Guyanese Recipes

Guyanese Paratha Roti

Combine 2 cups flour (all purpose), 2 tsp baking power, 1tsp vegetable shortening in a large mixing bowl.

Mix together, then make a well in centre of the ingredients. Slowly and gently add 1 cup of water and knead to form a soft dough.

Use your finger and palms of your hands to put air pockets in the dough. This will help the dough to be soft and smooth.

Cover dough with a damp towel and let site for at least 30 mins.

Making the baste for the roti

Add about 2 tbsp butter and ½ cup oil to a small mixing bowl. Microwave until butter and oil have melted together.

Bring the left dough, at least 30 mins after. See how soft and stretchy the dough is? Perfect roti dough!

On a lightly floured surface (chopping board), separate dough into 3 equal pieces.

Now you are going to oil off the roti. This step is necessary for the roti to have a nice flaky texture.

Flatten a piece of dough into a round disk (10in or so). Using a rolling pin, roll dough out until it is about 1/8th of an inch thick.

Cover the entire surface of the roti with the butter and oil mixture.

Using a knife make an incision from the centre to the end. Then roll the roti inwards forming a cone shape. After rolling, tuck the ends into the bottom and then push the top of the cone into the base of the roti both sides.

Cover all the doughs with a damp towel to prevent the tops from crusting and let sit for another 30 mins.

After 30 mins, flatten gently one of the rotis into a round dish. Add flour to the work surface and making sure the roti is covered.

Using a rolling pin, roll roti into a large disk about 1/8th of an inch, and to the size of the frying pan.

Warm frying pan then place roti in frying pan. When air bubbles appear, flip roti over and baste with the oil and butter mixture. Flip and add oil and butter mixture to the other side, then flip over.

Cook for about 2-3 minutes, then remove from heat.

Have a bowl with lid and place the roti inside and shake vigorously to separate roti layers.

Vermicelli Cake (Serves 12)

Ingredients:

1lb Vermicelli

I can condensed milk

2 cans evaporated milk

2 cups of water

2 tbsp butter

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 can tin of cherries

Combine condense milk and evaporated milk in a large saucepan.

Add ground cinnamon and essence. Stir until condense milk completely mixes with evaporated milk.

Add to high heat and bring to a boil. Melt butter in another saucepan, on medium heat.

Break noodles into 3 inch pieces. Add noodles to melted butter and parch/toast.

Stir constantly to ensure noodles parch/toast evenly. Add parched/toasted noodles to pot with boiling milk. Reduce heat and let noodles simmer until fully cook.

If necessary, add up to 2 cups of water to prevent noodles from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Once noodles are completely soft and the milk mixture has thickened but not completely evaporated, add to a greased baking pan and let cool.

As the noodles cool, they will form a thick cake. Once completely cool, cut into slices and enjoy. I topped mine with some cherries I had hoping to make cherry pie. It was delicious.

NB. Be careful when you are cooking the noodles, the milk mixtures evaporates really quickly if the heat is too high and you will have slightly hard noodles. For this cake you need the noodles to be fully cooked almost to the point of being over cooked.

Guyanese Chicken Chowmein

1 pk dried Chowmein noodles

1 1/2lbs boneless chicken thighs

1 small onion (thinly sliced)

3 tbsp oil

1 ½ mixed (red, green, yellow) bell peppers (thinly slicked)

2 cups frozen mixed vegetables (carrot, green beans, sweet corn, brocolli, cauliflower, cabbage)

5 head of green onions.

To Season the chicken

1 tbsp. Dried thyme

1 tbsp cassareep

3 gloves of garlic (chopped)

1 tsp. brown sugar

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Mustard

¼ tsp. Ground black pepper

Cook noodles.

Chop chicken into 1 inch chunks. Then season with thyme, cassareep, garlic, brown sugar, salt, mustard, black pepper.

Set aside and let marinade for about 5 minutes.

Prepare the vegetables. Then in a skillet large enough for the noodles, warm ol on medium heat. Add onions and cook until onions are brown and soft. Then increase heat to high.

Add season chicken and cook for 10 minutes, or until chicken is fully cooked. Add vegetables and cook for another 5 minutes, constantly turning for even cooking.

Add the peppers and cook for 3 minutes. Peppers should be crunchy after cooking. Then add the cabbage and the noodles. Toss together then add chopped scallions.

Remove from heat and enjoy.

Tips and Ramblings:

The key to good chowmein is to have a bit of sauce in the cooked meat and vegetables, so that once you add the noodles, it soaks all that goodness up.

You could substitute the protein in this dish for any protein of choice or eliminate it all together.

It takes about 30 minutes to cook this dish if you have cook time management. Chop chicken first, season and set aside, put noodles on, while noodles are cooking prep veggies. Etc.

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