October 2018
An Isolated Pocket of Jamaican Cooking in Western Maine
At Ricker Hill Orchards in Turner, Maine the smell of fresh pressed cider drifts into the car the moment you pull into the dirt parking lot. Maple and apple cider doughnuts are baked in rounds throughout the day for families coming to pick their own apples and play mini golf. But if you pass up the main entrance and turn down a potholed, dirt road past the washing and packing facility, you’ll come to three long farm worker houses with white paint peeling off the siding.
Here, curry, garlic and onions cut through the sugary smell of apples. The backbone of Western Maine’s nostalgic fall traditions are the apple pickers, who come from Jamaica every year to provide locals with convenient, pre-bagged and washed apples and cranberries.
When I first walked in to one of the houses, I was greeted by a group of confused looks while a member of the Ricker family tried to introduce me and describe my project. I was introduced to a timid Dean Henry from Kingston, Jamaica. We had a short discussion to agree on a convenient date to cook, and he gave me a brief ingredient list: scallions, hot peppers, thyme, salt, soft goat, small fish and oil. I left feeling as confused as the looks they had given me. That Sunday I made the hour and a half drive to Portland to search for “soft goat” which I decided should be leg since Dean said we were going to make goat curry.
Turns out, Sunday is a horrible day to search for goat leg at Halal markets. I went to eight different grocery stores-- all of which, only had goat ribs left. One of the shop owners explained that all of the markets in Portland get their goat from Australia once a week and by Sunday, they’re wiped out. My last hope was Liban Market Afrikan Shop on Washington Avenue. The back side of the grocery was completely dedicated to meat with a man posted at a bandsaw cutting down the spine of a whole, frozen goat for some eager customers.
Chest freezers were full of whole fish, and shrink wrapped, unmarked cuts of meat. A woman watched me with amusement while I dived into the freezer in search of a goat leg. When I came up for air, she asked me what I was looking for and then inquired with the man next to the bandsaw on my behalf.
He left his post and returned with a bone-in, frozen leg. I purchased the cut nervously since we were suppose to cook the leg in three hours, but I was also aware that I was holding one of the last goat legs within a 60 mile radius until everyone’s next shipment from Australia came in. When I returned to Turner, I walked in prepared for the cooking session to be postponed to allow the meat to thaw.
But Dean was unphased by the frozen meat and insisted we cook right then and there since he and most of the other workers were going back home in two days. I started to unload the groceries on a long wooden table in the entrance of the house. This was met with serious disapproval by two older men playing dominoes and I was shooed away.
Dean ushered me into another section of the house where there was a plethora of cooking noises-- a man slicing cabbage, pots steaming with rice, dishes clanking in the sink. I was standing in the center of what felt like a rustic, food network test kitchen with four stoves, several long wooden tables and two deep sinks. Clusters of men were at different stations preparing their dinners and packing leftovers for the following day in the orchard.
By request, I went to the local market to pick up a bag of rice and by the time I returned, Dean had cubed the goat on a wooden stump with a cleaver. In a large bowl the meat along with onions and potatoes were marinating in vegetable oil, fresh thyme and Maggi’s brand of season-up which I learned was a very popular spice brand amongst Jamaicans.
Dean disappeared for quite some time, so I gravitated towards a towering George Rennie who was descaling the four dorades I had brought. I asked what his plan was and he said he would be steaming the fish.
Once the fins were snipped and the fish were rinsed, he started marinating them in Maggi jerk blend, garlic, onion, and pepper, but he mentioned that we were missing pimento seed (allspice). Ideally the fish would be steamed with coconut juice along with carrots, “Irish” (which is what he called potatoes), plantain, pumpkin and okra.
We were missing several of the ingredients because of
geographical limitations, but George seemed particularly
upset about the missing okra. “Okra is nice, its slimy,”
he said with nostalgia. I was a little taken aback by his
enthusiasm towards the gooey texture of okra, but this also
reminded me just how cultural textural preferences are.
While we discussed the plans for the fish, the old men
at the domino table were replaced by a younger crowd
who started blasting reggae and rolling a joint. After
George heated about three inches of vegetable oil in a
wok-shaped pan, he cut slits along the sides of the fish
and someone magically appeared with a plantain offering.
