Jamaican jerk marinade + recipe + remembering the Caribbean

I made Jamaican jerk chicken the other day and featured it on our daily changing lunch menu. It read: Jamaican Jerk Chicken – Spicy Grilled Chicken Skewer, Caribbean Coconut Peas n’ Rice, Steamed Vegetables,Grilled Banana. I’ll probably make it again this week so I will take a picture then and post it on the blog…

Hot chilies!

Some say the star of jerk marinade are the scotch bonnet chilies of the Caribbean – considered some of the hottest chilies in the world. Although the chilies are important to the marinade, you can use any chili available to give it heat – even dried chili flakes or cayenne pepper! The real key ingredient in jerk marinade is the allspice. In my humble opinion, allspice in combination with other dried spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper and clove) and fresh ingredients (scallion, garlic, ginger, coriander, fresh thyme & the all important chilies) define jerk marinade.

The “nutmeg fruit” from the tree at the botanical gardens in Kingston, St. Vincent. The nutmeg is inside the brown seed covered by red mace. The spice is ready to harvest when the fruit splits open.

I love making this marinade from scratch. It is 100% better than the jarred ones loaded with MSG that you can buy in the grocery store and 1000 times better than the powdered jerk seasoning made with who knows what. My recipe for jerk marinade was one I learned from the Jamaicans I worked with at Amanyara in Turks and Caicos.  The ingredients are rough estimates and should make around a cup of marinade enough for 1 kilo of pork or chicken. Whole dried spices are better to use but if you don’t have them I’ve included the ground spice equivalents. When using whole spices, use a coffee or spice grinder and grind them into a powder.

Jamaican Jerk Marinade

Ingredients

4 cloves garlic, chopped

2 shallots, chopped

3 stalks spring onion, chopped

a handful of fresh coriander/cilantro (leaves and stems), chopped

a 3 inch piece of ginger, peeled and chopped

2-3 scotch bonnet or habanero chillies, chopped (more chili, more spicy!)

3 tablespoons whole allspice, ground (2 tablespoons ground)

5 pieces whole cloves, ground (1/2 teaspoon ground)

2 fresh nutmeg, ground (about 2 teaspoons ground)

1 cinnamon stick, ground (1 tablespoon ground)

2 dried bay leaves

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves taken off the stem, chopped (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)

1 tablespoom sugar

the juice of 2 limes

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1/2 cup vegetable oil

salt and black pepper to taste

Procedure

1. Blend everything together to make a thick paste.

2. Pour over chicken or pork and allow to marinate overnight. A Jamaican Sous Chef  I had worked with adds more stems of fresh thyme, rosemary and bay leaves, plus chicken base (or crumbled chicken bouillon cubes) to the marinade and meat.

3. Grill meat over live coals.

Jerk Chicken Breast with Avocado-Papaya Salsa, Guava Dressing

Here’s how we made it at Amanyara back in 2008. A bit posh compared to the real deal … but it works for the lunch menu of a luxury, boutique resort in a tropical island. Here we served it with a guava sauce to play on the islands theme, but many times I’ve had it it was served with some gravy I’d rather not know the recipe for.

Jerk chicken take away at the BVI Emancipation Festival smothered in some unknown gravy

Jerk pork in an oil drum grill

The thing to use for grilling the jerk chicken or pork is an oil drum grill. Here’s a picture of Milton Harris, Sous Chef at Peter Island Resort in the BVI using one to make jerk pork. Milton covers the pork with “piment” leaves (or the leaves of the allspice tree), before shutting the lid and allowing the pork to steam a little bit in the grill.

Jerk prawn skewers on the grill

I love using jerk marinade on prawns as well. Here’s Terry grilling some at the live action station at Deadman’s Bar and Grill at Peter Island Resort during the Wednesday Caribbean Night back in 2010.

At a Jamaican party I went to once in Provo, the cook doused the chickens on the grill with Red Stripe beer, before shutting the lid. That was probably the best jerk chicken I’ve had – the results were so good! The chicken was served with “festival bread” which is a deep fried quick bread, hot sauce and washed with ice cold Red Stripe beer.

