← Nouns Cooking · Caribbean

Ingredients

• 500 g mackerel fillets (fresh, or soaked salted mackerel), cut into large pieces
• 1 Lime, juiced
• ½ tsp Salt
• ½ tsp Black pepper
• 400 ml full-fat coconut milk
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3 cloves Garlic, minced
• 2 Spring onion, sliced
• 1 Tomato, chopped
• ½ Bell pepper, chopped
• 4 sprigs Thyme
• 6 whole allspice (pimento) berries
• 1 Scotch bonnet chilli, left whole

Method

1. Toss the fish with the lime juice, salt and pepper and leave while the coconut milk cooks.
2. Pour the coconut milk into a wide, deep frying pan and boil steadily over medium heat for 10–12 min, stirring now and then, until it thickens and the oil begins to separate. This is the "run down".
3. Add the onion, garlic, spring onion, tomato, pepper, thyme and allspice and simmer for 5 min, until the vegetables soften into the sauce.
4. Lay the fish on top, add the whole scotch bonnet, spoon the sauce over, cover and cook on low for 6–8 min, until the fish flakes easily. Do not stir, or it will break up.
5. Lift out the pepper and thyme stalks, taste for salt and serve hot.

Tips

• Using salted mackerel? Soak it overnight in cold water and boil for 10 min in fresh water first, and skip the added salt.
• Serve with boiled green bananas, yam and dumplings, or roasted breadfruit.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Taste the Islands That Girl Cooks Healthy