FOOD TO CELEBRATE MY JAMAICAN ROOTS
Melissa Thompson shares favourite recipes inspired by her heritage and tells us why they mean so much to her
It is a tricky one, ‘celebrating’ Black History Month. On one hand, the existence of such a month highlights the lack of acknowledgement of black culture and history during the remaining 11 months of the year.
On the other hand, food has always been a vehicle for learning about other cultures and it remains a vital connection between different communities. And I will always celebrate my Jamaican roots and shout about them to anyone who’ll listen. Especially the food.
These recipes celebrate the food of Jamaica. Not the dishes the island is rightly famed for – jerk, ackee and saltfish, oxtail to name a few – but the ingredients and produce that are written into the island’s history and tell its story.
Jamaica’s indignous people, the Taino, cultivated cassava, sweet potato and corn. Cassava was a root so precious to them that they worshipped it – bread made from cassava flour could keep for months; a rare bonus in the pre-refrigeration days where any adverse weather could mean a ruined harvest and possible starvation. My sweet potato cakes (page 96) pay homage to those three main ingredients, while the tamarind bacon is a nod to the pigs introduced by the first colonisers, the Spanish, which became wild and roamed the mountains giving sustenance to the few remaining Taino who fled the Spaniards’ brutality. Those Taino formed allegiances with Maroons, the enslaved African men and women who had escaped the Spanish, and later the British, in order to survive. It was through this collaboration that the foundations of jerk were likely built.
Plantain was a vital part of enslaved people’s diets. It grew prolifically, can be enjoyed at various stages of its ripening and is rich in nutrients and energy. The sauce that accompanies the plantain puffs (page 98) is a nod to Jamaica’s Blue Mountain coffee, which is some of the best in the world.
Seafood has always been a part of island cuisine, from the earliest settlers to the present day, while indentured servants from India brought curries into the Jamaican culinary repertoire – all this reflected in my curry prawns recipe (p96).
These recipes pay homage to the myriad influences that built Jamaican food into the singular, unique and beautiful food culture it is today. And I hope you enjoy them all year round, not just in October.