Jamaican Turned Cornmeal is something that my mother used to make in a pinch. When there wasn’t much in cupboard this was a go-to dinner recipe. She would fry some salt pork for this recipe but I use bacon. Or leave it out and it makes a tasty vegetarian dish. The tradition is to eat Turned Cornmeal with Steamed Fish as a side dish. However you can eat it alone or along side any meat, even curry chicken! Many places have their version of this dish. Elsewhere in the Caribbean they call it Coo Coo, and a similar dish in Italy is called Polenta. However, the coconut flavour and spicy kick in this traditional Jamaican recipe is one you’re sure to enjoy!

Ingredients

1 tsp Cooking Oil
3 strips Bacon, chopped
1 small Tomato, chopped
2 stalks Scallion (green onion), chopped
1 cooking Onion, chopped
1 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Black Pepper
1/2 tsp dried Thyme or (1 tsp fresh)
2 cups Coconut Milk
1 1/2 cup Cornmeal
1 cup Cold Water
1/4 tsp West Indian Hot Pepper Sauce
1 Tbsp Butter or Margarine

Method

1. Fry bacon in cooking oil until crisp
2. Add tomato, scallion and cooking onion to the pot and sautee until they tender
3. Add salt, black pepper and thyme and stir
4. Pour coconut milk into pot and bring to a boil; in the meantime, mix water and cornmeal together until smooth
5. Add hot pepper sauce and butter or margarine
6 Stir in cornmeal mixture; keep “turning” until cornmeal thickens and cooks through; about 10 minutes after adding the cornmeal.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

The post Jamaican Turned Cornmeal Recipe (video) appeared first on Cook Like a Jamaican.

Jamaican Fish Tea is what I’d describe as a light soup or a broth soup. That’s because “real” Jamaican soups are thick, hearty and more like a stew. Also, unlike other Jamaican soups, fish tea can be made in less than an hour! Traditionally fish tea is made with small inexpensive fish like herring or sprat, but you can use any fish you like.  In the video above I used red snapper because it’s a fleshy fish that doesn’t have a lot of bones.

My version of fish tea is a little heartier than what I grew up with. When I was young we’d be lucky to have carrots and cabbage in ours. But if we had more vegetables we’d put more in the pot. So, this recipe is my ideal version of fish tea … full of vegetables and flavour!

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

2 medium whole fish or 4 small
8 cups Water
3 Green Bananas, sliced
2 Cho Cho (choyote), sliced
1 large Carrot, sliced
1 small onion, sliced
1/2 Green and Red Bell Pepper, sliced
2 Scallion stalks (green onion)
Salt to taste
Black Pepper to taste
2 to 3 sprigs Fresh Thyme
1/4 tsp West Indian Hot Pepper Sauce
1 Scotch Bonnet Pepper
1 Tbsp Butter or Margarine

Method

1. Remove fish heads and set aside. Filet fish and set flesh aside.

2. Place the fish heads and bones into a stock pot; add 4 cups of water and bring to a boil for 10 minutes.

3. Strain fish stock and discard heads and bones; add 4 cups of water and bring to a boil.

4. Add green bananas, cho cho and carrot to fish stock and bring to a rapid boil.

5. Add onion, bell peppers and scallion; add salt and black pepper to taste, fresh thyme, hot pepper sauce and stir

6. Place scotch bonnet pepper and fish fillets on top of soup and simmer on Medium High for 10 minutes

7. Stir in butter or margarine and simmer for 5 minutes

Serves 4

We’d like to see the Jamaican dishes you’re cooking up in your kitchen! Click here to post a comment or photo on our Facebook Fan Page

The post Jamaican Fish Tea Recipe (video) appeared first on Cook Like a Jamaican.

Jamaican Green Banana Porridge Recipe Video

My Jamaican Green Banana Porridge recipe is as traditional as it gets. When I was growing up in Jamaica, most families had a lot of children so porridge was often an easy way to feed many mouths in the morning. Breakfast needed to taste good and have the ability to “hold you” until your next meal. Well, Green Banana Porridge can certainly fill up an empty belly. It’s also nutritious and has a unique and satisfying flavour.

