Jamaica #2 – Dorottya’s take, March 2024
Dorottya was greatly helped and inspired by this information-packed blog: Jamaican Food 101: Recipes to Get You Started
This episode is not for the faint of heart or the prudish.
We’re going to get carnal.
I gotta admit I was a teeny bit disappointed when Dorottya said she’s chosen Jamaican as her J dinner – we’ve moved on to Themes, and we’ve already done Jamaican last time around the alphabet.
But all those reservations evaporated as soon as we stepped into her kitchen and got a whiff of the food bubbling away on the hob.
If I needed another reassuring proof of happiness to come, it came in the shape of four cocktail glasses waiting in a line on the table, and Dorottya’s vigorous shake of her cocktail mixer.
I’d never heard of a Dirty Banana Cocktail before, but I hope there are many more of them in my future.
These were simply summer in a stem glass (and apparently all the summer we’re going to have in this sun-forsaken country this year).
The starter was also very summery – Jamaican Pepper Shrimp, a street food of shrimp cooked in a spicy broth.
Dorottya made two main dishes – accompanied by the obligatory Peas & Rice – a very flavoursome version with coconut milk, chilli and ginger –
And delicious Fried Dumplings :
The mains:
I reckon we’ve all had Jerk Chicken many times before – as a weekend takeaway or at summer fairs – but Dorottya’s truly knocked it out of the park: Moist and soft, packed with the unmistakable Jamaican flavour:
The second main is less known as a Jamaican classic, and I hope I offend no one by saying it is an… acquired taste. This is the Jamaican Pepper Pot.
Made with salted beef and pork, green vegetables and herbs, it has a distinct – and very salty – flavour, and is quite fatty (so a good fit for winter days).
But there was another aspect to this stew which gave this dinner a rather… Adult turn (quite aside from the copious amounts of alcohol consumed).
When Dorottya brought the steaming, aromatic pot to the table, and we all had an eager look inside, one could not escape the impression that, floating innocently in the broth, were… well… Just see for yourselves:
This impression was not at all diminished in the bowls, and was not helped by our gracious hostess’ apparent inability to overcome this association and take a bit of her own creation (not that the rest of us were particularly helpful with our “carry-on” comments and potty humour).
What can you do when the only slated pork in the market is pickled pigtails?
And please don’t ask me about the colour.
Somehow we made it to dessert in one piece, and I was glad we did.
After the spicy-hot jerk chicken, and fatty-salty stew, the Cinnamon Banana Fritters were a welcome comfort – though lord knows how we had room for them.
We don’t actually have any photos of those – after the phallus-stew mayhem, coupled with a food coma, I’m surprised we could hold on to our chairs. But they were amazingly cinnamony-banana-y, and went very well with another glass of Dirty Banana cocktail!
Bon Appetit!
