Jamaican jerk

Some notes on my 2024 attempt to make jerk chicken. There are so many recipes floating round it is very difficult to pick a right one. I picked one with a mistake in the recipe and used too much soy and Worcestershire sauce, the marinade became way too liquid. Although it still tasted okay, it wasn’t quite right. Normally I would have discarded the marinade and start over but I had to rush to work in the morning. I often cook early in the morning on working days.

What went okay was the brining. To make the meat tender before marinating I brined the chicken parts in: 4 cups of water, 75 grams salt, 60 grams sugar, 1 tablespoon whole allspice, 5 garlic cloves, crushed, 1 hot pepper, halved (in The Netherlands this will be either a madame jeannette or adjuma pepper), 1 piece of ginger, roughly chopped. I brined the chicken for 24 hours.

I marinated the chicken for about 36 hours, but next time I will find a different list of ingredients for the jerk. I did use the left over hot peppers to make a quick hot sauce. Just cut the pepper in small pieces, dice an onion and slice some garlic. Fry the pepper, onion and garlic in a little oil and then add some water and simmer for 15 minutes until the pepper is soft. Transfer to a food processor, add some vinegar, salt and sugar, and blitz until the sauce is smooth. You have to taste to adjust the amount of vinegar and salt, but the hot sauce on its own is almost too spicy to taste.

Despite of the not so perfect jerk marinade the result was very good. It missed some of the spicy tones, like pimento and pepper. Maybe the soy sauce in the marinade was too overpowering. The chicken was incredibly tender and had some sweetness because of the salt-sugar brine. I barbequed the chicken rather than smoke it since I don’t have a smoker, and certainly no pimento wood.

Jamaican original served with festivals.

Jamaican rum punch

Mix in a mixing glass: ice cubes, 60 ml Wray & Nephew White Overproof Rum, 30 ml Appleton Estate dark rum, 1 teaspoon grenadine, juice of a whole lime; fill the glass with 100% pineapple juice. Add some spice: 1/4 teaspoon pimento. Pour in a glass. Note: a total of 90 ml rum makes a very strong punch!

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Jamaican curry goat

It’s curry goat and never goat curry. I’m lucky to have a goat cheese factory and goat farm not far from my father’s house in buurtschap ‘t Woold. De Brömmels makes a wild range of goat cheeses and sells goat meat from the freezer. For a small fee you can also take a walk with a goat. Towards the end of summer they sell pumpkins, fruit and home made jams and marmalades. I usually buy my goat meat from De Brömmels. This time the meat of a young male goat (boklam) was on offer. I ate quite a bit of goat (mbuzi) in Kenya and I still like the taste. My favourite dish though is the Jamaican spiced stew: curry goat.

A slightly different method with marinated meat and pimento.

Photo: official Facebook page of De Brömmels.

Tank for goat milk, text in Dutch Low Saxon dialect.

Kenyan Mbuzi / Goat Curry

The method is quite similar to Jamaican curry goat. Typical Kenyan spices are cinnamon, nutmeg and glove being so close to the ancient spice trade routes. Also tamarind and coconut are notable differences.

Blend below 11 ingredients to make a marinade:

4 Medium sized tomatoes
3 Medium sized red onions
Ginger the size of half a thumb
4 Cloves of garlic
1/4 tsp Cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp Nutmeg powder
1/4 tsp clove powder
Pinch of dry basil leaves
Pinch of dry thyme leaves
3 tsp Celery salt
4 tsp Curry powder

Use half the marinade for the meat and keep overnight or at least 2 hours. Sear the meat in several batches in hot oil. Add the reserved marinate and cover with water. Simmer until the meat is tender. Add the sugar (I’d say this is optional), add coconut cream and simmer for 10 minutes. And finally the tamarind. Never add tamarind before the coconut is completely cooked because it will cause the cream to curdle.

The other ingredients

1 1/2 Large bay leaves
4 Tbs Vegetable oil
1 Kg Mbuzi meat with some bone
1 tsp Ukwaju / tamarind paste
1 tsp Sukari nguru / Jaggery – Substitute with honey, brown sugar, white sugar or a sweetener of your choice
1/2 Cup heavy coconut cream
Handful of dhania / coriander leaves

Vegetarian Ital coconut stew

"Then God said, "I give you every Seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food." (Genesis 1:29)

There is no fixed list of ingredients for this Jamaican “Ital” stew in coconut milk. Quantity for 2-4 people. First fry an onion translucent in oil. Add some garlic, allspice and thyme and sauté until aromatic.

Once you have this base add two cups of coconut milk and two cups of water. Add bay leaf and green onions. Add a Scotch bonnet for heat.

Now add a selection of the following vegetables, first the hard vegetables, add the soft vegetables at the end:

Taro (2 cups).
Pumpkin (2 cups).
Yam.
Okra (1 cup)
Yellow plantain.
Potato
Sweet potato
3 carrots
Collard greens; or spinach in Europe.

Simmer for a total time of about half an hour (leaf vegetables only take 5 minutes). Remove sprigs of fresh thyme, allspice, green onions and bay leaf.

Season with salt, black pepper, chopped cilantro and lime juice. Burst the Scotch bonnet before serving.

Jamaican Dutch oven made from cast aluminium. I ordered a 9,5 inch version. [ Probably due to corona they don’t ship to The Netherlands. I had to cancel my order ]