(EDITOR’S NOTE: I absolutely had to share this excellently written article by Caroline White, who lives in Deadmans Cay, Long Island, as a Guest Commentary with readers of my online publication, BAHAMAS CHRONICLE, which has a huge following among the Bahamian diaspora across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom as well as in The Bahamas and the wider Caribbean.)
GUEST COMMENTARY: BY CAROLINE WHITE
TUNA SALAD AND SUNSHINE GRITS: My grandmother Leonie (Fox) Ritchie cooked breakfast on the weekends, and if we were lucky, she would mix white grits with *native* stone ground yellow grits and call it Sunshine Grits We enjoyed this favorite hot breakfast alongside traditional things like steamed shads or grunts, tuna salad, corned beef, steamed sausage or eggs. Steamed gravy was made with just-picked tomatoes with onions, peppers, celery and to this day it’s hard to match that elusive element of fresh vegetables and thyme combined with homemade “bottled tomato”, the smell of bread in the oven and Gramma’s touch.
The yellow grits in Sunshine Grits needs to be more coarse than the imported yellow grits found in local stores, and by coarse I don’t mean bigger pieces. If you know, you know! #iykuk If you’ve never had it, try locating native grits for a taste of Bahamian culinary history, tasting a time where local farmers would grow the yellow corn, dry and prep it then take it to a cornmill, either at the packing house or someone in the area who would grind the corn for a fee. You could even specify how coarse to grind it, even down to corn flour if that’s what you wanted. A fanner basket would be used to constantly shake the grits and skim the “trash” until the grits was clean enough to store and cook. The art of the fanner basket is a different story, but know that there are a few local artisans living in South Long Island who still practice the craft of native basket weaving. These talented hands produce an extremely high quality product that is exported around the world.
Today, we are enjoying this nostalgic comfort food alongside tuna salad made “fresh” with red onions, hot pepper, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, lots of fresh lime juice, mayo and seasonings just like how Leonie would have made it except she would have put way too much bird pepper (but I still ate it). I also added a “tich” of Dijon mustard because that’s what I like.
Bahamian food is more than just peas and rice, and the nuances of our dishes, even by island, should be preserved with care. Things like chicken souse, stew fish, steamed gravy and even the combinations we enjoy for breakfast are different, inspired by our unique heritage and require techniques and ingredients that we take for granted. It’s a fact that no one makes potato salad like good Bahamian Potato Salad – something you no doubt take for granted until you go abroad and realize everyone else just can’t touch our recipe.
Disclaimer on grits texture: I don’t prefer overly creamy soft baby food type grits. It needs to bite me back a little bit, and yet be smooth and fully cooked with salt and butter. Papa Charlie would cook his grits for 20 minutes stirring constantly, but as long as you stir every few minutes it will be fine.
BAHAMAS CHRONICLE EDITOR’S NOTE: Caroline White inherited her excellent writing skills from her father, the late renowned Bahamian journalist P. Anthony White, who died in November of 2013. Actually, all of her siblings have inherited their father’s literary expertise. Indeed, Caroline’s oldest sister, Dr. Adair White-Johnson, is an accomplished author and founder of the Atlanta-based Johnson Tribe Publishing House, which greatly assisted me in the publication of my novel WOES OF LIFE in 2017.
