Jamaican Cooking Plus Recipe

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Tastes and Travels Ebook It offers reviews on various travel destinations and has articles on the cuisine of each place (as well as recipes that you can try).

Jamaican cooking definitely has a unique style and flavor all its own. Today’s style of Jamaica’s cooking is represented by Jamaica’s motto, “Out of Many, One People”. Since Jamaica’s inhabitants have come from all around the world, including British, Dutch, French, Spanish, East Indian, West African, Portuguese and Chinese, Jamaican cooking represents this blend of cultures and has incorporated that together with the island’s bountiful harvest.

Jamaica’s original inhabitants were the Arawak Indians, who died out after the arrival of the Spanish in 1509, due to disease and overwork. To help with the workload, the Spanish then began importing slaves from Africa. The Spanish brought with them their own culinary influences, such as a dish still popular today called escovitch fish.

In 1655 the English took over Jamaica from the Spanish and brought their own influences into Jamaican cuisine. With them came the development of one of Jamaica’s most popular foods, the Jamaican Pattie, which is a spiced meat turnover that is the equivalent of the island’s hamburger.

A century later, after emancipation, indentured laborers of Chinese and East Indians replaced the African slaves. These immigrants brought with them the curry dishes that are present in nearly every Jamaican menu today, such as curry goat, chicken and seafood.

You can see that Jamaica’s food has been influenced by its history. “Bammie”, a toasted flat cake eaten with fried fish today, was made from the cassava grown by the Arawaks. The Maroons, escaped slaves who were always on the run, devised a way of “jerking” meat (through spicing and slow cooking pork) that is popular in Jamaica today. Breadfruit, yams, root vegetables and ackee were brought from Africa to cheaply feed the slaves. And, as mentioned, the Chinese and East Indians brought with them their contributions of exotic flavors in their curry and other spices.

As well as the contributions of the foreign influences, indigenous vegetables, such as cho-cho (a squash-like vegetable) and callaloo (similar to spinach) are also popular in Jamaican cooking today, along with the island’s fruits of bananas, coconuts, mangoes and pineapples. Among the more exotic fruits popular in Jamaica are guineps, pawpaw, sweetsops and the star apple.

The native pimento tree brings allspice to many Jamaican dishes, as do ginger, garlic, nutmeg, and the Scotch Bonnet peppers, which are considered some of the hottest peppers on earth. The Scotch Bonnet is essential to making the jerk pork, chicken and fish for which Jamaica is famous.

Jamaica’s national dish is saltfish and ackee, an island breakfast dish. Ackee, when cooked looks and tastes much like scrambled eggs. Ackee is poisonous until it is ripe and is always served cooked.

Rice ‘n peas is also a popular island dish, but is made not really with peas but beans (usually red kidney beans.) Other favorite Jamaican dishes include red pea soup, hard dough bread, fish tea (a fish bouillon), Johnny cakes (fried or baked breads), mannish water (a spicy soup made from goats’ heads), bulla (a spicy bun), stew peas (a soup of red peas or gungo peas), Solomon Gundy (an appetizer made of pickled fish) and festival (a type of bread).

As you can see, Jamaica offers a vast variety of dishes influenced by the island’s history. From British, Spanish, African, East Indian and Chinese, the cuisine of Jamaica offers a mixed variety and is very flavorful, often spicy, and is a culinary experience that all will enjoy.

Pumpkin Chicken Soup

2 pkgs. Grace’s Pumpkin/ Chicken soup mix
4-5 medium new potatoes
2 small onions
3-4 medium carrots, cut in chunks
5-6 chicken pieces (thighs)
1 large can pureed pumpkin, or 1 ½ cups steamed pureed fresh pumpkin
6 cups water
1 pkg. chicken bouillon powder
2 TBSP. cooking oil
Pinch each of Salt and Pepper
¼ of a country pepper (or Scotch Bonnet pepper), chopped very finely

In large stock pot, brown chicken pieces in cooking oil.

Wash and cut up potatoes into large chunks. Cut onions into chunks. Peel and cut carrots into 1” pieces. Add to stock pot.

Add all remaining ingredients to pot and simmer together for 1-½ hours. Serve.