Pack a Picnic Basket

Jamaica Observer Eating Well: Pack a Picnic Basket

Organize a two or three car group of friends and relatives (safety in numbers), pack a picnic basket, and drive. Head for some place in particular, but keep your eyes open for some quiet, but not secluded, side road where you can park safely and have some lunch. Set out a pretty tablecloth (or sheet) or serve straight from the insulated boxes in the car trunk.

You need two of those insulated plastic boxes: a hot box and a cold box. Prime your boxes before you fill them with the picnic fare. For your cold boxes, leave some ice in them from the night before. In the case of the hot box, warm it up with hot water before you pack the food that you want to keep warm for an hour or two.

Fricasseed chicken and rice and peas, your typical Sunday fare, makes great picnic food. Unless you prefer curry goat and rice, or individual chicken pies. Simple salads (sliced tomatoes with chopped fresh basil with oil and vinegar dressing… salt and pepper to taste) and accompaniments like pickled eggs or pickled beets go nicely with lettuce, washed, dried and kept in a plastic bag in the cold box. Wine, beer (those who drive should not drink alcohol), lots of lemonade or your favourite fizzy go in the cold box along with oranges and watermelon.

Coffee in an insulated jug is almost obligatory and those who will not do without dessert will want gingerbread or sweet pastries like gizzadas or plantain tarts. Throw in as well a few munchies like pieces of coconut and nuts.

We’ve got just the gingerbread for the picnic. Heat ½ cup water and add ½ cup molasses, 1 cup sugar and ½ cup butter. Mix well and cool to room temperature. Sift together 2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon nutmeg, ½ teaspoon cinnamon powder in a large bowl. Add the liquid mixture and 2 teaspoons grated ginger (more if you like your gingerbread with bite) and 1 egg, well beaten. Mix until the egg and flour mixture are well combined then pour the batter into a grease paper lined 9”x9”x2” pan and bake in a slow 300°-350° F oven for one hour or until done.

Sift icing sugar over the gingerbread and serve it with lemon curd.

Lemon Curd

Combine 4 egg yolks, ½ cup sugar, ½ cup (½ stick) butter and the strained juice of 2 lemons in a heavy saucepan. Cook the mixture over a moderately low heat, stirring, until the butter is melted and the custard is thick enough to coat the spoon. Do not let it boil. Transfer the custard, cool, then chill it, covered with a piece of buttered wax paper. Makes about 1 cup. Keep this in the cold box on the way to the picnic.

Whatever you do, don’t forget the knives and forks and spoons… and the plates. And don’t leave a mess behind at your picnic site: take along a trash bag and take it back home with you.

© Elizabeth North   10/01/1995