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00:08Ainsley's Taste of the Bahamas,
00:10brought to you by Nassau and Paradise Island.
00:19The best way to experience the true flavor of a place
00:22is through its food.
00:24So I'm off on my culinary travels again.
00:30I'm looking for dishes with a story to tell.
00:33It's an aphrodisiac.
00:38Traditions passed down through generations.
00:44And the freshest and ziniest of ingredients from land and sea.
00:49So here I am in the Bahamas,
00:51exploring islands of white sands, turquoise seas
00:55and food that is as vibrant as its people.
00:59From hidden beach shacks and fish fries.
01:02Ooh, a little bit of sesame.
01:05To fine dining with a Caribbean twist.
01:08It's out in this world.
01:09Scoop it off.
01:10Mmm.
01:11This is the last bottle known to man.
01:14Wow.
01:15I'm diving headfirst into the flavors, the colors,
01:20and the rhythms of island life.
01:22So come on, grab a plate, loosen that belt,
01:26and join me in my quest as I search for a lick of bitter
01:29island zest.
01:31Welcome.
01:32Taste of the Bahamas.
01:34Yeah.
01:42The Bahamas is a chain of hundreds of islands
01:46and coral shallows in the warm Atlantic Ocean.
01:49Just a short hop from Florida.
01:51And right at the heart of it are Nassau and Paradise Island,
01:55my Bahamian base.
01:57Today, I'm enjoying the sweet island life.
02:00And I'll be finding out if you can improve on a classic pudding.
02:05Have you ever looked at a dessert and say naughty?
02:07Ha, ha, ha.
02:08I'll be visiting a family-run sweet shop
02:11that's keeping up age-old traditions.
02:13Why do they like the wax paper?
02:15They say it's a church candy.
02:17You can open it in church without making noise.
02:19Wonderful.
02:19And making a dreamy island dessert in my seaside kitchen.
02:24This is absolutely perfect.
02:26Look.
02:27Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
02:30But first, I'm heading into the countryside
02:32for a taste of liquid sunshine and some sweet inspiration.
02:38I'm on my way to meet a remarkable woman who has a passion
02:41for beekeeping.
02:42I've been told that nothing gives her more pleasure
02:45than to pass on her expertise and knowledge to others.
02:48So, I'm buzzing to find out why.
02:55Make sure your smoker is lit properly.
02:58Get your gloves.
03:01This is Shakara Lightbourne.
03:04Let's try to make sure you're covered.
03:06Helping her 19-year-old son get ready for work.
03:09I know your mama's short.
03:10Let's do that.
03:12He's just one of Shakara's many students,
03:15learning not just how to keep bees and look after hives,
03:20but also learning about patience, self-confidence,
03:23and the importance of connecting with nature.
03:27Try to take out a full frame.
03:29Start, take out one from the middle.
03:31Kind of hook it and pull it up.
03:35Shakara. Hi.
03:36You're almost nervous approaching you. How are you?
03:38I'm good. How are you?
03:39I'm really brilliant.
03:41What is he looking for now?
03:42Oh, he's looking at the configuration,
03:44seeing that we have enough baby bees.
03:46And so the queen is laying.
03:48And we want to make sure she's laying in a way that is easy
03:51for the workers to be able to maintain and clean the hive.
03:55And a lot of babies is always a sign of a good, healthy colony.
04:01Shakara is a kind of Bahamian bee queen,
04:04caring for hives in different corners of the islands.
04:07She calls her bees her girls,
04:09because most of the bees in her hive are female.
04:13And every colony produces a honey with its own unique island flavor.
04:18I like to call it bush honey.
04:19Because we have so many different flowers and trees,
04:24some multifloral honey.
04:25You really don't know what you're going to get.
04:27It's small but powerful.
04:29Yeah, small but powerful, definitely.
04:30Yeah, any chance I could try some of that?
04:32Yeah, definitely. Let's go.
04:34OK, great.
04:36Shakara has brought me a Bahamian honey selection.
04:39We have the advantage here in the Bahamas
04:41that we don't have winter, so we have honey all year round.
04:46Different types of honey.
04:47You have a spring honey and summer honey.
04:49And kind of a fall honey.
04:51And sometimes you don't really know what you're going to get
04:53from time to time.
04:54All right, what should I taste first?
04:56This, this, this or what?
