Chef Jody Adams, of Rialto and Trade restaurants in Boston, created these recipes from local Haitian foods for patients at PIH-supported University Hospital in Mirebalais, Haiti. Rialto head baker Louinique Occean created the bread recipe. Read more about their work with PIH.

Roasted Potatoes

Ingredients

• 10 pounds potatoes
• Salt
• 1 ¼ cups vegetable oil
• Black pepper

Directions

1. Peel the potatoes and cut into 1 ½ inch chunks. Soak in water for five minutes.
2. Drain the potatoes and put into a pot. Cover with cold water and season with salt. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and toss around a bit to rough up the surface of the potatoes. This will help make them crispy.
3. Preheat the oven to 425 F. Put the oil in a large roasting pan and heat in the oven for five minutes. Add the potatoes, and using a spatula, carefully toss to coat the potatoes with oil. Do not salt at this point. Wait until they are roasted. Turn on the convection if you have it. Roast 30 minutes, flip over, then roast another 30 minutes. They should be toasty and crunchy.
4. Toss with salt and pepper.

Roasted Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 8 scallions, thinly sliced
• 2 hot peppers, chopped
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
• Salt and pepper
• 8 red or green bell peppers
• 16 small red tomatoes
• 1 cup grated cheese

Directions

1. Cook the garlic, scallions and hot peppers with the oil in a small sauce pan on medium heat for five minutes, or until tender. Add the thyme leaves.
2. Cut the peppers in half, remove the seeds and membranes, and season the inside with salt and pepper. Put the garlic mix in the peppers.
3. Cut the tomatoes in half and put two halves cut-side up in each pepper half. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Bake at 350 F until tender, about 40 minutes. Top with the cheese and bake another five minutes.

Roasted Beet Salad with Orange and Thyme

Ingredients

• 16 beets
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 6 oranges, remove and save the skin from 2 oranges
• 12 shallots, peeled and finely chopped
• ¼ chopped parsley
• 2 tablespoons thyme leaves

Directions

1. Wash the beets.
2. Toss in a pan with the oil. Season with salt and pepper. Add the orange skins and cover with foil.
3. Bake at 350 F until tender, about one hour.
4. Let the beets cool, then remove the skins. Cut the beets into wedges.
5. Remove seeds from the oranges and cut between the membranes to separate the fruit segments. Squeeze out any juice from the membrane onto the beets.
6. Toss the beets with the orange segments, shallots, parsley, and thyme.

Rialto baker Louinique Occean sifts ground bulgur, known in Haiti as blé, for the bread he created for University Hospital patients. Photo: Stephanie Garry/Partners In Health

Occean's Whole Wheat Bread

Ingredients

• 8 cups water
• 4 tablespoons granulated yeast
• 3 tablespoons salt
• 13 cups Haitian white flour
• 3 cups blé flour*

Directions

1. Put the water in a large bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over the water. When it swells up, stir to combine. Stir in the salt. Stir in the blé flour. Stir in the white flour until it is too difficult to stir.
2. Dump the dough onto the counter with any remaining flour. Push the dough around on the counter until all the flour is incorporated. Then knead the dough by pushing the heel of your hand into the dough, pulling it over on itself and then repeating with the other hand. You want to develop a rocking back and forth, pushing your hands from your hips like a boxer’s punch. The dough will be a little wet in the beginning, but as you knead the dough it will become less sticky. You may need to add a little more flour to keep the dough from sticking to the counter. Knead for 10 minutes. Cover and rest 15 minutes. Knead for another 10 to 15 minutes.
3. To check to see if it is ready, slice through the dough. The holes in the dough should be small, about ¼ inch, and even.
4. Put into an oiled bowl, cover with plastic, and allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about two hours.
5. Dump the dough onto the counter and cut into four pieces. Gently shape each piece into a rectangle. Fold the dough like a letter: fold the top third down and then the bottom third up over the top third. Fold this bundle in half and then pinch the edges together. Tuck the sides under and put the dough into a greased loaf pan. Cover with plastic and let rise 1 ½ hours, or until doubled. It should crest about ¾ inch over the top of the pan.
6. Preheat the convection oven to 350 F. Put a pan of water in the bottom of the oven and set the fan to low. Bake the loaves 30 minutes or until done.
7. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool, or turn on their ends on a counter to cool.

