Jamaica Ackee and Saltfish with Dumplings

The Jamaicans have created a lovely tasty breakfast with this dish. Ackee is a fruit from a large tree and is poisonous if eaten unripe. So its best to buy tinned ackee available from most supermarkets that carry international foods. They are expensive around £4.50 a tin but the consistency and taste cannot be duplicated. In Trinidad there are a few ackee trees but most Trinidadians don't understand them and rarely eat the fruit.

Boil about 1/2 lb of saltfish and drain. In a frying pan slow cook an onion sliced, a sweet pepper sliced and a hot pepper chopped until the go translucent and soft (about 5-10 minutes slow). Add a tin of tomatoes and some fresh thyme and maybe a little water. I also add a teaspoon of sun dried tomato paste and a tsp of sugar. Let this mixture cook slowly until reduced and tasty, add black pepper. then add the shredded saltfish and let this cook into the mix for 5 minutes before topping off with the ackee. Once the ackee is added don't stir much as it breaks up.

To make the dumpling take 8oz plain flour (I use bread flour) and add a tspn of salt and a tspn of baking powder (no more or they will be soggy). Then mix with water to a soft consistency and knead for about 2 minutes. Boil; a saucepan of salted water and divide the dough into 8 pieces. Flatten with the hand or a rolling pin into saucer shapes and drop into the boiling water and cook for 15 minutes.  Serve with Ooft hot pepper of course!

Beef Patties

These are my version of the famous Jamaican patties. They fail in that they do not use orange pastry (comes from adding ruku an extract from a Caribbean tree). Actually I use packaged puff pastry as I find it works fine and saves an enormous amount of trouble. They are very good as a snack though and that's what its all about.1lb mince (beef or pork), I prefer butchers mince instead of that strange wiggly stuff one gets from supermarkets), 1 onion finely chopped, 2 garlic minced, one red pepper minced. About 2 large potatoes, cubed small and one carrot chopped. I tbspn curry powder, one tspn cayenne. cup of chicken stock water, salt and pepper. Fresh thyme and parsley, 1 chopped tomato and 2 tspn tomato paste (or better yet sun dried tomato paste)Fry onion, garlic and chopped pepper in oil, medium heat, for 3-5 minutes until translucent, and then add madras curry powder and let it cook for 1 minute then add meat, potatoes and carrots, tomato chopped, thyme and parsley and cayenne. Let this cook for a few minutes dry until well blended, and 1 tspn tomato paste and chicken stock and add water (maybe 1/2 cup), the idea is it needs to cook in liquid covered, but then cook down to dry. its a balance to get the vegetables soft and end up with a dryish mixture. A NOTE, over season a bit, i find I taste the mixture and think oh gosh too much pepper or too much salt, but it works, because the pastry takes some taste away. Let cool for an hour at least.roll out puff thin, and cut into circles using saucer. You should get about 12 patties out of a1lb of prepared puff pastry.put some milk in a bowl and a pastry brush. Then it becomes a production line. You first brush with milk, then put spoon of mix then fold over and use a fork to seal, finally put two fork points into pastry. Bake in hot oven 200/210 until cooked, about 20-25 minutes turning to ensure even heat. You may have to turn it down a bit half way if they start to get too brown.