By Korsha Wilson, The New York Times
Growing up in Jérémie, Haiti, Elsy Dinvil often spent Sunday mornings watching her mother prepare meatballs: first at the market, picking the most marbled filets she could find, then at home, pulling out a manual grinder to prepare the meat. It was an education in cooking with care.
Dinvil’s mother died in 2018, two years before Dinvil self-published the recipe — and its story — in her e-book, “Cooking With My Mother: Your Guide to Haitian Homecooking.”
“My mother couldn’t even write her own name in Creole, so I know she’d be proud of me writing a book in another language,” she said.
Based in Oregon since the 1990s, Dinvil has become a beloved member of Portland’s food scene, sharing homey Haitian dishes including her mother’s meatballs at cooking classes and farmers’ markets through her company, Creole Me Up. She’s even worked with award-winning Haitian chef and author Gregory Gourdet helping with his first pop-ups and in the lead-up to opening his restaurant Kann in 2022.
“She showed me less ‘cheffy’ dishes,” he said, “and more rustic Haitian cooking.” Haitian patties, flakier than Jamaican ones and a touch less spicy, were also a lesson, he said.
Oregon wasn’t where she envisioned herself landing. But as part of a scholarship through the Haitian government in the early 1990s, she was sent off to the state, where she studied food science at Mount Hood Community College, using a French-to-English dictionary to understand her textbooks.
It wasn’t until two decades later, when gastrointestinal issues prompted her to start playing with the Haitian food she knew and loved, that she became passionate about owning her own food business. In 2016, Jaime Soltero Jr., chef and owner of Tamale Boy, a food truck and catering business, encouraged her to start her own pop-ups and even loaned Dinvil a free commercial space to get started. “People started asking me if they could buy the pikliz I made,” she said, adding, “so I started bottling it.”
Her journey hasn’t been without challenges: There have been periods of homelessness, illness and grief. But sharing her family’s story and recipes, and serving as a kind of cultural ambassador for Haiti, combating negative misconceptions in a predominantly white city, has become her guiding mission.
“The Haiti I know is a country where the people are full of hope, love life, want to work,” she said, adding when she listens to a foreigner’s views about Haiti, she sometimes has to bite her tongue to stop herself from getting angry at their negative generalizations.
By 2017, she was selling her pikliz, Haiti’s spicy cabbage condiment, offering cooking classes and talking to people about Haitian cuisine — the flavors, the techniques, the home that she missed. These days, she’s growing her business to include spice blends, pickles, dressings and marinades, seeking to share them nationally. She’s even working with a local vineyard to create and release her own white wine and rosé.
But keeping those rustic dishes alive and sharing those memories of Haiti are still guiding missions for Divil, so she stays close to home in her cooking, and to her mother’s recipes. A few years ago, at an estate sale, she bought a manual hand grinder because it reminded her of the one her mother used so long ago. Dinvil hasn’t used it yet, preferring to keep it in its box, but its presence is a reminder of those childhood lessons.
“I’m never letting this grinder go,” she said, “it feels like carrying a piece of my mom with me.”
Recipe: Boulèts (Epis-Spiced Meatballs)
Recipe from Elsy Dinvil
Adapted by Korsha Wilson
A favorite of chef Elsy Dinvil, these tender fried beef meatballs were a common sight on her childhood dinner table in Jérémie, Haiti. Comforting yet complex thanks to epis, a Haitian seasoning blend made with herbs and spices, they’re a great addition to rice or even some crusty bread. You can enjoy them as is or with the piquant onion and tomato sauce below. If you like heat, be sure to break open the Scotch bonnet chile after it’s tender from stewing, and it’ll give the sauce a hot, fruity flavor.
Yield: 4 servings
Total time: 1 hour 35 minutes
Ingredients
For the boulèts:
- 1 (6- to 8-inch) French roll or baguette (see Tips)
- 2/3 cup evaporated milk or unsweetened coconut milk
- 1 pound ground beef (preferably ground sirloin)
- 7 tablespoons epis (Haitian seasoning), store-bought or homemade
- 1 egg yolk (optional)
- Salt, if desired
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (see Tips)
- About 3 cups olive oil or vegetable oil, for frying
For the sauce:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil (or oil of your choice)
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 3 tablespoons epis (Haitian seasoning)
- 1 bouquet garni (4 thyme sprigs and 3 flat-leaf parsley sprigs, tied together with kitchen string if desired)
- 1 whole Scotch bonnet or habanero chile
- 2 1/2 cups water or stock of choice
- 10 to 12 pieces macaroni or penne pasta (optional)
- 1 tablespoon lime juice (optional)
- Salt
- 3 thick slices red or yellow onion (from 1 large onion)
- Cooked rice, rice and beans, or fried or boiled plantains, for serving
Preparation
1. Prepare the boulèts: Using your hands, tear the insides of the bread into small pieces (you should have 1 to 1 1/4 cups) and place in a small bowl. (Save the crusts for another use.) Pour the evaporated milk over the bread and let it rest while you prepare the meat mixture.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the ground beef, epis and egg yolk (if using). Squeeze the excess milk from the bread and add the bread to the beef mixture. Mix thoroughly, using a spoon or your hands. (If you’d like, test for seasoning: Take a small portion of the meat mixture and cook through in a pan or the microwave. Taste, and if necessary, add salt to the uncooked beef mixture as desired.) Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to an hour.
3. Cook the boulèts: Fill a 10- to 12-inch high-sided frying pan or Dutch oven with oil to about 1-inch deep and heat on medium-high. While the oil is heating, place the flour in a shallow bowl. Divide the beef mixture into 8 equal portions and form into 2 1/2-inch balls. Roll each ball in the flour to coat (you may have a little flour left in the bowl) and transfer to a plate. When the oil is hot (about 350 degrees on an instant-read or deep-fry thermometer; see Tips), add the meatballs to the oil and fry for about 3 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the meatballs to a paper towel-lined plate and set aside.
4. Make the sauce: In another pan on medium, heat 2 tablespoons oil and add the tomato paste. Let it fry for 2 to 3 minutes, until the oil is stained red. Add the epis, bouquet garni and Scotch bonnet, stirring to combine. Pour in the water or stock, taste for seasoning, adding salt if desired, and bring to a boil on high. Add the macaroni (if using). Reduce the heat to medium-low and let simmer 6 minutes, to thicken slightly and allow the flavors to blend.
5. Add the fried meatballs to the sauce and let simmer for another 6 minutes. Taste and season the sauce to taste with salt and lime juice, if desired. Remove and discard the bouquet garni and the Scotch bonnet (or keep chile for serving).
6. Add the sliced onions and cook for another 5 minutes, until cooked through but still slightly crunchy (or longer if you prefer your onions more tender). Serve hot with cooked rice, rice and beans, or fried or boiled plantains on the side.
Tips
If you’d like to make the dish gluten-free, use 2 mashed cooked yellow potatoes instead of the bread and gluten-free flour for coating the meatballs.
To determine if the oil is hot enough without using a thermometer, Dinvil adds one drop of water from the tip of one finger. If the oil boils, it’s not hot enough, but if the drop of water forms a bubble, then the oil is ready for frying.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.