The group doesn’t get out much, and they have to rely on
the orchard for transportation. Every few weeks they go
into the neighboring city of Lewiston to shop at the Caribbean Life Grocery store. There, they stock up on a variety of Maggi spice blends and produce uncommon to Maine.
Overall, the group’s exposure to Maine is odd and limited. It consists of Wal-Mart, Food City (a very low-end grocery store), and Ricker Hill’s orchards which sprawl across western Maine. “We’ve only seen your bush [the countryside]!” George emphasized loudly which caused his friend, Gary Evans, who was soaking salt fish in the background, to burst into laughter.
George picked up one of the fish tenderly and slipped it into the hot oil, and I looked on somewhat confused because I had been under the impression we were steaming the fish. He explained that he wanted to just fry one of the fish quickly to cook it and send it home with me. I was flattered by this gesture since I had brought the ingredients to share with everyone.
While the fish sizzled, George listed off the spices he includes in his seasoning mix back in his hometown of Saint Thomas, “...cumin, garlic, onion, hot pepper, pimento seed, [white] vinegar. I put it in a blender,” George hummed like an electrical appliance. “It’s gonna taste a bit peppery... then you put it on your meat.” He also added that sometimes he puts a little of Maggi’s up-jerk seasoning in his blend as well.
Dean reappeared and inspected the marinating goat meat and then started to crush garlic cloves while about two inches of vegetable oil heated in a deep stock pot. He quietly explained that he was going to “burn” the curry and sure enough, once the oil was hot, he dumped several tablespoons of curry powder into the pot along with a small, spicy, green chili. The kitchen filled with aromatic smoke and after a few minutes, he added the four whole, crushed garlic cloves.
Once the garlic started to brown, Dean stirred the cubed goat into the seasoned oil to ensure all of the pieces were covered. This step caused a lot of commotion and suddenly we were surrounded by four other men who started to speak very quickly all at once to Dean in Patwah. It sounded like they disagreed with Dean’s approach so I asked him if they all made goat curry the same way. Dean added water to the pot, covered it, and assured me they all agreed on his method and then he disappeared with the lively group.
George had pulled my personal fish out of the oil and wrapped it gently in paper towels. He then added the three communal fish into the pan. “I’m just fryin’ these to give ‘em a little color and then I’m gonna steam ‘em,” George said. The technique reminded me of searing before roasting.
Gary suddenly interjected into our conversation. “Excuse me, this guy, show me how to cook for myself now. Back home, I did not have time in the kitchen. I watch, I do everything now,” he said while he looked up at George with admiration.
Many of the men who work for Ricker Hill Orchards have been coming to Maine for several years, and George and Gary were both in their fifth season. Gary explained that growing up, he was somewhat spoiled by his older brother and mother who would always cook for him and now, his fiancee makes all of the meals.
“The more I’m here, the more I learn,” he said while he drained his saltfish and added fresh water to the pot to bring it to a boil once more. Ironically, Gary has been learning how to make traditional Jamaican dishes for the first time in his life during his seasons in Maine. This year, he plans to return home and do more of the cooking for his family.
George pulled the fish out of the oil and drained them on paper towels. He then poured off the oil in the pan and added water along with a Maggi seasoning pack he called “noodles” which was a powdered chicken soup mix with short pieces of dehydrated noodles. George mentioned that he would typically use coconut juice instead of water for steaming. He covered the pot and started to peel and cut up carrots in mid air. I struggled to keep up and after George got a good laugh in, he got me a cutting board to work on.
While we continued to cut vegetables and add them to the simmering stock, George explained that his dad is a fisherman. Although he never learned to fish from his father because he was always in school, he now dives and spearfishes. The way in which George showed me to steam fish was a common meal for him back home that changes depending on the vegetables and seasonings he has on hand. More often than not, George has his fish marinating ahead of time. He told me, “we curry even fish!”
George grew up cooking outside, over a fire since his parents didn’t own a stove until they were in their 40s. They cooked everything over coals from steaming rice, to roasting chicken and frying fish, of course.
“They used the coal and stick, so that gives it a different taste, a sweet taste. So we can’t get the taste we lookin’ for until we go back to the old-fashioned [way],” George said and added, “I love to cook that way.”
