Spice Nest
What follows is a Spice Nest article that looks at Jamaican spices and some of their uses.
Jamaican Spices
Jamaica, the island nation in the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean is famous for its interesting and tasty cuisine. This article takes a closer look at some of the spces used in some of their more popular recipes and how they create the unique flavours of Jamaica!
We know that many Jamaican speciality dishes make extensive use of several spices. One of these in particular is Jamaican allspice, which is also known as Jamaican pepper, pimenta or pimento. Another typically Jamaican spice is annatto, sometimes called roucou, which is commonly used for flavouring many of their recipes. Annatto is an unusual spice in terms of flavour. It is derived from the pulp which surrounds the seeds of the achiote tree. Annatto has a flavour that resembles pepper with some added nutmeg.
Some of the most famous of all the Jamaican dishes are known as "jerk dishes". In jerk dishes the meat is marinaded with a mixture of Jamaican spices which are popularly known as "Jamaican jerk spice" for at least an hour, although the longer the better. The marinaded meat is then cooked on a charcoal grill. Jerk spice is a mixture of several spices and has a very hot, fiery taste as result of the Scotch bonnet peppers which are added to the allspice and other spices in the mixture.
The Jamaican national dish is known as "saltfish and ackee". The saltfish used is salted cod. This is rehydrated and well washed before cooking. Ackee is a type of locally grown fruit. How this dish is prepared is by the cod being sautéed, while the ackee is boiled and the two main ingredients mixed together. To add flavour to the dish, onions, tomatoes and capsicum (peppers) are also usually added.
If you ever get the chance to visit Jamaica, you'll find many great, tasty and sometimes unusual foods and dishes that you'll enjoy trying out and eating too. By way of an example, there is curried goat, fried plantains, and "rice and peas". The latter is long grain rice cooked with coconut milk and then mixed with a variety of legumes such as red kidney, or pinto beans.
We hope you enjoyed the article on Jamaican spice and some of the fascinating dishes it is used to produce.
Janice White
Spice Nest
