Caribbean finger foods/appetizers.....?

Question

I am having a Caribbean themed cocktail celebration, and I am trying to come up with names and/or recipes of appetizers for the caterer. I'm trying to keep things simple and stick to finger foods.

Please help me!

Answer 1

I have a few of them:
Shark Bites (variation on Trinidadian Shark & Bake) with Mango Red Onion Salsa
If you can find shark, great, if not...Red snapper works fine.
Its labor intensive to make fried bakes this small, so go to Trader Joe's and get the "Micro Pitas"
Wash, season your shark/Red Snapper. Cut into bite size pieces (1", just enough for a bite) Flour/Egg/Breadcrumb or use any Cajun flavored breadcrumb mix.
Fry until golden.
Make your Mango Red Onion Salsa:
3 ripe mangoes, peeled and diced
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano leaves
1 tablespoon chopped green onions
1 tablespoon chopped jalapeno (or 1T of good carribbean pepper sauce)
3 tablespoons lime juice
3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon honey
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and let sit 30 minutes at room temperature.
Split the tops off of the micro pitas, insert a shark/red snapper piece into the pita, top with this relish.
*************************************************************
Fried Green Fig and Shrimp. with Avocado Mousse
This is really more of an assembly type of appetizer
Find Green Bananas (they look like plantains, but they're green).
We're going to slice them in 2 inch pieces and fry them lightly.
Then we're going to press down on them and fry them again.
Hispanics call them tostones if that's easier for your caterer.
We're going to shell and devein some large shrimp (most caterers like to leave the tail on, but I like to take the tail off so the person eating doesn't have to worry about disposing of the tail). Season them with either the A1 seafood marinades for like 10 minutes (not too long, you'll have ceviche) and maybe add a bit of jerk seasoning to the mix to give it that island edge. Saute them 2 -3 minutes and cool to room temperature.
Avocado Mousse (its really a spread, but it just sounds cooler). You need 2 avocados, 1 T lime juice,1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper ,1/4 teaspoon ground cumin ,1/8 teaspoon paprika ,1 tablespoon olive oil (if you can find curry oil, that would be so cool, or you can make your own....yes, its just about 1T curry powder and 1/4 c vegetable oil)
Peel and halve the avocados and remove the pits. Give them a rough chop and place them in a small stainless mixing bowl. Add the lime juice, cayenne, cumin, paprika, and olive oil. Mash the seasoned avocado with a whisk until creamy in texture and season with salt and pepper (again, if you can find some pepper sauce that would be awesome)
*************************************************************
Fried Breadfruit and Yucca Chips
cut the breadfruit into quarters and thinly slice using a mandoline. Peel your yucca (or cassava) and fry in oil (350 degrees).
Salt immediately after. We can use a lime/cilantro salting.
Grate lime skin into salt and have it sit for at least 3 hours.
Finely chop cilantro and toss last minute. Toss this lime/cilantro salt immediately after the chips come out of the oil.
You can serve a lone, or you can make a white bean dip for this. When I say white bean (if we're doing the carribbean thing), I would use butter beans instead of cannellini beans.
*****************************************************************
CooCoo & Fish & Callaloo (for your caterer: Salted Cod on a Polenta cake with a whipped spinach topping)
Cook your polenta/corn meal, but this time, bake it off in greased mini muffin tins.
Soak your saltfish/Saltcod in water for 24hrs, simmer in milk to soften. Saute w/onions,peppers,celery,garlic,tomatoes, olive oil.
You can cheat here and use frozen spinach from Bird's Eye.
Whip with a goat cheese mixture and assemble like the following:
Polenta cake, top with salted cod mixture, top with spinach mixture and one chive.
I'm paraphrasing a lot since you have a caterer so they'll know exactly where I'm going with this.
Sounds like a great party.
Be sure to serve guava or starfruit jello shots made with rum. The shot glasses should have turbinado sugar rims.
Enjoy!!!

Answer 2

Jerk Chicken Drummettes ( Walker's Wood Seasoning is the best...just marinate and cook your way- bake, broil, grill, etc..)

Coconut Shrimp

Fried Plantain Chips

This one I have the recipe for-
Spicy Sweet-potato Sticks
3 large sweet potatoes (1 1/2 to 2 pounds)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup water (or as needed)
3 tbsp honey
salt
white pepper
ground ginger
ground cardamom
ground cloves

Pare the sweet potatoes and cut into short sticks about 1/4-inch thick (if you have a food processor with a disk designed for French fries, use that).

Heat the oil and butter in a wok or skillet over medium-high heat; don't let the fat brown.

Add the potato sticks and toss to coat; season with salt, white pepper, about 1/4 tsp each of ginger, cardamom, and a small pinch of cloves. Add 1/2 cup water; adjust the heat to medium-low, and cook, tossing often, but gently, for about 5 minutes, adding drops of water if needed to prevent sticking.

