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South America · 6°48′N 58°09′W · Kitchen testing pending

Guyana

Cassareep, wiri wiri and a Christmas pot that never goes cold

The ten

Ranked by what people actually name first

  1. Dark, glossy pepperpot of beef and pork in black cassareep gravy with whole red peppers, in a black bowl beside a plait of soft white bread.Pepperpot4 hr 15 minThe national dish and the Christmas morning pot. Beef chuck, oxtail and trotters simmered for three hours in cassareep, the black bittersweet reduction of bitter cassava juice, with cinnamon, clove, wild thyme and whole wiri wiri peppers floated unbroken on top. Better the next day, and the day after.
  2. A bowl of coconut cook-up rice with black-eyed peas, chunks of beef and shrimp, a whole red pepper on top and fried plantain slices at the side.Cook-up Rice1 hr 45 minThe Saturday night and Old Year's Night pot. Parboiled rice simmered in thick coconut milk with salt beef, smoked pigtail, chicken, black-eyed peas and split peas, thyme and a single whole wiri wiri, sealed under foil and steamed until the grains glisten and the cured meats have seasoned the whole pot.
  3. A bowl of golden chicken curry with potato pieces next to a folded dhalpuri roti torn open to show its yellow split-pea filling.Chicken Curry with Dhalpuri Roti1 hr 40 minIndo-Guyanese Sunday cooking. A wet paste of curry powder, roasted geera, turmeric and garlic is fried in hot oil until the water is gone and the oil splits out, the bunjal, before the chicken and potatoes go in. Alongside, a split-pea-stuffed flatbread rolled paper-thin, puffed on a hot tawa and clapped between the hands.
  4. Metemgee of pale duff dumplings, cassava, plantain and pumpkin in a creamy coconut broth, with a small dish of shredded saltfish behind.Metemgee1 hr 25 minThe Afro-Guyanese provision pot. Cassava, eddoes, sweet potato and both green and ripe plantain simmered in thick coconut milk with thyme, garlic, salt fish and a whole wiri wiri, staggered by starch so nothing dissolves, and crowned in the last twenty minutes with duffs, flour dumplings steamed on top of the vegetables until they double into clouds.
  5. Cubes of deeply browned garlic pork scattered with sliced garlic on an enamel plate, with a braided bread roll alongside.Garlic Pork1 hr 10 minThe Madeiran Portuguese Christmas gift. Cubes of fatty pork shoulder packed into jars with three heads of crushed garlic, a bunch of thyme, wiri wiri and salt, covered in cane vinegar and cured cold for three or four days, then cooked in a dry pan with no oil at all until the vinegar boils off, the fat renders and the pork fries itself to a mahogany crust.
  6. A bowl of Guyanese chowmein: brown-glazed noodles tossed with chicken strips, red pepper, green beans and spring onion.Chowmein45 minThe Chinese-Guyanese wok dish found in every home and school canteen. Thin egg noodles boiled just short of al dente and rinsed cold, then flash-fried over maximum heat with marinated chicken, bora beans, carrot and cabbage in dark mushroom soy, oyster sauce and a fennel-free five-spice, finished with scallion and served with pepper sauce.
  7. A heap of golden fried pholourie split-pea balls on a plate with a small bowl of green mango sour beside them.Pholourie with Mango Sour45 minThe Indo-Guyanese street fritter sold in brown paper bags at markets and school gates. Soaked yellow split peas ground to a slurry, beaten into a flour batter with yeast, turmeric and roasted geera, fermented until spongy, and dropped into hot oil where each spoonful swells into a hollow golden sphere, eaten with a tart, fiery green mango sauce.
  8. A plate of yellow dhal with fried garlic and cumin, white rice, a crisp fried fish steak and a cucumber and mango side.Dhal and Rice with Fried Fish1 hr 10 minThe weekly Guyanese comfort plate. Yellow split peas boiled soft with turmeric, garlic and whole wiri wiri, swizzled smooth with a wooden dhal gutni, then woken with the chunkay, garlic chips and cumin seed fried in smoking oil and poured hissing into the pot, served over parboiled rice with a fish steak rubbed in green seasoning and fried crisp.
  9. Four puffed golden fried bakes beside a pile of flaked saltfish sautéed with tomato, onion and red and orange peppers.Bakes and Saltfish55 minThe weekend breakfast. Despite the name, bakes never see an oven. Discs of leavened dough are dropped into hot oil, where they puff into hollow golden floats, then split while steaming and stuffed with salt cod boiled twice and sautéed with onion, tomato, garlic, fine-leaf thyme and wiri wiri.
  10. Three squares of cassava pone with crisp orange-brown tops and a dense golden coconut crumb, stacked on a plate.Cassava Pone1 hr 50 minNeither cake nor pudding. Raw sweet cassava, fresh coconut and calabaza pumpkin grated fine and mixed with Demerara sugar, butter, evaporated milk, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon and clove, baked in a shallow layer until the starch sets into a dense, chewy, translucent slab with dark caramelised corners.

Guyana calls itself the land of six peoples, and the kitchen shows it. Amerindian Lokono and Kalina cooks worked out how to boil the poison out of bitter cassava and reduce its juice to cassareep, the black, bittersweet syrup that flavours and preserves the national pepperpot. Freed African villagers farmed the provision grounds of yam, eddo, cassava and plantain that go into cook-up rice and metemgee. Indentured workers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar brought the bunjal, the frying of a wet spice paste until the oil separates, and the dhalpuri roti. Madeiran Portuguese brought pork cured in garlic and vinegar. Cantonese labourers brought the wok. The English left the word “bakes” for a bread that is fried.

The heat is the wiri wiri, a cherry-sized pepper with a fruity, tomato-like aroma, and it is nearly always used whole. It floats unbroken on pepperpot, cook-up and metemgee so the steam carries its perfume and the seeds keep their fire to themselves. Roasted geera, cumin toasted until it smokes and ground fine, is the other signature, in the curry, the dhal, the pholourie batter.

Two techniques define the cooking. Coconut milk, freshly pressed and thick, is the liquid for rice and for root stews, its fats coating each grain so parboiled rice stays whole under a long simmer. And the chunkay: garlic chips and cumin seed fried in smoking oil for forty-five seconds and poured, hissing, into a pot of dhal.

The pepperpot is the country’s Christmas. Oxtail, trotters and chuck simmer for hours in cassareep with cinnamon and clove. It is eaten with thick slices of plait bread. At home, refrigerate leftovers promptly; cassareep and daily reboiling are not substitutes for safe cold storage.