DashOutSunday- Jamaican Curry Chicken and Rice and Peas

Hi hivers and fellow ReggaeJahmmers.
How are you?
This week I’m dashing out some
Jamaican curry chicken, rice and peas, tossed vegetable salad and pineapple drink that my family and I recently had. I hadn’t prepared it in a while and so I was excited to give huzzy and the kids a taste of “home”.

Jamaican Curry Chicken

To prepare it, I washed the chicken with vinegar and cut it into small pieces. I added grated onion and garlic, salt and all spice (pimento) to taste. Pimento is one of my favorites. It’s a vital ingredient for Jamaican Jerk chicken but that’s for another time. 😀
I then added a small amount of oil to the pan, added a spoon of curry powder, browned it a bit and quickly added and sautéed the pieces of chicken ensuring that they were all coated with the curry. I then added a bit of water and coconut milk, lowered the flame and soon after that, it was ready. Sometimes I add cubes of carrot 🥕 to make it more colorful.

Curry

There are many kinds of curries but when preparing this Jamaican dish, I must use “Betapac Curry”. I’m
not advertising here but really love the flavor it adds to the dish. Since I was introduced to it, I’ve used no other. I went to a friend’s house to help prepare some Jamaican foods and I carried my own curry. Lol!
This too, I would say is a vital ingredient but others may differ. Lol!

Rice and Peas

Growing up in Jamaica, Rice and Peas was a sure thing for dinner on Sunday.
Now, I hardly make it because my kids aren’t excited about it. Lol! One recently started eating it and the other is very reluctant to. Huzzy and I however, really enjoy it.
This particular time, I prepared just a bit of it.

1. Wash the rice and place it in the rice cooker.
2. Added cooked red kidney beans(your preferred amount)
3. Add coconut milk, salt, a bit of grated onion and garlic to taste.
4. When it’s cooked, stir it to make sure the peas are fairly evenly distributed.

Tossed Salad 🥗

Huzzy @bearmol made this wonderful tossed salad and we paired it with roasted sesame dressing. Back in Jamaica, we’d often have it with thousand island dressing. He prepared it by :
1.Washing the carrot, cabbage and cucumber.
2.Peeling the carrot and then grating it.
3.Threading the cabbage
4.Cutting thin slices of cucumber
5.Mixing all the ingredients together and then add the dressing.

Pineapple Juice (from Peel)

Interestingly, when my kids were younger, they hated pineapples. They wouldn’t eat it. Now at eleven and eight, they love every bit of the pineapple. They love the fruit, the drink we make from the peel and they’ve tried growing pineapple from the crown. I think we might need a pineapple farm. When we buy pineapples, we wash them thoroughly, peel them, eat the fruit and freeze the peel. When we have enough peels, we make a drink. This particular time, we used the peels from three pineapples. We added some frozen pieces of apple we had left over in the refrigerator. To make the drink:

1. Carry water to boil in a deep pot.
2. Add pineapple peels, grated ginger and in this case, the frozen pieces of apple.
3. Allow it to steep so as to get the full flavor.
4. When cooled, strain the juice from the peels and ginger.
5. Add brown sugar and lime juice to taste.

This drink is very refreshing. We got two and a half containers full. It went well with the meal.

We enjoyed dinner. Please try one of these recipes and let me know how it goes. Have a great week.
Blessings 😃