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Mock Conch Fritters ∙ Island Passion Cocktails
Mahi Mahi with Mango-Avocado Salsa
Rice ∙ Sauteed Spinach
I wish I were on a beach somewhere. Social distancing and self-isolation are the new reality, but COVID-19 wasn’t actually the start of my stuck-at-home situation. Even without the pandemic, I wouldn’t have been traveling this winter or spring.
There was a time, a few years ago, when John and I both had really good, seemingly stable jobs, and “live for today” was our mantra. We made travel a higher priority than it had been before, getting new passports after many years of vacationing close to home. Being the beach lovers we are, the Caribbean was a magnet.
John’s birthday is in March and I remember one birthday, we were basking on a white sand beach, feeling like the luckiest people who ever lived. As we clinked our rum drinks together John announced, “I never want to be in Connecticut on my birthday, ever again.”
Well, things change. Seemingly stable jobs evaporate like mirages. Septic systems fail and rack up repair bills equivalent to the cost of a new car. After several body blows to our bank account over the past couple of years, winter vacations to warm places are just not in the budget right now.
But fortunes can change for the better just as they changed for the worse, right? Who knows what will happen or when we’ll be on a white sand beach again.
Until then, I can try to recreate some of those vacation experiences at home. Every March around John’s birthday, I do a Caribbean theme night with rum drinks, tropical food, a surf music playlist and an inflatable palm tree in the living room. OK, so it’s really hokey but it helps to get us over that end-of-winter hump, imagining warm beaches when even our low-key New England beach vacation is still 5 months away.
My menu on this March Saturday was made up of recipes that remind me of places we’ve been. In Aruba there was a little open air restaurant on the beach called the Pelican’s Nest, where they served the most addictive conch fritters. There’s no chance of finding conch at home so I’ve substituted clams for my homemade version. The cocktail is a copycat of the one we sipped at the poolside bar at Peter Island, BVI, a blend of pineapple and passion fruit juices with rum and a splash of Midori. 
The mahi mahi is the kind of fresh, fruit-forward seafood dish that’s ubiquitous throughout the islands. And for dessert, I made a cool creamy pie starring the most essential of tropical ingredients, coconut.
The Game Plan
- Make the Coconut Cream Pie early in the day (start at least 6 hours ahead), or the day before. If you’re making it the day before, wait until close to serving time to add the whipped cream topping.
- At cocktail time, combine the rum and juices for the Island Passion cocktails and then set them aside while making the Mock Conch Fritters. As soon as the fritters are done, shake up the cocktails, and serve them with the hot fritters for an appetizer.
- About 40 minutes before dinner, start getting the main course ready. Start with the rice. While the rice is cooking, cook the fish, make the salsa, and saute the spinach.
- For a detailed plan with step-by-step instructions and timing, download the Game Plan document linked below.
Saturday March 14 2020 Game Plan
So, where were we? In case you want to know:
- The top photo is of a Jamaica sunset.
- Enterprise (Miami) Beach, our favorite beach on Barbados. (We don’t know any of these people, this photo just captures the scene.)
- The fine white sand of Deadman’s Beach on Peter Island in the British Virgin Islands. Notice how quiet it was – we practically had the beach to ourselves.
- John, on the Platinum Coast in Barbados.
- Me, on our balcony in Jamaica. It rained a lot on that trip, we weren’t thrilled with our resort, and I got a weird allergic rash from my sunscreen. Not every trip is a dream come true.
- The last photo is from Aruba, our first island. Back before we had a digital camera, which explains the poor quality of this image. I’m standing in front of the iconic natural stone bridge, which was washed away by a hurricane in 2005. After Aruba we let more than 10 years go by before we returned to the islands – I don’t ever want to go that long again.
A note on the current crisis: Is it insensitive or frivolous to write about travel lust and three-course dinners in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic when so many people are dealing with fear, uncertainty, scarcity and pain? Or is it a welcome respite to have something else to think about? Making a nice meal and enjoying it with John gives me comfort, so I’m going to keep on cooking and writing about cooking until the pantry is bare, if it comes to that. My way of coping involves sticking to my routine as much as possible, and still trying to make every meal special – if that offends in any way, I apologize.