Now, green bananas are very starchy and not sweet at all. So don’t expect this porridge to taste like it was made with ripe bananas. Instead expect a subtly spiced porridge with a hint of banana flavour. If you really want to make it the authentic way then you can use a hand grater, but why do that when you can blend the bananas in a blender in a fraction of the time. The modern method also makes for velvety results!

Ingredients

5 to 6 Green Bananas
2 cups Milk
1 cup Water
1 tsp Cinnamon or 1 large Cinnamon Stick
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 tsp Allspice
1 tsp Salt or to taste
1 tsp Vanilla flavouring
1 cup Sweetened Condensed Milk  or to taste

Method

1. Peel green bananas, cut in 3 or 4 pieces each and place in a bowl of water mixed with 1 tsp of lemon juice, which will prevent them from turning brown
2. Combine 1 cup of milk with 1 cup of water
3. Blend the bananas with the milk/water liquid, adding one piece of banana at a time.
4. Pour the banana mixture into a pot on Medium-High heat. Using a non-stick pot will save clean up time later
5. Stir in cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and salt and continue stirring until blended
6. Continue stirring on Low heat until the porridge thickens, about 15 minutes.  If needed, heat remaining 1 cup of milk and add slowly to pot until you reach your desired consistency
7. Add vanilla, and sweeten with sweetened condensed milk to taste

Makes 4 servings

We’d like to see the Jamaican dishes you’re cooking up in your kitchen! Click here to post a comment or photo on our Facebook Fan Page

The post Jamaican Green Banana Porridge Recipe (video) appeared first on Cook Like a Jamaican.

Jamaican-Style Coffee Cake: What I love about this website is that it offers me the opportunity to document recipes for my family and, in turn, for all of you. However, since I haven’t lived in Jamaica for many years, I now also make dishes that aren’t traditional Jamaican recipes. This is one of them.

I call it Sunshine Cake. I can’t even remember why I call it that but I found it years and years ago in a magazine ad for raisins. Like most of my cooking, I made this recipe my own with some Jamaican touches. After adding some more spices, pineapple and a hit of rum it has become a family favourite so it had to be added here … by special demand. This recipe is very flexible so if you don’t have apples, you can use pears instead. A cup of walnuts or pecans are also a great addition for nut lovers. Sunshine Cake is delicious warm out of the oven, but personally I think it tastes even better the next day … with a cup of coffee. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 cup Butter, soften
1 cup Sugar
1 Tbsp Orange Zest
3 Eggs
3 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Allspice
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1 cup Cooking Apple, chopped
1 cup Homemade Sour cream (see below)
1 (14-oz) can Crushed Pineapple, drained
1/4 cup Pineapple Juice (drained from crushed pineapple)
1 cup Raisins
2 Tbsp Jamaican Rum
2 tsp Vanilla Flavouring

Cooking Tip – Homemade Sour Cream: Mix 1 cup of whole milk with 2 Tbsp lemon juice and stir.

Method

Preheat oven: 350 degrees

1. Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy; mix in orange zest

2. Add eggs one at a time, mixing batter well after each addition

3. Combine dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg; set aside

4. Combine apples, crushed pineapple and sour cream; set aside

5. Add dry ingredients and sour cream/fruit mixture to the batter; alternating between dry and wet

6. Add pineapple juice, raisins, rum and vanilla to the batter; mix well

7. Pour cake batter into a greased bundt pan and place in preheated 350-degree oven for 1 hour or until a inserted knife comes our clean

Serves 12

We’d like to see the Jamaican dishes you’re cooking up in your kitchen! Click here to post a comment or photo on our Facebook Fan Page

 

The post Jamaican-Style Coffee Cake Recipe appeared first on Cook Like a Jamaican.

