A Taste of Jamaica: Comfort Food to Cook at Home

Jamaican cooking is all about big, bright flavour: scotch bonnet heat, warm spices, fresh herbs and a generous hand with citrus. It is also some of the most comforting food you can make at home. Here is where to start.

Breakfast, Jamaican style

Mornings begin with Jamaican cornmeal porridge — slow-stirred cornmeal enriched with coconut milk, cinnamon and nutmeg, finished with a swirl of condensed milk. It is warming, filling and endlessly adaptable. For something sweeter, banana fritters turn over-ripe bananas into golden, spiced little pancakes in minutes.

The mains

The heart of the table is the curry. Jamaican curry shrimp leans on Caribbean curry powder, allspice and scotch bonnet for a sauce that is fragrant rather than fiery (you control the heat). Prefer fish? Escovitch fish is fried until crisp then dressed with a tangy pickle of vinegar, onions and peppers — a dish that tastes even better the next day.

Tip: a little scotch bonnet goes a long way, and most of its flavour is in the skin, not the seeds. Add it whole and fish it out if you want aroma without the burn.

Bold sides and small plates

Jamaican pepper shrimp — the fiery, garlicky street-food snack sold by the bagful at Middle Quarters — is quick to make and impossible to stop eating. And red peas soup, a thick, slow-simmered kidney-bean soup with spinners (little flour dumplings), is a one-pot meal in itself.

Where to start

New to the cuisine? Begin with the cornmeal porridge for an easy weekend breakfast, then graduate to curry shrimp for dinner. When you are ready for more, explore our full range of Jamaican recipes.