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Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き, 'grilled as you like it') is the pride of Osaka, where it's cooked on hot iron griddles in lively restaurants. Finely shredded cabbage is folded into a light batter with egg and spring onion, then fried into a thick, soft pancake with a crisp outside. It's painted with a fruity brown sauce and zigzagged with mayonnaise. Bonito flakes are usual on top; this vegetarian version uses seaweed flakes and pickled ginger instead. Chef's tip: don't press the pancake down with your spatula while it cooks. Osaka cooks leave it alone so the cabbage steams inside and stays light and fluffy; pressing squeezes out the air.

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Fried ripe plantain

Fried ripe plantain is on almost every Jamaican plate, from breakfast with ackee and callaloo to Sunday dinner beside rice and peas. When plantains are fully ripe their starch turns to sugar, so the slices fry up soft and custardy inside with dark, sticky, caramelised edges, sweet with a little salt. Chef's tip: wait until the skin is mostly black. A yellow plantain fries up firm and starchy; a black one gives that melting, toffee-sweet result, and medium heat lets the sugars caramelise without burning.

15 min

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Cornmeal porridge

Cornmeal porridge is the breakfast many Jamaicans grew up on, cooked in homes across the island before school and work. Fine cornmeal is simmered slowly with milk and water until thick and velvety, then spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla and sweetened with condensed milk. It's warm, filling and gently sweet. Chef's tip: whisk the cornmeal into cold water first to make a smooth slurry before it meets any heat. Adding dry cornmeal to hot liquid is how porridge goes lumpy.

20 min

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Gizzada

Gizzada (also called 'pinch-me-round') is a little Jamaican tart with a crisp, crimped crust and a chewy filling of grated coconut cooked with brown sugar, nutmeg and ginger. It's sold in bakeries and roadside stalls across Jamaica; the name is thought to come from the Portuguese 'queijada', brought by Portuguese Jewish settlers. Eat it with a cup of tea or as an afternoon treat. Chef's tip: cook the coconut filling until it's sticky and almost dry, with no syrup pooling in the pan. A wet filling soaks into the pastry and the crust goes soft instead of crisp.

60 min

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Toto

Toto is an old-time Jamaican country cake, the kind baked in a 'dutchie' over coals in rural St Mary and St Ann and sold in squares at bakeries and school tuck shops. It's dense and moist rather than light, packed with grated coconut, darkened with brown sugar and fragrant with nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla. Lovely with a cup of tea, still slightly warm. Chef's tip: use fresh grated coconut if you can, or soak desiccated coconut in the warm coconut milk for 15 minutes first. Dry coconut steals moisture from the batter and leaves the cake crumbly instead of chewy.

60 min

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Sorrel drink

Sorrel is the drink of a Jamaican Christmas: in December the markets fill with the red flowers (the calyces of a hibiscus), and every home brews a big batch to share. They're steeped with lots of fresh ginger, pimento and cloves, then sweetened, giving a deep ruby drink that's tart, spicy and refreshing over ice. Many families add a splash of white or dark rum for the adults. Chef's tip: be generous with the ginger and let it steep overnight. A long, cool steep pulls out the colour and a fiery ginger bite without the bitterness of over-boiling.

30 min

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Jamaican carrot juice

Jamaican carrot juice isn't a thin health drink but a creamy, sweet treat, blended fresh in homes and sold cold in bottles at markets and juice stands across the island, especially on Sundays and at Christmas. Grated carrots are blended with water and strained, then sweetened with condensed milk and spiced with nutmeg, vanilla and a squeeze of lime. Chef's tip: add a squeeze of lime and a little fresh ginger. The sharpness cuts through the sweetness and stops the drink tasting flat, the way Jamaican cooks make it.

