Breakfast dishes eaten in Jamaica

Depending on who is eating it, Jamaican breakfast dishes can be a heavy meal or light, healthy or unhealthy.

Cabbage

steam cabbage with slices of bread (I used brown) and fried ripe plantain is one of my favourite breakfast dishes, sometimes I add one hard-boiled egg.

Corn beef is added to the steam cabbage when preparing dinner. Steam cabbage, fried plantain and fried dumplings is one of my favourite combo for breakfast. How to fry green plantain.

Steamed cabbage and saltfish. Curried cabbage. Steam cabbage and salt fish, use the same method like when steaming cabbage. For the salt fish, remove the excess salt from the salt fish by soaking in water for 15 minutes, discard the water and soak again for 15 minutes or boil the salt fish for 5 minutes in some water over medium heat, discard the water and boil again for 5 minutes.

Remove the skin and scales from the salt fish, then flake the salt fish. Put the flaked salt fish with the cut-up cabbage, assuming that you already prepare the cabbage, by washing it properly in salted water then cutting it up. Season the cabbage with salt,black pepper, sweet pepper, hot pepper, ripe tomato, you can make it colourful by adding green sweet pepper, yellow sweet pepper and the red sweet pepper. The green sweet pepper is called bell pepper and the red ones called sweet pepper, but in Jamaica, we call all of them sweet pepper.

Eggs

Fried egg eaten with bread is a simple, breakfast mainly for children

Calaloo

Steamed calaloo with bread or boiled green banana is a favourite Sunday morning breakfast dish among Jamaicans. How to steam calaloo.

Cow’s liver

Those who eat cow liver will have brown-stewed liver with boiled green bananas or steamed calaloo and fried liver and boiled green banana.

Pork

Some people fry the fatty part of the pork; similar to bacon then combine it with cooked ackee. How to cook frozen ackee

Salt mackerel

Salted mackerel with boiled green bananas is famous for Sunday morning breakfast

Tin mackerel

Fry-up tin mackerel and cooked dumplings. Hot white flour dumplings with fry-up  tin mackerel and mint tea.

Overnight food for breakfast

Food prepare the night before for dinner is called overnight food in Jamaica, and one such regular dish is the rice and peas (red kidney beans) and whatever salting, eaten with it. (salting is any type of meat, seafood, poultry)

Rice and peas is a standard dish for Sunday dinner for many people in Jamaica, so on Monday mornings some people used the left-overs for breakfast. This is called Sunday Monday. Whenever I bring Sunday Monday to work  for lunch, after eating it, often times I feel lazy and yawn a lot, this feeling is called nigeritis (nigeritis is not an offensive word in Jamaica, it is used commonly in work environment)

Every single time I eat Sunday Monday, I have the same lazy, sleepy feeling. Therefore, I desist from bringing left-over food to work for lunch.

Porridge

Porridge has been a part of Jamaican breakfast dishes for centuries. the practice of making porridge is said to have passed down to the Caribbean by our ancestors and plantation masters during slavery.

There are different varieties of porridge

Jamaican breakfast dishes. Porridge recipes and more 

1. cornmeal porridge is the most commonest
2. Green plantain porridge
3. Green Banana porridge
4. Hominy or corn  porridge
5. Oats porridge
6. Rice porridge
7. Arrow root porridge
8. Breadfruit porridge

I posted a video showing how to boil green plantain porridge. You can add 1 cup of raw instant oats to the plantain porridge.

Direction

step1
Peel 3 fingers of green plantains, cut each finger into four or five pieces then put into a blender and add one cup water.

step 2

Blend until partially smooth (not fully completed), then add the cup of oats and blend until well combined; Add a small amount of water if the mixture is too thick, then blend again for a couple of seconds.

The purpose for using the oats is to add variety, the plantain contains potassium and the oats have fibre and both are good for the body.

step3

Pour one cup of water into a medium-size pot, add four cinnamon leaves or one cinnamon stick. Cover the pot and boil the cinnamon for 2 minutes.

The reason for doing this is that, you want the flavour from the cinnamon to infuse in the boiling water, the flavour will enhance the taste of the porridge. Cinnamon is flavour is medium strength, although it is sweet it should be use in small to medium quantities because it gives certain food a bitter or acid taste.

step4

Pour the plantain and oats mixture into the pot and stir. Cover the pot, and lower the flame, when the mixture becomes thick, pour 1 cup of water and stir.

step4

Stir the porridge every two minutes Cook the porridge for 20-25 minutes. Click on the link for the continuation of the tutorial. How to boil green plantain porridge

Fried dumpling

Fried dumplings is a regular breakfast dish in Jamaica. Fried dumplings go perfectly with steam cabbage, fry egg, fry-up tin mackerel, fried egg, just about anything.

Flour and baking powder combines with flaked saltfish and seasoned with mince hot pepper and onion, then fry , is called salt fish fritters. You can also season the flour and fry it, here is the recipe.

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup water or cows milk
piece of onion, hot pepper, minced
less than 1/2 tsp. black pepper and all-purpose seasoning
cooking oil

Method
In a container, sift the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the black pepper and all-purpose season. Add the minced onion and hot pepper
Use the water or cows milk a little at a time to mix the dry ingredients using a spoon. The mixture should be not too thin or thick.

step2

Put a skillet or Dutch pot over a low flame. Add the cooking oil, when the oil becomes hot, drop a spoonful of the flour mixture into the hot oil, depending on the size of the skillet, fry 3 0r 4 heap of spoonful at a time. Fry each side for 1-2 minutes. Remove from pot and serve hot or warm

It is important to restrict the intake of fried food in our diet. I eat fried food, whether fried dumplings, deep-fried chicken, fried fish, once per week or every two weeks, in between that I eat, steamed vegetables, soup, baked fish or chicken, etc., so that I can cut back on the grease and fat intake into my system