callaloo

Taro

Xanthosoma

Callaloo (sometimes calaloo) is a Caribbean dish that is most popular in Jamaica, and Guyana with variants in Barbados, Guadeloupe, Grenada, Haiti, Dominica, the Virgin Islands and Trinidad and Tobago. The main ingredient is a leaf vegetable, traditionally either amaranth (known by many local names including callaloo or bhaaji), or taro or Xanthosoma species (both known by many names including callaloo, coco, tannia, bhaaji, or dasheen bush). Because the leaf vegetable used in some regions may be locally called "callaloo" or "callaloo bush", some confusion can arise among the different vegetables and with the dish itself. Outside of the Caribbean, water spinach is occasionally used.

Trinidadians primarily use taro/dasheen bush for callaloo, while Jamaicans and Guyanese use the name callaloo to refer to amaranth, and use it in a plethora of dishes and also a drink ('callaloo juice').

Plant sources for Callaloo leaves

• Taro - also called dasheen in the West Indies the leaves of this root crop are used in the Trinidadian version of the dish
• Tannia or Malanga called calalu in Puerto Rico
• Amaranth species include Amaranthus spinosus used in the West Indies; A. flavus is a yellow variety used in Brazil and known as caruru
• Pokeweed species, Phytolacca octandra or "West Indian foxglove" (no relation to garden foxglove, species Digitalis)
• Nightshade species, Solanum nodiflorum
• Water spinach, Ipomoea aquatica (a form of morning-glory)

Callaloo is almost always made with okra and dasheen or water spinach Ipomoea aquatica. There are many variations of callaloo which may include coconut milk, crab, conch, Caribbean lobster, meats, chili peppers, and other seasonings such as chopped onions and garlic. The ingredients are added and simmered down to a somewhat stewlike consistency. When done, callaloo is dark green in color and is served as a side dish which may be used as a gravy for other food.

Callaloo is widely known throughout the Caribbean and has a distinctively Caribbean origin, created by enslaved Africans using ideas of the indigenous people along with both African (okra) and indigenous (Xanthosoma) plants (See Palaver Sauce for the West African dish). Trinidadians have embraced this dish from their ancestors and over time have added ingredients such as coconut milk to improve its flavor. Callaloo is mostly served as a side dish, for Trinidadians it usually accompanies rice, macaroni pie, and a meat of choice.

References

Davidson, Alan. Oxford Companion to Food (1999), "Callaloo". p. 125 ISBN 0-19-211579-0

External links

• Pepperpot Soup
• Callaloo Recipe

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on Callaloo

• Callaloo