Some of the herbs that give Dominican food its distinctive flavours will be more familiar than others to readers from outside the country. In some cases, like oregano and lemongrass, a familiar herb will be used in a different way. Here’s our introduction to herbs used in Dominican cooking. Cilantro or cilantrico (Coriandrum sativum) is known
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You bring the food! Are you looking for traditional Dominican Christmas recipes? Find them in our Holiday Special. We have revised, re-written and added new photos to these recipes to make things much easier for you. During these weeks we will also bring you new dishes that are non-traditional but full of Dominican flavors so
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Do Dominican men fail the kitchen test or are they no worse than men from other countries? While I wait for your replies to pour in, let me tell you about my experience. I have been married for 10 years to a divine Dominican man called Pedro. He is absolutely perfect in every …
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When I first moved to the Dominican Republic I stayed with my future mother-in-law for a couple of months. Although I had visited the country several times before and eaten Dominican food at friends’ houses, comedores and restaurants, this was my first real immersion in a traditional Dominican household. As a …
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A crispy flat bread made from cassava (yuca) flour – was at the centre of the Taíno diet. When the Spanish first arrived on the island, they soon found that casabe had advantages over their traditional European bread, in that it does not go stale or mouldy. For this reason, it is said that the
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The Brits have their “spotted dicks” and the Danes their “burning love” (which frankly sound like the same, er… “socially”-transmitted disease), but Dominicans put up a good fight when it comes to a nation that finds the oddest names for the most delicious dishes. Here we bring you some of them, going from the poetic
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Not long ago I came across a thread in one of our favorite forums* in which people discussed Dominican cooking. A friend of ours commented that most Dominican cooks used seasonings and calditos (bouillon/stock cubes) in their food. Is that really so? As a child from a family of diabetic, hypertensive, picky eaters this was
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Almost nine and half years ago, I decided that instead of writing down the Dominican recipes some of my friends requested over and over again I’d just put them online, then just send them to my site. I love cooking, but I hate typing (although I am pretty good at it, typing that is). All
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Oranges are known as ‘chinas’ in the Dominican Republic because they come from China. Surely not! Everybody knows that oranges come from the Mediterranean. Spain and Israel are famous for their citrus exports with their Seville, Valencia and Jaffa varieties. Morocco is also an important exporter of oranges. But if you scratch the surface and
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First of all, what sort of vegetarian are you? What the airlines describe as ‘lacto’? ‘Lacto-ovo’? These curious categories have long been obsolete everywhere except on the airline ticketing codes. They mean vegetarians who eat dairy products and vegetarians who eat dairy products and eggs. Are you a fishetarian? That means a vegetarian who eats
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Every nation has its rules about what goes and what doesn’t when it comes to gastronomy. Coffee here as we know is drunk sweeter than sweet. Those of us who decline any sugar at all are considered eccentric at best. In the same way as Italians who react with horror at ignorant foreigners who …
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In one of my articles I made the distinction between the art and science of different types of food preparation. My basic premise was that cooking was more of an art, whereas baking is more of a science, with certain exceptions to that rule. Something we frequently mention in passing, but …
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Haiti provides a preview of what’s in store for the Dominican Republic: the real price of free trade. Rice, beans, and chicken. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Haitians eat this every day – if they can afford it – and as far as I could tell the taste is identical to the “Dominican flag”. Plantains and
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The main agricultural crop in the Dominican Republic is sugar, so it is not surprising that sweets are an important part of Dominican cuisine. The national passion for very sweet coffee is a testament to the Dominican “sweet tooth” so it follows that Dominicans should adore their sweets, cakes and desserts. …
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When it comes to classifying unusual foods as disgusting, I’m firmly on the fence. As a person who rarely eats meat, there is no huge difference in contemplating the flesh of a chicken or a cat as something potentially edible, as far as I’m concerned. The same could be said for …
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Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw was referring to Great Britain and the United States when he said “Two nations divided by a common language”. Aunt Ilana hazards to extend this to “Twenty-one nations divided by a common language” when it comes to Spanish. When writing about Dominican cooking to an international audience, such as yourselves
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The Dominican Republic has its share of unusual names for fruit and vegetables that are unknown in much of the rest of the Spanish-speaking world. We’ve run through a long list of these on several occasions here on Dominican Cooking, and looked in depth at particular examples such as the mystery …
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Someone recently inquired whether or not mamajuana was available for export. Mamawhat, you ask? You know, the spiced rum that you may have had straight from the lid of its bottle on the street (oh, was that just me?), or perhaps as an after-dinner liqueur. Spiced with cinnamon, medicinal leaves and herbs – among other
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I weaned my baby son here in the DR, and found that many of the foods found here worked as excellent first foods for him. The requisites – wherever you’re coming from – were that they should be palatable, easy to digest, and nutritious. First stage (never before the age of 4 months): purées like
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Aunt Clara’s Dominican Cookbook concedes that mofongo, a dish with a special place in the hearts and stomachs of Dominicans, actually originates in the neighboring island of Puerto Rico. Not surprisingly, I know some Dominicans who would take serious issue with that claim. Mofongo is the flagship dish in many typical Dominican restaurants like Adrian
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We have said on more than one occasion that Dominican food has more in common with its Spanish-speaking Caribbean neighbours than with other parts of Latin America and the Caribbean. I thought I’d look into this in a little more detail. It makes sense that we should share a common culinary tradition with Cuba and
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“Dominicans will eat ANYTHING for breakfast” observed a friend from a European country which shall remain nameless, to protect the guilty. He was watching his Dominican wife tuck into a bowl of soup at the breakfast table. It is true that Dominicans do have some breakfast preferences that to foreign eyes …
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Dominicans are spontaneous and happy people who do not need much of an excuse to party. Where there are two or more Dominicans, a party may break out at any moment; some occasions, however, call for more lavish and elaborate celebrations. Depending on their station in life Dominicans can either choose elaborate …
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You know what you’re making for supper. You stopped at the grocery store on your way home from work and picked up the necessary ingredients. You’ve diced your onion, your oil is a-heating. OK. Recipe calls for one sopita (a chicken broth cube). One sopita, one sopita…where in Julia Child’s name is the sopita?! You’re
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Aquí siempre es a buen tiempo / cuando es hora de comer / porque así nos enseñaron / y lo tenemos por ley / donde comen dos seguro / se pueden sentar tres…* – Catholic Hymn So what is the deal with Buen Provecho and A Buen Tiempo? Both are said at mealtimes, and yet
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Aunt Clara’s Dominican Cooking, besides being a collection of recipes of the Dominican Republic, source of information about our cuisine, dishes, ingredients, and history is also thought as a help for those who want to learn about the Dominican culinary culture. Dominican cuisine is easy and spontaneous. As in any other part of the world,
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Aunt Clara's Kitchen is a collection of traditional Dominican recipes, recipes inspired by Dominican flavors, as well as the chronicles of the Aunties' adventures in the kitchen and outside.