So what to serve with jerk grilled chicken, pork or shrimp? Well there’s that festival bread. Recipe here.

Laurel’s peas n’ rice

There’s peas and rice or beans and rice. Here’s one made by the lunch cook Laurel over at Peter Island Resort. I asked Laurel how she makes it, and her response was, “I don’t know… I just make it!” But she then went on to share the ingredients: butter, finely chopped onion, finely chopped red and green bell peppers, finely chopped carrot, long grain rice, pigeon peas, chicken broth (made with chicken bouillon base).  I like to make mine with all of these (real chicken stock when I have it), plus coconut milk, a few bay leaves, a few sprigs of thyme and with pigeon peas or kidney beans.

Breadfruits being roasted on an open fire

And then there’s breadfruit roasted on an open flame. Like this made by my Sous Chef at the Cotton House Mustique, Arris Jacobs, at an excursion to the Tobago Cays in St. Vincent and the Grenadines last year – my favorite islands in the Caribbean!

Me and Arris having a Hairoun in Vincy

 

Distinguished Chef Series at Oklahoma State University – Part 2

Last September 26, I had the honor of being invited as a guest chef for the Distinguished Chef Series at Oklahoma State University. These are a series of dinners organized by OSU’s Hotel and Restaurant Administration Department to raise funds for scholarship. More information on this link: http://humansciences.okstate.edu/hrad/content/view/165 . Here are some highlights of the event.

The event was organized mostly by students, with some guidance from the faculty. There were student managers assigned in both front and back-of-house and there were a team of student volunteers helping out from start to finish. It felt like there were a hundred students that worked with me in the kitchen for this event.

The student managers and I during some down time a few days before the event

The student managers and their understudies, Angel and Mayra, and I chillaxing over pizza (and beer) the night before the event.

Angela Schnell was the kitchen manager for my event assisted by her understudy, Joe. Joe will be the kitchen manager for the next chef event happening in a few months.

Angela and the student volunteers hard at work during prep. We started preparing all the food a few days before the event.

A step in assembling the braised beef parcels

More volunteers … these are OSU’s exchange students from China.

Back in the kitchen again with my classmate from the CIA, Angel Gonzales, who is both teaching and finishing his doctorate degree in hospitality at OSU.

Preparing the jerk tuna for the cocktail reception.

Some of the student kitchen volunteers having a break before service – I wish I had this many hands in the real world!

The front-of-house team was hard at work too. We had a student sommelier and dining room manager assigned for the event. Both of them had understudies who were to work the next guest chef event.

Student sommelier John, dining room manager Emily, and function manager Aubry.

Function manager Aubry and her understudy Emily

Function manager Aubry during dining room set-up

The volunteer servers during the pre-shift meeting before the dinner. This event was run just like events in the industry/ “real world”.

For the dining room and table set-up, the students got creative and decorated the space with island themed elements and the bright colors of the Caribbean. They even put together a playlist of Caribbean-inspired music, from steel pan to classic reggae to a bit of Jimmy Buffett, that they played during the cocktail reception. It’s inspiring and refreshing to see the creativity of young people as sometimes functions in the “real world” can get be a bit cookie cutter and monotonous.  The students reminded me of my school days at the University of the Philippines where my classmates and I, as requirements for some of our classes, would organize creative restaurant and catering functions on extremely limited budgets.

A “message-in-a-bottle” centerpiece for one of the banquet tables

Some tables had centerpieces with live fish in them.

Place setting with menu card and folded napkin. The colors light beige and teal were picked by the students to evoke the sand and sea of the islands.

The dinner was held in 2 venues. The first was theater style seating in an auditorium. This room had a big window that opens into the kitchen, so the diners were able to see us in action. There were also television screens inside the room. Cameras in the kitchen were panned to where the student volunteers were working and this live feed was shown on the tv screens.

Theater-style seating

These diners get a front row seat to all the kitchen action.

Me being introduced by Sue Williams, Interim Director of the School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration at OSU. The salads behind me are ready to be dressed and served.

John, the student sommelier, explaining the wines selected for the dinner

The second venue was the dining room of Taylor’s, a fully functioning teaching restaurant, with banquet-style seating. One of our diners that night was the president of the University and his wife, fondly called the First Cowboy and First Cowgirl.

