Jassie Singh: Preserves recipes of TT's culinary heritage

Jassie Singh holds a copy of her new book, at her home in Riverwoods, D'Abadie. PHOTO BY LINCOLN HOLDER -
Jassie Singh holds a copy of her new book, at her home in Riverwoods, D'Abadie. PHOTO BY LINCOLN HOLDER -

Seeing Jassie Singh tending to the plants in her yard at 11 pm is not a strange sight to those who know her. Neither is seeing her moving back and forth in her kitchen, from counter to stove to sink at 2 am trying out a new recipe. She can start telling a story, stop and move on to another, and return to the first story without losing her place. Her ability to put compartmentalise things in her mind is just as calculated and organised as the way she arranges foodstuff in her fridge and pantry.

So it was no surprise to her neighbours in her Riverwoods, D’Abadie community when she announced the publication of her new book, The Culinary Heritage of Trinbago – Our Seasonal and Traditional Foods, a well-researched and laid-out piece of work that is a reflection of the way in which she does everything else. The book was eight years in the making and published in November.

“I boldly decided to publish The Culinary Heritage of Trinbago – Our Seasonal and Traditional Foods, spawned from an idea of Dr Satnarine Balkaransingh, with whom I have worked as a research assistant for more than seven years. I am convinced that this book will take its place on the bookshelves of most Trinbagonians wishing to reconnect with the culinary ambience of the past,” Singh told WMN.

Singh, a go-getter, has a special love for cooking and the preservation of tradition, which led to the collation of over 380 recipes of dishes that are firmly etched in the TT culinary landscape. Some of the dishes have roots in the first inhabitants of TT and the people who later came though slavery, indentureship and migration, and some are native to TT. But they all have one common thread – they are all embraced as local dishes.

Schoolboys enjoy snow cones in Port of Spain. Jassie Singh writes about the favourite ice treat in The Culinary Heritage of Trinbago. -

“I didn’t want any of our culinary heritage to die, so I decided to document it so that the present and future generations will have access to it. I put together as many recipes as I could. The recipes are all mine, except where stated in the book.”

From traditional to festive and street foods, condiments to hors d'oeuvres, desserts to childhood favourites like snow cone and ice blocks, wines, punches and juices, Singh has covered almost every aspect of local cuisine by drawing on the information she had garnered from the long line of cooks in her family and the input from relatives, friends and acquaintances – some from whom she solicited information, others from whom it was just given in passing.

“I am an easy conversationalist, and whenever the opportunity presented itself I would steer the conversation in the direction of food so I could ask about the foods the person considered their comfort food,” she said. “Just a regular conversation yielded such gems that it was unbelievable.”

And in some cases, her recipes come with a side of history and humour to taste.

Singh has spent almost a lifetime as a foodie, and with her business acumen she began building on her culinary experience with her family and made it financially viable.

“In the nineties, I owned and operated businesses in Port of Spain, with the support of my late husband, Roopnarine Singh. While Roop ran the Voyager on Independence Square, I had three Jassie’s souvenir and variety stores in Town Centre Mall on Frederick Street. The (attempted) coup of 1990 led to the closure of those stores. Later I got into the food business, when I opened Sweet and Savoury in Express House, on Independence Square. The flood of 1993 put paid to that venture.”

She has taught cooking classes for more than 35 years, “instructing successive generations of the same family. It was with this experience that I was able to launch into a career of writing on food and its preparation.” The Culinary Heritage is not her first publication. She has co-authored two other books – Cooking with Ackee and Kunuwaton, a book on the First Peoples of Santa Rosa, Arima.

Roop died 11 years ago and they had no children. Singh, now a retiree, fills her days and nights doing things that are important to her. Apart from cooking and writing, she feels strongly about books, plants, wildlife and recycling.

“Most of my neighbours are probably under the impression that I live in the yard,” she laughed heartily. “There they will see me morning and evening around the garden, weeding and taking care of my more than 23 rose bushes, and generally puttering around. Other than that, I feed approximately 50 ruddy ground doves every day. I have three hummingbird feeders and I also have some mountain doves nesting in the trees in the backyard.”

A vendor in the Central Market offers patchoi, bodi and watercress for sale. Author Jassie Singh looks at the traditional and seasonal foods of TT in her new book. The Culinary Heritage of Trinbago. -

A voracious reader, she is especially fond of historical novels that are set in ancient Greece and Rome. “I normally read two to three books concurrently, one of which will be lighter content.” And many years ago she taught herself to read Sanskrit and Hindi.

“I try to spend some time each day reading these languages, though it doesn't mean that I understand very much at all! It is just that I am able to decipher the complicated written language, more than five thousand years old. I am now able to understand at least 25 to 30 per cent of the Bhajans to which I regularly listen.”

Nothing in her house ever goes to waste because she is a firm believer in the three Rs – recycle, reuse and repurpose.

“I abhor wastage of any kind. I recycle my water, find a way to use something rather than just adding to the mountains of garbage we generate, and I absolutely never waste food! There is another R that most people are unaware of. Rechauffe! That is a fancy French term for converting leftovers into something completely different, so nothing goes to waste. I am really good at that.”

Composting is one of her greatest pleasures in life, and she has a corner of her yard set aside for kitchen waste which months later, transforms into a pile of rich manure to grow more food. “It is the bounty of nature.”

For Singh, life is good and she lacks nothing.

Local juices are among the culinary foods Jassie Singh includes in her recipe collection. -

“I'm so totally happy in this little neck of the woods that there is nothing more that I need!” And although there never seems to be enough time in the day for her to get everything she wants accomplished, “I manage to spend at least two to three hours a day hanging out on my hammock, almost under the pine trees over the wall at the back of my house, with the newspapers, cake, coffee and cookies, just reading and enjoying the ambience.”

Now that she has done her part in preserving the culinary heritage alive in TT, Singh said she is going to scratch book writing off her to-do list. “I’m not doing anything more. That’s it for writing books!

“As long as I have good food, the music of nature in my ears, as well soothing soulful music, western as well as eastern, and a never-ending supply of reading matter, my soul sings.”

The Culinary Heritage of Trinbago – Our Seasonal and Traditional  Foods is available at bookstores throughout TT and on Amazon. For more information follow Culinary Heritage of Trinbago on Facebook and @culinaryheritateoftrinbago on Instagram.

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