The Caribbean · Volume 10, Pimento Smoke, the Maroon Fire and the Ital Table
Rundown
Jamaica
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 1 hour 10
- Researched
- No outside sources linked
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
As tradition built it
Rundown
Serves 4 . 1 hour 10 minutes
Ingredients
- 150ml (or 100g creamed coconut) coconut milk
- 340g salted mackerel fish, traditionally salted mackerel over fresh
- as available plantain
- as available yam
- 3, sliced tomato
- 1, sliced onion
To serve
- 250g grated cassava and 250g plain flour, kneaded into dumplings dumplings
- as available boiled banana
- as available breadfruit
Method
- Reduce coconut milk, "run down", into a thick sauce.
- Add fish, traditionally salted mackerel over fresh, plantain, yam, tomato and onion.
- Serve commonly as breakfast alongside dumplings, boiled banana and breadfruit.
Notes
Also called "dip and fall back" in Patois.
What a modern chef changes
Two-stage reduction, a dehydrated mackerel dust
Method
- Reduce the coconut milk in two stages: a first, faster reduction for body, then a second, slower one at a lower controlled heat, closer to a sous vide-style infusion than a rolling boil, so the coconut fat separates and re-emulsifies rather than splitting.
- Dehydrate a portion of the salted mackerel into a fine, concentrated seasoning dust, ground in the spice grinder, finished over the dish at the table rather than folded entirely into the sauce.