Function manager Aubry in front of the guests in the dining room

Me being introduced to the guests at the Taylor’s dining room

There was a short program at the  end of the dinner in both dining venues. I was introduced by Dr. Steve Ruby one of the professors at OSU, then the student managers were called in. I did a short talk as did the student managers who worked very hard to make the event a success.  I truly appreciated working with them and, judging by the positive outcome of the event, I felt that they were all ready to start working in the industry!

Talking to the guests and thanking the student function managers and volunteers after being introduced by Dr. Steve Ruby

Dr. Steve Ruby introducing the student function managers to the guests.

Receiving a charger plate with my name on it and a framed picture from the student function managers

Thanking all the volunteers that made this event a success.

The charger plate with my name on it. I’m honored, grateful and humbled to be a part of this event.

Thank you Lyn Putnam, Marketing and Communications Manager of the The School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration at Oklahoma State University for all the photos on this post!

More photos on these links at the Oklahoma State School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.515916985165169.1073741831.277668348990035&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.516419471781587.1073741832.277668348990035&type=3

Distinguished Chef Series at Oklahoma State University – Part 1

Last September 26, I had the honor of being invited as a guest chef for the Distinguished Chef Series at Oklahoma State University. These are a series of dinners organized by OSU’s Hotel and Restaurant Administration Department to raise funds for scholarship.More information on this link: http://humansciences.okstate.edu/hrad/content/view/165 .  Here are some highlights of the event.

Here’s my menu for the event. The organizers had requested 4 tray-passed appetizers and a 3-course dinner menu.

For this menu, I wanted to feature Caribbean and Asian flavors in a subtle way. The first directive I received was that the diners attending, although well-traveled, were not adventurous eaters. I also had to factor in the skill-set of the kitchen volunteers – most were students eager to learn but with little or no professional kitchen experience. A bit of a conundrum in planning out a reception and dinner for 230 people but it all worked well in the end!

Cocktail Reception

Crisp Coconut Shrimp with Soy-Ginger Dip

Who doesn’t like coconut shrimp? Served hot and crispy, here they are paired with a soy-ginger dip made with sesame oil, balsamic vinegar (the best substitute for Chinese black vinegar!) and fresh coriander – an alternative to creamy mayonnaise based dips often served with coconut shrimp.

West Indian Curry Chicken in Phyllo Cups with Papaya-Sweet Chili Chutney

This is a play on the Caribbean curry samosas with mango chutney I’ve seen on many restaurants in the islands.

One of the volunteer servers about to pass the curry chicken in phyllo cups.

Jerk-spiced Grilled Ahi Tuna with Pineapple Salsa.

What Caribbean-inspired menu doesn’t feature fish, jerk-spice and pineapple at least once? Here are all three in a spoon! As I was planning the menu I was told not to have too much seafood, but this semi-raw tuna appetizer and the coconut shrimp were a hit!

Crisp Plantain Tostones with Spicy Cilantro Aioli

This Puerto Rican dish is a nod to my friend Angel Gonzales who is from San Juan. He teaches at Oklahoma State University and was instrumental in bringing me in for this event. The plantains were sliced and soaked salted water, fried then pressed by hand one by one, then fried again until crisp on the outside but a little soft on the inside. The aioli was made from scratch by Angel.

Chef-Professor Angel Gonzales with the student volunteer server who tray-passed the tostones

Dinner

Organic Greens, Mango and Heirloom Radish Salad with Lime Citronette and Toasted Coconut

Some of the student volunteers during salad plate-up

Black Angus Beef Shortrib Slow-braised in Lemongrass and Ginger, Served “en Papillote” with Island Rice, Scallion and Fresh Coriander

The easiest plate-up in the world is when the main course is inside heat proof cellophane and wrapped up like a gift. Thank you Carta Fata (brand)! Another request early on in my menu planning was that I use either pork or beef in the main course. I chose this Thai-style braised beef dish because it is one of my favorite recipes (https://cheferwin.wordpress.com/2010/06/11/my-favorite-beef-short-ribs-recipe/), and I’ve made this dish across all 3 islands I’ve lived and worked in. Even though the dish is Southeast Asian, I can find all the ingredients in the islands, and it translates well on Caribbean menus. In Mustique, I even use the lemongrass that grows in front of my house!