We started to make plans for next fall when George, Dean and Gary would be back in Maine and I could have them over to my house where we could build a fire and cook with traditional methods. Once the potatoes were halfway cooked, George added the fish to the boiling stock along with whole scallions and covered the pot to begin the steaming process. George mentioned that he uses seasoning blends and other packaged foods for quick meals.
“Sometimes if you don’t feel like cooking, we use easy things like...we have the crackers. Yeah, the tough crackers.” George was referring to Jamaican produced Excelsior water crackers that are commonly added to steamed fish after plating. The cooking liquid is then poured over the crackers so they slowly soak up the flavor of the broth.
By the time George mentioned crackers, I had a growing curiosity about British influence on Jamaican cooking. Even the last names of the guys I had been speaking with (Henry, Rennie, Evans) were all of English origin. George kind of shrugged at this thought, but he didn’t have any specific examples of how England influenced Jamaican cuisine.
England formally acquired Jamaica from Spain in 1670 through the Treaty of Madrid. And of course, the British Empire was on a roll with displacing people through slavery and indentured servitude. By 1845, the first group of indentured servants from Northern India arrived in Jamaica with the intent to return home with some savings.
However, many were coerced to stay in Jamaica since it was cheaper to grant a servant some land than pay for their passage home. Others were forced to stay in the Caribbean since their work contracts were written in English which many people could not read. Contracts were often signed with a thumbprint to terms that many were unaware of.
Those who had a ticket home, had difficulty boarding a ship because Indians were given the lowest boarding priority. If the ship was overbooked, which often it was, they were forced to give up their ticket home.
The bright side to this is that Indian culture and cuisine came to Jamaica. Many people brought spices with them which is how curry came to the Caribbean island. But the blend underwent some changes by incorporating pimento seed from the native Pimenta dioica tree which has been used for cooking in Jamaica since the first inhabitants, the Taino. Jamaican curry also tends to have more turmeric which was also brought by the Indian immigrants.
And the “tough crackers” that George mentioned are undoubtedly influenced by the British obsession with biscuits. In 1911, the Excelsior Biscuit company was established in Kingston by two Jamaicans, Lionel DeMercado and Alfred DaCosta, and one man from the United States, John Crook. The company has greatly expanded its product line, but the crackers remain a staple in the Jamaican diet, especially in steamed fish recipes.
While we waited for the fish to finish steaming, Gary and George taught me some Patwah. At first, I could hardly understand what they were saying, but they spoke slowly and coached me through it. “So if your boyfriend leaving the house, you say, ‘Weh you ah go?’” When I finally repeated it correctly, they were bent over laughing.
Dean silently reappeared and handed me a spoon with a steaming piece of goat. The meat was surprisingly tender considering it had been frozen just three hours ago. He then started seasoning a pot of water with scallions, thyme, salt, butter and pepper to cook 4 pounds of rice and informed me that normally he uses coconut oil instead of butter.
At this point, most of the men had finished their dinners and were packing leftovers into tupperware for their breakfast and lunch the next day. They leave every morning for the orchards at 5 AM and return around 5:30 PM. In a relatively dry season, they get Sundays off, but this fall has been particularly wet so, the workers go out every clear day to make up for rainy days.
I watched George’s eyes get heavy while he gazed over the steaming fish. The next day George and 27 other men would pick their daily average of a 150 bushels of apples. Gary smiled and told me, “The slowest man here is very fast for you!”
When the rice finished steaming, we gathered around a long farmhouse table and spooned goat curry and fish onto our plates. George seemed underwhelmed after taking his first bite and explained that it just didn’t have the right flavor.
“That’s why we need to do this for you back in Jamaica, that way you get the reeeeaaal taste that you’re really looking for,” he said. “You may get a little taste, and it taste nice, but when we cook it at home, we get the real taste.”
Despite George’s disappointment, I was very impressed with my meal. The “Irish” and carrots were salty from soaking up the Maggi broth and the plantains added a complimentary sweetness. Frying the fish before steaming it made the skin crispy which was a nice contrast to the meat that flaked off the bones. The goat curry was pungent from the turmeric, confirming that Jamaican curry indeed, contains more of the golden rhizome.
