Jerk trout

I have very little experience of Caribbean food. I own a book by Levi Roots and have heard about the classics like jerk chicken and rice and peas, but have never tried them. I don't eat meat so jerk chicken is unlikely to make an appearance on my table any time soon, but I liked the principle of something spicy and grilled. And when a couple of local supermarkets introduced small Afro-Caribbean sections in their ethnic food aisles, I enthusiastically bought some jerk seasoning mix by Dunn's River. Unfortunately this then sat in the cupboard for about six months before I got round to doing something with it.

But eventually I remembered it was there, and decided that jerk trout was the way forward. It's a pretty robust fish that can take strong flavours and is also relatively cheap (always a bonus). So for my jerk marinade I made a paste with one medium onion, a couple of fat cloves of garlic, about a tablespoon of thyme leaves and around two and half generous tablespoons of the jerk seasoning powder. I used a bit of oil to bind everything together too. This was then rubbed onto two whole cleaned trout, that I made some slashes in, and left to marinate for about 45minutes. If I'd planned better I would have left it for longer and maybe overnight. The trout were then drizzled with a little more oil and cooked under a hot grill, until the skin was crisp and beginning to char a little. So around seven or eight minutes on each side (or until cooked through).

And I have to say that I was really impressed with the outcome. I generally don't favour ready made spice mixes, but having no idea what should go in it, this jerk seasoning was a really convenient option and very tasty. Looking at the ingredients it contained coriander, chilli, pepper, pimento, cinnamon, marjoram, bay, and nutmeg, as well as salt and sugar. And I don't think it need any extra spices adding to it at all (unlike with many pre-mixed spice mixes). On a side note- it was quite salty though, so there's no need to add extra salt to this dish. The saltiness on the surface evened out when combined with eating the actual fish though, but if you're sensitive about that sort of thing then maybe use less of the mix than I did.

I served my jerk trout with some steamed broccoli and greens, and as we had one whole fish per person, that was more than enough. The fish was spicy with chilli heat but also had other flavours that I would have been pushed to identify. It was a very different type of spiciness to the Indian food I'm used to, but equally as good. So a definite thumbs up for jerk from me!

Have a look at the Food Stories blog for more information on all things jerk from a true enthusiast.

Dunn's River Jerk Seasoning
I rate it 8/10
Cost: Around £1.40 for a 100g tub

Cooking a la Levi Roots

I have pretty much zilch experience of Jamaican or Caribbean food, so was recently rather chuffed to win a copy of Levi Roots' new cookery book (thanks @Octopus_Books) which ties-in with his BBC tv show. There's something about Levi Roots that's very likable. Despite the risk of coming across like a parody of a Jamaican person with his blinged up style, frequent proclamations of 'respec' and calling food 'deliciosious', he is in fact a very articulate champion of Caribbean cooking, a pretty astute businessman and a natural television presenter.
The book begins with an introduction to basic Caribbean ingredients, most of which I'd heard of even if I wasn't sure what they actually were. The rest of the book covers both classic dishes from a number of the Caribbean islands, as well as recipes which are not traditional but give a Jamaican twist to familiar ingredients.
I decided to give the lime, chilli and coriander butter with salmon and lobster a go. Levi describes it as one of his favourite creations and it certainly sounded good.

Ingredients:
75g butter, slightly softened
1 1/2 tbsp finely chopped, fresh coriander
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
zest and juice of 1/2 lime
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
salt and pepper

(Levi's recipe serves the above with 4 salmon steaks, and I've found it makes more than enough for 1 lobster, two small salmon fillets, and six large prawns).

The recipe actually recommends the butter be served with a barbecued lobster, but due to the lack of barbecue and indeed a raw lobster, I used a cooked one instead. This was split and once I'd made up the butter, I daubed it generously over the lobster and the salmon fillets. I also included about half a dozen large, shell-on raw prawns which were de-veined and also had butter stuffed in them. The whole lot went into a really hot oven for around 10mins, or until the prawns and fish had cooked (which was enough time for the lobster to warm through).
I also cooked a couple of side dishes which were inspired by reading the book and watching the tv show, rather than specific recipes. I roasted some sweet potato wedges in the oven with lots of thyme, plenty of seasoning and little oil. I also cooked some spinach as a callaloo substitute. I started by gently frying some crushed garlic, and after a few minutes I added a chilli that I'd pierced a couple of times with the tip of a knife (to add flavour without too much heat). After another minute or so, about 250g of chopped fresh spinach leaves went in. This was all cooked down with a bit of seasoning until all the liquid from the spinach had evaporated. Having (in retrospect perhaps wrongly!) decided that this would not be enough food, I also made some aromatic rice. This is something I'd usually have with Indian food, but as Caribbean food has been influenced by the Indian diaspora that settled there, I thought it might work here too. So into a saucepan went a knob of butter with a bay leaf and a stick of cinnamon. Once these were sizzling I dropped in a cup of rinsed basmati rice, after a couple of quick stirs to coat the grains in the butter, I added double the quantity of water. When the rice had come up to the boil, I reduced the heat to the lowest possible, covered the pan and left the rice to absorb all the liquid. And so all of the above resulted in all of the below.

Although myself and the male companion person feared we had cooked way too much food, it was so lovely that we managed to devour most of it. I was slightly concerned that all the different herbs and spices might clash with each other, but in fact this was not the case at all. The simple side dishes were a great accompaniment to the rich seafood. The butter mellowed the strong flavours of coriander and chilli, and the lime added a hint of freshness. We got stuck in pulling the prawns and lobster apart, and using the rice and potato to mop up the lovely buttery juices.
This was definitely one of the nicest (and most extravagent) meals I have cooked recently, and confirms my view that Levi Roots rocks!