Guadeloupe Crabmeat and Rice: Matété à Crabe

Guadeloupe is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea that are a part of France, as an overseas region. Its population is around 400,000. The name came via Christopher Columbus upon his visit to the islands in 1493, from the town of Guadalupe in west-central Spain, where there was a shrine to the Virgin Mary. By the first half of the 1600s the French had taken a major interest in the islands and they brought French colonists and then African slaves to develop farming.* France actually took control of the islands in the second half of the 1600s, but the British took control for several years in the mid 1700s (they were at war with France). Since then, wars and treaties saw Guadeloupe mainly under French control, although there were brief intervals of British and even Swedish control. The spelling "Guadeloupe" is the French form, as France kept the Spanish name of the islands bestowed by Columbus, an Italian (just to add more international flavor).

 

This dish of crab and rice is one of the best known dishes of Guadeloupe, but there are variations. The people of Guadeloupe have lots of access to seafood, so it is not uncommon for some people there to fix whole small or even larger crabs separately from the basic rice dish, which is then used as a side dish. Others use just the meat of the crabs and add it to the top of the seasoned rice or mix it in, as I have done here. Naturally, most of us don't have easy and affordable access to crab, but we can settle for lump crab meat from the supermarket or the seafood shop, although the "affordable" part may be elusive, as crab has generally always been moderately to extremely expensive through the years. The dish can have a "kick," because of the chili pepper, most commonly "scotch bonnet chilies" in Guadeloupe, but if you don't like heat, you can use a little ground hot red pepper, just to mildly season the dish.     

  

Ingredients: 

1 to 1 1/2 cups lump crab meat

1/2 cup chopped white onion

3 scallions/green onions, chopped, green included

1 teaspoon dried thyme (or 1 tablespoon fresh thyme) 

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 cup chopped tomatoes with juice

2 tablespoons vegetable oil or olive oil

3 whole cloves

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon salt 

1 or 2 scotch bonnet (or habanero) chilies, seeded and finely chopped

1 cup rice cooked (see instructions, below)

Cook the rice according to the instructions on the package of the brand you use, but instead of plain water, add 1 bottle of clam broth (also called "clam juice") and enough water to equal 2 cups of liquid (if you have seafood stock, use 2 cups of it instead), then add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon olive oil and 2 bay leaves (these few ingredients for the rice are separate from the ingredients listed for the rest of the recipe). Again, follow the instructions on the package to cook the rice, and when done, remove the two bay leaves. This rice will be added to the mixture you make with these instructions: Heat the oil in a heavy bottom pan over medium heat, then add the onion and saute for just 2 minutes, then add garlic, tomatoes, scallions, thyme, cloves, parsley, black pepper, salt and chili pepper(s), cook for 3 to 4 minutes, then add crab meat and cook another 4 minutes, stirring often. Turn heat to low and add the cooked rice and mix it into the other ingredients, cook 3 to 4 minutes stirring often. Sprinkle with lime juice.

 

* According to the "CIA World Fact Book," the demographic population of Guadeloupe is about 75% black or black and white mixed race, with 11% white and the rest of various backgrounds including East Indian and Asian.

 

WORD HISTORY:

Muscle (Mussel)-This word, closely related to "mouse,"^ goes back to Indo European "mush/moosh," which meant "mouse, rodent," but also "leg or arm muscle," perhaps from the scampering mouse like appearance of the muscle when being flexed. This gave its Latin offspring "mus," meaning "mouse, small rodent." From this, Latin developed the word "musculus," which meant "muscle," but which literally meant "little mouse." French borrowed the word as "muscle" from Latin and English borrowed that word from French in the 1300s. A verb form, meaning "to use force" (muscle), developed from the noun in English, "apparently" in the early 20th Century. With Latin terms heavily involved in medicine and science, forms of the word "muscle" spread to other languages, including to close relatives of English, German and Low German, both of which have "Muskel." The clam-like creature name "mussel" is really the same word, but it was borrowed directly from Latin "muscula," seemingly a diminutive form from Latin "musculus" (see above), and the word in Old English was "muscule" (likely pronounced "mus-kulah," in imitation of the Latin word), but then it became "muscelle" (likely from French influence), and then it became "muscle" during the Middle Ages, but by the first part of the 1600s the spelling "mussel" began to appear, and by the 1800s, that spelling became far more common, "apparently" this spelling was preferred by many to distinguish it from "muscle."  

 

^ For the "Word History" of "mouse," see my previous article at: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2013/02/steinbecks-of-mice-and-men-great-book.html