George and Dean challenged me to practice their recipes over the next year and cook for them when they returned next fall. With two more dinners planned-- one at my house over a fire, and another at the Ricker farmhouse, this story about Jamaicans cooking in Maine will be continued...
Dean Henry's Goat Curry
Serves 8
Ingredients
3 lbs. of bone-in goat leg cut into 1 inch cubes
2 large Russet potatoes, peeled and large diced (1 in. cubes)
½ Cup of vegetable oil
1 white onion medium diced (½ inch pieces)
1 bunch of scallions, chopped
1 teaspoon of minced ginger
1 teaspoon of Salt
1 teaspoon of Black Pepper
2 teaspoons of chopped thyme
2 tablespoons of curry powder
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 small hot green chili
*Can also add 4 whole Pimento berries, crushed
2 carrots, peeled and medium diced (½ in. cubes)
-
Marinate the cubed goat meat and potatoes in 3 tablespoons of oil with the onion, scallions, ginger, salt, black pepper and thyme. Cover and marinate for at least two hours or overnight in the fridge.
-
Pour the remaining oil in a deep pot and heat over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the curry powder evenly across the oil and allow it to “burn” for 2 minutes. Add the chili pepper and garlic, flipping the cloves and pepper once they brown on one side. Once both sides have browned, add the goat and potatoes and stir to incorporate the curry oil onto the goat pieces.
-
Cover the goat meat with 4 cups of water, add the pimento berries and cover. Cook over moderate heat so that there is a constant simmer. Stir every 15 minutes to rotate the bottom pieces to the top. Add the carrots half way through. Simmer until tender--about an 1 to 1 ½ hours.
-
Serve with Dean’s Steamed Rice
George Rennie’s Steamed Fish
Serves 6
Ingredients
2 whole fish (4 lbs total) such as snapper or dorade
1 Tablespoon of Maggi Up-Jerk Seasoning
3 cloves minced garlic
4 sprigs of thyme, chopped
1 large white onion, chopped
1 small red or green hot pepper, minced
2 crushed allspice berries
½ Tablespoon of cumin
4 Tablespoons of white vinegar
¼ Cup of vegetable oil
4 Cups Coconut Juice (coconut water from young coconuts)
1 package (60 g) of Maggi Chicken Noodle Soup Mix
1 large Russet potato, medium diced
1 lb. pumpkin medium diced
2 Carrots medium diced
1 Ripe Plantain (yellow with brown spots) cut into medium slices
6 Okra medium diced
1 Bunch of Scallions
Excelsior Crackers
-
Clean and rinse fish. Cut a long, diagonal slit on each side of the fish.
-
Use a whisk or blender to mix Maggi Up-Jerk Seasoning, garlic, thyme, white onion, green hot pepper, allspice berries, cumin and white vinegar.
-
Pour the mixture over the fish and marinate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
-
Heat oil over medium-high heat in a pan wide enough enough to fit both fish and that has at least 2 inch sides.
-
Pat the fish dry from the marinade and quickly fry until both sides have browned.
-
Drain the fish on paper towels and remove the oil from the pan. Bring the coconut juice to a boil and whisk in the Maggi Chicken Noodle Soup Mix.
-
Add the potatoes and pumpkin, cover. Once the potatoes are halfway cooked, add the carrots and fish to the pan. Sprinkle the plantain and okra around the fish and arrange the scallions on top. Cover.
-
Cook until the fish flakes from the bone and the vegetables are done.
-
Place the fish on a platter and scatter the vegetables around the fish. Place as many excelsior crackers as desired on top of the fish and pour the cooking liquid over.
-
Serve with Dean’s Steamed Rice
Dean’s Steamed Rice
Makes 3 Cups
Ingredients
1 Cup of long grain, white rice
2 Cups of water
6 Scallions, chopped
4 Sprigs of Thyme
1 Hot, Green Chili
2 Tablespoons of Coconut Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
-
Rinse rice and add to a pot with the 2 cups of water.
-
Remove the thyme from the stems and add to the pot along with the scallions, coconut oil, chili, salt and pepper.
-
Cover and bring to a boil then turn down the heat and simmer until done.
