Levi Roots’ Reggae Reggae Cookbook - Levi Roots

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oil in a frying pan until it’s fairly hot, add the plantain, reduce the heat and cook gently for 2–3 minutes on each side until golden brown. Serve.

       Fried Dumplings

       Makes 12

       400g/14oz self-raising flour

       1 tsp salt

       50g/2oz butter, cut into cubes

       400ml/14fl oz vegetable oil

      Put the flour and salt into a large bowl, add the butter. Use your hands, rub it in until the mixture forms crumbs. Gradually add most of 250ml/9fl oz water until the mixture comes together to form a ball.

      

      Using your hands, knead the mixture for a few minutes. If the dough is too dry, add a little more water, then continue to knead until a soft dough forms and the bowl is clean.

      

      Heat the oil in a large, deep frying pan.

      

      Divide the dough into 12 pieces. Take each piece of dough and knead until it is stretchy, then roll each one into a smooth ball.

      

      Check to see if the oil is hot enough by taking a tiny piece of the dough and dropping it into the hot oil. If it is just bubbling around the edges, it’s ready.

      

      Meanwhile, shape each ball into a flat cake. Gradually add them in batches to the pan of hot oil. Keep the temperature really low while you fry them. Cook for about 5 minutes, then carefully turn them over when the underside is pale golden and they are starting to look puffy. Fry for a further 5 minutes until they are golden and cooked through. Drain on kitchen paper and serve.

       Festival

       Makes 6

       600ml/1 pint vegetable oil, for deep frying

       175g/6oz plain flour

       50g/2oz fine cornmeal

       1 tsp baking powder

       1 tsp salt

       1 tsp ground cinnamon

       1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

       75g/3oz soft brown or demerara sugar

       25g/1oz butter

       These are the Caribbean rivals to doughnuts. They’re quick to make as they are yeast free. They are a wicked breakfast treat on their own, but you can also serve them with food such as steamed fish

      Heat the oil in a large deep frying pan. Put the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar and butter into a large bowl and, using your hands, rub the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture forms fine crumbs.

      

      Now take it easy – in Jamaica we always used to say ‘you’re not a good cook if you spoil the flour’, so just add 100ml/31/2fl oz water to make a smooth dough and knead it all together. If you think the mixture is a little wet, sprinkle with some flour – you don’t want the dough to be at all sticky.

      Take small pieces of the dough and roll them into sausage shapes, then flatten each one with the side of your hand.

      

      Check to see if the oil is hot enough, then deep-fry the festivals for a couple of minutes on one side until they are golden. Turn them over very carefully, because they are delicate and fry for another couple of minutes until completely brown. Drain and serve.

      

       ‘What no good fe breakfast, no good fe dinnah’

       Season Rice

       Serves 4

       175g/6oz skinless, boneless salt cod

       300g/10oz pumpkin, peeled and grated

       1 spring onion, green end only, finely chopped

       1/2 onion, chopped

       1/4 green pepper, deseeded and chopped

       1/4 red pepper, deseeded and chopped

       1 fresh thyme sprig, chopped

       700g/1lb 9oz basmati rice

       knob of butter

       a handful of frozen peas (about 50g/2oz)

       Seasoning meat and fish in Caribbean food is the vital step that separates it from European food. Caribbean cooking usually calls for more seasoning than just salt and pepper to give it a gorgeous spicy flavour. The longer you leave the food to season the better it will taste because all the spices and flavourings will have soaked right through the centre and, boy, you’ll be begging for more.

      Rinse the salt cod in warm water to dissolve the salt, then put into a pan and cover with warm water. Bring to the boil and boil for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse again. Break up the fish into small pieces.

      

      Bring 1 litre/13/4 pints cold water to the boil in a large pan, add the pumpkin, spring onion, onion, peppers, thyme and salt cod. Bring back to the boil and cook for 10 minutes until the pumpkin has softened.

      Now rinse the rice twice under cold running water and drain (this takes the starch away). Add the rice to the pan with the butter and peas and stir well. Make sure the water is at least 2.5cm/1in above the level of the rice. Ladle away any surplus. Bring to the boil, cover, then reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed. Do not uncover during cooking.

      

      Use a fork to mix everything evenly together and to separate the rice grains before serving.

       LEVI’S STORY, PART 1 MY LIFE IN JAMAICA

      I was born in 1958 in a little Jamaican village called Content, the youngest of six children. Content could not have been better named. It was a tiny country village, and my memories of it are of sunshine, freedom, great food and being happy. It was exactly how a childhood should be.

      

      My real name is Keith Valentine Graham, but nobody in Content called me that. Everybody called me Willesley. I still have no idea why. It was just my pet name: a lot of people in Jamaica have them. It’s an old English name, and even now I occasionally see roads that are called that in London.

      

      In the early 1960s, the British government started telling people in the West Indies, ‘Come to England, the streets are paved with gold!’ Everybody believed it; but then of course when they got

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