* Put (bulgur) blé through a grinder. Shake through a sieve.

Romesco—Pepper Nut Sauce

Ingredients

• 12 red or green bell peppers
• 8 tomatoes
• 2 onions, cut in quarters
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup peanuts
• 6 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 or 2 hot peppers, chopped (depending on how hot the peppers are)
• Juice of 8 limes

Directions

1. Wash the peppers and tomatoes.
2. Cut the peppers and tomatoes in half.
3. Put the peppers, tomatoes, and onions in a roasting pan and toss with 2 tablespoons oil. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Roast at 450 F for 15 minutes or until the skins start to get black and the vegetables are tender. Let cool.
5. Remove the skin and the seeds from the peppers. Chop up the vegetables until fine.
6. Crush the peanuts in the mortar and pestle. Add the garlic and pepper and crush together.
7. Mix the peanuts with the vegetables. Add the lime juice. Season with salt and pepper.

Coconut Peanut Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 coconuts
• 2 large onions diced
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 cups peanuts, chopped
• Juice of 8 limes
• 3 hot peppers, chopped
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• Salt and pepper

Directions

1. Make a hole in the coconut and pour out the coconut water to save.
2. Peel the coconut and grate.
3. In a small pan, cook the onion in the oil over low heat until tender and golden brown.  Add the garlic and cook one minute.
4. Put the peanuts in a blender with the coconut water and the lime juice. Blend to chop more. Add all the ingredients and blend to a sauce. Add water if the sauce is too thick. Season with salt and pepper.

Parsley Pesto Sauce

Ingredients

• 5 cups parsley leaves, washed, dried, and chopped
• 1 garlic clove, grated
• 2 teaspoons grated lime zest
• 2 teaspoons grated orange zest
• ½ cup peanuts, chopped
• ½ - ¾ cup vegetable oil
• ¼ cup water
• Salt and pepper

Directions

1. Put everything in the blender and blend to a paste. You may have to stop and scrape the sides a few times. If it is too thick, add more water or oil.
2. Season with salt and pepper.

Brandade de Morue

This version of the dish was Inspired by Haitian mais moulin.

Ingredients

• 1 whole dried cod, about 2 pounds
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 12 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 onion, peeled and sliced
• 1 pound small potatoes, peeled
• 3 small cans evaporated milk
• Juice of 4 limes
• 1 teaspoon thyme leaves
• ½ cup parsley, chopped
• Salt and pepper

Directions

1. Soak the salt cod for 12 hours, changing the water three or four times. When finished, the cod should still taste a little salty.
2. In a small pan, cook the chopped onion and garlic in the oil over low heat until tender, about 10 minutes.
3. Cook the cod in water with sliced onions until tender, about 15 minutes. Remove from the water and let cool. When cool, remove the skin and bones.
4. Add the potatoes to the water and cook until tender. Drain and then grate the potatoes while they are still warm.
5. Put the cod into a bowl and beat until smooth. Add the cooked onion, the garlic, and the potatoes and beat again. Beat in the evaporated milk, lime juice, thyme and parsley. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Serve warm by itself; or
7. Spread the fish over a layer of cooked cornmeal. 
8. Bake at 350°F until bubbling and hot, about 40 minutes.

Oliver’s Chicken Stew

Chef Jody Adams first created this dish for her son, Oliver.

Ingredients

• 1 Haitian chicken, scrubbed with salt and limes
• Salt
• 6 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 26 small leeks, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 12 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
• 1 small bag pasta
• 1 cup celery leaves
• 1 cup sorrel leaves, chopped
• 1 cup parsley leaves
• Juice of 6 limes  

Directions                       

1. Separate the chicken breast and legs.
2. Put the chicken in a pot and cover by 2 inches with salted water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, and add the vegetables. Simmer 30 minutes. Remove the chicken breast and the vegetables. 
3. Continue simmering until the leg section is done, about 30 minutes more.
4. Remove the leg section.
5. Remove the skin from the chicken breast and leg section and take the meat off the bones. 
6. Continue simmering the broth until it has good flavor. 
7. When the broth has reduced, cook the pasta in the broth. When the pasta is done, add the vegetables, chicken meat, celery, sorrel, parsley, and lime juice to the broth. Season with salt and pepper. Heat through and serve.