Motherland: A Jamaican Cookbook

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As a teenager, Thompson worked at The Fridge, a deli in Dorchester, where she developed further respect for food production. ‘All that goes into making things like bacon, brawn, paté and cheese. The roughness of the skin, its saltiness; I grew to understand why certain cheeses had strong flavours or mould running through them.’ A few years ago, I experimented with browning corn in butter before adding it to fritters. It gives a lovely, subtly toasted corn flavour that reminds me almost of popcorn. To make the Jamaican curry powder, mix all the spices together and store in an airtight container until needed. It will keep for up to 3 months. In a separate pan, fry the spring onions, garlic and thyme in the oil for 5 minutes over a medium heat. Add the drained peas or beans (reserve their liquid) and the rice and stir to coat. Add the scotch bonnet, if using, then the coconut milk. Pour in 100ml of bean liquid: either use the bean-cooking water or the liquid from the tinned beans, making the latter up to the necessary amount with tap water. So she wrote this book, what she calls ‘a cookbook with historical narrative,’ weaving Jamaican recipes with essays about the impact of slavery, colonization, and immigration on Jamaica’s cuisine. It’s worth mentioning that this beautiful book includes a map so you can connect flavor with place.

To make the salsa, peel, pit and chop the avocados into small pieces. Mix with the spring onions, tomatoes, scotch bonnet, and lime zest and juice.

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Pour the custard into the pastry case and bake for 40-45 minutes; it should still have a wobble in the middle. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

But, without doubt, it was the men and women from Africa, who against their will came to the Caribbean island during the transatlantic slave trade, that had the biggest influence on the island’s food and culture. The island’s motto is ‘out of many, one people’. That sentiment goes for the food too. To me it is one of the finest – and most singular – cuisines in the world. Motherland is a recipe book, but more than that it is a history of the people, influences and ingredients that uniquely united to create the wonderful patchwork cuisine that is Jamaican food today," writes Melissa Thompson in the introduction to her debut cookbook. To make the corn fritters, mix the flour, baking powder, egg and milk together to form a stiff batter. Leave to rest while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Remove the lid, mix in the spinach and leave for five minutes until cooked through. Taste, then add salt until seasoned as you prefer. Serve with boiled rice. In a bowl, gently beat the egg yolks with the condensed milk, trying not to get too much air or too many bubbles into the mix. Stir in the double cream and reduced Guinness, then stir in the remaining ingredients.If you like custard tarts, you will love this. I first had the idea for it a few years ago, while drinking some Guinness punch and wondering if it would translate into dessert form. The answer was a resounding yes. You can adjust the intensity of the Guinness flavour by using slightly less or more. And if you don’t drink alcohol you can use 0% Guinness: it works, I’ve tried. Pour the custard into the pastry case and bake for 40–45 minutes; it should still have a wobble in the middle. Remove and leave to cool. Grate extra nutmeg over the top and chill before slicing.

Preheat the oven to 140C fan/gas mark 3. Butter a 20cm tart tin and remove the pastry from the fridge. Dust your worktop with flour and roll out the pastry into a circle roughly 28cm in diameter. Roll the pastry around the rolling pin and unroll over the tart tin. Carefully push the pastry into the edges of the tin and leave the excess rising above the rim. Shrimp,’ as they are called on the island, have been a mainstay of the Jamaican diet since our knowledge of human history there begins. They were eaten by the indigenous Jamaicans; the Taíno are recorded to have fed Columbus a meal that included them. The sea and rivers remain a source of the crustaceans to this day.

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Bloomsbury has signed debut cookbook Motherland, fromjournalist and founder of London pop-up Fowl Mouths Food Melissa Thompson. Commenting on her book, she said: "I’m really chuffed to be publishing Motherland with Rowan and Bloomsbury. Jamaica’s food is so special, born out of a set of very unique circumstances, so it’s been a huge privilege to be able to write this book." Meanwhile, make the pastry. Using your hands, rub the butter and flour together until the mix resembles breadcrumbs. Mix in the sugar and egg yolk, and then add the measured water a little at a time, until the dough comes together. Don’t knead any more, just wrap in clingfilm or greaseproof paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes.