Goat Water? Banana Soup?

Goat Water

I know it doesn't look great and sounds even worse, but it was fabulous with a hint of clove and cinnamon.  Goat water is similar to beef stew but instead of beef broth and meat you would use goat meat and broth with Caribbean spices as I mentioned earlier.  They also offered Conch Water. Maybe next time.  This was at Dan's our closest commercial establishment here in Buckley Heights.

That was our first local fare. I'd heard of Goat Water but not sure if this is strictly Antiguan or Caribbean. Other than that I haven't found many restaurants offering local fare, instead we've gone to some great entertainment venues with high end menus in the harbors which serve the boating tourists.  So we've enjoyed the great sounds of Asher Otto and ItchyFeet while sipping on Chilean wine and savouring a brick oven pizza, for example.

Yata, Adrienne, Jean and CJ

But I have been enjoying the use of a good kitchen in our AirBnB lodging.  In the back yard we have a papaya tree and some banana plants. The bananas are quite green but green bananas are used here for savory dishes and I made a banana soup.

Banana Soup

serves 4

Ingredients

4 T butter

3-4 cups of pealed and chopped green bananas

2 cups of chopped sweet potato or carrots

1 medium onion diced

2 bay leaves

6 peeled cloves of garlic

8 cups of water or stock (vegetable)

1T  Caribbean curry (turmeric, ginger,cinnamon, cardamon, etc.)

salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion, garlic, sweet potato, banana for 7-10 minutes. Add the stock and bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer until bananas and potatoes are soft (about 20 minutes). Let cool, and then blend until smooth. Return to low heat.  

Salt and pepper to taste. 

Sprinkle with dash of fresh grated nutmeg and serve.

(2-3 cups of cheddar cheese can also be added in the final reheat to melt.)