Spicy Floribbean Food
Florida plus Caribbean equals spicy fusion cuisine
Relax, this isn’t a geography lesson. Miami and Caribbean flavors combine and excite. Fire up the grill, grab a mojito, let's go!
I've got a hot grill, a cold drink, and a little inspiration from Miami. Some great finds in a gourmet market, and a fellow writer's posts got me going. So pull up a Mojito or maybe a Caipirinha and let's go!
Initially, I thought Floribbean was just the brand name of a local marinade I'd purchased. Turns out, it's that and much more. Miami, like New Orleans, New Orleans could lay claim to being "fusion" cuisine before "fusion" became a hot buzzword. Both places incorporate the best of a variety of culinary traditions and this is beautifully expressed in the food you'll find in both cities. Just think about Miami's proximity to the Caribbean including Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, among others.
Key elements of the Floribbean style food include spices, citrus (like intense Key limes) and other fruits like mamey (a tropical fruit with a flavor something like a cross between peach and apricot), mango, and papaya are very common.
>Rice
In many of the home-style, as well as upscale restaurants, you'll find plaintains. Plaintains are similar to bananas but are treated more as a vegetable than a fruit in many cultures of this region. In their green unripe stage, they're very starchy. Often used they way we might see a potato used: mashed, fried, etc. In their yellow stage, the starch has turned to sugar and they are served as a sweet accompaniment.
Just as the trinity is key to many Cajun dishes (celery, onion, green bell pepper) Cuban dishes often start with Sofrito. Sofrito recipes vary and are different in Puerto Rican dishes than in Cuban, but the essential elements include: onions, garlic, pepper (either small sweet red peppers or green bell peppers), oregano, cumin, bay leaf, oil, and culantro. Culantro and the small sweet peppers are two items you're likely to find only in a Latino market or an Asian market. Culantro is not cilantro, but has a similar flavor. The leaves are long and serrated and is sometimes called long coriander or recao.
Careful not to confuse these sweet peppers with habaneros or Scotch bonnets! Those are among the hottest peppers on the planet. Sweet peppers used in sofrito look more elongated, almost like a red jalapeno. Sofrito is widely used to flavor meats, soups and stews.
The spice trade that went through most of the Caribbean also contributed to this region's flavor profile adding spices as diverse as ginger, allspice and cumin. When Floribbean dishes combine elements from all these traditions, you'll often see heat from peppers balanced by sweetness from fruit. Other elements such as coconut and rum are common, too.
Chefs today continue to incorporate all these elements. They're also adding new techniques and flavors, keeping the evolving Floribbean cuisine deliciously exciting. Soon, I hope to introduce you to one of Miami's hottest young chefs, schedules being compared at this very moment. Keep your fingers crossed!