Assembling the braised beef parcels in a production line.

A full speed rack of the main course ready for the oven.

Caribbean Trio: Warm Spiced Rum and Pineapple Crumble

Caribbean Trio: Gourmet Coffee and Chocolate Pot de Creme

The dessert was a trio of Caribbean-inspired sweets: a warm pineapple and rum crumble, a rich coffee and chocolate pot de creme, and a scoop of cashew nut toffee ice cream (Here’s a link to a photo taken by one of the students: http://instagram.com/p/evzrEwqHty/ ). Quite a challenge when plating for 230 people, especially when the components were at three different temperatures, but there were enough hands and we pulled through. The dessert was decadent to say the least and featured all the classic Caribbean flavors of coffee, rum, chocolate, coconut, pineapple, cashew nuts, cinnamon and spices. Not in the picture was the delicious cashew nut toffee ice cream made by our student kitchen manager, Angela Schnell. She had a good salted caramel toffee recipe which we added roasted cashew nuts to, crumbled up then folded into a rich vanilla custard ice cream base – it was sinful!

Student kitchen manager Angela Schnell with her parents

Thank you Lyn Putnam, Marketing and Communications Manager of the The School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration at Oklahoma State University for all the photos on this post! And @westwili on Instagram for the dessert trio photo on the link.

More photos on these links at the Oklahoma State School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.515916985165169.1073741831.277668348990035&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.516419471781587.1073741832.277668348990035&type=3

Island rabbits

One of the more curious local ingredients I’ve come across here in the islands are rabbits. Rabbits were available to us at Peter Island back when I was working there a few years ago. There was a local rabbit farm in Tortola with the animals being raised more for pets than for meat. Through our contact with the Department of Agriculture we were able to buy rabbits off the farmer and have them butchered at the local abattoir. Here they are ready for cooking.

We ran rabbits a few times as a special before actually putting it on the menu. Our British Executive Chef, Lisa Sellers, grew up eating rabbit so we often would turn it into potted rabbit. Basically braised rabbit, slow cooked in wine and mirepoix, deboned and pulled, finished with cream, then filled in a ramekin and topped with melted butter. We would serve it cold with some melba toast. Here they are seasoned and marinating (local grown parsley and rosemary, garlic, peppercorns and dried bay leaves) overnight before we slow cooked them for hours in our old, 80’s style, Alto-Shaam food warmer .

As for me, I never ate rabbit growing up in the Philippines (there were more interesting animals to cook…lol). But I did grow up eating fried spring rolls – a lot of them. So this dish appeared on the menu Local Rabbit Spring Rolls with Housemade Ginger-Plum Chutney. I used Lisa’s potted rabbit as the filling, wrapped them in spring roll wrappers, and deep fried them.

Some people have an aversion to eating rabbit just because it reminds them of Bugs Bunny or cute Easter bunnies. Putting them inside a spring roll wrapper or inside a ramekin, as for potted rabbit, has helped us to sell it on the menu. What you can’t see won’t hurt you, right? Although we did try once to serve it at our Caribbean buffet. It was a Thai recipe (similar to the short rib recipe in past blog posts) cooked in coconut milk, with all local-grown lemongrass, basil and ginger. People thought it tasted like chicken…

Two years ago a book was published featuring recipes from chefs of the British Virgin Islands – Taste: Recipes from Acclaimed BVI Restaurants and Chefs. Chef Lisa put the two recipes mentioned on this post and it appeared on the book as Rabbit Duo: Potted Rabbit and Rabbit Spring Rolls. Here’s an online link to the book:   http://issuu.com/alookingglass/docs/tastebvi

Picture by Dan O’Connor of aLookingGlass Books.

