Daniel Orr is Executive Chef at Kitchen Stadium, Santorini Restaurant, Famiglia and the Tapas Lounge and Rum Bar at CuisinArt Resort and Spa and is working on A Chef’s Diet Cookbook and Cooking in Paradise.

Breakfast at the Beach

Remember when your mother told you: “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day”? I fell for the island breakfast years ago at the Cuban eateries on South Beach. Fried plantains and fried eggs sprinkled with garlicky mojo, hearty plates of stick-to-your-ribs foods that fire the engine to drive you back to the sea, earth, or office for another day of toil.

Chef Daniel Orr

When you have an extremely hot midday, your morning and evening meals are the ones you want to linger over. The island-style breakfast is a case in point. Many of us may be too busy to cook breakfast with a Caribbean flair often (there’s more to it than two boiled eggs and toast), but my idea of a perfect weekend is getting up late, putting on a reggae disc, and banging a few pots and pans together.

Many of the ingredients might seem scary if you haven’t eaten them before. Saltfish (salt cod), green bananas and plantains, cornmeal mush, and ackee might not be what you are used to later in the day, not to mention when you first open your eyes! When you think of where these recipes come from, though, it makes perfect sense. Islands! Naturally, fish became a part of every Caribbean meal, even breakfast.

Most Anguillians are real salt-of-the-earth types (or should I say, salt-of-the-sea). Their personal histories are peppered with memories of fishing – pulling the seine with their neighbors, spearing jacks, and trapping lobsters. Everything they caught, raised, or harvested was used and shared. In the mornings, there would be raisin-spiked buns, johnnycakes, and sweet rolls fresh from the village hearth, which may be a stone “keel” or simply a re-fashioned oil barrel. Mothers and grandmothers would make a sweet porridge with milk, sweet spices, honey or cane from a brother’s homegrown Guinea corn. Your auntie would add ripe bananas, fried until the natural sugars caramelized, to a dish of roasted fresh fish. Last night’s repast, whether garlicky pork stew or braised fish, would appear with fungee, the local polenta, and wild callaloo. Comforting and filling, it set a wonderful tone for the new day. These are the types of foods that I have learned to crave while living in this paradise.
Here are some recipes that will put a smile on the face of even your least adventurous table companions. Each time you experiment with a recipe, new or old, consider it a voyage. Whether it be down memory lane or on an exotic adventure, exploration is what spending time in the kitchen and around the table is all about.

Saltfish and Yam Cakes
Yield: 10 to15 cakes, depending on size

These salty, sweet cakes are great with scrambled eggs, or at lunch with a lightly dressed salad – even as hors d’oeuvres with spicy chutney or sour cream and caviar or an accompaniment with a fish main course. Whenever you eat them, remember the hot sauce! You can make the batter ahead of time, but place it in a container, drizzle with oil and press a piece of plastic wrap on it to keep it from discoloring. Keeps in the refrigerator up to 2 to 3 hours.

1 cup soaked and poached saltfish, well flaked
1-1/2 cups grated* yam (sweet potato or baking potato can be used as a substitute)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
2 tablespoons flour
olive oil for sautéing
salt to taste if required
assorted chopped herbs and chiles for garnish
your favorite hot sauce, to taste

*Grate yam and quickly mix with remaining ingredients before it discolors.
To check seasoning, form a test cake; heat oil over high heat; when the oil is hot, fry test cake until brown and crispy on both sides. Taste, adjust seasoning, and add water if too dry. Form and cook remaining cakes.
Paradise Kitchen Coconut and Sesame Granola
A fiber-rich combination good with milk or soymilk. I eat it by the handful when I need that energy boost during the day. Cool well and store in an airtight container – it will last a couple of weeks in a cool dark place.

Yield: 8 cups

1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon (heaping) salt
3 cups raw rolled oats
1/2 cup pecan halves
1/2 cup walnut halves
2/3 cup shredded coconut
2 tablespoons white sesame seeds
2 tablespoons black sesame seeds
2/3 cup wheat germ
2/3 cup shelled sunflower seeds
1/2 cup diced dried apricots
1/2 cup dark brown raisins
1/2 cup golden raisins
Note: other nuts, seeds or grains may be substituted
In a large pan combine the honey, butter and sugar and melt. Add the rolled oats, pecans and walnuts over medium heat, stirring constantly so they don’t burn, until they begin to brown, about 15 minutes.
Add coconut, sesame seeds, wheat germ and sunflower seeds to the pan. Lower the heat and toast for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, stirring.
Sprinkle salt evenly over the cereal and cook, still stirring, for another 3 to 5 minutes until sugar has dissolved and lightly coats each morsel.
Cool on a sheet pan, then add the apricots and raisins.

Granola Parfait
A satisfying breakfast dish – make it in elegant wine glasses for special occasions or simply in a cereal bowl if you’re running late for work. You can replace the yogurt with ice cream or frozen yogurt for a healthy dessert treat full of contrasting colors, flavors and textures.

Carefully layer vanilla or lemon yogurt, honey, assorted fruit and berries, and Coconut and Sesame Granola in the glasses, being careful to keep the rim and sides of the glasses neat and tidy. Garnish with mint sprigs. I like to drizzle the honey between the layers of cereal because it seems to keep the cereal from becoming too soggy from the yogurt by forming a “protective seal.”

I’d love to hear from you. I am collecting recipes and stories for future articles and books and would love to include your favorite family recipes and food memories from the kitchen, the garden or the sea. You can reach me at dorr@cuisinart.comor stop me on the road if you see the CuisinArt Chef Mobile.

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