← Nouns Cooking · Caribbean

Ingredients

• 600 g kingfish, snapper or other firm fish steaks (or fish heads)
• 2 Lime, juiced, divided
• 2 tbsp chopped coriander (or chadon beni), plus extra to serve
• 3 Spring onion, chopped
• 4 cloves Garlic, crushed
• 4 sprigs Thyme
• 1.5 l Water
• 1 Onion, chopped
• 1 celery stick, sliced
• 2 green (unripe) bananas, peeled and cut into chunks
• 2 Potato, peeled and cubed
• 250 g eddoes, dasheen or sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• 1 Carrot, sliced
• 1 Scotch bonnet chilli, left whole
• 1½ tsp salt, to taste
• 120 g plain flour, for the dumplings
• 60 ml cold water, for the dumplings
• 15 g Butter (optional)

Method

1. Rinse the fish with half the lime juice and water. Season with salt, half the coriander, spring onion, garlic and thyme and leave for 15 min.
2. Bring the water to the boil in a large pot with the onion, celery, remaining garlic and thyme and the whole scotch bonnet.
3. Add the green bananas, potatoes, eddoes and carrot and simmer for 15 min, until almost tender.
4. Knead the flour, a pinch of salt and the cold water into a soft dough. Roll small pieces into finger-sized dumplings and drop them in. Cook for 8 min.
5. Slide in the fish and its seasoning and simmer very gently for 8–10 min, until the fish flakes. Do not stir hard, or it will break up.
6. Stir in the butter (if using), the rest of the lime juice and coriander. Taste for salt and serve piping hot.

Tips

• Fish heads make the most flavourful broth: just pick out the bones before serving, especially for children.
• Leave out the butter to keep it dairy-free.

Sources

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

CaribbeanPot.com Simply Trini Cooking