Ann's Blog
Admiralty Bay, Bequia:
February 28, 2011
Bluggoes for Breakfast
Weeks ago, before we left Grenada, Dwight stopped at Receta one morning on his way out to sea and handed Steve a big plastic supermarket bag, a gift from Glenis. It was stuffed with an enormous hairy yam, a half-dozen eddoes, a big hand of still-green sweet bananas, and an even bigger hand of bluggoes, which are sturdy, starchy cooking bananas.
(A brief break for more shameless self-promotion: The just-released paperback edition of The Spice Necklace contains something that wasn’t in the hardcover: a new Index of Food Terms and Ingredients, which makes it easy to look up references to things like bluggoes and yams.)
bluggoes from ordinary sweet bananas by their
stocky, sharp-edged shape
Bluggoes are easy to distinguish from ordinary peel-them-and-eat-them bananas: First, they’re fat. And they’re much more obviously faceted, with hard edges on each face. The sharp edges make them similar to plantains, but they’re noticeably shorter and stockier.
Somehow the bluggoes from Glenis got overlooked in a basket in our aft cabin, and they had already turned bright yellow before I got around to dealing with them.
But how? I asked a woman on Carriacou, where we were by then, and she told me I could fry ripe bluggoes as I would sweet plantains, but they would be much softer.
Which gave me an idea: If ripe bluggoes were soft and sweet, then why not put them in a batch of muffins instead of bananas? Besides, Bluggoe Muffins have a nice ring: They sound like something Popeye would have for breakfast before heading out to tackle Brutus.
I’m not sure that Dwight would have approved of this unorthodox, very un-island use of bluggoes, but Steve and I did: We scarfed every last muffin from the bluggoes batch. Steve not only approved of the taste – heavy on the banana flavor, with a strong natural sweetness – but he also liked their untraditional color: They had a softly pale-purple tinge inside.
I now have another bunch of bluggoes in one of my aft-cabin baskets. And if they don’t make it to the table as provision, they sure won’t go to waste.
If you’re in a place where bluggoes are cheap and readily available, and you want to try some Bluggoe Muffins, wait until the bluggoes are fully yellow, even partly black, and quite soft. Then replace the quantity of mashed bananas called for in your favorite banana muffin recipe with an equal quantity of well-mashed bluggoes.
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Hello Ann, just catching up on your blogs as my wife and I just returned from our first trip to Grenada in February. Your books were part of our inspiration to visit the island and we were certainly not disappointed. It is a beautiful place with wonderful, friendly people and it was easy to see why you love it there so much. Looking forward to more of your writing!
Take care,
Bill & Robin Oshawa,Ontario
Only just stumbled onto your blog and you have enchanted me with your tales of food and travelling.
Looks like you are an expert in this field, great article and keep up the great work, my buddy recommended me it.
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