Care Package!

I received a care package from my older sister (via my younger brother) last night. Yay!

In it were a pair of cans of Ackee*, a pair of spice buns, a can of some very odd processed cheese food object (apparently fabulous on the spice bun, but I have a strange dread of cheese in a can!), a pair of cans of Milo (I can't explain it too well - malted chocolate energy drink from our youth), salted cod (to go with the ackee) and three loaves of Hard-Dough bread. Yummmm!

I immediately climbed into the spice bread and Milo. Added a slice of cheddar cheese with the spice bread and ahhhh! Cheers all around.

Unfortunately I didn't notice a small detail about the Hard-Dough bread - it had gone moldy.

Moldy!?!

My brother drove all the way to NYC, saw my sister, got fresh made bread, drove back and then didn't stick it in the freezer until he saw me. Argh! My bread! Manna from Jamaica via NYC - ruined!

I could've wept. Instead, I sprung (sproinged? lumbered?) into action - I called my sister. I'm not ashamed to say that I begged. No, not me! The power that is hard-dough bread....If you tasted it, you would know. If you tasted it fresh and still warm from the oven, you'd be a slave for life!

Dawn promised to Fed-Ex me some fresh loaves in exchange for the Jamaican breakfast recipe. The one from our mother that involves saltfish and ackees.

Dawn: here it is.

Ackee and Saltfish (Traditional Jamaican Breakfast)

1. Soak salted cod overnight.
2. Pour off the water and boil cod in fresh water until tender.
3. Drain and tear into bite sized pieces.
4. Cook 2-3 slices of bacon, crumble and set aside.
5. Open 1 can of ackees, strain into colander, rinse with cold water and let drain.
6. Saute 1 large onion, garlic to taste and chopped tomatoes in olive oil.
7. Add black pepper, 3 Allspice seeds (or if ground, use 1/8th tsp), thyme (sprinkle to taste).
8. Add bacon crumbles, saltfish and ackee to sauted onion mixture and heat through. Do not over cook or the ackee will go oily.

Enjoy with fresh hard-dough bread, fried breadfruit, fried green plantains or fried bammy.

Toast? Toast is for pansies!

P.S. Hey Dawn, while you're at it, send some tamarind balls and guava jelly! Yeeha!

* If terms like ackee, bammy, plantains, breadfruit, tamarind and saltfish leave you scratching your head, have a look here or here.