Cooking with Viola

Today, I cooked with Viola!  Viola is the woman who cooks all of the meals for Lara, Pierre, and Hope on a String volunteers/interns.  She was hired to cook, clean, and help take care of the house.  She is always so friendly and makes such delicious Haitian food.  Because I like to cook so much, I asked her if it was all right if I watched and helped her cook some of our meals.  She, very kindly and generously, agreed.  In Haiti, or at least in Corail, lunch is the biggest meal of the day.  After breakfast, a little before 9 am, I began my first cooking class with Viola.  

Menu Nou: 

Legume (avek Kabrit)

Legume (san Kabrit)

Sòs Pwa, avek boulèt, bannann

Diri Blan

Our Menu:

Mixed Vegetables (with Goat)

Mixed Vegetables (without Goat)

Bean Soup with dumplings and plantains

White Rice

First, Viola and I sat on these small chairs in the kitchen to look over the black beans.  The kitchen, which is the preparing and cooking area, is always outside of the house.  This kitchen is attached to the house, but some aren't.  This kitchen is between the wall of the house and the security wall which goes around the house.  We sat there and took handfuls of beans to separate the good seeds from everything else - like bad seeds, rocks, twigs, dirt.  Then we gave them a bath to watch them - two rinses - and plopped them in the boiling water to cook.  We have a 4 burner stove that uses propane.  

Next, we peeled and prepped vegetables for the legume dish.  Viola had already marinated the goat overnight in vegetable oil, Worcestershire Sauce, yellow mustard, a liquid Sazón seasoning packet.  She was heating it up on one of the burners.  With two broken knives, we began peeling the carrots,  meliton (pictured below), eggplant, and cabbage.  Peeling was hard because the knives were broken and dull, but I did a good job and I wasn't laughed at.  Throughout the cooking process, we had many onlookers (mostly kids), checking to see how I was doing.  We also cut up some leafy greens called crescent and epina.  

Goat

Meliton

We rinsed all the vegetables all over again and put 2/3 of them in the meat dish and 1/3 of them separately.  Then Viola added a spice packet that looks like it was Chicken bouillon - I soon realized that she puts this in everything!  She knows that I am a vegetarian and is very accomodating to my diet; however, I don't think she has thought about not putting the bouillon in my dishes.  I don't think she thinks of it as an animal product... I didn't say anything for several reasons: 1) She has been doing it all along and I don't want her to feel badly. 2) I want to be respectful.  3) I don't want to be such a burden and a hassle!  I would rather be easy-going.  We mashed up some garlic and shallots in the mortar and pestle, and tossed those in the pans as well.  Then, we put in tomato paste, which was in oil, into the dishes.  Then viola covered each legume pot with one small cover, which hugged the food tightly, and then put the top cover on the pot.  I'm not sure why she did this, but it seemed to steam them better, perhaps?  

While these were cooking, we checked on the beans.  She told me they were ready once their shells cracked and they were soft.  We put them into a bowl, drained them from the bean water.  Viola gave me a large pestle and told me to mash them up.  I mashed, and mashed, and mashed.  My arm got tired and I was sweating!  Then Viola added some water to the beans, and I continued to mash.  Then she put some more bean-water with the beans, stirred, and drained them again.  I continued to mash again.  We did this draining-mashing routine 2 more times, for a total of 3 times.  We wanted all of the good stuff that was in the beans - the juices and flavors - but not the beans themselves.  The beans were thrown out (given to the dogs).

The bean water was brought back to a boil, and a spice called "ten" or "tin" was added.  It looked like a sprig of it.  Then Viola added a bit of salt and about a tablespoon of butter.  While the bean water and the Legumes were cooking, we sifted some flour to make the dumplings, which we would drop into the bean sauce.  We added some salt and water to the flour, and Viola rolled it into a dough.  Then we rolled the dough into the shape of a really long finger.  These dumplings are eaten often in the black bean sauce, and were surprisingly easy to make!  Then we peeled two plantains, cut them up along the diagonal and threw those into the Sòs Pwa (bean sauce) as well.  Everything was cooking beautifully and smelled absolutely delicious!

Boiling Bean Sauce

Making the dumplings

We checked on the legumes, added more mashed garlic to the Sòs Pwa.  Then we added something to the Sòs Pwa that I never realized was even in it.  We grated coconut, on a make-shift grater then ran water through the coconut shavings.  We mixed it up and then squeezed the water out of the shavings, to create coconut milk.  We ran water through and squeezed a total of three times, then added this milk to the bean sauce.  I would never have guessed that there was coconut in the Sòs Pwa!

Once Viola decided the legumes were done, we took them off the burner, and again, I took the pestle and mashed them all up.  I mashed and mashed and mashed.  We then added a spoonful of vinegar, several dashes of hot sauce, and I think another mashed up garlic clove.  The Legume dishes were now done.  To taste them, Viola (and every other woman who cooks in Haiti), dropped some of the dish on the palm of her hand and tasted it.  I did the same - it was delicious!

Now it was time to make the rice.  First, in goes the oil, a lot of salt, and a green onion.  Viola lets this cook for several minutes, and then added the water.  Once the water boiled, then we add the white rice, cover, and cook.  Voila!

The actual cooking and preparing part of this experience was a lot of fun - Viola was a great teacher and let me do a lot of stuff.  But the part where I was talking to Viola, having the experience of working with her, learning about her, being there in the kitchen was so memorable and such a valuable experience.  Cooking with someone can truly be a bonding experience; not only are you learning about the foods, but you are learning about culture, technique, history, etiquette.  Cooking in the environment Viola cooks in, with the tools she has, and the limited space she has is truly extraordinary.  Everything she has to do is harder than if I had to do it in my kitchen in the United States, like peeling, straining, cutting, grating, pouring, and washing.  

I also was able to learn more about Viola.  I learned that she has five sisters and one brother, all of whom live in Port au Prince, and that both of her parents died when they were young.  She misses seeing her siblings, but two of her sisters came to visit her in Corail two months ago.  Viola also told me that she taught herself how to cook!  I told her that when I go back to New York, I will be sure to cook everything she taught me.  What a great experience!  I can't wait to cook with her again!