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Provisions
The Roots of Caribbean Cooking -- 150 Vegetarian Recipes
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In Provisions, Michelle and Suzanne Rousseau share 150 recipes that pay homage to the meals and market produce that have been farmed, sold, and prepared by Caribbean people — particularly the women — for centuries. Caribbean food is often thought of as rustic and unrefined, but these vibrant vegetarian dishes will change the way we think about this diverse, exciting, and nourishing cuisine. The pages are spiced with the sisters’ fond food memories and fascinating glimpses of the islands’ histories, bringing the region’s culinary past together with creative recipes that represent the best of Caribbean food today.
With a modern twist on traditional island ingredients and flavors, Provisions reinvents classic dishes and presents innovative new favorites, like Ripe Plantain Gratin, Ackee Tacos with Island Guacamole, Haitian Riz Djon Djon Risotto, Oven-Roasted Pumpkin Flatbread, and Caramelized Fennel and Grilled Green Guava with Mint. Stunning full-color photographs showcase the variety of these dishes: hearty stews, easy one-pot meals, crunchy salads, flavorful pickles, preserves, and hot sauces, sumptuous desserts, cocktails, and more. At once elegant, authoritative, and accessible, Suzanne and Michelle’s recipes and stories invite you to bring fresh Caribbean flavors to your table.
Excerpt
A SISTERLY WELCOME
THE STORY OF CARIBBEAN FOOD CANNOT BE told without telling the story of Caribbean women. The women of our region—the mothers, grandmothers, sisters and aunts, the caregivers, the homemakers, the housekeepers and the cooks—are the wheels on which our society turns.
For centuries, our womenfolk have created delicious meals from sometimes meager fare to feed all those who gathered at their table. The food they cooked came from their own toil: from provision grounds and kitchen gardens they planted during slavery; from lands they farmed and produce they sold at market when free; from jobs they worked at all levels of society that allowed them to buy food to feed hungry children. From slavery through emancipation into the modern day, our feminine ancestors have sustained and nourished their own families and a multitude of others. They cooked everything from simple to more complex dishes over coal pots and open fires, in kitchens modest and grand, across the length and breadth of our islands’ homes. Their meals are laced with the aroma of fortitude, the memory of pain, the spicy taste of resilience, and a legacy of love that continues to nurture us to this day. But for too long these women have been forgotten, unacknowledged, and unseen. We have not told their stories.
In fact, it was only in the pursuit of our dream to write a cookbook that we discovered how important a role cooking had played in our female line, and by extension in the narrative of our own lives. Good cooks were a dime a dozen in our family, and our childhoods were filled with dazzling meals at the tables of our female relatives and caregivers: our mother, Beverly; our grandmothers, Enid and Mavis; our aunts, Doris, Viva, Kay, and Winsome. All of them served wonderful food, each in her own distinct way. But despite these vivid family memories, there were no detailed records about the women in our history. We saw how easy it was to find information about the men in our family line and how often we were told glorious and fantastic stories about our great-grandfathers, and even our great-great-grandfathers. Yet outside the random casual anecdote, passing comment, or distant memory told by an old aunt or family friend, we simply could not find much information about the four women who were our great-grandmothers: Martha Matilda Briggs, Henrietta Cleopatra Clark, Adeline Jemima Duckett, and Eulalie Eugenie Marche.
Our maternal great grandmother Henrietta with son Hugh (our grandfather, far right) and siblings
Our paternal great grandmother Ma Briggs, creator of Briggs Patty, with daughter Enid (our grandmother)
It was our research into the culinary habits of the British West Indies for our first cookbook that inadvertently introduced us to our great-grandmother Martha Matilda Briggs, a formidable woman whom we had known of only vaguely through family stories told by our father, Peter, his brother Pat, and our grandmother Enid (whom we called Manga). Born in Manchester, Jamaica, Martha was an independent entrepreneur in a time when societal standards for women dictated otherwise. She never married, but was a single mother to seven children, born of three different men. The youngest of her children were our grandmother Enid Augusta and her twin sister, Doris. Peter, Pat, and Enid heralded Martha as the first and finest commercial patty maker in Jamaica. They referred to her as a “handsome and powerful woman” whose baking skills were as legendary as her Briggs Patty, which was the most expensive and most delicious patty in all of Kingston.
