Caribbean vendor brings island spice to Norfolk festival

Posted to: Everyday Chef Norfolk Spotlight

Want to go? Caribfest

CARIBBEAN STYLE SALMON BALLS WITH SPICY RED GRAVY

For the salmon balls:
2 cans pink salmon
1 green onion
1/2 red bell pepper
1 teaspoon mustard
Dash of red crushed pepper
1/4 habanera pepper, minced 1/3 cup
Italian bread crumbs
2 tablespoons fresh parsley
Several pinches Goya Sazon (see note)
Flour for dusting Canola or vegetable oil Spicy

Salmon Gravy:
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon oil
2 cloves chopped fresh garlic
Black pepper to taste
Parsley and thyme to taste
1 cup tomato sauce
Old Bay seasoning
Goya Sazon
black pepper
crushed red pepper
habanera pepper to taste
Salmon juice left over from 2 cans pink salmon
Water to make gravy

To make the salmon balls Mix all ingredients but flour and oil. Let sit for 30 minutes to 1 hour in the refrigerator. Roll into a ball or any shape you like, dredge in a light amount of flour and fry in canola or other vegetable oil until golden brown. To make the gravy Saute onion and bell pepper in the oil. Add garlic, black pepper, parsley and thyme. Add tomato sauce, Old Bay, Goya Sazon, black pepper, crushed red pepper and habanera. Add water and salmon juice to make a gravy. Pour over salmon cakes. Note Look for these seasonings with the other Goya foods or in specialty groceries. Source: Paula Fleming of Virginia Beach

RED BEANS AND RICE
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper (any color) chopped
1 can dark red kidney beans
2 cups water
4 tablespoons butter Goya Sazon (see note)
Goya Adobo (see note)
1 cup rice Saute onion and pepper.

Add kidney beans. Stir and simmer for 5 minutes. Add water and butter. Season with sazon and adobo to taste. Bring to a boil. Stir, add rice, cover and bring to a boil. Stir. Reduce heat to low and cook for about 10 or 15 minutes. Note Look for these seasonings with the other Goya foods or in specialty groceries. Source: Paula Fleming of Virginia Beach

The Virginian-Pilot
© July 2, 2008

By Theresa Curry

Correspondent

Paula Fleming grew up on a small island in a big sea, surrounded by the warm Caribbean. St. Thomas, one of the Virgin Islands, has about a tenth of the population of Virginia Beach, the city Fleming now calls home.

One of her earliest memories is of her mother frying banana fritters, the smell of cinnamon and butter filling the kitchen.

Like the rest of the islands scattered in the blue water between North and South America, St. Thomas is a culinary crossroads, where ancient people grew peanuts and beans, chocolate, chilies and sweet potatoes. Some of the foods we identify strongly with the area, like coconut, sugarcane and even mangos, were the result of European culinary interference, and others - okra, watermelon and sesame seeds - were contributed by Africans. The flavorful results are celebrated yearly at Caribfest, scheduled this year for July 18 and 19 at Norfolk's Harbor Park.

The food of St. Thomas will be well represented by Fleming. She's a vendor at the festival each year, and she dispenses the sunny tastes of the island under the name Caribbean Melting Pot. The fish cakes and stewed chicken are everyday dishes for her and her family, as are many Caribbean dishes less familiar to the rest of us. Fleming's son, Omari, loves her spicy oxtails and her daughter, D'Asia, is partial to conch, a chewy shellfish that's hard to come by here.

Fleming left St. Thomas in the mid-1990s to attend Norfolk State University, but she was already a veteran food vendor. She worked with her sister, Edna, in a mobile restaurant, moving their traveling kitchen to serve workers in the port city. A few things have changed in the transition between St. Thomas and Virginia Beach. Fleming uses salmon instead of yellowtail in her fish croquettes, and she can't always find green bananas to boil or fry as a side dish for fish dinners.

Many things are the same, though. Fleming uses fresh herbs and vegetables when she can, blending the subtle flavors of parsley and thyme to balance the heat of garlic, black pepper and chili peppers. She seeks out salt cod, soaks it to remove the salt and steams it gently. Her stewed fish gets a healthy squeeze of lime juice to bring out the delicate flavor, and an infusion of butter enriches the fish juices and boiled potatoes.

Cooks both in the islands and in the Caribbean Diaspora use Goya Adobo and Sazon mixtures, and Fleming uses them in the recipes that follow. The Sazon (Spanish for "seasoning" ) includes several spice blends of dehydrated onion and garlic, mixed with coriander, annatto and dried herbs. Adobo is a blend with garlic, oregano, salt, pepper and turmeric. Both are found in the ethnic sections of most grocery stores.

Fleming is known for her patties, a portable lunchtime treat. First she makes the dough, a flour and butter pastry somewhere between a pie crust and a biscuit. While the dough rests, she mixes the filling, using cooked fish or beef. It might be stewed cod, or ground beef flavored and fried ("kind of like chili without the beans," Fleming says). The pastry is rolled out, filled, sealed and fried into a Caribbean version of a Spanish empanada or an Italian calzone.

Fleming, who is now studying business at Bryant & Stratton College, belongs to a group called West Indies United, an organization dedicated to preserving Caribbean and West Indies culture.

Theresa Curry,flavor@pilotonline.com