04:57So, let's start from dark and go to light.
05:00Just dip that in there?
05:00Yeah, you can just dip it in there.
05:02OK.
05:05The sweetness, not over sweet at all.
05:07Slightly caramelly.
05:09Yes.
05:09I would turn it into, like, up close to a barbecue sauce,
05:13kind of, like, on meat.
05:16And even sometimes I like my tea with a little bit of flavor.
05:19Mmm, next, the amber one.
05:23Much lighter.
05:24I like that.
05:25So, this one is more of a summery honey.
05:29You know, in the summertime, we have a lot of mangoes
05:31and passion fruit, and it's just a lot of fruity flavors.
05:36Mmm.
05:36And so, the bees have a lot to forage on.
05:39I've got a feeling that, uh, I might get a little bit of heat
05:43coming out this last one.
05:44Ha, ha, ha, yes.
05:45Yeah.
05:46That looked like a bad boy, honey.
05:48Yes, boy, yes, boy.
05:49Ha, ha, ha, ha.
05:51This is one of Shakara's most mischievous creations.
05:54Honey with a kick of good pepper.
05:56I mean, it's not very hot, but, you know.
05:58Yeah.
06:01It takes a bit of time, but then...
06:03Yeah, yeah, it's like an after.
06:05It really does...
06:06I think I'm turning into Barry White.
06:09Why?
06:09Baby was a little hot.
06:13Oh, wonderful.
06:14Oh, what a treat.
06:15Yeah, yeah.
06:16What a treat.
06:17I'm so happy that you want me to taste it.
06:19I'm so happy.
06:19I'm absolutely delighted, and, uh, I've called you the, uh, Bahamian bee queen for a reason,
06:27because your knowledge and just the way you share everything, it's been great.
06:32Thank you so much.
06:33Yeah, I love you.
06:35Okay.
06:38Honey is without doubt one of Mother Nature's great flavour creations, something you could never
06:44improve.
06:45It's a bit like a brilliant recipe, really.
06:47I mean, you can't improve a classic, can you?
06:53How can you take a dessert that everyone loves and make it even better?
06:57How can you improve on putting perfection?
07:00Well, I'm about to find out.
07:02It's time for a duff.
07:06Duff is a classic dessert that every Bahamian grows up with.
07:11But chef Kenrick Delaney has come up with a brand new version that's become a favourite
07:16with younger generations.
07:17And upset a few of the old duffers.
07:21So I've come to find out what all the fuss is about.
07:24But first, I need to know one thing.
07:26What on earth is a duff?
07:30This is actually a remnant of British thyme in the Caribbean, actually.
07:34Wow.
07:34Tell me more.
07:35It's actually an old Scottish dessert called duff.
07:37It was made with apricots and prunes, spices, things that we didn't have here in the Bahamas.
07:42And our matriarchs, my grandmother's grandmother, her grandmother, they figured out how to swap in local fruits.
07:49So guava became the most popular one.
07:51The traditional duff requires patience.
07:54It takes three hours to steam, leaving you plenty of time to make the all-important rum sauce to go
08:00with it.
08:02And we're about to try this?
08:03Absolutely.
08:04We're going to slice it.
08:04So this is the traditional duff.
08:07And you're going to see right inside here.
08:09So how the guava is swirled into a pattern.
08:12This is a dessert that's always served hot.
08:14I'm going to have you try that.
08:15Ah, wow.
08:18This is the taste everyone here knows, the flavour of childhood for so many Bahamians.
08:24It's like a sweet pudding, isn't it, eh?
08:26But that rum sauce just takes it off.
08:29But, Kendrick, you've taken this to a new level now, haven't you?
08:32I did.
08:33So I actually lived in Singapore as a chef for a while.
08:36And they have these Chinese baoban.
08:38And being a chef myself, I wanted to experiment with that.
08:41I moved back to the Bahamas.
08:42And I decided, hey, I'm not going to spend three hours making this.
08:45So I used one of these.
08:46And it cooked in seven minutes, actually.
08:49So I went from three hours to seven minutes.
08:52It's the perfect thing for the TikTok generation.
08:55But what was the older generation like?
08:57Because tradition is tradition.
08:59They don't like changing.
09:00Was that a bit of a battle to start with?
09:02It was tough.
09:02I had so many people.
09:04Negative.