Ma Briggs, as she was called, moved up the ranks of society through a liberated and determined spirit, working at turns as a domestic and laundress before finding her calling as a business owner and restaurateur when she purchased the well-known Royal Café at 75A Barry Street, next to the legal offices of Myers Fletcher in downtown Kingston. There, she first sold her famous Briggs Patties and Baked Black Crabs along with cakes and pastries. It is said that all the well-known barristers of the day dined at the Royal Café, among them the man who would become Jamaica’s first premier, the Right Honorable Norman Washington Manley. He would later defend Ma Briggs in a court case over a denial of her tavern license when the business relocated to Mark Lane. From Mark Lane her business expanded, eventually morphing into her most famous legacy, the Briggs Restaurant, located on Retirement Road in the busy Cross Roads area of Kingston.
On March 20, 1936, Ma Briggs opened the Briggs Restaurant and Ice Cream Garden with much fanfare, hosting an all-night event that is documented in the local paper. Her menu promised, “Late Suppers, Cold Beers, Ice Cream, Teas & Cakes, Baked Black Crabs,” and her famous “Briggs Crisp Crust Patties,” which sold at six pence per patty.
Back then, patties for sale were displayed on a restaurant’s countertop. We are told that Ma Briggs invented a “tin griddle” of sorts that sat atop a metal box filled with hot coals to keep the patties warm when they were brought out from the oven in the back. They were not the commercial, mass-produced, quick lunches we know of today. Briggs Patties would have been piping-hot, hearty, delicious meals that hungry consumers savored for their perfectly crisp crust and delectable savory filling. (In fact, our love of Jamaican “veggie patties” is partly what inspired our Plantain and Cheese Empanadillas, here, and our One-Pot Pie with Callaloo, Plantain, Goat Cheese, and Cornmeal Crust, here.)
That our great-grandmother, a woman who began her adult life as a domestic worker and who was a single mother with seven mouths to feed, had the vision and drive to become an independent black female entrepreneur in the colonial Jamaica of the early 1900s—a time when women did not commonly work outside the home, let alone own and operate businesses—was an astounding discovery. Her name appears many times over in the archives of Jamaica’s oldest newspaper, the Daily Gleaner, and it is evident from these articles and advertisements that she had a savvy head for business and was unafraid of a fight.
Grand Opening Announcement for the Briggs Restaurant and Ice Cream Garden, The Gleaner, 1936
Martha Matilda Briggs was an innovator, the creator of her own destiny, a leader among women when there were few women leaders. In fact, it is through her involvement in food that we were able to find out anything more about her. And so we came to understand that the professional lives we thought we’d arrived at by chance were much more about fulfilling our destiny. Having operated our own restaurant for many years, and having written two cookbooks, we now see that our work to create and cook and share delicious food continues the legacy Martha Briggs and so many other female relatives have left for us. In unearthing her story, we discovered our own.
Isaac Mendes Belisario’s “Milkwoman” on indefinite loan to the National Gallery of Jamaica: Collection of the Hon. Maurice W. Facey and Mrs. Valene Facey.
The desire to know our family history from both sides led us to ask the question that turned out to be the catalyst for this book: what about all those women whose stories, for so many generations, have been undocumented, untold, silenced? It was daunting and sad to think about. To avoid being overly ambitious, we decided to confine our search to the late 1800s, which was as far back as we could trace our family tree.
THE ROOTS OF WEST INDIAN COOKING
The roots of the ways we cook, eat, and produce food in the West Indies can be traced to an often overlooked aspect of our heritage as a plantation society: the women. More specifically the way women farmed, harvested, bartered, sold, prepared, manipulated, and, ultimately, redefined the ingredients that were available to them. The region’s culinary history and the life stories of Afro-Caribbean women are intrinsically intertwined. They are parallel journeys that began under the blistering sun of a sugar plantation, meandered through the struggles of a burgeoning society striving for independence and a new identity, and culminate in the gritty urban streets, beautiful homes, and picturesque country markets of today’s Caribbean.
In British West Indian plantation society, slaves were fed in three main ways: purchased food distributed as rations; food cultivated on plantations using gang labor; and food grown and harvested by slaves themselves on small plots of land called “provision grounds” allocated to them by plantation owners. Subsisting on food from provision grounds demanded ingenuity, innovation, creativity, and practicality, particularly in the kitchen. Women had to use this ingenuity to feed themselves, their families, and their masters, and the culinary techniques and eating habits they developed form the root of what we know as the West Indian diet of today. The typical diet of a Caribbean slave was thus made up of a variety of roots, tubers, and vegetables that they farmed for themselves and supplemented with small amounts of protein, mostly in the form of salted fish or meat. This way of eating, with some modification, ultimately evolved to become the preferred diet for all residents on the islands, from master to slave and every social group in between.
In post-emancipation society, farming, producing, and selling food provided one of the easiest pathways to financial freedom and independence for people of color. It also created a unique opportunity for entrepreneurial women to support their families, find social advancement, and establish financial autonomy. (See the Afterword here for a more detailed overview of West Indian culinary history and the role women have played in the development of the cuisine.)
Caribbean cuisine also developed around the specific ingredients that were farmed and traded. The ways these ingredients were prepared were largely determined by the cooking facilities that were available to women. And so, to unearth the roots of our cooking, we must look to the matriarch. Women of color in the Caribbean are beacons of power who, throughout the generations, have used the superior skills of craftsmanship learned at the feet of their mothers and grandmothers to improve the quality of their lives. In West Indian food, we have a truly artisanal style of cooking in which most recipes, techniques, and specialty dishes were passed orally from generation to generation, usually through the female line. And, as in any great cuisine, the ingredients’ freshness and sources are as central to their method of preparation as the stories behind the dishes and recipes.
THE WEST INDIAN TABLE: A SOPHISTICATED, ARTISANAL DINING EXPERIENCE
The aspect of West Indian food most often misrepresented is a belief that it is only a rustic, unrefined cuisine. Yes, there is a simple rusticity to how we eat (and live), but there is also a great deal of grace, elegance, and dignity; it’s evident in how women dress, carry themselves, entertain, and dine. Jamaican newspaper columnist Louise, in an article from 1935 titled “Lady, Look at Your Husband!,” explains why being well put together at all times is of critical importance, even for men:
If you can persuade your menfolk to give more thought to what they wear, for your sake, they will soon be doing it for their own, for dress is only next to food as one of the deep primitive pleasures of life and they will soon discover that a whole new field of interest has opened up to them.1
West Indian women are masters at creating unassuming polished luxury. There is great pride in the homestead, in the table, in the meals, in the way we cook, and in how the food tastes. We love to entertain; our personal lives are filled with memories of elegant and gracious female hosts who enjoyed cooking and sharing their gifts. We see this in our own family. Our grandmother Ma Ma (or Mavis) adored having us over for lunch when we were girls and always took her time to prepare a wonderful feast of mince, rice, and peas, her signature macaroni and cheese, accompanied of course by typical ingredients like fried plantain, sliced avocado, and spicy shallot pickle, which she served with Jamaican brown sugar limeade and rum-and-raisin ice cream for dessert. Those lunches became our ritual with our Ma Ma and are cherished memories that we will never forget. On the other side of the family, our grandmother Enid’s, or Manga’s, Easter bun, made with stout, molasses, and dried fruits, and boasting a sticky, crispy, sugary top, was beyond memorable. Manga’s bun was legendary. Every year, people would beg her to bake a bun for them to enjoy with their families on Good Friday. She would do so with relish, always baking enough to distribute among friends and family. Irrespective of skin tone, ethnicity, or social status, our women always cook from source, cook from scratch, cook with love, and serve with style.
Our maternal grandmother, Mavis
Our mother, Beverly
The objects we have in our kitchens and homes tell the story of the unique way that we in the West Indies have juxtaposed the refined with the rustic: imported fine china, silverware, and crystal from Europe are often paired with meals made using traditional cooking utensils like coal pots and yabbas. The furniture, fretwork, bedding, needlework, crochet, and batik in a West Indian home show mastery and a high level of craftsmanship dedicated to quality. Family heirlooms play an important role in the West Indian home, and many beautiful examples appear in photos throughout this book. The crochet and cotton-lace tablecloth pictured on the book’s cover was graciously loaned to us by Mrs. Gwen Donaldson, whose recipe for Dover Seville Orange Marmalade appears here. A gift from a family friend, the cloth has been in the Donaldson family for more than five decades and is still cherished and used on special occasions. Another valued family heirloom, the boxed collection of silver cutlery shown here, belongs to our mother. Aside from housing beautiful flatware, the mahogany box is symbolic of the spirit of the generations of family members who have dined with these utensils, as well as the quality of the meals served and the gracious hospitality shared at a West Indian table.
Dining at any West Indian table puts on display the impressive artistry and skill of West Indians from all walks of life. Imagine the experience of being seated on hand-woven wicker chairs at a wonderful hand-carved mahogany table laid with a hand-crocheted tablecloth and fine china. The table groans with classic European recipes that have been adjusted to a local palate (such as the Stewed Guava with Red Wine, here, served with Coconut-Ginger Ice, here, in lieu of strawberries and cream); “slave foods” that have been rendered sophisticated for table service (Fire-Roasted Breadfruit with Flaked Sea Salt and Honey, here; Curried Green Banana with Pineapple and Raisins, here); and demonstrations of culinary techniques and flavor profiles from across the globe (Sevens Mango Chutney, here; Good Hope Gungo Pea Falafel, here). The result: a surprisingly sophisticated cuisine served everywhere from homes to street stalls, beach shacks, and small community restaurants called cook-shops that perfectly combines simplicity with layers of flavor, fresh local ingredients, and culinary innovation.
INGREDIENT-FOCUSED VEGETARIAN
This is an ingredient-focused vegetarian book. The foods we present here—the roots and vegetables, abundant fruits and flowers, luxurious spices, coffee, cocoa, and (yes!) even rum—are both good for you and delicious. In the Caribbean, we have been eating them for over three hundred years. We showcase a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, healthy, fibrous starches, and vegetarian proteins that make for filling and supremely satisfying meals that are accessible to all. Whether you grew up eating these ingredients or not, you will appreciate them; they are prepared in various ways all throughout the former British, French, Spanish, and Dutch colonies of the Caribbean, with each country putting a unique spin on a shared ingredient. We suspect it would surprise most people to know that a wide variety of nontropical fruits and vegetables, like strawberries, blackberries, peaches, asparagus, artichokes, eggplant, mint, and marjoram, were grown locally, in regular supply in nineteenth-century West Indian markets. They appear in cookbooks and journals of the era from Jamaica to St. Vincent and even Trinidad and Tobago. If the land could sustain it, the residents grew it. This knowledge reaffirmed our decision to explore a much wider range and more varied combinations of vegetarian ingredients, and validated the concept that “Caribbean” food need not be limited to specific preparations of particular ingredients for fear of being perceived as inauthentic. You’ll find these ingredients in recipes such as Mango, Blackberry, and Peach Pie with Cornmeal Brown Sugar Crumble (here); Roasted Carrots, Beets, and Asparagus with Basil (here); and Roasted Tomatoes and Eggplant with Spiced Cilantro Yogurt and Feta (here).
We are inspired by the cooking of our island neighbors and our ancestors, who used what they had available to create imaginative dishes of all kinds that ranged from sophisticated and complex to humble. (If you eat meat, our recipes pair beautifully with animal proteins, which you easily can incorporate by adding small portions of well-seasoned grilled or roasted seafood, poultry, or meat.) Many of the local ingredients used in the recipes are described in the chapter toward the end of the book titled “Local Produce, Preparation Notes, and Ingredient Substitutions” (here). There, for those unfamiliar with the tropical produce of the islands, we explain how the ingredients are used, list possible substitutions, and describe how to prepare them. Our aim is to make these ingredients (and this book) accessible and easy to work with so that you can have some experimental fun in the kitchen.
A CONTEMPORARY APPROACH
Despite our pleasure at discovering the unknown recipes of our heritage, we did not wish to focus on re-creating dishes of the past. We love the traditional recipes of our grandparents, but there needs to be a new presentation of our food that is both accessible to all and relevant to modern life. This cookbook draws on inspiration from our culinary heritage but offers a new spin on the typical ingredients so often featured in “old time” West Indian cooking. Cooks in the West Indies have a long tradition of absorbing and adapting new ingredients, methods, and dishes. We are reminded of how Asian, South Asian, and Middle Eastern foods and flavors became staples of the daily diets in Trinidad, Guyana, and Jamaica as far back as the nineteenth century, showing that this cuisine is dynamic and continually expanding. In the spirit of our ancestors’ adaptations and ingenuity in the kitchen, the recipes here pay homage to traditional Caribbean ingredients and flavors, but update them for today’s cooks. Our style of Caribbean food is easy and accessible, and takes you on a fun culinary journey that explores the connection between the region’s history, food, culture, and identity. The recipes are vibrant and healthy, and bursting with color, flavor, vitality, and nutrients. In this work, we present our Caribbean food our way, and in our voice—a contemporary Caribbean voice that has been inspired by the voices of our collective past.
