Taymer Mason pronounced (Tay mar) was born in Barbados, and is the author of the book Caribbean Vegan. We recently had the opportunity to do an interview with Taymer, and appreciate her time. You can keep up with Taymer by visiting her blog at http://caribbeanvegan.wordpress.com/ or following her on Twitter: @veganinthesun

How difficult was it for you to incorporate the complex cuisines that influence the many cultures of the Caribbean?

When a Caribbean recipe only has an influence from one culture that is easy. When it has three or more influences it is the tradition that comes into play as the mixing of flavors were tried and tested from before. I grew up eating all of these multicultural plates which in essence makes it Caribbean and not a dish with partitioned cultural influences. It was not difficult to incorporate the complex cuisines as my ancestors already did that for me! I stayed with traditional dishes my family made for me but I made them vegan.

How is your vegan food received now within Barbados?

I left Barbados in 2008 and currently live in the French West Indies. While I was in Barbados I would always bring cakes, cookies and veggie burgers for my peers at work and school to try. They would always be received well and many people encouraged me to open my own place but that was not my goal at that time. Most people back home are impressed with my convincing play on the seafood dishes, the cheesy vegan Bajan Macaroni Pie and baked goods prepared without eggs; with many actually telling me they prefer the eggless flavor. Veganism in Barbados is still a growing movement but to be honest it is more of a health movement than an ethnical one which I am more linked to. There are a few restaurants on the island which do an excellent job but unfortunately no vegan, ice cream parlor as yet. Or perhaps that is only wishful thinking! I hope to go back to Barbados soon to promote veganism. Where I live now I entertain a lot of French expats and I cook vegan Caribbean food for all of my events and they love the food as well.

Do you use ingredients and spices that are accessible for everyone?

Most of the spices I use can be found anywhere even in a standard supermarket. In the book I called for buying West Indian made Madras curry powders and those are available online or in most neighborhood ethnic markets but other curry powders would work in a pinch. Some ingredients like Mauby Bark, canned Jamaican ackee and Sorrel can be purchased online or at Caribbean grocery stores which are common in most cities as there are Caribbean communities all over the world. I had testers from around the US, some in the UK and one in France and they were able to test most of the recipes in the book. In testing for me they found out they lived near some ethnic and Caribbean grocery stores and now they have another place to shop for vegan food items. I am in the process of putting together an online resource for West Indian products which I will place on my blog in the near future.

Was it difficult to “veganize” a dish like Stuffed Christophenes (chayotes)?

No that was very easy to “veganize” with the use of TVP or seitan mince. Stuffed Christophenes are a very popular dish in Guadeloupe and Martinique (French West Indies). It is another variation to Légumes Farcis (Stuffed Vegetables) e.g. Tomato and Bell Pepper. My vegan recipe uses a roux which is a little untraditional but being I was not using meat I had to play with the flavors and the roux helped to round out the flavors in this dish more and I was satisfied with that. Sometimes for vegan Caribbean recipes you may need to add a little untraditional touch to make the dish successful.

For those who may not be familiar with Caribbean cooking, are the recipes easy enough to prepare even for the novice cook?

My excellent testers proved that a novice cook can make the recipes in the book. Most of them never made a traditional Caribbean dish in their lives and they did not have it as easy as the potential readers who will use the cookbook. Sometimes they had no photograph to go by because I was too busy to put it up on the testing blog but they produced excellent results. The recipes that I know the average person outside of the Caribbean could not envision I made sure there was a photograph and in many cases step by step annotated photographs to guide them.

Which dish in the book took the most time to “veganize” or recreate?

There were two dishes that took a long time to create. The first one was the Salt Bread which is a Barbadian Roll, and was extremely difficult to recreate. Only bakers in Barbados know how to really make this bread and it took me a few months to get it perfect. It is just not a regular roll it has pillowy inside and a medium hard crust that cracks slightly when cooled. You can write an entire paper of the anatomy of a Salt bread as it is very complex in itself. Most rolls recipes in the Caribbean are guarded secrets and most bakeries pass down their recipes from generation to generation. Another one was the Barbadian coconut bread that usually contains eggs. Working with coconut and flour without the egg was difficult but I went back to Barbados and my father (who is vegan as well) helped me to perfect this recipe and the bread looks and taste just like the original recipe. Thanks Dad.

With there being so many cultures represented in the Caribbean such as Indian, French, British, and African, etc., what makes a dish “uniquely” Caribbean in your view?

Excellent question. I think it comes down to tradition and acceptance of the dish by the majority to make a dish uniquely Caribbean. There is room for new recipes that would create classics in times to come but at the end of the day it comes down to the flavor profile. I think where most people who try to create Caribbean inspired dishes fall short is that they just use the ingredients from that region but they do not use the right technique or pair the flavor well with another ingredient. The basis of uniquely Caribbean food is having background knowledge of traditional Caribbean cuisine and building on it to create a unique dish. I hope that Caribbean Vegan enlightens its readers and there would be more modern plays on the traditional Caribbean dishes.