Dear LPG,

My attempt at making this recipe should have been relatively easy because I had the added benefit of having married into a Guyanese family in my long and distant past but, as I often say to readers of my international cooking experiments, there is a need to take on board that I have never really been a good cook.  I must have tasted it in the past, but I honestly can’t remember.

The recent months of setting myself these little cooking challenges have taught me a thing or two though, I have learned that preparation is the key.  I have learnt to check out the ingredients first because, when it comes to international food you can bet that there is always some vital component that is going to be a bit difficult to obtain. 

I thought that the most difficult ingredient on this list was the Cassareep although I found some of that in a shop in Catford.  When it came to choosing the peppers, there was something else that I have learnt to be aware of.  And that is the importance of observing the quantities involved in more detail.

I am the product of a Caribbean upbringing and that always involves a little pepper.  As a result, I have acquired a set of taste buds that I thought would be able to handle the heat, but I was not prepared for this. 

The recipe called for two habanero peppers and I made the mistake of picking up a couple of relatively large Scotch bonnets instead.  I chose to leave them whole and returned to the pot at regular intervals to check how things were going.  I did a bit of stirring too and by the end of the second hour I noticed that the peppers were not actually visible any more, meaning that they had opened up and every detail of the taste had been incorporated into my food.  To my surprise three hours of cooking did not result in a burned mess.  My picture was much like the original and, in spite of the colour, my result tasted really nice but for the fire each mouthful ignited on my tongue.

So, my advice is when a recipe calls for peppers, if you can’t stand the heat, use no more than half the prescribed pepper quantity or at least use small ones and, at tasting time, prepare yourself with large quantities of water or milk to hand for emergencies.   I suppose the fact that this recipe is called ‘Guyanese pepper pot’ should have mentally prepared my taste buds a little better for the explosive result of the tasting.

The Seychelles celebrate their National day on June 29^th and, although their people are celebrated for their many savoury dishes, I thought something sweet might make a bit of a change, so I have opted to attempt something that they call Ladob Banan. There is a subtle clue in the name this time.  My thinking is that bananas and coconut sound like a winning combination, provided you are not diabetic. Note that I have decided on something which will offer not the remotest hint of pepper in sight, or to taste, this time!   

CB offers a preview of a sweet taste of the Seychelles for next month…

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