Jamaican Corn Soup: Whether it’s red peas, chicken or beef, Jamaicans love their soup on a Saturday. So, I don’t know if it’s because I grew up in a Jamaican household or because I love one pot meals but, for me, soup is a perfect meal to make. That’s because I can get a lot of other things done around the house while it’s simmering on the stove, it’s filling and also great to have as leftovers.

When my mother was growing up in Jamaica, Rastafarian culture was very much on the fringes of society so she isn’t too familiar with the popular Ital (rasta-style vegetarian) dishes that have now crossed over to mainstream tastes.  So, for all of you who have been requesting vegetarian dishes, she asked me to share my Jamaican Corn Soup recipe.  That’s because it’s inspired by a Rastafarian known for his own corn soup. I call it One Lovely Corn Soup because it’s full of flavour, texture and a sweet heat that warms you from inside out. By the way, if you like you’re meat, it’s also brilliant with some cooked chicken or crispy bacon added to it.

Ingredients

The post Jamaican Corn Soup Recipe appeared first on Cook Like a Jamaican.

Guinness Stout Punch Recipe Video

In Jamaica there are two drinks that are known to be men drinks. One is Irish Moss and the other is Guinness Stout Punch. It has been said is that both make a man more viral. I’m not sure how true that is, but that’s the story that has been passed on for generations.

Quite a few of you have requested this recipe so I thought I’d share the one that most reminds me of the stout punch of my youth. Because I used the lighter Irish Guinness draught stout, it isn’t as bitter as it is when using English Guinness stout, which is fine by me. So, if you prefer a stronger, more bitter flavour buy the latter when making this recipe. It uses 5 ingredients and it literally takes 5 minutes! Enjoy!

Ingredients

2 cups Guinness Stout (Irish)
3/4 cup Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1 large Egg, beaten
10 Ice Cubes

Method

1. Put stout, milk and spices in blender and blend on High
2. Add beaten egg and blend again
3. Add ice cubes and blend until smooth

Serves 3 to 4

We’d like to see the Jamaican dishes you’re cooking up in your kitchen! Click here to post a comment or photo on our Facebook Fan Page

The post Guinness Stout Punch Recipe (video) appeared first on Cook Like a Jamaican.

Jamaican Coco Bread Recipe Video

I don’t know who came  up with the idea to stuff a Jamaican beef patty into a coco bread but that’s how we like it! All that dough makes it very filling, but my husband doesn’t seem to mind. On Saturday mornings when Eddie and I were a young couple we’d go to the market to buy fresh vegetables, fish and meat. The outing would always end with a trip to the bakery to buy beef patties to eat in the car on the way home. Eddie would get one patty for me and two patties stuffed into two coco breads for himself! He’d then wash them down with a bottle of cola champagne.

Eddie can’t eat like that anymore, but he definitely loved taste testing this recipe for me. I tested this Jamaican coco bread recipe three times before coming up with one that I think is good enough to share with all of you! I think it tastes better than any coco bread you can buy in a bakery … I hope you do too!

Ingredients

4 cups All-Purpose Flour (+ 1/2 cup for kneading)
2 Tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt
2 1/2 tsp Quick-Rise Yeast  (Note: In the video I say 2 1/2 oz. Sorry, that is incorrect)
14 oz Coconut Milk or Water
4 Tbsp Melted  Butter

Cooking Tip: You can use coconut milk or water in this recipe, but I prefer using coconut milk for the added flavour. If using thick canned coconut milk, dilute it half and half with water

Method

1. Mix flour, sugar, salt and yeast  together and set aside

2. Warm liquid (coconut milk or water) until it is more than luke warm but not too hot. You can test it on the back of your hand or use a thermometer to reach 114 degrees

3. Add 2 Tbsp of melted butter to the warm milk/water and stir

4. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and combine to make a soft, sticky dough

5. Flour rolling surface and place the dough on top

6. Knead dough, flouring the surface as needed, until dough is smooth and soft (about 10 minutes)

7. Brush bowl with melted butter and place dough inside. Cover with plastic wrap or parchment paper and a damp tea towel

8. Place bowl in warm spot for 1 to 1 1/2 hours  or until it doubles in size

9. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll dough and cut into smaller squares to make individual coco breads

10. Roll each square until 1/8 inch thick; brush dough with melted butter and fold over. Use a medium bowl to cut in a semi-circle.

