You won’t believe what I had for dinner yesterday? I had dog food for dinner! Yes Dog food….my dog Rocco’s food. Thank God I cook for, and treat my dog like royalty. I had been so busy and hadn’t gotten around to cooking my dinner, however I did manage to cook for Rocco because his supply of food was getting low. I have begun to cook his food separately, because I want to limit the amount of spices that I add to his diet. I have been warned that it can do damage to his digestive system. I honestly don’t believe that theory, because growing up in Jamaica, I have never seen a dog die from a home cooked meal and our meals are highly seasoned with both spices and fresh ingredients. However, I’m taking heed because my son D’Angelo will have a fit should his dog need medical attention as a result of my food. In addition to that D’Angelo tells me that garlic will kill the dog (which I also learned isn’t so). Well thank god for thyme! It added so much flavor to Rocco’s dinner.
I’m just relieved that I am not succumb to eating the dog food from the bag or can, that I sold in the pet store. I so refuse to buy that bagged or canned dog food ,badly to the point where one of my friend is disgusted by Rocco because I treat him so humanely. She strongly believes that Rocco should be eating scraps. So I decided to take her advice and feed him scraps. However my definition of scraps are chicken gizzards and necks(the giblets from the whole chicken). I had begun to save them for Rocco and use them to prepare his meals.
I had purchase five pound of chicken back to prepare for my dinner and had saved the chicken butt from that for Rocco. My grandma says it isn’t chicken butt. She calls it the oil bag. However it’s the tail of the chicken. So in addition to the chicken giblets which are usually very flavorful, I save five pounds of chicken but for Rocco and cooked it together with sweet yams, yukon gold potatoes and bartlett pears. I served it with white rice. I had a few errands to run and decided that once I returned home I would prepare my dinner which was the curry chicken back with white cabbage.
I returned home and just felt like relaxing and didn’t move a muscle. I was extremely hungry and resorted to eating Rocco’s dinner which was loaded with chicken batty from the five pounds of chicken back. Yes I enjoyed eating necks, gizzards and chicken batty with rice, diced yukon gold potatoes and sweet yams. The bartlett pears to add a little sweetness.. If I had known that I would be eating all this chicken batty, I would have fried them crisp…..like deep fry crisp. But oh well, it hit the spot and I was majorly thankful for Rocco’s dinner. This is a lesson well learned: I will not give my dog scraps. He will continue to eat the salmon and the broccoli and the good parts of the chicken and all the veggies….JUST IN CASE I GET HUNGRY AGAIN. Wish I had taken a photo of his dinner but I didn’t.
I vowed that the minute I woke up the next morning, I would prepare what I had intended to the day before which is Curry Chicken Back with Cabbage. In Jamaica, Chicken back is considered peasant food. It is more economical and usually feeds large or small families on low incomes . I love it because of the bones. All the juices and flavor lies within the bones and I am one bone sucking diva! Some individuals are afraid to admit that they eat chicken back. Not me! Food is food is food….period. My son D’Angelo was raised in Jamaica, so he is not privy to the bone sucking techniques. Whenever he is finished with his plate, it usually isn’t finished properly, and before he disposes of his bones, I take them and chew them up for him. Y’all should see the mountain of bones in front of me. Talk about instant gratification! I can afford to buy whatever kind of meat I want BUT I have to have chicken back regularly because it is one of those traditional dishes that resonates with me, especially when served with dumplings….so I recreated that nostalgia as well and added purple potatoes, sweet yams, and sweet potatoes/boniato.
I added cabbage to the Curry Chicken back because….I can. I enjoy tweaking and customizing my dishes to suit my palate. My taste buds are highly sophisticated so my authentic dishes tends to be extremely flavorful. This chicken back was something to be reckoned with. Most individuals would never think of pairing the two, but let me tell you….curry cabbage is awesome! The seeds from the scotch bonnet pepper released the heat directly into the pot. I don’t know if you are like me, but I really enjoy spicy foods. Not spicy burn your tongue to the point where the food isn’t enjoyable ….but spicy d’luscious….spicy in a delectable manner. I could go on and on about my love for chicken back but let me just stop her. You will be hearing more from me on my next chicken back escapade….