Tonight I'm having dinner in Kingston with Wendy. Kingston Jamaica maaaan, with food author and Caribbean cuisine authority Wendy Rahamut. Since my last trip to the Caribbean last year, I had been looking all over town for plantain bananas, and finally stumbled upon them in the most unlikely place (a posh supermarket for expats that I normally only go to for very specific cooking needs, such as pancetta and now rabbit legs...). I bought a heavy bunch and patiently waited a whole 10 days for my babies to ripen. Plantains can be used green, but what I had in mind required them to be ripe and sweet...
The recipes below are very largely inspired by Wendy's excellent cookbook
Caribbean Flavors.
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| Jamaican Jerk Chicken and herbed plantain gratin |
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Basic ingredients for Jamaican Jerk Chicken: onion, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, lime juice, garlic, ginger, thyme, chillies and chives. As I could not find habaneros or scotch bonnets, I used a combination of fresh bird's eye and dried ground Cayenne and chipotle peppers (and, as usual, increased the chilli content of the recipe). |
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| Jerk marinade, after careful slicing, chopping, pounding and squeezing. |
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| Organic chicken thighs and drumsticks, lovingly smothered with jerk marinade. Cover with film and leave in the fridge overnight. |
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| Jamaican jerk chicken, after about 30mn cooking (turn once) |
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| Unripe plantains |
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| The same plantains, 10 days later, finally ripe. |
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| Boiled plantains - if you have never smelled the wonderful aroma of a perfectly ripe, just boiled and still hot plantain, go get some now! |
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| Herbed plantain gratin (with cheese topping) |
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