Global Food-Part IIIV-Jamaican Specialities

Have you ever heard about Jerk chicken, it is Jamaican special dish  available in UK as well as America. Jamaica is a Caribbean Island only 100  km away from Cuba. It is also known for some of its finest Rums. But this small island country offers much more than jerk chicken.

Jamaicans eat foods that are flavored with spices such as ginger, nutmeg, and allspice       (pimento). Allspice, the dried berries of the pimento plant, is native to Jamaica and an now an  important export crop. (This is different from pimiento, the red pepper used to stuff green olives.) Many meals are accompanied by bammy , which is a toasted bread-like wafer made from cassava (or yucca, pronounced YOO-kah).

With the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea surrounding the island, seafood is plentiful in the Jamaican diet. Lobster, shrimp, and fish such as red snapper, tuna, mackerel, and jackfish are in abundance.

"Jerking" is a native Jamaican method of spicing and slowly cooking meat to preserve the juices and produce a unique, spicy flavor. First, a seasoning that usually contains hot peppers, onions, garlic, thyme, allspice, ginger, and cinnamon is rubbed all over the meat. The jerked meat is then cooked over an outdoor pit lined with wood, usually from the pimento.

Jerk Chicken

Ingredients

• 1 pound skinless chicken breasts
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
• 3 Tablespoons water
• 2 Tablespoons lime juice
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons allspice
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small onion, chopped
• ½ teaspoon ginger, ground
• ½ teaspoon cumin, ground
• ¼ teaspoon dried thyme

Procedure

1. Combine all ingredients except the chicken into a blender and blend to a paste.
2. Pour into a shallow baking dish or sealable plastic bag.
3. Add chicken and turn to coat.
4. Cover and place in refrigerator to marinate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
5. Remove chicken from marinade and pour marinade into a saucepan. Bring to a boil.
6. Chicken may now be cooked on a grill or baked in the oven. To grill, preheat the grill. Remove chicken and place chicken on a grill. (Ask an adult to help with the grilling.) Cook approximately 7 to 10 minutes per side until done, basting with boiled marinade.
7. To bake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Place chicken in a baking dish and bake 20 to 25 minutes. After 15 minutes, baste with remaining marinade.

Ackee, the National Dish

The national dish of Jamaica is Ackee cooked with saltfish. Saltfish is dried, salted fish, usually cod, which must be soaked in water before cooking. The ackee fruit is fried with onions, sweet and hot peppers, fresh tomatoes, and boiled saltfish. It is popular to eat for breakfast or as a snack

Simple but Tasty Rice and Peas

Kidney beans may be substituted for Jamaican peas (usually pidgeon peas).

Ingredients

• 1 cup canned red kidney beans
• 2 cups rice
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 4 cups water
• 1 stalk of fresh thyme, finely chopped (or 2 teaspoons dried)
• 2 green onions, chopped
• ½ cup onion, chopped
• Hot pepper flakes, to taste
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Procedure

1. Combine beans, water, coconut milk, thyme, green onions, and onions over medium heat until just boiling.
2. Add salt, pepper, and hot pepper flakes to taste.
3. Add rice, cover, and simmer over low heat for 25 minutes until rice is tender and liquids have been absorbed. Check after 15 minutes and add more water if necessary.
4. Serve warm.

Plantains in Jamaica look like bananas, may be up to a foot long, and have the consistency of potatoes when unripe. Unlike bananas, when the skin turns black, some people think they taste the best. Here goes how to cook plantains :

1. Sliced, pan-fried into chips, and eaten with salsa.
2. Baked and seasoned with margarine, lime juice, and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper.
3. Mashed with cooked apples or butternut squash.
4. Pureed and added to soups as a thickener.
5. Cut in chunks and put into soups and stews.
6. Sautéed in long strips and served with chicken or pork.
7. Oven-baked with brown sugar, then served with pineapple chunks and vanilla ice cream as a dessert.

Fruits grow extremely well in Jamaica's tropical climate. Mangoes, pineapple, papaya, bananas, guava, coconuts, ackee, and plantains are just a few of the fruits eaten fresh or used in desserts. Ackee is the national fruit of Jamaica. It is a bright red tropical fruit that bursts open when ripe, and reveals a soft, mild, creamy yellowish flesh. If the fruit is forced open before ripe, it gives out a toxic gas poisonous enough to kill.