11. Repeat Step 10 to make more; place each one on parchment-lined baking sheet(s) and brush the tops of the dough with melted butter

12. Place baking sheet(s) in warm spot for 10 minutes so dough can rise; place sheet(s) in oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown

Enjoy warm from the oven!

We’d like to see the Jamaican dishes you’re cooking up in your kitchen! Click here to post a comment or photo on our Facebook Fan Page

The post Jamaican Coco Bread Recipe (video) appeared first on Cook Like a Jamaican.

Jamaican Pork Recipes: Oven-Baked Pork Chops Video

I call this recipe Oven-Baked Pork Chops Fay style! It may not be a traditional Jamaican recipe, but most everything I cook has Jamaican flavour. In this case, the meat is marinated in true Jamaican fashion, overnight with seasonings – onion, garlic, salt and black pepper. Do you have to marinate the meat for hours? Of course not, but don’t expect it to taste as good to the bone as when you do. This recipe was highly requested by my nephew Carey who has been waiting patiently for it to be added to this website. Carey, this one’s for you! I hope everyone enjoys my oven-baked chops as much as you do.

Marinating Ingredients

5 to 6 Pork Chops
1 medium Onion, chopped
3 cloves Garlic, minced
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Black Pepper

Sauce Ingredients

Cooking oil
1 medium Onion, chopped
1/4 small Green Bell Pepper, chopped
1/4 small Red Bell Pepper, chopped
1/2 tsp Dry Thyme
1 Tbsp butter or margarine
1/2 tsp Hot Pepper Sauce
1 tsp Steak Sauce
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1-2 Tbsp Tomato Ketchup

Method

Marinate meat overnight  in the fridge with seasonings: onion, garlic, salt and black pepper

Preheat Oven to 360 – degrees

1. Grease baking pan with a little cooking oil. Place marinated chops in pan and place pan in preheated oven.

2. After 20 minutes in the oven, add about 1/4 cup of boiling water to the pan to keep the meat moist and tender; bake pork chops for 20 more minutes and remove the the pan from the oven.

3. Pour the drippings from the pan in to a saucepan; add onion, bell peppers and thyme to the saucepan and bring to a boil.

4. Add butter or margarine, hot pepper sauce, steak sauce, Worcestershire sauce and tomato ketchup; stir and simmer until onion is soft and transparent. Add salt to taste.

5. Pour sauce over pork chops and place back in the oven for 5 more minutes.

6. Remove pan from oven and enjoy pork chops with rice and a green salad.

We’d like to see the Jamaican dishes you’re cooking up in your kitchen! Click here to post a comment or photo on our Facebook Fan Page

The post Jamaican Pork Recipes: Oven-Baked Pork Chops (video) appeared first on Cook Like a Jamaican.

Jamaican Side Dish Recipes: Festival Dumplings Video

Jamaican Side Dish Recipes: Why are they called Festival? I wish I knew. Perhaps someone can do a little digging and tell me the truth behind the name. All I know is that Festival is not something I grew up with. It wasn’t until I returned to Jamaica for a visit that I found it was all the rage! Festival is street food at it’s best and traditionally eaten on the beach alongside Escovitch Fish or the like. If you’ve never had it, it’s basically a fried cornbread fritter or dumpling. Unlike traditional Jamaican Fried Dumplings, Festival is sweet, crisp on the outside and dense. Most earlier recipes were very heavy with equal amounts of flour and cornmeal. But nowadays you’ll often find ones with just a hint of cornmeal. In my book that makes them too similar to regular dumplings. Instead, my recipe falls somewhere in the middle. It’s not too sweet and not too heavy … I’ll think you’ll find to be just right!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose Flour
1/2 cup Cornmeal
3 Tbsp Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 Egg, beaten
1/2 tsp Vanilla
Approx 1/2 cup cold Water
1 cup Cooking Oil

