In West Winds: Recipes, History and Tales from Jamaica , award-winning food writer Riaz Phillips tells countless tales of Jamaica through its dishes, drawing on his memories of growing up in the Caribbean diaspora of London and time living in Jamaica.
With a mix of location and recipe photography by Phillips, West Winds fully immerses readers in the spirit and food of Jamaica. From the “waste not, want not” approach instilled in Riaz by his grandmother, to the Ital food he was introduced to living with the Rastafari community, working at eco-farms as well as reconnecting to his grandfather’s birthplace of downtown Kingston, the 100 plus mouthwatering meals, hearty soups, bakes, and refreshing drinks cover all the different elements of Jamaican cooking.
Recipes rooted in centuries of culture through folktales and anecdotes make West Winds so much more than a cookbook – it is an ode to Jamaica and the diasporas, the people and their heritage, with something for everyone. Here is an extract:
Rice and peas recipe from West Winds: Recipes, History and Tales from Jamaica by Riaz Phillips. Published by DK £25
My early morning jaunts to Kumasi Market in Ghana’s Ashanti region reminded me of some of the Jamaican dishes I’d grown up eating. While the majority of roadside vendors selling stews or meals like kenkey (dumplings) and fish weren’t open, the small stalls were. They sold hausa koko porridge, baked pastries or a dish called waakye (pronounced wah-chay): a glorious combination of dried fish, garri powder, perhaps a hard-boiled egg, spicy fish paste and some greens atop a mixture of deep chestnut-brown rice and dark brown beans. This immediately took me back to the Jamaican rice and peas I’d eaten as a young boy. This coincidence appears to be no coincidence at all. The pairing of rice and beans have their origins in the Akan, Aja, Yoruba and Igbo domains of West Africa, from Senegal to Nigeria. When these people were transplanted to the Americas, both north and south, and the Caribbean, the memory of rice and beans came with them. In Jamaica, rice wasn’t as plentiful as root vegetables, hence Hard Food (see p56 of West Winds) replaced rice as a staple filler but on Sundays, a day the enslaved traditionally had off work, rice and beans was on the menu. This veneration of rice and peas lives on today and thanks to innovations like quick rice and canned beans, the dish transitioned from a weekday rarity to an everyday occurrence, though for proper rice and peas you still need to allocate a night for soaking the peas. Before red kidney beans became a popular pairing, the dish was originally known to feature the European-named gungo (deriving from Congo) peas, sometimes known as pigeon peas, and hence the moniker “rice and peas”. In many Caribbean islands and diaspora cookshops, the dish is still served this way. Given this history, you can imagine the collective gasps from the Caribbean community the first time we saw rice and peas made with garden variety green peas.
Of all the Jamaican dishes from my childhood, I admit I found rice and peas the most difficult to get to grips with. This likely stemmed from a pre-existing, mini-phobia of cooking rice (sometimes too soggy, sometimes burnt with blackened-pot bottom, and so on). With my mum using one hand to take her daily 3-hour phone call to her cousin and the other to show me her basically foolproof, mainly open-pot technique for cooking rice, I’m now pleased to say any phobia has since passed. This method may seem bizarre at first, but I’m assured this is how her “olders did it” and the saying at our local football club “trust the process” seems very apt here.
If you’re looking for a quick way to make the dish, check out the version with canned, rather than dried beans instead.
SERVES 4 (OR 6 AS A SIDE)
Ingredients:
200g (7oz) dried kidney beans, soaked overnight, or 400g (14oz) can kidney beans, not drained
2 spring onions (scallions), left whole
2 sprigs of thyme
2.5cm (1in) piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and thickly sliced
2–3 garlic cloves, sliced
½ white onion, chopped (optional)
200ml (3/4 cup) coconut milk
300g (10oz) basmati rice, thoroughly washed and drained
1 Scotch bonnet pepper, whole (optional)
1 tbsp vegan butter (optional)
1 tbsp desiccated coconut, or
1 tbsp coconut cream (optional)
FOR THE SEASONING:
1 tsp All-purpose Seasoning (see p239) (optional)
1 tsp black soy sauce or browning (optional)
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp light soft brown sugar (optional)
1 tsp sea salt
6 pimento seeds (allspice berries), crushed, or ½ tsp ground Allspice
“Traditional way” with dried kidney beans
Drain and rinse the soaked dried beans (if using canned beans see the “Quick Way” below.) Put the beans into a saucepan or Dutch pot with 800ml (3 1/3) cups) water and bring to the boil over a high heat. Boil the beans for 10 minutes, then turn the heat down to medium, add the spring onions, thyme, ginger, garlic and onion, if using, and cook for 1 hour, until the beans have softened. To check, try to mash a bean with a fork and if it is fairly tender then proceed, if not carry on cooking. If the water has evaporated, top up with an extra 200ml (3/4 cup).
Add the seasoning ingredients to the beans. Next, add the coconut milk and rice, then stir (the liquid should be about 5mm/1/4 in above the rice.) Turn the heat up to high and boil for 3 minutes, then turn the heat down to medium, add the Scotch bonnet, if using, and cook for about 15 minutes, until the liquid has been absorbed. Stir intermittently to ensure the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Taste the rice and adjust the seasoning to your preference. Turn the heat down to the lowest setting, stir in the vegan butter and desiccated or coconut cream, if using. Place foil over the top of the pan or pot to stop the steam escaping, cover with the lid, then cook gently for 15 minutes without lifting the lid.
Finally, turn the heat off, remove the thyme sprigs, ginger and spring onions, fluff up the rice with a fork and leave to rest covered with the foil and lid on for another 10 minutes before serving.
“Quick way” with canned kidney beans
Empty the kidney beans and any liquid in the can into a pan or pot. Add the seasoning ingredients and the spring onions, thyme, ginger, garlic and onion, if using. Add roughly 3 tablespoons water or enough to swill out the can. Bring to the boil over a medium heat and cook for 10–15 minutes, until heated through. Mash some of the beans with a fork. Next, add the coconut milk and rice, then stir (the liquid should be about 5mm/1/4 in above the rice). Continue the recipe as instructed above.
West Winds: Recipes, History and Tales from Jamaica by Riaz Phillips is available now for £25.