It is our greatest desire to take you back to simpler times and simpler meals—to a time when a single pot over an open flame was enough to bring a family together, to a time when despite brutal hardship and meager provisions, the day ended with a coming together over a hot coal fire to tell stories, share, laugh, dance, and celebrate the gift of life. We hope that the recipes herein will be cooked with abandon and shared around a table crowded with family, friends, and an abundance of joy. To us, there is no greater blessing. We hope that this work will celebrate all the women who have gone before us, who have been forgotten, unseen, and unknown. We hope that through this book we can inspire you to explore your personal histories and pay homage to the legacy of generations of women. We believe that there is no better way to honor those who have fed, nurtured, and raised us than by cooking the foods that our grandmothers used to cook, but doing it in our way, with our interpretation of their recipes. We hope that we have done them justice.
1. Daily Gleaner, March 23, 1935.
CHAPTER 1
PROVISIONS
Roots & Tubers, Yam, Cassava, Dasheen, Sweet Potato & Coco
AN OLD JAMAICAN PROVERB SAYS, “ONE ONE COCO FULL BASKET,” WHICH SIMPLY MEANS THAT EVERY LITTLE BIT ADDS UP TO FILL YOUR basket. We love this ancient wisdom not only because it is true, but also because its common use in the Jamaican dialect speaks to the relevance of the role that ground provisions (roots, tubers, and starchy fruits) play in the Caribbean diet. Starches like coco, yam, dasheen, sweet potato, and cassava appear daily in all kinds of ways at a Caribbean table, be it at breakfast, lunch, or dinner. “Food,” as these starchy staples are often called at homes and restaurants across the islands, accompanies the main component of the meal—often meat or fish. Food can be boiled, baked, or roasted, but is most commonly boiled, and usually more than one type are boiled together.
Provisions were the main source of sustenance for slaves in the Caribbean. One planter’s journal described how the slaves’ “provision grounds furnish them with plantains, bananas, cocoanuts, and yams… but in this parish their most valuable and regular supply of food arises from the coco-finger, or coccos, a species of the yam. These vegetables form the basis of [the slaves’] sustenance.”2 These nutritious, dense, high-fiber carbohydrates filled the stomach with slow-burning, high-energy fuel that could support a long day of manual labor under the blisteringly hot sun. Because slaves farmed their own provisions in their allotted provision grounds and kitchen gardens, they were able to include some variety in their diet. Yam, which came from Africa, has always been available in many varieties and was by far the most popular starch among slaves for both its familiarity and its long shelf life.
Cassava was indigenous to the islands, and methods for its processing and consumption were taught to early slaves by the native Indian communities of the Caribbean islands. Sweet potato, malanga coco, and dasheen are also very popular starches. All of them were relished by our African ancestors for their similarity in texture and methods of preparation to the very familiar yam, and all are still voraciously consumed with great pleasure today by islanders from all walks of life.
2. Lewis, 106–107.
ROAST PROVISIONS with Haitian Pikliz
Serves 6 to 8
This is a simple and clean way to enjoy ground provisions, which, as noted above, in the West Indies refers to any starch or root vegetable that comes out of the ground, among them yam, sweet potato, potato, cassava, dasheen, yampi, and coco. In this recipe a selection of local starches is roasted, buttered, and topped with delicious pickled vegetables typical of Haiti.
Genre:
- Provisions is an elegant balance of heritage and health. This comprehensive book celebrates the plant-based flavors of the pan-Caribbean basin and the spectacular ways in which the intellect and aesthetic of the Islands impact one of its most enduring legacies...its plates. The authors have produced an heirloom volume.—Michael W. Twitty, author of The Cooking Gene and creator of Afroculinaria
- Sustaining legacy is the highest power of any cookbook. Provisions stands on the shoulders of all of the women who came before Suzanne and Michelle Rousseau. This is not only an important book, it's also a beautiful and useful one. You'll find yourself making a grocery list in no time.—Julia Turshen, author of Now & Again, Feed the Resistance, and Small Victories
- Our female forbearers traveled to extraordinary lengths to nourish others with ordinary, often overlooked ingredients, in the most challenging circumstances. To grow, cook, and sell the food of the earth is the very definition of necessity breeding invention. In the tradition of generations of strong woman cooks, Michelle and Suzanne continue to innovate with these modern and craveably delicious recipes.—Lucinda Scala Quinn, chef, author, and host of Mad Hungry: Bringing Back the Family Meal
- If you love cookbooks with a strong dash of storytelling, you'll love Provisions from sisters Michelle and Suzanne Rousseau. They pay tribute to their family matriarchs and explain the history behind their favorite classic and contemporary Caribbean recipes.—Kerry Diamond, editor-in-chief of Cherry Bombe
- Engaging, informative, and as witty as the play on words hidden in its full title, Provisions: The Roots of CaribbeanCooking takes the reader on a tour of the region's food. Packed with recipes that made me want to head to the nearest market, taste memories that made me dream of the islands, a brief history of their family and of Caribbean food, and a glossary of local ingredients, it is simply a Caribbean vacation between two covers.—Jessica B. Harris, PhD, author, food historian, lecturer, professor (retired)
- This book is truly special. At a time when women aren't celebrated enough in the culinary world, Provisions shows that women have always been the backbone of every facet of food. The recipes paint a picture of the flavors in 'mi grand mudda's kitchen' but with a modern and refreshing approach.—Jerome Grant, executive chef, Sweet Home Café
- Provisions is so much more than a collection of recipes. This rich and fulfilling work of art takes us deep into the minds and kitchens of the resilient, brave and genius women of the Caribbean. Michelle and Suzanne creatively pay homage to the past while bringing the recipes and ingredients back to life with their modern interpretations.—Rock Harper, founder and president, RockSolid Creative Food Group
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"[A] diverse, spot-on collection of 150 vegetarian recipes...Filled with satisfying warm-weather recipes, this is best enjoyed with a fruity rum-based cocktail close by."