A funny story about rabbits and our rabbit farmer in Tortola. About 6 months before the busy holiday season, I had mentioned to our contact with Department of Agriculture to tell the farmer that we will be needing a lot of rabbits by December and through to spring the following year. We were planning to stock the rabbits in the freezer so we’ll have a continuous supply during the busy months (December to April). Every month I would remind her to tell the farmer. Come December, I wondered why we were not receiving the amount of rabbits I expected. I called the Department of Agriculture around Christmas and the response: “Sorry chef, the farmer forgot to put the male and female rabbits together a few months ago. He’s only starting to breed them now.” Well Sah! Perfect example of island time! 🙂

Santa’s sea urchins

Santa (real name Eustace)

There’s a fisherman on the island curiously named “Santa”. Why he is called that I have no idea (his real name is Eustace). What I do know is that he has been supplying lobsters to the Cotton House and to other villas on Mustique for many, many  years. He catches other things from the sea too, but his bread and butter are lobsters. Often he would deliver the lobsters alive, fresh from the sea, hauling them from his boat to our fridges still in his wetsuit.

Santa’s sea eggs

Before Christmas, I asked Santa to bring me the white sea urchins (called “sea eggs” in these parts) I sometimes see when I am out snorkeling.  Most of the time I see black sea urchins with their long, sinister, needle-like spines – those are toxic and inedible someone told me. But the white ones have short spines that from a distance look like fur and are good to eat. I told Santa to get me some white sea eggs and that’s what he did. But the first time he brought be some they weren’t “roe-ing” (his words) yet.

That’s all I got after cleaning 25 sea eggs…

As we all know, the only edible part of sea urchins are it’s bright orange gonads or sex glands. Some people find eating the sex organs of spiny sea animals exciting. Personally, it does nothing for me. But I do love eating sea urchins. I’m always the first one to pick “uni” off a sushi boat! The next time Santa brought some – they were ok. A lot more roe for the tedious job of cleaning them.

Fish and chips?

I decided to turn the roe into sea urchin butter to serve with the day’s catch mahi mahi. On the menu it read: Grilled local mahi mahi with fresh sea urchin butter, sweet potato chips, house made Asian pickled vegetables and a lime wedge. A spin on fish and chips our guests liked. Here’s the recipe for the sea urchin butter.

Sea Urchin Butter

Makes about 1 1/2 cups of butter

Ingredients:

1/3 cup fresh sea urchin roe

1 cup European-style butter, softened

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup onion or shallot, minced

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Cayenne pepper or Tabasco sauce, to taste

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped

1 tablespoon chives, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Procedure

1. In a small pan, heat the olive oil and sauté the garlic and onion or shallot until soft and translucent. Add the lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

2. In a food processor, blend the soft butter and the fresh sea urchin roe until smooth.

Add the cooled onion and garlic mixture and pulse for a few seconds to combine.

3. Season the butter with salt and pepper to taste and some cayenne pepper or Tabasco sauce for heat.

4. Add the parsley, chives and lemon zest last and pulse for another few seconds to combine.

5. With a rubber spatula, scrape the soft butter out onto 2 pieces of parchment or wax paper. Roll into logs and keep in the refrigerator until ready to use. The sea urchin butter will keep for 3 days in the fridge and longer if you freeze it. Just remember to use it within 3 days after it has defrosted.

6.  Serve the sea urchin butter on top of grilled fish or prawns,  or over veal, chicken or pork for a unique spin on surf and turf.

Variation: Replace the sea urchin with 1/4 cup of anchovy fillets in oil for a tasty anchovy butter.

Shrimp and local avocado salad with uni vinaigrette

Another way we used the sea urchins was in a vinaigrette. Here they are  as the dressing to a shrimp and local avocado salad. To make the vinaigrette: combine equal parts sea urchin, rice vinegar and canola oil in a blender and blend until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Mangoes + white chocolate

I miss Philippine mangoes most of all here in the Caribbean. Nothing says you’re on an island more than eating a ripe mango.

Ripe Philippine mangoes – luscious and sweet. And this was off mango season…

Of course mangoes do exist in the Caribbean. They are ok (with all due respect to our suppliers) but the ones readily available to the public can either be very fibrous or very bland. The small ones are the ones that are fibrous when ripe, but they are also very sweet. The giant ones are the ones that are bland but they are quite good when unripe and pickled or in a salad.