Plantains look like bananas, may be up to a foot long, and have the consistency of potatoes when unripe. Unlike bananas, when the skin turns black they taste the best.

EPD Photos

Coconut Chips

Ingredients

• 1 coconut
• Salt

Procedure

1. To dry and open the coconut: Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Poke a metal skewer through two of the "eyes" and drain out the liquid from the coconut. Reserve the liquid for another use or discard.
3. Place the coconut in the oven on a cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes.
4. Remove the coconut and wrap in a clean kitchen towel. Carefully crack it open with a hammer.
5. After removing the flesh from the shell, remove the brown skin with a knife, and cut into thin strips. Wash and drain.
6. Turn oven down to 350°F.
7. Place the coconut on a greased cookie sheet and bake until lightly browned (do not over brown).
8. Sprinkle with salt. Serve as you would nuts.

The national dish of Jamaica is ackee and saltfish. Saltfish is dried, salted fish, usually cod, which must be soaked in water before cooking. The ackee fruit is fried with onions, sweet and hot peppers, fresh tomatoes, and boiled saltfish. It is popular to eat for breakfast or as a snack.
Other staples include brown-stewed fish or beef (Jamaicans are fond of gravy), curried goat, and pepperpot soup, made from callaloo (greens), okra, and beef or pork.

Brown-Stewed Fish

Ingredients

• 6 fish fillets
• 2 onions
• 2 tomatoes
• 2 green onions
• 1 carrot
• 1 green pepper, cut into chunks and seeds removed
• 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
• Fish stock or water

Procedure

1. Heat about 3 Tablespoons of oil over medium to high heat and fry the fish until golden brown.
2. Remove the fish and set aside. Drain nearly all of the oil from the pan.
3. In the oil that is left in the pan, sauté the onions, tomatoes, green onions, and other vegetables.
4. Add enough fish stock or water to cover the vegetables.
5. Bring to a boil, then turn heat to low and add the fish.
6. Turn the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the sauce thickens to a gravy-like consistency. Serve.

The majority of Jamaicans, more than 80 percent, are Christian. Most holidays and celebrations center on this religious theme. Christmas in Jamaica naturally has a tropical flavor, ranging from the food to the Christmas carols.
Christmas carols are the same ones popular in the Western world, but their versions are set to a Reggae style, the syncopated style of music for which Jamiaicans have mastered. Christmas dinner is usually a big feast. It includes the traditional jerked or curried chicken and goat, and rice with gungo peas (a round white pea, also called pigeon pea).
Gungo peas are a Christmas specialty, where red peas are eaten with rice the rest of the year. The traditional Christmas drink is called sorrel. It is made from dried parts of the sorrel (a meadow plant), cinnamon, cloves, sugar, orange peel, and rum and is usually served over ice.
Preparations for the Christmas feast start days, even months ahead by baking cakes like the traditional Black Jamaican Cake. To make this cake, fruits are soaked in bottles of rum for at least two weeks. After the cake is baked, allowing it to sit for up to four weeks is common to improve its taste.

Jamaican Christmas Cake

This is an easy version of the traditional cake.

Ingredients

• 1½ cups flour
• 1 cup (2 sticks) margarine or butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon salt ½ cup cherries
• 1 cup prunes, chopped
• 1 cup wine (or substitute water)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 lemon or lime rind, finely grated
• 2 Tablespoons browning

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. and grease a 9-inch round cake pan.
2. To make browning: in a saucepan, add ½ Tablespoon water to brown sugar and heat over medium to high heat until the sugar is burnt. Let cool.
3. With a beater, beat butter, sugar and browning until soft and fluffy.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, to butter mixture. Add wine or water and mix well. Add fruits.
5. Add dry ingredients, stirring just to comine. Do not over-beat when mixing. Pour batter into a greased 9-inch round cake pan.
6. Bake for 1½ hours, checking after one hour. Cake is done when it begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Jamaican Fruit Drink

Ingredients

• 2 cups orange juice
• 1 ripe banana
• 1 ripe mango
• 1 apple
• 1 peach
• 2 slices pineapple
• 1 pint vanilla ice cream
• 1 slice ripe papaya

Procedure

1. Peel and dice all of the fruits into small pieces.
2. Place into a blender and blend in until smooth.

Roadside Flavors

Roadside vendors are very popular in Jamaica and sell a variety of foods and drinks that can be eaten on the go, which is typical for a lunch in Jamaica. Fish tea (a broth), pepperpot soup, and buttered roast yams with saltfish are just a few samples. "Bun and cheese," which is a sweet bun sold with a slice of processed cheese, can be a quick lunch. Ackee with saltfish is a common snack sold at a stand, but the best-known snack are patties. Patties are flaky pastries filled with spicy minced meat or seafood.