10 min

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Doubles

Doubles are Trinidad's favourite street food, sold from carts at dawn on corners from Curepe to San Fernando and said to have started in Princes Town in the 1930s. Two pieces of bara, a soft, puffy fried flatbread coloured with turmeric, are piled with soft curried chickpeas (channa), then spooned with sweet tamarind sauce, cool cucumber chutney, shado beni sauce and as much pepper sauce as you dare ('slight' or 'heavy'). They're messy, cheap and wonderful, eaten standing up from a square of paper. These are different from Indian chole bhature: the bara is light and yeasty, the channa is cooked very soft in Caribbean curry, and the toppings are sweet, sour and fiery all at once. Chef's tip: keep the bara dough very soft and wet, and handle it only with oiled hands. Stretch each ball thin over your fingers and slide it straight into the hot oil, so it puffs light and stays soft instead of turning into a crisp puri.

120 min

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Dhalpuri roti

Dhalpuri is the pride of Trinidad's Indo-Caribbean kitchens and roti shops, from Chaguanas to San Fernando: a large, soft, thin roti with a hidden layer of finely ground, seasoned yellow split peas. It's wrapped around curry channa and aloo, curry pumpkin or curry mango to make a 'roti', or torn and eaten alongside. It came with Indian indentured workers in the 1800s and became something distinctly Trini: thinner and softer than an Indian dal paratha, cooked on a flat iron 'tawa'. Chef's tip: the split peas must be boiled only until just tender, drained, then dried and ground into a fine, dry powder. Any dampness and the roti will burst when you roll it out.

90 min

Trinidadian Breads & Parathas

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Buss-up-shut

Buss-up-shut is the paratha roti of Trinidad, so called because the torn, flaky pieces look like a 'burst-up shirt'. A soft dough is spread with butter and oil, rolled into a coil to build layers, cooked on a hot tawa, then clapped and beaten with wooden paddles until it breaks into soft, buttery, flaky shreds. It's served in roti shops across Trinidad for scooping up curries, and is always at Hindu weddings and Divali feasts. Chef's tip: beat the roti while it's still scalding hot. The steam inside is what separates the layers, so the moment it leaves the tawa, clap it between your hands (in clean oven gloves) or bash it with two wooden spatulas until it shreds.

60 min

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Saheena

Saheena is an old Indo-Trinidadian snack sold by street vendors and doubles men, especially in Central and South Trinidad. Young dasheen (taro) leaves are spread with a spiced batter of ground split peas, garlic, turmeric and pepper, rolled up like a Swiss roll, steamed, then sliced into rounds and fried until crisp. Each slice shows green spirals of leaf and gold batter, and tastes earthy, savoury and garlicky. Serve with tamarind sauce or mango chutney. If you can't get dasheen leaves, large spinach or Swiss chard leaves work. Chef's tip: always cook dasheen leaves thoroughly. They contain crystals that make your throat itch if undercooked, which is why the rolls are steamed right through before frying.

60 min

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Curry channa and aloo

Curry channa and aloo is a staple of Trinidad's Indo-Caribbean home cooking: chickpeas and potatoes simmered in a turmeric-gold Caribbean curry until the potatoes start to break down and thicken the sauce. It's what fills a dhalpuri or buss-up-shut roti in roti shops from Chaguanas to Penal, and it's at every Hindu wedding and Divali feast. It isn't an Indian chana masala: there's no tomato or garam masala, the curry powder is the Caribbean kind, heavy with turmeric, coriander and fenugreek, and it's finished with shado beni (culantro) and green seasoning. Chef's tip: 'chunkay' the curry. Fry the curry paste in hot oil until it darkens, turns grainy and the oil separates before you add the chickpeas. Raw curry tastes dusty and flat; fried curry tastes rich and round.

45 min

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Curry mango

Curry mango is a Trinidadian favourite on the 'seven-curry' plate at Hindu weddings, pujas and Divali, served on a sohari (water-lily) leaf beside dhal, rice, pumpkin and channa. Hard green or half-ripe mangoes are chopped, skin, seed and all, then cooked in curry with garlic, roasted geera and a little sugar until tender and glossy. It's sour, sweet, salty and hot at once, and a spoonful brightens any rice and curry or a roti. Chef's tip: leave the skin on and add the sugar a little at a time. The skin keeps the pieces whole, and the right balance is when you taste sour first, then sweet, then the heat comes through.