We had a good supply of mangoes lately and,  as the mantra on the islands go, “use what you have”. So we did last night for dessert.

White chocolate mousse with local mangoes and toasted pistachio nuts

I am a big fan of simple flavors, simple preparations and simple cooking techniques. I love the Northern California food philosophy (I did train there after all) of standing back as a chef, using good ingredients, and letting the food shine. Of course given that you have really good ingredients to begin with … another challenge on the island. But the mangoes were good yesterday and I have best quality white chocolate (Valrhona) and pistachio nuts in the kitchen.

For the dessert pictured above I diced some ripe mangoes and combined it with a little fresh mango puree and mango jam (made by a local lady, Betty Frederick, on the neighboring island of Bequia). This fresh mango compote was layered in a juice glass with white chocolate mousse and a “crumble” of homemade gingerbread cookies and toasted pistachio nuts.

Here’s the recipe for the white chocolate mousse. I learned this recipe from one of our guest chefs at Peter Island – Richard Farnabe. It is by far, the simplest recipe for white chocolate mousse, but the most delicious. And as simple goes, 4 ingredients are all it takes to make it. This is also my “go-to” recipe now for dark chocolate mousse – simply substituting dark chocolate for white in the recipe.

Easy White Chocolate Mousse

Yields 3-1/2 Cups

Ingredients:

6 ounces white chocolate, cut into small pieces, at room temperature

3 cups heavy cream, divided

3 tablespoons powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Procedure:

1. Heat 8 oz of cream until simmering. Pour hout cream over the white chocolate pieces in a bowl. Stir until smooth. Let the mixture sit for 20 minutes to cool to room temperature.

2. Combine 2 cups of the cream, 3 tablespoons powdered sugar and vanilla in a large, chilled mixing bowl. Use a hand mixer or standing mixer to whip the cream and sugar until stiff peaks form when the beater is stopped and lifted out.

3. Gently fold a third of the melted white chocolate mixture into the whipped cream. Add the second third; fold in, then add the remainder.

4. Scrape mixture into a piping bag and pipe into cups. Chill until ready to serve. Garnish with shaved white chocolate, whipped cream or fruit.

Ackee and saltfish and festival bread

Thanks to gailf548 for the image on the web until I can upload my own…

This morning I had the best ackee and saltfish with festival made by our villa butler Ms. Keturah Henry (Ket). Our villa guests requested a Jamaican breakfast on one of the mornings they were here and asked if I could make it. I said I can’t, but I’ll make sure they have it.
 
Ackee and saltfish is a source of national pride for Jamaicans. Some call it Jamaica’s national dish. I casually mentioned to the kitchen staff that the villa guests wanted some for breakfast and instantly I had 2 Jamaican staff volunteering to make it, and another volunteering the Jamaican sous chef Milton. I settled on having Ket make it since she was already up in the villa working with me.
 
Ket used to own a “food shop” – meaning a small canteen serving local foods during the weekends. She said that she makes ackee and saltfish like a Jamaican* and roti like she’s from Guyana. Truth be told, before today, I haven’t had a good version of this dish. Previous ones I’ve tasted have been too salty or too watery or the fish smelled bad. Ket’s version tasted great – the fish tasted almost like it was fresh, in a tasty creole sauce with the ackee mixed in it. The cooked ackee has the taste and texture of scrambled eggs. She served the dish with a homemade fried bread Jamaicans call “festival”, elsewhere in the Caribbean they are called “johnny cakes”. Our guests said the dish took them back to breakfasts on the beach in Jamaica with a bottle of Red Stripe in one hand and a bottle of hot sauce in the other.

Here are the recipes for Ket’s ackee and saltfish and festival. All amounts are rough estimates as none of the ingredients were measured while we were cooking – including those for the bread.