Answer 3

Think hot and spicy! You can purchase either bottled Jerk seasoning or the rub in your grocery store. Marinate prawns before grilling, or chicken on skewers. Check out a website called Caribbean Foods and they can help you out!

Answer 4

For the best answers, search on this site https://shorturl.im/avAml

stuffed mushrooms INGREDIENTS: 12 whole fresh mushrooms 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 tablespoon minced garlic 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1/4 teaspoon onion powder 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel. Carefully break off stems. Chop stems extremely fine, discarding tough end of stems. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and chopped mushroom stems to the skillet. Fry until any moisture has disappeared, taking care not to burn garlic. Set aside to cool. When garlic and mushroom mixture is no longer hot, stir in cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, black pepper, onion powder and cayenne pepper. Mixture should be very thick. Using a little spoon, fill each mushroom cap with a generous amount of stuffing. Arrange the mushroom caps on prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the mushrooms are piping hot and liquid starts to form under caps. fruit kabobs strawberries, grapes, cut melon, pineapple on skewers. very easy and always a hit! bacon wrapped scallops 1 1/2 lbs. sea scallops 1 lb. bacon Butter Lemon juice Garlic salt Paprika Dry parsley Wash scallops well and pat dry. Cut slices of bacon in half widthwise and lengthwise, getting four pieces to a slice. Wrap bacon around scallops and place in a long baking pan that can go in a broiler. Make a lemon, butter, garlic sauce by melting butter, adding a tablespoon of lemon juice and sprinkle with garlic salt. Brush this mixture on scallops. Garnish with dry parsley and paprika for color. Put in broiler and watch carefully. Scallops are done when they just start to brown. bacon stuffed cherry tomatoes 2 lb. bacon, diced 1/2 c. finely chopped green onions 1/2 c. mayonnaise 24 cherry tomatoes Dice bacon. Fry until crisp. Drain and cool and paper towels. In a medium bowl, mix bacon, green onions and mayonnaise. Remove stems from tomatoes. Place tomatoes stem side down on cutting board. Cut a thin slice off tops. With a small spoon, scoop out pulp. Invert tomatoes with bacon mixture. Refrigerate several hours or overnight. Makes 24 appetizers or overnight. Makes 24 appetizers. They won't roll on the platter if you scoop out the bottoms and stand them stem-side down

Answer 5

Here are some receipies that I got from a Caribbean Kitchen website, I will give you the website so you can see what you most like.

This recepies Im putting are the once I have tasted so far
...................................................

Pan- Fried Grouper Fingers

2 pounds grouper fillets, cut into finger-size strips
1 cup of beer
1 cup flour
salt and pepper to taste

Marinate grouper pieces in beer for one hour. Dry fish well, pressing between absorbent paper towels. Roll in seasoned flour and shake off excess flour. Fry in hot oil to a depth of 1/8 inch. Fry quickly turning once. Allow approximately 10 minutes cooking time, depending on thickness of the slices. Drain on absorbent paper towels. Serve with tarter sauce and/or lemon slices.

..........................................

The Gundy Ball Dip

450 g (1 lb) firm cream cheese
10 ml (2 tbsp) Walker'sWood Solomon Gundy
240 ml (1 cup) finely chopped fresh parsley

Method
Using a fork, blend cream cheese and Solomon Gundy. Chill until firm. Using hands, shape into a ball then roll gently in parsley until completely covered. Place in middle of flat dish surrounded by cruditées or plain corn chips.

..........................................
Bajan Fried Chicken

Country: Barbados


INGREDIENTS:

1 2 1/2 to 3 pound frying chicken cut into pieces
2 cups vegetable oil for frying
1/4 cup or more seasoning (chopped)
1/2 Cup Flour
1 Tablespoon cornmeal
2 Teaspoons poultry seasoning
Salt and black pepper to taste

METHOD / DIRECTIONS:


Wash and clean the chicken pieces and pat them dry on paper towel. Heat the oil to 375 degrees in a heavy skillet (cast iron preferably). With a sharp knife, score the chicken pieces and fill each slash with a bit of seasoning poling to ensure that it is well inside the chicken. Mix the flour, cornmeal, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper in a paper bag. Place the chicken pieces in the bag and shake until they are well coated. Place the chicken pieces in the hot oil and cook for 20 to 25 minutes, turning occasionally to ensure that they are golden brown on all sides. Remove the chicken from the oil and drain it on paper towels. Serve Hot.

..................................

Escabeche

This one I have done myself with beef
onions, tomatoes, and peppers
salt and pepper....... alot of limon.
You can always serve it in some tortilla shells or hard tortilla those round tortillas

Hope it helps a little.....

PS: fruit is important with honey....
to tell you the truth I have been all over the caribbean and I dont remember about finger food.... basically its fruit and salads in some tortilla shells etc...