Mannish water

As tradition built it

Mannish water

Serves 10. About 1 hour.

Ingredients

The goat

• 900g goat head and belly, in small pieces
• 60ml white cane vinegar, with 960ml water, for cleaning
• 1.4 litres water
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 6 pimento berries

The soup

• 960ml water
• 900g yellow yam, peeled and diced
• 4 medium carrots, peeled and diced
• 2 large cho cho, peeled and diced
• 450g potatoes
• 6 green bananas
• 1 packet cock soup mix
• 1 tbsp all purpose seasoning
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 2 stalks escallion, crushed
• 1 Scotch bonnet, whole
• 1 tsp soft margarine
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 60ml, optional white rum

The spinners

• 240ml flour
• ¼ tsp salt
• 120ml water

Method

1. Clean the goat in the vinegar and water.
2. Put it in a pressure cooker with the 1.4 litres of water, the garlic and the pimento, and pressure cook 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it cool.
3. Tip it into a large pot, add the 960ml of water and bring it to the boil.
4. Add the yam, carrots, cho cho, potatoes and green bananas. Stir, cover, and let them cook.
5. For the spinners, knead the flour, salt and water to a smooth dough and rest it 15 minutes. Roll small spinners and add them to the pot.
6. Add the soup mix, seasoning, thyme, escallion, Scotch bonnet, margarine, pepper and salt. Stir well and simmer 15 minutes.
7. Turn off the heat and stir in the rum.

Notes

Traditionally served to the groom on his wedding night and widely believed an aphrodisiac, and also served at wakes and large gatherings.

A claim that it has been part of Maroon celebration culture for over three hundred years is unverified and held cautiously here.

The recipe is Grace Foods'. Chef Noel Cunningham, for Jamaicans.com, parboils goat head and feet 10 to 15 minutes, discards the water, cooks it in fresh water with pimento and garlic, then adds pumpkin, carrot and green banana with the skin on, yam, and flour dumplings, with a green hot pepper.

What a modern chef changes

A two-stage stock, clarified

Method

1. Build the stock in two separate stages, offal and bones roasted first for real depth before the long simmer.
2. Clarify through a chinois into a genuinely clear broth rather than the cloudy result a single long boil gives.
3. Poach the dumplings separately and add them only at the point of serving, so they hold their shape rather than dissolving into the pot over the soup's long cook.