Jamaican Ackee and Saltfish

Ingredients:

1 pound salt fish

water

1 whole onion

2 whole cloves garlic

1/2 cup vegetable oil (she said use whatever kind… so I used pomace – a light olive oil)

2 cloves garlic minced (about a tablespoon)

1 medium onion, diced (about a cup)

2 medium tomatoes, diced (about a cup)

1 large red pepper, diced (about a cup)

a few sprigs of fresh thyme

1 large can ackee or about 2 cups cooked fresh ackee**

fresh ground black pepper

Procedure:

1. Cut the saltfish into 2 or 3 large pieces. Rinse under cool water to remove the surface salt, then place in a container covered in cool water. Let sit overnight, changing the water 3-4 times.***

2. Place the soaked saltfish in a pot and cover with fresh water. Add the whole onion and garlic and bring the water to a simmer. Simmer until the saltfish is cooked (when the flesh easily breaks off from the bone) – around 20 minutes. Drain water, discard the onion and garlic and allow the saltfish to cool. Break the saltfish into chunks and discard the skin and bones – you should get around 2 cups. Ket says not to flake it too finely, just break it into chunks.

3. Heat the oil in a pan, then add the minced garlic, chopped onions, tomatoes, peppers and fresh thyme sprigs. Saute the vegetables on medium-low heat until they are very soft.

4. Add the saltfish pieces to the vegetables and continue to simmer and stir until the tomatoes and peppers have “melted” into the sauce.

5. Add the ackee and continue to simmer and stir the dish – it should look like wet scrambled eggs.

6. Season with black pepper. It should not need any more salt!

*Or watch a real Jamaican make a drier version: http://www.jamaicatravelandculture.com/food_and_drink/ackee_and_saltfish.htm

**Ackee is a fruit commonly grown in the Caribbean. When ripe, the fruit “bursts” to expose the flesh and seeds. The flesh is removed, and once cooked it resembles scrambled eggs. Ackee if not properly prepared is toxic. That’s why canned ackee is the only way the fruit can legally make its way into the US and UK. More information: google it.

***I’ve noticed that people here do not soak the fish until most of the salt has leached out (like how I’ve learned to prepare Spanish bacalao). Once the soaked fish is cooked it should still taste a bit salty. This excess salt helps to season the dish that it will be mixed into. A bit tricky, hence all the oversalted versions of this dish that I’ve tasted, but keep tasting and you’ll get it right!

Ket’s Festival Bread

Okay I admit, this was not the best version of festival  that I’ve had. The best I had was at a Jamaican party (in Provo)where it was fried right next to the grill there jerk chicken was being cooked. I was standing by the grill when I caught a burning scent familiar to Jamaican parties (hint: it wasn’t the jerk marinade). Following the scent trail, I ended up in the kitchen where I watched the bread being made with the ingredients below plus some coconut milk and more sugar. It was a richer, sweeter bread, and I remember munching on a lot of it.  But I don’t remember much else about that party save for the good dancehall reggae and food – all hazy at best. Ket’s recipe then should be more reliable.

Ingredients (again, all amounts are estimates):

4 cups all-purpose flour (here they like to use Robin Hood brand)

1 cup cornmeal

1/4 cup white sugar (or more if you like it sweeter, Ket says)

a big pinch of salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 cup melted butter

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup heavy cream

water

oil for frying

Procedure:

1. Combine all the dry ingredients and sift into a large bowl. Make a well in the center.

2. Combine the butter, milk and cream. Pour this mixture into the flour well.

3. Start combining the wet ingredients with the dry. Add water a little at a time while mixing and kneading the dough with your hand. Ket says, “Add enough water to make a dough that you can knead. Then knead until it goes freely off your hand.” Knead the dough until it is smooth, then cover and allow to rest for 15 minutes.

4. Break off pieces of the dough and form into balls.

5. Heat oil in a deep pan and fry the bread until golden brown, turning the bread once or twice in the oil.

6. Serve hot with the ackee and saltfish, some scotch bonnet hot sauce and an ice cold Red Stripe beer.

Crab and mango salad

Served this as a starter last night. Clean, simple flavors and ingredients that showcase the land (or island) – in this case crab and mango. The mangoes were nice and ripe and came from the farmers in Tortola. Most of the fresh herbs did too. The crab (blue crab) came from elsewhere but next time I will try this with some local lobster. The flowers in the glass bowl were from Peter Island – nice to look at but inedible. We had to tell the guests not to eat them, in case they thought it was their salad course after eating the seafood appetizer