09:04A lot of, basically, they wanted to know who do I think I was, you know.
09:08The next day, I went to the farmer's market.
09:10Yeah.
09:10I thought, you know, maybe nobody would show up.
09:12And I sold out in the first ten minutes.
09:14Wow.
09:15Kendrick took a slow and heavy dessert and created a quick and light alternative.
09:21So how's it done?
09:22And how does the new duff compare to the classic?
09:25First, we're going to dump this out.
09:27Yeah.
09:27And then we're going to mix in our dry ingredients.
09:30I like to leave a little well here.
09:32So you're going to add in your cinnamon, your nutmeg, and your spices.
09:36Just a touch of sugar to make it sweet.
09:38Mm-hmm.
09:39And now you're going to mix this together.
09:42So I can start getting in there?
09:43Why not?
09:43Okay, beautiful.
09:44Well, this takes me back to, you know, when I used to sort of bake with my mom.
09:48You want the coolness of the flour run between your fingers.
09:51There's something special about that.
09:53Whilst you're doing that, I'm just going to crack these eggs into the liquids.
09:58And then you want to go ahead and just make a well in the center for us to pour this
10:01liquid in.
10:03And now to burn some calories before I put them back on again.
10:09Now we're getting somewhere.
10:11All the muscles are coming out, right?
10:12You see it's coming together.
10:13Beautiful.
10:15Next, we leave the dough to rest for a few minutes.
10:18And then it's time for the fruity guava filling.
10:22So you're going to...
10:23I'm just going to give you one ball there.
10:25Yeah.
10:26And I'll have one too.
10:27Okay.
10:27Now this is quite easy to do.
10:29I know.
10:30So just take your palm.
10:31I'm going to push it down a little bit.
10:33And then I like to just make the edges a little bit thinner.
10:37Yeah.
10:39Right?
10:39Mm-hmm.
10:40And then we're going to put some guava on it.
10:41Now this is a tough part because you don't want any of the guava to spill out.
10:45So I'm just going to put some right here for you.
10:47So we're going to stretch it a little bit.
10:48Okay.
10:49And just pinch it up together.
10:50Crimp it really tightly so that your filling doesn't pop out in the steamer.
10:54Okay.
10:54There you go.
10:55At the end, I like to just kind of twist it a bit.
10:59Yeah, make sure it's tight end.
11:02Then into the steamer they go.
11:04And seven minutes later, voila, you can get duffed.
11:08Ooh-wee.
11:09Should I fish one out?
11:10Yeah, absolutely.
11:11Go for it.
11:11Yeah, there you go, my man.
11:13There we are.
11:14Perfect.
11:15Okay.
11:15I'm going to pour this sauce right on top.
11:16So this sauce actually has butter, guava in it as well, and a touch of rum.
11:23Have you ever looked at a dessert and say naughty?
11:25Look at that.
11:26I've just cut in there.
11:27Look inside there, guys.
11:29Look how beautiful that is.
11:37Is it familiar to the old-fashioned?
11:40Doffy-dop, man.
11:41Doffy-dop.
11:43Grandma wouldn't know.
11:45We really wouldn't know.
11:46I'll tell her, yeah.
11:47I think what it is is that the old-fashioned one, because it's been cooked like that, maybe a little
11:51bit stodgier.
11:52But this, because it's in that bower bun form, it's softer.
11:56Yeah.
11:57And, you know, it's just, it's, it's just, it doesn't need that amount of time.
12:02It really doesn't.
12:03And the rum sauce just absolutely takes it to another level.
12:07Well, Kendrick's given an old island favourite a brand new beat, and it's lost none of its Bahamian soul.
12:14Thanks, man.
12:15Kendrick, well done to you too, man.
12:17I appreciate it.
12:17That's really good.
12:18Fantastic.
12:21After the break, a story of sweet success.
12:25You loving it?
12:26Loving it.
12:2625 years.
12:2725 years.
12:28Life gone sweet.
12:31And a tropical treat in my seaside kitchen.
12:34It's a lovely, lovely, creamy dessert that's perfect with all these amazing ingredients.
12:47Ainsley's Taste of the Bahamas, brought to you by Nassau and Paradise Island.
12:57Ainsley's Taste of the Bahamas, brought to you by Nassau and Paradise Island.
13:07Welcome back to the Bahamas and my dessert island.
13:10I've been exploring a taste or two of honey.
13:14Yeah, my favourite.
13:15That looked like a bad boy, honey.
13:17Yes, boy, yes, boy.
13:19An ingenious twist on an old Bahamian favourite.
13:23Have you ever looked at a dessert and say naughty?
13:26But now, I'm going to step back in time for a sugary hit of nostalgia.
13:33I've got to say, I love a sweet shop, didn't you?
13:36Oh, oh, all that lovely sweetness kind of brings out the kid in you.
13:39For the Bahamians, when they want that experience, they come here to Mortimer's Candies.
13:49Mortimer's Candies has been a colourful part of Nassau life for almost a century.
13:54It all began in 1928, when Ulrich Mortimer Sr. went to New York to learn candy craft.
14:01And he came back with a dream of opening his own sweet shop.
14:05Four generations later, great-grandson, Kel Mortimer, is still mixing, stretching and rolling out the family legacy here.
14:14So what are your customers looking for when they come in here?
14:17Is it... Sweets have changed, haven't they, over the years?
14:20They have, but the main thing is Bahamians tend to eat more mints.
14:23The kids steal the sweet candies, not so much the adults.
14:28The adults prefer the peppermint candy.
14:31All those peppermints are still made by hand, the traditional way, in copper kettles,
14:37then stretched and pulled and cooled on marble tables.
14:41A single batch takes about an hour and a half and produces about 1,500 sweets.
14:47And the star of the shop is the bright green mint that put this place on the map.
14:52It's our signature candy. It's our most popular candy.
14:56OK, and what makes it so special?
14:59The strain of the mint is a smooth, strong peppermint rather than the dry peppermint.
15:02When you see the green mint, you know that's Mortimer Candies.
15:05Yeah.
15:06Today, Kel supplies hotels and supermarkets with his mints, as well as the regulars who pop in every day.
15:12This is probably why the staff here still wrap some of their sweets into traditional wax paper,
15:17to keep customers of a certain age happy.
15:21Those are pretty well the senior...
15:24The senior brigade.
15:25Why do they like it? Why do they like the wax paper?
15:28They say it's a church candy. You can open it in church without making noise.
15:31Yes. How brilliant is that?
15:33The preacher noticing, put down your bag of candy or something like that.
15:37Wonderful.
15:39But there's loads more than mints on the shelves here.
15:42Generations of Bahamians have grown up on these peanut cakes, coconut cakes, rich homemade fudge,
15:48and something called a Benny cake.
15:51This is a Benny cake.
15:53Benny cake?
15:54Yes.
15:54Tell me what that is.
15:55It's similar to a sesame seed.
15:56Mm-hmm.
15:57We cook it first.
15:59We add the sugar to water, corn syrup, a little vanilla flavouring to give it a little extra.
16:05And that's all made on the premises?
16:08All the candy is made right here.
16:10Like try a piece?
16:11Yeah, I'll try a piece. Why not?
16:13I feel like I'm tasting local history here, surrounded by the old photos and all of the generations looking down
16:19on me.
16:21Oh, yeah.
16:22Oh, yeah. I love that.
16:24Mm.
16:24Mm.
16:25That is sweet, isn't it?
16:26Yes.
16:28That's why you come to a candy shop.
16:29There you go.
16:30Oh, absolutely lovely.
16:33Oh, how lovely to see the old-fashioned family business thriving,
16:37and Kel keeping the traditions alive as his great-grandfather would have wanted.
16:42Yeah? You loving it?
16:43I'm loving it.
16:4425 years and still enjoying it.
16:4625 years?
16:47Yes.
16:47Every morning you wake up, life gone sweet.
16:51Yeah.
16:54And now it's time to get cooking in my seaside kitchen.
16:58And after all that sugar, there's only one thing for it.
17:01Dessert.
17:02You know what?
17:04I've had the sweetest of days.
17:06And I'm going to make it even sweeter now with my beautiful coconut lime creams, followed by a little bit
17:12of tropical salsa and some Benny Brittle shards.
17:16It's a lovely, lovely, creamy dessert that's perfect with all these amazing ingredients.
17:22Let's get started.
17:24First of all, I'm going to make the creams.
17:25And what I need for that is some double cream, which I'm going to pop into a saucepan.
17:31And so I'll just put that on there, just warming ever so slightly.
17:35And then I've got some creamed coconut here.
17:39And then in with the coconut cream.
17:43Going to sweeten it up a touch.
17:45And of course, that requires some sugar.
17:48So the sugar's going in there too.
17:51Just simmer and stir for a few minutes until all the sugar dissolves.
17:55And then set aside to cool.
17:58Okay, let's get on with our brittle, shall we?
18:02Pan on the stove.
18:04I've got some sesame seeds here.
18:06I'm going to take those.
18:07They're going into my pan.
18:10And I've also got some beautiful desiccated coconut.
18:15That's great.
18:16Just going to toast those up a little bit.
18:19Now, you know we live in this world now where every 10 seconds your phones go beep, beep, beep, beep,
18:25beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.
18:27Well, you don't go off and beep, beep, beep, beep when you're doing this, all right?
18:31Otherwise, this will burn.
18:35And our lovely sesame and coconut is beginning to toast up.
18:41And it's going to take a few minutes.
18:43All right.
18:46I'm using the same pan here.
18:48Now for the caramel.
18:50In with the sugar.
18:51The water.
18:55Got my nutmeg going into that caramel.
19:00And a pinch of salt in there too.
19:04And a bit of shikara honey.
19:09Ah.
19:11How passionate was that lady.
19:13And the fact that she's passing on all that knowledge onto her son.
19:16And he was just soaking it up like a sponge.
19:19Yes, mum.
19:19Yes, mum.
19:20Yes, mum.
19:21Lovely.
19:23A little bit of a stir.
19:25No more than that.
19:26And then leave it alone.
19:28And while my caramel bubbles away, it's time to zest up my cream and add plenty of lime juice too.
19:36There's about 80 or 90 mils of lime juice going into this.
19:40So it really is quite citrusy.
19:43Look at the amount of juice coming.
19:44I think at home I probably need about four or five of these.
19:47Maybe even six.
19:48But out here they're really big and juicy.
19:52Stir that lime juice into the cream.
19:54That's going to help thicken it up.
19:56And more importantly, that will set beautifully inside our fridge.
20:02Now back to the caramel, which is looking just right.
20:05That's what I want.
20:06That's great.
20:07And I'm going to take some of my coconut and sprinkle that in there.
20:14And this is for my Benny Brittle, which is a bit of a take actually on what I experienced down
20:21at Mortimer's.
20:22You know, by the old Benny Kirk there, with the cork and not Kirk.
20:26I thought that was fantastic.
20:28And we've got to work quite quickly here.
20:34With another bit of greaseproof paper on top.
20:40Just spreading that out like that.
20:43That's what we're looking for.
20:44Now, I can allow that to cool down for a while.
20:47Then we can snap that into shards.
20:50Make up my little salsa.
20:51And we're ready to serve up.
20:54Yeah.
20:56Lovely.
20:57Pour the cool cream into glasses.
21:00And after three hours in the fridge.
21:02Here they are.
21:04Perfectly chilled.
21:05Look at those.
21:06Aren't they lovely?
21:07Let's hit that with a little bit of a tropical salsa, shall we?
21:10And I've got a lovely dragon fruit there.
21:17And I'm chopping up a bit of star fruit too.
21:19And of course, some pineapple.
21:26Hey, look at that.
21:28So, so nice.
21:29And then we can finish it off with our lovely shard.
21:33Look at that.
21:34This is absolutely perfect.
21:36Look.
21:38Isn't that lovely?
21:39Just snap that away like that.
21:41Time to finish my dish with some chopped fruit pieces and a little petal for colour.
21:47And then, of course, we've got our shards.
21:50Now, when I went down to Mortimer's and I saw Kel,
21:53and I picked up these Benny cakes and coconut cakes,
21:55I thought, what could I do with it?
21:57Well, I wasn't really sure.
21:59But then I thought about doing my beautiful Benny brittle shards,
22:04just to say thank you to Mortimer's.
22:08If that's not a sweet tropical treat, I don't know what is.
22:17Island honey, guava duff and family candy.
22:21Life is better with a little bit of sugar and a lot of heart.
22:25See you next time on Ainsley's Taste of the Bahamas.
22:30Come on.
22:55Ainsley's Taste of the Bahamas, brought to you by Nassau and Paradise Island.
22:59We'll see you next time on Ainsley's Taste of the Bahamas.
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