People simply love rum and beer, but there are a variety of non-alcoholic drinks as well. Refreshing fruit juices are also available. A roadside stand may have what is called ice-cold jelly. The vendor opens a coconut with a large, heavy knife,  and the milk is drunk straight from the nut. The vendor will then split the shell and offer a piece of it so you can eat the soft coconut pulp inside. Sky juice (cones of shaved ice flavored with fruit syrup) is also popular along with Ting, a sparkling grapefruit juice drink.

"Almost" Ting

Ingredients

• 1 bottle grapefruit juice
• 1 bottle lemon-lime soft drink (such as 7-Up or Slice)
• Crushed ice or ice cubes

Procedure

1. Fill a drinking glass with crushed ice or ice cubes.
2. Pour in equal parts of grapefruit juice and lemon-lime soda.

Serve immediately.
 All Jamaican hot drinks to be called "tea." Jamaican coffee is popular. One particular Jamaican brand, Blue Mountain,  is among the best and most expensive in the world and is one of the country's main exports. Hot chocolate is usually drunk with breakfast, but is more complicated to prepare than the Western version. It is made from balls of locally grown cocoa spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg and boiled with water and condensed milk.
Dinner is usually peas and rice with chicken, fish, or sometimes pork. Chicken is usually jerked or curried (flavored with curry spice). Fish can be grilled, steamed with okra and allspice, or served in a spicy sauce of onions, hot peppers, and vinegar. Festival , which is a sweet, lightly fried dumpling, is another native dish.

Curry Chicken

Ingredients

• 1 to 3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken
• 2 Tablespoons curry powder
• 2 to 3 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 to 4 Tablespoons cooking oil
• 2 cups cooked white rice, with peas added if desired
• Dash each of onion powder, thyme, garlic powder, pepper, and salt

Procedure

1. Cut chicken into small pieces and let sit in lemon juice for at least 1 hour.
2. Remove chicken and season with spices and seasonings.
3. Let rest for 5 minutes.
4. Heat cooking oil in a frying pan on medium to high heat.
5. Add chicken and cook about 7 to 10 minutes per side, or until thoroughly cooked.

A fresh piece of tropical fruit may be the perfect refresher to top off a spicy meal. Many Jamaican dessert recipes are centered on fruit as the main ingredient. A simple sauce is sometimes its only accompaniment.

Baked Ripe Banana

Ingredients

• 4 large ripe bananas
• ¼ cup butter or margarine
• 1 to 2 Tablespoons honey
• 4 Tablespoons lime or orange juice
• ½ teaspoon allspice

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 200°F.
2. Peel the bananas and slice into two pieces, length-wise.
3. Grease a shallow baking dish with a little of the butter or margarine. Arrange the bananas in the dish.
4. In a mixing bowl, mix together the honey and lime or orange juice.
5. Pour the mixture over the bananas slices and sprinkle with the allspice.
6. Place dots of the remaining butter or margarine on top. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.
7. Serve warm.

Serves 4 to 5.

Gizzada

This dessert is also called "Pinch-Me-Rounds" because the edges of the pastry are pinched together.

Ingredients for pastry

• 1 cup flour
• 6 Tablespoons butter
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 2 Tablespoons milk

Procedure

1. Combine all ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix to form dough.
2. Roll out dough on floured surface with a rolling pin into a thin sheet.
3. Cut into rounds (with knife or cookie cutter) and fit them into greased muffin tins.

Ingredients for filling

• 1 cup grated coconut, fresh or packaged
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 teaspoons water
• ½ teaspoon lime juice

Procedure

1. Mix all ingredients in a mixing bowl.
2. Fill the pastry bases half full, and pinch the dough together at the top.
3. Bake for 15 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.

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