Caribbean

Mofongo is a garlicky, salty green-plantain-based dish hailing from the island of Puerto Rico, though it has woven itself into the cultural fabric of the Dominican Republic and parts of Cuba as well.

This Puerto Rican pork stew—loaded with bright and briny flavors like fresh tomatoes and Manzanilla olives—can easily be a part of your weeknight meal rotation.

This quintessential Haitian rice dish is named for the djon djon mushroom, which grows in the north of Haiti, but you can use djon djon bouillon cubes instead.

Bananas, pineapples, pecans—this Hummingbird cake has a little something for everyone.

Add the creamy Puerto Rican coconut and rum drink known as coquito to your festive cocktail rotation and enjoy throughout the holiday season.

Depending on their level of ripeness, plantains can be savory or sweet—for this sweet plantains recipe, look for mostly black ones.

For this adaptation of a classic Cuban cocktail, you don't need a muddler. Tear the mint, then stir with lime juice, sugar, white rum, and soda water.

This 5% ABV sherry colada is incredibly tasty and still has wonderful complex flavors that keep it from being candy.

The virgin piña colada already exists. This nonalcoholic piña colada goes further, in search of balance and complexity.

With its winning combination of coconut, pineapple, and rum, this piña colada recipe is creamy, just sweet enough, and utterly refreshing.

If you like mojitos, you’ll like this minty swizzle from the Queen’s Park Hotel in Trinidad. The swizzle is a category of cocktails named for the special bar tool used to mix all crushed-ice cocktails in the days before blenders. A swizzle stick is a long stick made with three to five forked branches originally made from the allspice bush. If you don’t have one, though, you can use a bar spoon to churn the drink with a similar motion, rotating the stick by rubbing your hands back and forth again …

For this grilled tofu recipe, allspice, thyme, garlic, brown sugar, and Scotch bonnet peppers join together in an aromatic marinade that’s spicy and warm.

This shepherd’s pie uses ground chicken and leans toward warming flavors, incorporating bright bursts of the tropics—ginger, habanero chile, lime—as well as aromatic Angostura bitters.

Use plátanos manzanos—a short, fat, and incredibly sweet plantain variety—if you can find them. When pan-fried, the outside caramelizes and forms a hard shell while the inside becomes soft and custardy (like crème brûlée!). Look for them in Latin and Caribbean supermarkets or in the tropical fruit section of large supermarkets.

This coconutty soup from Ramin Ganeshram is ideal for fall, when squash and pumpkin are readily available. Serve it with crusty bread or a hearty green salad for the perfect autumn lunch.

When grilled (or broiled) whole, eggplants get silky and smoky inside and charred on the exterior—perfect for mashing and mixing with sautéed onion, garlic, and fresh tomato.

This Trinidadian version of curried chicken is an earthy, rich stew of whole chicken pieces in an aromatic, vibrant broth, spiked with hot chile and a traditional herb paste.

Hot pepper is notably absent from this mixture—unlike curry powder from Madras. Trinidadians like to add fresh hot pepper to dishes, according to taste.

Quickly simmer shrimp in a stew of canned tomatoes, bell pepper, chicken broth, and cumin for an excellent and easy dinner.