There are different schools of thought when it comes to preparing callaloo. This is the way I grew up seeing it prepared by my mother and grandmothers.
The first step is preparing the bush, now back in the day there was no such thing as pre-cut dasheen bush, or callaloo packs. You had to prep all the ingredients yourself and my mother was the type of mother who had us doing chores from a young age so i could have been about 7 or 8 years old when my mother showed me how to peel dasheen bush.
Read more about my history with this dish in the blog post Custodian Of Callaloo.
Ingredients
- 1 bundle of dasheen bush: stalk finely chopped leaves chiffonade
- 10 ochroes chopped
- 1 cup of pumpkin cut into small cubes
- 1 large onion diced
- 6 cloves of garlic chopped finely
- ½ scotch bonnet pepper chopped finely
- 4 sprigs of rosemary finely chopped
- 1 cup of coconut milk
- 2 cups of coconut water
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Add some oil to a pot on medium to high heat
- Saute onion until translucent
- Add garlic scotch bonnet pepper, pumpkin, ochroes and the chopped stems of the callaloo bush and saute for five minutes
- Add rosemary and season with salt. Saute for another 2 minutes
- Add coconut milk and coconut water
- Add dasheen bush leaves
- Cook for approximately 40 minutes
- Blend then taste for salt, season if necessary
Video
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
so the past 4 times I made calalloo I did not use any blender… last sunday I even decided to make it without using oil, a technique that Makesi disclosed to me. Just bring the coconut milk to a boil in the pot and add all your ingredients… can you say BESS?!!!
I have a submersion blender and it is BESS. The downside to my callaloo making is that since I live in the White Hood it have no such ting as dasheen bush as that is considered an "exotic" food. So I does have tuh humble mehself and buy the chopped spinach and count down the days until vacation and ah could get the real deal in meh mammy house:/
Amanda yuh right about the real coconut milk… the powdered cannot compare and well fresh dasheen bush is also a major factor. I have the stick blender but we didnt have any water yesterday so I was trying to keep the experimentation to a minimum. I hate cooking when there isnt running water in the tap and have to use the tank.
Next time I will try it with real coconut and the stick blender. I put my blender on low and gave it a couple pulses.
I kinda picky on my dasheen though but that pack would be a time saver although I have never used it, I eh go lie that would have been real bess for me when I was away yes.
I don't touch it the packs. To me the key to a good callaloo is fresh dasheen bush , real coconut milk (not powdered) and a hot pepper. The texture of the callaloo also has a lot to do with the appeal. It is really supposed to be a soup. So blending it down to look like a watery substance does nothing positive for me. A swizzle stick or 2 or 3 pulses in a blender is good enough. Another substitute for those who are allergic to shellfish is to put some saltfish instead of crab.. yum.. tastes just as good.
Quincy, they are excellent! SOmetimes I adda lil extra ochro. But they are usually fresh and freeze well.
A stick blender reall cork for this dread!
a good discussion for here is what is the verdict on the callaloo packs a lot of supermarkets sellin these days? all the ingredients with the dasheen bush already cut up and such.
de swizzle stick is patience fuh real. de submersion blender is de real flick fuh dis. have to go out and find one. what duz make it for me is ginger mixed into the seasoning.
good stuff although I add the dasheen and let it wilt a bit then add the coconut milk to finish it off
I hated callaloo as a child. Made a diet version already that was just ok. I just started making REAL 'loo about three weeks ago. Two pots later and I have to say for me CRAB is the key. And a nice hot pepper – just don't let it burst open :-). I could eat this everyday!
That takes a lot of patience! I tired it already and gave up half way!
I promised myself that one day i'd try this the old time way – without the blender but hmmmm…i dunno na….nice 🙂