If you've been to Jamaica and eaten from a jerk hut where meat cooks over embers and the aroma of seasonings pervades the air, you will love this book. If you haven't, the book will open new vistas and turn you into an experimentalist. Written with spirit and obvious love for Jamaica by Helen Willinsky, the book explores jerk in all its uses, and those uses are legion. As Willinsky tell us that "To me, jerk cooking is the perfect reflection of the Jamaican lifestyle: spicy, sweet, and hot. It is an authentic Jamaican method of cooking pork, chicken, seafood, beef, fruits, and vegetables over a fire pit or on a barbecue grill."
Willinsky starts with the basics, giving recipes for jerk rub, dry jerk seasoning and jerk marinade. She explains the ingredients and gives advice on both open-pit cooking and barbecue grills.
The recipe chapter divisions reflect the many uses of jerk. There are recipes for meatloaf and hamburgers, made with jerk seasoning, for Roasted Pork and Pork-Pineapple Kabobs, for Jerk Chicken Breasts and Island Glazed Chicken, All forms of seafood are well represented with recipes such as Shrimp Salad with Fresh Papaya Jerk Lobster with Butter Sauce. There are recipes using beef lamb, even goat as well as side dishes such as Jammin' Roast Potatoes, Jerk Sweet Potato Oven Fries, Grilled pIneapple or Fried Plantains. Even Willinsky's desserts carry the spicy message of Jamaica and you'll find recipes using favorites Jamaican ingredients such as Rum Custard or Honey Pineapple Bread.
Leaving no stone unturned, Willinsky has included drinks in this rich and informative book and you can wait for your jerk chicken to cook while sipping Bloody Mary a la Jerk or Frozen Mango-Peach Daiquiris.
The best part of the book is the spirit that infuses each page. This is Willinsky's spirit and it will turn the reader into an adventurer. There are color photographs throughout, shots of food and the tropical paradise that is Jamaica, by Ed Anderson.
About the Author: Helen Willinsky is a native of Jamaica and founder of Helen's Tropical Exotics, one of the first commercial Jamaican 'Caribbean food companies to distribute within the U.S. She divides her time between Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Kingston Jamaica.
©
