Wendy Ra­hamut

Car­ni­val time means loads of vis­i­tors to our shores and lots of lim­ing ses­sions, be the house limes or pan limes, beach limes or lim­ing on Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day. Trinida­di­ans and To­bag­o­ni­ans in­vent­ed the word lime, and so we are mas­ters at it, even when we are not sup­posed to be do­ing it!

A tra­di­tion­al lim­ing snack is souse; it's per­fect­ly flavoured with lip-puck­er­ing acid­i­ty from limes and heat from hot pep­pers. Chadon beni, onions, gar­lic and salt round off the flavours for a fin­ger-lick­ing, mouth-burn­ing ex­pe­ri­ence.

Souse is a pick­ling method of prepar­ing meats and veg­eta­bles, orig­i­nal­ly the pig's trot­ters were soused, first they were cleaned and cooked and then soaked for many hours in a fresh lime juice, pep­per and onion juice. Since then we have added chick­en's feet, cow's skin, lam­bie, cu­cum­ber, and green fig souse to our Trinida­di­an menu!

CHICK­EN FOOT SOUSE

In­gre­di­ents

�2 2 lbs chick­en's feet

�2 2 small cu­cum­bers, peeled and thin­ly sliced

�2 2 large onions, thin­ly sliced

�2 1 hot pep­per, thin­ly sliced with seeds

�2 1 cup lime juice

�2 2 cups wa­ter

�2 1 cup fine­ly chopped chadon beni

�2 1/4 cup fine­ly chopped chives

METHOD

Wash chick­en's feet; boil in light­ly salt­ed wa­ter un­til ten­der, about 30 min­utes.

Drain and cool.

Place in a large glass bowl.

Add onions, pep­per, lime juice, wa­ter and chadon beni and chives.

Stir well to cov­er with mari­nade.

Cov­er and let stand at room tem­per­a­ture for three to four hours, stir­ring to keep all pieces ex­posed to mari­nade.

(This recipe can al­so be used to souse oth­er meats, like pig's trot­ters, and cow skin).

Serves eight.

GREEN FIG SOUSE

In­gre­di­ents

�2 8 green ba­nanas or green figs

�2 1/4 cup fresh lime juice

�2 1/2 cup cool wa­ter

�2 1 large onion, thin­ly sliced

�2 4 cloves gar­lic, minced

�2 1 hot pep­per, seed­ed and thin­ly sliced

�2 salt and fresh­ly ground black pep­per

�2 2 cu­cum­bers, peeled and thin­ly sliced

METHOD

Place green figs in a non-re­ac­tive heavy saucepan, add a lit­tle oil and boil for about 15 min­utes un­til ten­der. Re­move, cool and peel. Slice.

Place figs in a glass bowl, add all oth­er in­gre­di­ents ex­cept cu­cum­ber, pour on boil­ing wa­ter just to cov­er figs.

Cool and re­frig­er­ate overnight.

Fif­teen min­utes be­fore serv­ing, add cu­cum­ber slices.

Serves six.

CU­CUM­BER SOUSE

In­gre­di­ents

�2 10 cu­cum­bers, peeled and thin­ly sliced salt and fresh­ly ground black pep­per

�2 Juice of 3 limes

�2 1/4 cup white vine­gar

�2 1 hot pep­per, minced

�2 1/2 cup thin­ly sliced chives

�2 2 onions, thin­ly sliced

�2 1/4 cup fine­ly chopped chadon beni

METHOD

Place cu­cum­bers in a glass bowl add all oth­er in­gre­di­ents, stir and cov­er.

Re­frig­er­ate for one to two hours.

Serves ten.