Ground provisions take centre stage

A huge part of the usual weekend “lime” is the food served on the beach. With the high price of meats and vegetables one has to choose carefully when buying. Today ground provision is fetching a reasonable price at the supermarkets and roadside stalls.

These provisions are a must as a side dish for these outings, especially a we approach Carnival and have lots of overseas guests in the country.

Gound provisions are foods that are natural and easily digested by the stomach. Some of these foods include yams, cassava, sweet potatoes and eddoes.

And while breadfruit, plantains, carrots and beets are not ground provisions, they are quite often cooked and eaten alongside them.

According to Carmen Ramkhelawan of Penal, these types of food are great for the body and it is said that people who consume these foods tend to live a longer life.

“These provisions can be cooked in soups, which in turn can give the soups a lot of body, making them filling and enjoyable,” Ramkhelawan said, adding that the amount of provisions used depends on the richness of the soup.

Essentially ground provisions are storage crops, however in addition to the starch and sugar, they’re packed with fibre and protein.

Ground provision like sweet potato and cassava taste great when stewed, however stir frying would require them to be thinly sliced and placed on high heat.

Ramkhelawan says baked potatoes are an easy-to-make, delicious alternative to just bread or pasta for dinner. Among the other dishes that are quite easy to prepare are eddoes choka, cassava soup, yam casseroles, sweet potato pie, prepared dasheen with tomatoes and mixed provisions with any side dish for a complete meal.

Here are some of Ramkhelawan’s provision recipes:

Eddoes fried or as choka

2 lbs eddoes

1 med-large onion (sliced)

1 teaspoon salt

1 green pepper

2 cloves garlic (sliced)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

Method:

Peeling the eddoes and set to boil for 20 minutes. Add salt and allow to cook until tender. Then drain the water out and in the same pot, using a potato masher or pestle, crush so they’re a bit chunky. Slice the onion and garlic and place aside with the pepper.

Over medium heat and add the olive oil and butter in a small pot. Then add the onions, garlic and pepper. After cooking for about five to eight minutes or until the onion is soft and starting to brown, add the crushed eddoes.

Move everything around so they are coated evenly with the infused butter/oil mixture. In about five minutes you should have a nicely coated mix that’s ready for serving. For the choker, after boiling the eddoes, it must be crushed and made into a paste.

Then roast a green pepper and season with garlic onions and salt. Pour a bit of hot oil at the top and mix together for tasty choker.

Yam Casserole

3 cups cooked and mashed yams

1/3 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup milk

For the topping you need

1/3 cup soft butter

1/3 cup flour

1 cup brown sugar

? cup pecans

Method:

To prepare the casserole, mix the mashed yams with sugar, milk, butter and vanilla. Place in a greased casserole dish. Mix the topping ingredients (soft butter, flour, brown sugar and pecans) together, spread over yam mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Sweet Potato Pie

Ingredients:

4 ounces butter, softened

2 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes

2 cups granulated sugar

1 small can (5 ounces, about 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons) evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 prepared pie shells, unbaked (available in the supermarket)

Preparation:

Mix butter, potatoes, sugar and evaporated milk until well blended.

Add vanilla, eggs, and cinnamon; mix well. Pour into the prepared pie shells.

Bake in a 350 oven for about 1 hour, until set.