—Publishers Weekly - "Designed to highlight the fresh produce of the West Indies, most recipes use fairly straightforward techniques that will be familiar to home cooks. An indispensable guide to sourcing, preparing, and substituting ingredients accompanies extensive historical background that places recipes in the context of slavery's legacy in the region. Vibrant photography perfectly accentuates the bright flavors of the food, creating a sublime mix of inspiration and practical knowledge that will appeal to all creative home cooks. Not to be missed; an essential purchase for library cookery collections."—Library Journal (starred review)
- "An ode to culinary matriarchs and a welcome reconsideration of the culinary legacy of the Caribbean."—New Yorker (The Best Food Books of 2018)
- "The Caribbean-inspired vegetarian recipes by sister authors Michelle and Suzanne Rousseau are appetizing, but what truly makes this book-named after the provision grounds that were allocated to slaves by plantation owners-special is the Rousseau sisters' plunge into the history of the women behind Caribbean cooking. With great love and care, the Rousseaus shed light on those who have for too long 'been forgotten, unacknowledged, and unseen.'"—San Francisco Chronicle ("The Best Cookbooks of 2018")
- "A lush and artful work-one part cookbook, one part canonical and historical text. A modern collection of vegetarian comfort-food recipes, the book details the lineage of the invisible contributions of African women, and the savvy meal refinement of their descendants, self-reliant and creative West Indians who innovated the region's most beloved foodstuffs."—The Atlantic
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"Part-historical reference, part-cookbook, Provisions balances the story of bounty and bareness of the country's colonial history, with an imaginative rethink of flavour combinations that now define what the Rousseaus call 'modern heritage dining'...Something for every taste, whether casual veggie lover or avowed vegetarian."
—Jamaica Observer -
"With Provisions, [Michelle and Suzanne Rousseau] further cement their legacy not only as ambassadors of Caribbean foodways but also as preservers of its history...Inspired by the literal roots of Caribbean cooking, Provisions is as much a beautiful meditation on what the sisters cook today as it is an homage to all the women who have stood in kitchens stirring pots to feed their communities before them."
—Bon Appetit's Healthyish - "Michelle and Suzanne Rousseau give us not just a new way to cook, but a new way to think about how recipes come to be in the first place."—Epicurious
- "For those who want to delve further into Caribbean cuisine, look for Provisions: The Roots of Caribbean Cooking by Michelle Rousseau and Suzanne Rousseau, full of recipes using traditional Caribbean ingredients such as cassava, ackee, plantains, guava and mango."—Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- "Like most recent cookbook writers, the sisters have family stories to tell, along with updated family recipes to relate...The photographs are tantalizing."—Milwaukee Shepherd-Express
- "Vibrant vegetarian dishes...With a modern twist on traditional island ingredients and flavors, Provisions reinvents classic dishes and presents innovative new favorites... At once elegant, authoritative, and accessible, Suzanne and Michelle's recipes and stories invite you to bring fresh Caribbean flavors to your table."—City Book Review
- On Sale
- Oct 30, 2018
- Page Count
- 320 pages
- Publisher
- Da Capo Lifelong Books
- ISBN-13
- 9780738234670
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