Here’s the recipe:

Crab and Mango Salad

Ingredients:

2-3 medium sized ripe mangoes

1 teaspoon lime juice

250 grams picked (no shells!) and pre-cooked crab meat

2 tablespoons minced red onion

1 teaspoon fresh tarragon, finely chopped

1 teaspoon fresh basil, finely shredded (chiffonade)

1 teaspoon parsley, finely chopped

2 tablespoons lime juice (or the juice of 2 limes)

1/4 teaspoon finely grated lime zest

3-4 tablespoons best quality mayonnaise (preferably homemade)

salt and pepper, to taste

Tabasco sauce or cayenne pepper, to taste

Procedure:

1. Peel the mangoes and cut into small dice, reserving 1/2 a mango for the puree. Puree the reserved half with a little lime juice. Combine the diced mango and the mango puree and season with a pinch of salt.

2. Combine all the ingredients except the crab in a bowl. Add the crab and gently toss this into the dressing. Season with salt, pepper and a little cayenne or Tabasco sauce.

3. Layer the crab salad and mango in a glass bowl, or over a some mixed baby greens on a plate. Garnish with a lime wedge and more slices of fruit.

I did a version of this salad a year ago at Amanyara but as an amuse bouche in a Chinese spoon. Same flavors but different presentation and purpose on the menu. The mango was pureed and “spherified” so it bursts in your mouth and looks like a small quail egg yolk (dabbling a bit in molecular gastronomy back then … spherification was one of the things I was very interested in). The flowers were edible in this case.

Local-raised suckling pig roast

Slowly but surely we are joining the “eat local” movement. Three weeks ago, we started putting local raised suckling pig on the menu for our Wednesday night Caribbean buffet. This dish replaced the jerk pork that was on our live grill station. Pork loin that came from I-don’t-know-where-pig-farm in the US – flown in frozen, possible defrosted along the way to the BVI, frozen again, then defrosted before being marinated in a jerk marinade. Good thing we make a nice jerk marinade.

The local pigs that we roast are raised by farmers in Tortola and slaughtered in the government-run “abbatoir” (that’s what the sign says). They have a lot more flavor than generic frozen pork so we don’t have to mask it with strong marinades. On the first night that we made it, I made a herb oil (local rosemary, thyme, basil and garlic in olive oil) and generously rubbed this all over the pig with salt and cracked black pepper. I then stuffed the cavity with handfuls of rosemary, parsley and garlic – more like an Italian porchetta than anything I’ve tasted here in the Caribbean. I then slow roasted it for 6+ hours, then seared it in a hotter convection oven to crisp the skin. The next week that I made it, the farmers sent us some local lemongrass (fever grass as Jamaicans would call it), so I stuffed the pig with tied up bundles of this + garlic and ginger (like lechon back home), then rubbed it with the herb oil, salt and pepper. I made the skin extra crispy that time too having gotten more familiar with the equipment in our kitchen.

The smell of the pork, herbs and lemongrass while they are slowly roasting is intoxicating. It really lures you into the kitchen. But the real secret is the 6+ hours roasting time that ensures the pork is so tender that once you get past the crisp golden-brown crackling, you can carve the meat off the bone with a fork (which I did the one night I had to carve the pig). After the 6-7 hours of slow roasting, I brush a neutral oil (pomace or grapeseed) on the skin and transfer the pig into a 400 F convection oven for another half hour. This last step makes the skin really crispy – reminiscent of the lechon de leche of Manila.

Conch salad recipe

Conch salad with cilantro, scotch bonnet peppers and lime

1 serving

Ingredients:

100 g conch, sliced

25 g tomato, julienned

25 g Spanish onion, julienned

25 g bell peppers, julienned

15 ml (1 T) lime juice

15 ml (1 T) sherry vinegar

15 ml (1 T) olive oil

2 g scotch bonnet chilli, julienned

3 g chopped cilantro

Garnish: mixed greens, cilantro sprig

Procedure:

1. Combine all ingredients. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
2. Place a small amount of mixed greens on a plate. Top with the conch salad and garnish with cilantro sprigs.

Conch salad from the Conch Shack in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands.