Cape Verdean Cod Casserole

The black man delivering my new bed had a foreign accent. I asked where he was from. “Cape Verde,” Alberto said, pleasantly surprised, like none of his delivery recipients had ever asked him that. The conversation led to a Cape Verdean cooking lesson with his cousin, Clarice, in Brockton, Massachusetts. Click at right for the full story and Clarice's two favorite recipes from Cape Verde.

The Story

Brilliant Move:

Asking the deliveryman from Cape Verde for a cooking lesson.

By Lindsay Sterling

The black man delivering my new bed had a foreign accent. I asked where he was from. “Cape Verde,” Alberto said, pleasantly surprised, like none of his delivery recipients had ever asked him that. Cape Verde is a group of ten volcanic islands 350 miles off the coast of West Africa. Alberto came here to find work and is happy how things turned out. He said he would be glad to teach me a dish from Cape Verde for Immigrant Kitchens, but he thought I should really cook with his cousin, who was an amazing cook. He gave me both of their phone numbers and drove off in a truck with the logo on it: “Brilliant Move.”

Alberto’s cousin, Clarice, spoke so little English that I wondered if we’d manage to connect. I thought she told me to meet her at her sister’s house at a certain address on Riverside Street in Brockton, Massachusetts, on Sunday at 10:00am. I worried that I might waste five hours driving down there and back with nothing to show for it but a shrinking ozone layer. But how often does a Cape Verdean cook come knocking on your door – in Maine? During the two-and-a-half-hour drive, various radio stations in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts broadcasted updates about tragedies in mostly black neighborhoods with white police officers. The stories were making me profoundly disappointed in the human race. I didn’t know anything about Brockton. My father-in-law said it was tough.

I came upon the house with the right address. It was a neat cape on a suburban street tightly fit with houses. Clarice waved me in with a gap-toothed smile. She was short with black hair. Her skin was darker than mine but lighter than Alberto’s. In the next four hours, Clarice and her sister Lucy filled ten glass baking dishes with salt cod casseroles, stewed calamari, lasagna, and spaghetti. All these casseroles would feed their families during the week after Clarice and Lucy got home from their jobs at the plastic bag factory.

In the middle of cooking, Clarice showed me more food in the fridge that they’d already prepared that weekend: grilled pork ribs; fried rice with duck, corn, and mussels; and a famous black bean and pork dish called feigoada. I was in awe. These women were my idols. They were amazing cooks, totally organized, with ‘ready made awesome food available for their families and friends at all times. Clarice microwaved plates of the duck and the feigoada for me for lunch. They were out of this world.

I watched them make the bacalhau com natas (potato and salt cod casserole). They sautéed a mixture onions, tomato, cilantro, garlic, yellow and red pepper, five seasoning blends by Goya and Knorr brands, white pepper, Cajun spice, salt cod, and cooked potatoes. Then they put the mixture in a baking dish, decorated the top with green olives and slices of hard boiled egg, poured béchamel sauce over everything, and baked it in the oven until top turned golden brown.

I couldn’t believe when they sent me home with a salt cod casserole and a lasagna for my family. On the ride home, the news kept spewing sad racial tension while casseroles filled my car with a kind of Cape Verdean love. My mind retorted: Black Family Teaches White Woman Cod Casserole. No One Dies. Food is Awesome.
               By the time I got home late that evening, my family was tired and hungry. The light went on about the lesson Clarice and her sister had taught me that day: cook ahead of time. I pulled out the already prepared salt-cod casserole. “Clarice and her sister from Cape Verde made it for us,” I said, feeling a surge of connection and gratitude. The human race could be downright amazing, too.

For the recipes, click at right. 

Copyright Lindsay Sterling 2015

The Recipe - Cape Verdean Calamari

Cape Verdean Calamari 

Guisado de Lula

(Stew of Squid)

As Clarice Pinto and Lucy Pires, from Santiago, Cape Verde, taught Lindsay Sterling in Brockton Massachusetts, April 2015. Recipe adapted slightly to avoid msg which was in many of the pre-prepared spice mixtures they used. 

Cooking time: 45 minutes
Serves: 10

3 lbs calamari (whole bodies about 4" long and legs is ideal, sliced bodies or rounds would also work)
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup red cooking wine
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cups water
1 cup beer
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 small bunch fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2" chunks
1/2 orange bell pepper, sliced
1 tomato, sliced
1 onion, sliced into triangular chunks
3-inch-piece of yuca root (optional)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp annatto or achiote powder (optional)
1/2 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp chili powder (to your spice level)
1 tsp Old Bay (optional)
1/2 tsp chicken bouillon

Cook calamari covered with water in pressure cooker under pressure for 30 minutes. If you don't have a pressure cooker, don't worry about it. Just boil it for twenty minutes in a regular pot. You're calamari won't be super duper tender like hers was, but it'll still taste great.

Cut/pry the thick brown skin off yuca. Slice lengthwise through the middle and carve out the fiber that runs through the middle. It's about the size of embroidery thread. If you can't find it, don't worry about it, it may become apparent as you cut the yuca into pieces. Cut the yuca into 1/2 inch size triangles.

Strain calamari and add back to the pressure cooker pot or large pot with all the rest of the ingredients. Cook on medium high heat, boiling for about 20 minutes until the potatoes are soft and some of the liquid has evaporated.


Copyright Lindsay Sterling 2015