40 min

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Stew peas with spinners

Stew peas is a thick, comforting Jamaican one-pot of red kidney beans simmered in coconut milk until creamy, studded with 'spinners', small hand-rolled dumplings. It's a classic Wednesday or Saturday dinner across the island, usually cooked with pig's tail and salt beef. Here mushrooms browned hard and a little smoked paprika bring the savoury depth instead, so nothing is missing. Serve over plain white rice. Chef's tip: when the beans are soft, crush a ladleful against the side of the pot. Stew peas should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, and the crushed beans give that body without any flour.

95 min

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Rice and peas

No Sunday dinner anywhere in Jamaica is complete without rice and peas, and 'peas' here means red kidney beans. The beans tint the rice a soft pinkish brown, the coconut milk makes it rich and creamy, and a whole scotch bonnet sitting on top perfumes the pot with fruity heat without burning anyone. Serve with jerk tofu, Ital stew, steamed cabbage and fried ripe plantain. This version uses tinned beans and their liquid for an everyday cook; with dried beans, soak 250 g overnight and simmer them for about an hour first, then use their cooking water. Chef's tip: once the rice goes in, don't stir it. Cover the pot tightly (a sheet of foil under the lid helps) and let the steam do the work, so the grains come out separate and fluffy instead of mushy.

50 min

Jamaican Rice & Grains

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Steamed cabbage

Steamed cabbage is the everyday side dish of Jamaican home cooking, served at breakfast with fried dumplings and at dinner beside rice and peas or stew peas. Shredded cabbage and carrot are cooked with very little water, so they steam in their own juices and turn sweet, peppery and glossy rather than soggy. Chef's tip: use only a splash of water and keep the lid on. The cabbage should be tender-crisp and still pale green, never boiled limp, so take it off the heat while it still has a little bite.

15 min

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Mango chow

Chow is what Trinidadians eat on a hot afternoon: fruit, most often half-ripe mango, sliced and tossed with lime juice, salt, garlic, chopped shado beni and plenty of hot pepper. It's sold in little bags at roadside stands, beach stalls and outside schools all over the island. It's crunchy, sour, salty, garlicky and fiery all at once. Pineapple, cucumber and pommecythere (golden apple) are made the same way. Chef's tip: let the chow sit for 10 minutes before eating. The salt and lime draw out the mango's juice into a tangy, peppery 'pickle' liquid, and that juice is the best part.

10 min

Trinidadian Salads

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Ital stew

Ital food is the cooking of the Rastafari, found from the hills of St Andrew to roadside Ital shops in Westmoreland and St Thomas. It is plant-based, close to the earth and traditionally made without added salt, built on fresh 'food' (ground provisions) and greens. This stew is golden and gently sweet, thickened by melting pumpkin and silky okra, with coconut milk, thyme and pimento giving warmth and a whole scotch bonnet giving fruity heat. Serve with rice and peas or boiled green bananas. Chef's tip: cut half the pumpkin very small and the other half in big chunks. The small pieces collapse into the coconut milk and thicken it naturally, while the big ones hold their shape.

45 min

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Pholourie with tamarind chutney

Pholourie are little round fritters sold by the bag at doubles stands, school gates and parties all over Trinidad, especially through Divali and Christmas. A turmeric-yellow batter made with ground split peas and flour is dropped by the spoonful into hot oil, where it puffs into crisp-skinned, soft, spongy balls. They're always served with a sticky tamarind chutney spiked with garlic, shado beni and pepper. Unlike Indian pakoras, there are no vegetables in the batter: pholourie is all about the soft, light dough and the dip. Chef's tip: beat the batter hard for a few minutes until it's thick, smooth and falls off the spoon in a sticky blob. Well-beaten batter traps air, so the pholourie puff up round and light instead of flat and greasy.

40 min

Trinidadian Snacks & Starters

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