If you prefer a lighter a Festival dumpling: use 3 Tbsp of cornmeal instead and adjust the amount of water needed to bind the dough

Method

1. Mix dry ingredients together

2. Add beaten egg and vanilla and mix gently until combined

3. A  bit at a time, add water, kneading until dough holds together.

4. Knead dough until smooth and divide into 6 or more equal pieces; shape in long dumplings.

5. Heat cooking oil on High in deep frying pan and place the Festival Dumplings in the pan one at a time.

6. Reduce heat to Medium and turn Festival dumplings every few minutes until they are brown on all sides and are cooked through; they will expand as they cook.

Enjoy with Escovitch Fish, Ackee & Saltfish or whatever you like!

We’d like to see the Jamaican dishes you’re cooking up in your kitchen! Click here to post a comment or photo on our Facebook Fan Page

The post Jamaican Side Dish Recipes: Festival Dumplings (video) appeared first on Cook Like a Jamaican.

Do you have a food that you didn’t like as a child but fell in love with as an adult? Well, for me that food is Jamaican Hominy Corn Porridge. When I was growing up it was my least favourite of all the Jamaican porridges. And there are many: peanut, green banana, rice, cornmeal, oatmeal and so on. Now don’t mistake Hominy Corn Porridge for Cornmeal Porridge. Coconut milk is used to make hominy porridge so they actually have different flavours as well as textures.

Hominy corn is basically dried corn kernels. In the U.S. it’s coursely ground to make hominy grits. In Jamaica, it’s used mostly to make porridge, but is also ground. When I was young hominy corn kernals would be soaked overnight in lye water made with ashes and water. The solution would remove the skin from the kernels. However today you can buy them peeled, dried and ready to cook. You can also buy them whole or cracked, but I like to use the cracked kernals for this recipe because they cook quicker.

Traditionally condensed milk is used to sweeten the porridge … and I love it! But you can use sugar instead, or a combination of the two. If you like a creamy yet textured porridge  (the cooked kernals are chewy), you’ll love the sweet and simple flavours of this delicately spiced porridge. Today I have a whole new appreciation of Hominy Corn Porridge, a dish that makes a mighty good way to start the day.

Jamaican Hominy Corn Porridge Video

Ingredients

1 cup Hominy Corn
6 cups Water
1/4 tsp Salt
1 Cinnamon Stick
2 cups Coconut Milk
1/2 cup Corn Starch
1/2 tsp Nutmeg, grated
2 tsp Vanilla flavouring
1/2 cup Evaporated Milk
1/2 cup Sweetened Condensed Milk

How to make Traditional Coconut Milk
1. Using a food processor or hand grater, grate the flesh of 1 coconut
2. In a bowl, add 2 cups of water to the grated coconut and squeeze
3. Pour the mixture into a large strainer and press coconut to extract 2 cups of milk

Substitution Tips: If using canned coconut milk, combine 1 cup coconut milk with 1 cup water to make 2 cups. You can use either whole or cracked hominy corn kernals. Whole kernals take longer to cook. The timing for the recipe is based on using cracked corn.

Method

1. Rinse the corn, place in a pot and soak overnight in 6 cups of water.
2. In same pot,  boil corn for 20 to 30 minutes with salt and cinnamon stick  until tender; lower heat
3. In a small bowl, dissolve corn starch by mixing it with some coconut milk; stir into remaining coconut milk
4. Turn stove to High and add the coconut milk with starch to pot;  stir porridge until thickened
5. Add nutmeg, vanilla and evaporated milk, stirring after each addition
6. Add condensed milk to sweeten the porridge, or sugar to taste

Serves 4

We’d like to see the Jamaican dishes you’re cooking up in your kitchen! Click here to post a comment or photo on our Facebook Fan Page

The post Jamaican Hominy Corn Porridge Recipe (video) appeared first on Cook Like a Jamaican.