Here are the three most popular Jamaican Christmas food recipes. They are a must in almost every Jamaican home during the yuletide season.
Jamaican Sorrel Recipe
INGREDIENTS
5 to 6 (1-inch) slices ginger
1 cup dried sorrel leaves
1 tablespoon cloves
Brown sugar
Red wine sherry, optional
PREPARATION
Let cut ginger sit for 2 to 3 hours. The longer it sits the stronger it becomes. Boil ginger in 2 quarts of water. Once water is boiling, add sorrel and cloves. Boil for 30 minutes. Strain and add sugar and wine, to taste. Chill and serve.
Jamaican Christmas Cake Recipe
INGREDIENTS
1/2 pound unsalted butter
1/2 pound light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons lime juice
1 teaspoon lime zest
6 eggs
6 ounces fresh bread crumbs
6 ounces flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup rum
1 pint Port
4 cups mixed marinated fruit, recipe follows, squeezed and finely chopped
PREPARATION
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the vanilla, lime juice, and lime zest. Add the eggs 1 at a time, and incorporate well. Combine bread crumbs, flour, all the spices, baking powder, and salt. Combine rum and port. Add flour mixture alternately with rum/port mixture into the batter. Fold in the chopped marinated fruit. Prepare 1 (9-inch) cake pan or 2 spring form pans by lining bottom and sides with parchment paper. Fill the pan 3/4 of the way and bake until a skewer comes out of the center of the cake clean, about 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Mixed Marinated Fruit:
1 pound black raisins
1 pound golden raisins
1 pound prunes, cut in quarters or eighths, depending on size
4 cinnamon sticks
2 vanilla beans, split
Jamaican white rum
Jamaican spiced rum
Port
Put raisins, prunes, cinnamon sticks, and vanilla beans in a glass jar and cover with mixture of equal parts Jamaican white rum, Jamaican spiced rum, and Port. Cover with a tight fitting lid, label, and date the jar. Put in a cool, dry cupboard. From time to time, check the fruits to see if more liquor is needed, as the fruits will plump and soak up the liquid.
Keep the fruit covered in liquor. It is best to allow the fruit to marinate for at least 1 month for best flavor.
Jamaican Ham Recipe
INGREDIENTS
½ cup white bread crumbs.
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
8 egg yolks
¼ tsp cinnamon powder
¼ tsp nutmeg powder
2 tsp vanilla
¼ cup Appleton white rum
½ cup mixed fruits
PREPARATION
Bring ½ cup sugar to a caramel and line bottom on baking tin with caramel.Mix remaining sugar and milk to a boil, then whisk in egg and cook for few seconds. Add all spices, rum and bread to liquid followed by the fruits. Let stand for to soak then pour into lined baking tin and steam-bake pudding at 300 degrees for 45 minutes.
