I said 'You've got to be jokin' man': Caribbean Style Bean Salad with a Jerk dressing

I'm gonna tell you a story and, guess what, it's true. In 2011 Claire and I hosted a Eurovision party (of sorts), as is customary in  these parts, and one of our friends informed us they were the cousin of the chief songwriter in the band '10cc'. This was pretty exciting to know as it possibly trumps being the nephew of the drummer in Space or the cousin of Ray Wilkins (genuine entrants) in the unofficial 'obscure but famous relatives' competition I've just made up.

Rules- Points for obscurity, but entrants must also be associated with something famous enough that most folk will go 'Ahh' when it is explained who it is. Example: Being the Pope's sister would score poorly, being Jas Mann's cousin would score pretty well, but being the nephew of Hugo Myatt would be a premier performance. Entries on a postcard, or a comment I suppose.

I used to watch Knightmare with my Grandad

Ahem, that's enough making up of games for the time being. Right, I've made a New Year's resolution to blog at least once every two weeks so here we go. Last year I got a bit obsessed with jerk marinade. I spent many an evening playing in the kitchen, trying to perfect my own version of the Jamaican classic, to the point I think Claire got a bit sick of eating jerked meats (pork works well too) and rice and peas. I've never been to the Caribbean but apparently there's a million different recipes for jerk (some are closely guarded family secrets!) and I fancied making my own. Through this process I got used to tasting many uncooked marinades, which taste very different to the final version, and that's when I decided to find a way to have those flavours when I can't be bothered to marinade and cook meat. This was when the idea for a jerk salad dressing was born! It needs to be different to your standard jerk marinade and I think it works really well with a robust bean salad. It's pretty easy to make, is healthy, and certainly packs a punch! Recipe at the end of this post...

Before you stop reading (let's face it not many of you read the actual recipes on this thing) a word of warning. I'm going to do a very dull and self indulgent blog over the next few days on kitchen equipment. Sorry. Ha ha.

Caribbean Style Bean Salad with a Jerk dressing

Some ingredients

Serves about 4 as a healthy main (more as a side)

Jerk salad dressing


Large thumb sized piece of ginger (washed but not peeled)
3-6 fresh chillis (deseeded, be cautious if using scotch bonnets)
Allspice (preferably 5-6 allspice berries (aka pimento) ground in a pestle and mortar, but a heaped tbsp ground allspice will suffice)
Thyme (preferably2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves but, dried will suffice)
3 spring onions chopped roughly
1/2 small white onion (optional- can't decided whether better without)
4 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp soy sauce
Juice of 3 limes
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp vegetable oil
teaspoon of honey
1 tsp brown sugar (or equivalent amount of artificial sweetener as I used)
pinch of salt and pepper

Salad ingredients


2 small red onions (or one large) finely chopped
1 bell pepper, finelly chopped
200g sweetcorn (frozen and defrosted, canned, or fresh)
25 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can other beans (I used gungo peas), rinsed and drained
Corinader leaves (or cilantro as our American cousins call it) to garnish
2 spring onions, finely sliced

Allspice/pimento berries

Method


1. This is well easy. Prepare all your dressing ingredients and whack in a food processor and blitz the life out of kit. Taste. It should be tangy, spicy and with significant heat. Add an extra chilli if you don't think it's hot enough. You may need to add more allspice and/or thyme depending upon the freshness of the ingredients used. Add a little more vinegear or lime juice if the dressing is too thick, a word of caution though- this is meant to be a chunkier dressing than your average vinegarette so don't thin it out too much. Once you're happy with the flavour set your dressing aside in a bowl.

Should look a little like this

2. Prepare all your salad ingredients in a vessel large enough that you can mix easily without making a mess (I used a massive pan).

I told you the pan was massive

3. Mix in the dressing well. Transfer to a more presentable dish and garnish with coriander.

Serving suggestion: We ate it tonight with some grilled chicken in a pitta. Nom!

The Fabric of Society

It's been an eventful few weeks since my last post. I've been to Edinburgh Fringe - highly recommended by the way - and returned home to find London in turmoil, ripping itself to pieces. Like many Londoners I've been watching the news and worrying as police sirens whiz past. So far, touch wood, where I live has been relatively unaffected by the riots. Thanks, at least in part I like to think, to the sense of community here. London is infamous for being a lonely place if you want it to be, despite the great number of people. In Shepherds Bush ignoring your neighbours is made that much harder by the people that live here. Walking down Uxbridge Road you will get nodded to and smiled at by the characters in the shops, even in the middle of Ramadan when many are understandably a bit more grumpy than usual!

This Saturday's Bush Festival on the Green promises to be riotous celebration of the different communities which make up the cultural melting pot which is the Bush. And, as you know from my previous post, wor Claire is running a stall with our friend Mel selling knitting and other homecrafts. Tonight I was recruited to take some photos of the goods on offer so I will give you a sneak preview of what you can get your hands on...

I'm sure these items will go down a storm in our close-knit community, but just in case you're wavering; if you turn up early enough Claire has promised to knit readers of my blog mice to order in colours of their choice! Huzzah. The stallholders will also be bringing along spare knitting needles if you want some tips or just to sit down and enjoy a natter and a knit in between all the other fun activities.

Other ongoings at the festival include:

• Face Painting
• Live Music
• Dance lessons
• Other craft stalls
• Capoeria
• Drum workshops

and many more... (see http://www.bushfestival.org/)

Well guess what I was promised in exchange for taking some photos? Mel's  speciality-Jerk Chicken!

And as many of you know, Shepherds Bush is renowned for the quality of the Carribean food available here and I will certainly be having some Jerk Chicken on Saturday at the festival! If I can get one of the guys serving food at the festival to share their recipe, well, I might even post it on here in future. See you on Saturday!