Caribbean

This traditional Haitian chicken stew is packed with flavor thanks to the mainstay spice blend known as epis.

Epis, the punchy, peppery Haitian seasoning, gives this iconic dish its complex flavor profile.

When sweet potato pie sheds its crust and takes a trip to the tropics, you end up with this delightfully spiced sweet potato pone. 

Ayesha Curry’s holiday-worthy rum cake gets its cheery flavor from two kinds of rum: spiced rum in the cake batter and dark rum in the sticky maple glaze.

The secret to lasagna de carne that packs a wallop of flavor? An herby sofrito that cooks with the beef until toasty and caramelized.

Dial up the flavor of your summer steaks with chow, a sweet and spicy Trinidadian staple. 

Use whatever produce you want in this recipe for curry vegetables from chef Rawlston Williams. The combination of intense curry powder, turmeric, and rich coconut milk will make any mix of vegetables taste delicious.

It only takes a few minutes to turn ripe, in-season berries into a syrupy topping for a not-so-typical summer sundae.

In her new cookbook, ‘Spicebox Kitchen,’ Linda Shiue, MD swaps her stethoscope for cinnamon.

An equally simple and stellar dish, callaloo has variations across the Caribbean and its diaspora. This version from Brigid Washington subs collards and spinach for harder to find taro leaves.

From San Juan to Oakland, chefs are breaking new ground with meat-free takes on the classics.

This deeply comforting Haitian meal consists of sos pwa nwa, black bean sauce enriched with coconut milk, served alongside mayi moulen, a creamy cornmeal porridge flavored with garlic and herbs.

Pavochon, a mash-up of pavo for turkey and chon for lechón, is the centerpiece of a Puerto Rican Thanksgiving.

This cheesy layered casserole is the ultimate sweet-and-savory mash-up, thanks to ground beef simmered with sofrito and tomato, melty mozzarella, and fried plantains to top it all off. 

At Cane in D.C., Peter and Jeanine Prime are channeling the communal joy of the beloved Trinidadian hangouts known as limes. These days, it just looks a little different than they thought it would.

Use the silky shreds of this flaky Trinidadian flatbread to scoop up everything else you’re eating.

This herby, peppery blend is used as a seasoning for many traditional dishes from Trinidad and Tobago.

In this Trinidadian dish chopped onions, peppers, and chiles get sizzled in hot oil before they’re poured over broiled peak-season tomatoes.

Trinidadian chickpeas and potato suspended in a delicious mash.

A simple and refreshing Trinidadian chow made with pineapple or mango.

“My mother (like many Puerto Rican mothers) has always had a copy of Yvonne Ortiz’s A Taste of Puerto Rico in our kitchen,” writers chef and recipe developer Gabriella Vigoreaux. “I can tell which dishes she’s made the most because the book just naturally falls open to those recipes. Only during quarantine have I started using it myself, marking new territory with soffritto stains on the pages my mother managed to keep pristine all these years. I turn to it when I want to taste my grandmother’s and great-grandmother’s cooking with half of the effort. One of my go-tos is Ortiz’s guava barbecue sauce. It’s a wildly simple (four-ingredient) recipe with a single sentence procedure: ‘Thoroughly combine all the ingredients.’ It takes about five seconds to make but instantly conjures memories of childhood trips to the island, stopping at a kiosko for a pincho de pollo (chicken skewer) and licking the sticky sweet sauce from off my little fingers. My version is nothing like Ortiz’s, but it brings me back just the same. I’ve slathered this sauce on ribs and whole fish and used it as a glaze for pork belly, but I will always like it best with chicken. This is just to say, you might want to double it.”

There are many variations on the beans-and-rice theme, particularly within African diasporas. To me, they all taste like home.

Trinidadian chow is refreshing, versatile, customizable, and ready in five minutes flat.

The zest and juice of lime and lemon deliver a simple but powerful flavor-packed punch to this everyday staple.