera, one of the thirty populated out islands or family islands of this archipelago nation. Eleuthera is a long skinny strip of coral and rock, one 100 miles long and around two miles wide, and is home to only 8,000 full time residents—so mostly undeveloped. Imagine miles of pink and white powdery sand beaches with nary a soul most days, framed by clear turquoise water.
Pure perfection, right?
Well, the island has a tagline, and it’s a funny one. “Eleuthera, it’s not for everyone.”
How can that be? Well, many people need a real public infrastructure for a vacation to be enjoyable, let’s call that central air, 24-hour electricity, good roads, lots of shopping and organized things to do. That is not the situation on this lovely rustic island. Our power was out for 5 hours one day as they did line repairs. A bit inconvenient, but it gave me a great excuse to call our dinner cheese and crackers and a chance to finish a novel by lamp light. Its a place where a sense of adventure still exists and the island’s rustic quality is a huge part of it’s charm for us.
And the native food is just part of the whole scene. Island cuisine is in many ways very unique—an food culture based on local ingredients—conch, reef fish like grouper and snapper, Caribbean lobster, chicken, tropical local fruits like soursop and white pineapples. It is the cuisine of people who fed families and communities in times of scarcity—both ingredients and money—think soups, rice and peas. Our local restaurants in Governor’s Harbour, a village centrally located on the island, showcase elevated versions of all of this home cooking, conch fritters, fried grouper in various formats, cracked (lightly deep fried chunks) conch and lobster, conch fritters and favorite sides of cole slaw, macaroni and cheese and potato salad.
I’m sharing three recipes straight from their sources, the chefs and bartenders from some of our favorite places. Simple and straightforward, and for those who love the Caribbean, flavors that will take you back to palm trees and blue waters.
Sammy at Sammy’s Bar, Sky Beach Club, Governor’s Harbour.
Sky Juice
Our favorite bartender on the island is Sammy Delaney and you can find him at his eponymus bar, Sammy’s at Sky Beach Club. On one of our first trips down, he introduced to the native drink of the Bahamas, Sky Juice, which is gin mixed with fresh coconut water and sweetened condensed milk, shaken and served over ice. If you like coconut, this is your drink. In the states, I use coconut water from the store, it works, though perhaps loses part of the magic when the bartender is not using a machete to cut open a fresh coconut and then put little shavings of fresh coconut meat on top. It still works, trust me.
Makes 4 cocktails.
2 cups coconut water
1 cup gin, or more to taste
1 cup sweetened condensed milk, more (or less) to taste
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Mix together the ingredients until well combined in a pitcher, or if making a smaller batch, shake. Pour over ice and sprinkle the nutmeg and cinnamon on top. Serve with straws, and perhaps a tiny paper umbrella.
Chef Pascale Burrows of Pascal’s at Sky Beach club
Cole Slaw Bahamas Style
Cole slaw is the always-present side all over the Bahamas. It seems that every sandwich, fried conch platter, BBQ platter-you name it-comes with a side of cole slaw served often in a leaf of the cabbage head. My favorite version is served up at Pascal’s where you get a drink from Sammy and then order up some cracked conch and slaw from Chef Pascale and sit at a table overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Its so simple, but so delicious and I had to ask him how he makes it. The first thing he told me is that he makes it up fresh to order—he’s making slaw all day long. The biggest advice to really make it delicious? Take the time to finely cut the cabbage into the thinnest strands you can imagine. It’s so good. And yes, I questioned the sugar, but it is really not that sweet after mixing. The combo of sugar, mayo and salt is what makes the cabbage soften.
1 small head green cabbage, very finely shredded
1 or 2 carrots, finely shredded
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white pepper
Juice of one lime
Put the shredded cabbage and carrot(s) in a large mixing bowl, with plenty of room to mix well without spilling over. Plop the mayo and sugar over the shredded vegetables, and start tossing with vigor, until all the strands of cabbage are well coated. Sprinkle salt and pepper and lime juice, and mix with vigor again til it is well combined. Serve immediately or refrigerate. It will keep several days in the fridge.
Tuna and Grits
It took me a few years to veer from a breakfast sandwich or coconut rum pancakes at the Buccaneer Club in Governor’s Harbour to the “Bahamian Style” menu which included various preparations of groups in a lime-juice brown gravy, (Stew Fish, Boil Fish, or Stew Boil Fish) with yellow grits and Johnny Cake. But my dear friend Anne Saverese finally convinced me to try her favorite, Tuna and Grits and where had I been all these years? It might sound like an odd choice for we Americans, but it really makes for an addictive breakfast that sticks with you. I couldn’t find yellow grits at the store, but realized that most people in the U.S. buy them as polenta. I’m not sure it’s a one to one swap (it likely is?), but that is what I used from Bob’s Red Mill.
Much like the Cole Slaw recipe above, this is very simple, straightforward tuna salad, and again with lime juice. The grits are prepared according the package and almost always served with a healthy dollop of butter.
Makes 4 servings
2 cans albacore tuna
Mayonaise
Juice of two limes
1/2 green pepper, finely minced
1/2 onion, finely minced
Dash or two of hot pepper sauce to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
This recipe was explained to me or “recited,” so I will use their explanation.
“Bahamina Tuna Salad is very simple, with not the usual things that you might expect, like mustard, or celery, or relish. We drain the tuna, and add a tablespoon or two of mayo and mix. Bahamian Tuna Salad is not drowning in mayo, we just put enough to bind it together. So you add it slowly. Add your minced pepper and onion, mix it in. You might need another tablespoon of mayonnaise. Then add your salt and pepper and lime juice. It should be bright and tangy. Sometime we add finely minced Scotch Bonnet pepper, but that can get it really hot. So we finish it most often with a couple of dashes of hot pepper sauce and mix well. It is ready to be served up with your warm grits.”
I followed these directions exactly while I was on the island, then recreated it twice to test it at home. It’s perfect and just like what I am served at the Buccaneer Club. Delicious and the combination of the limey tuna with the grits is perfection. Trust me, try it and you’ll see.
For more information about traveling to Eleuthera, go here. For rentals, I recommend Eleuthera Vacation Rentals, which has options for groups of all sizes.
