Keshi Yena: A Dish from Curaçao

Willemstad, Curaçao. We visited this beautiful port several times; the photo is from our visit in February, 2000.

Curaçao is one of several Dutch Caribbean islands. These islands have a rich history. They have been governed by the Dutch since the 17th century (except for a few years in the 19th century when the Dutch were expelled by the British). The Dutch Caribbean population have their own language, Papiamento, and their own cuisine. A favorite local dish is called Keshi Yena, or stuffed cheese: an entire Edam or Gouda (obviously imported from Holland!) that's filled with a spiced meat and vegetable mixture, and baked.

I decided to try a recipe for Keshi Yena. It starts with a number of
vegetables: green bell pepper, onion, tomato, parsley, and more.

Traditional recipes offer several options for meat or fish. Today, I made it
with cooked chicken thighs, which I baked in the oven.

The vegetable mixture includes olives, gherkins, raisins, and more.
The chicken is shredded and added to the mixture.

The cooked mixture may be stuffed into a hollowed-out Edam cheese (you have to find another use for the scooped-out cheese). I chose the less-elegant way: baking the mixture in a casserole topped with cheese. It was delicious!

From our visit in 2000: the open-air market in Willemstad.

Underwater Curaçao: coral reefs and tropical fish.

This exotic island has beautiful sandy beaches on the leeward side, and rocky cliffs on the windward side. When we were there, Len did a lot of diving and fish photography, and we enjoyed touring the countryside. Outside of Willemstad the landscape is pretty wild; it's too dry for much agriculture, and there are just a few small towns. An oil refinery near Willemstad, as well as an oil transshipment port, were important industries until recently, but their situation is problematic now because they depended on Venezuelan oil. Tourism and financial services are currently important sources of revenue.

Beautiful pipe fish -- another of Len's photos.

The recipe I followed, from Island Cooking: Recipes from the Caribbean by Dunstan A. Harris (1988).
Two other cookbooks in my collection offer recipes that use shrimp or fish and eggs as well as vegetables.