West Winds: Recipes, History and Tales from Jamaica

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Mix the ingredients for the marinade in a large bowl. Add the goat and, using your hands, turn the meat in the marinade until coated. Cover the bowl and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, ideally overnight –or even 72 hours is welcome. Arrange the blanched vegetables on the lined baking tray and place in the oven. Leave the oven door ajar and cook for 4-5 hrs, turning the veg every hour, until dried and crisp.

Remove the oxtail from the marinade, reserving the marinade for later. Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat. Working in batches, add the meat to the pan and cook, stirring, for 5 mins until browned all over. Sift all the dry ingredients, up to and including the salt, into a mixing bowl, then stir until combined and set aside.The hidden Caribbean isn’t a place but a legacy of the complex history, people, and food that exists outside the limelight of Caribbean culture. If you want to get hit in the face with new, bold flavors — and bring a bit of the Caribbean islands to your kitchen, West Winds is a fantastic place to start. The Caribbean food scene in the UK is akin to a private members’ club. Invite-only. Unless you run in certain circles, you might not know much about it. Family recipes, the best butchers, where to buy a quality Dutch pot, how to make the perfect dhal puri roti… The community is powered by word of mouth, not to mention the sheer breadth of culture emanating from the islands, each of which is unique. Put simply, it can be intimidating for an outsider. Enter Riaz Phillips, who’s on a mission to make Caribbean cooking feel more accessible. Add the carrot, pepper and tomato, if using, and three tablespoons of water, then stir until combined. Cover with the lid and cook for two minutes. Add the tofu and heat through, adding an extra two to three tablespoons of water if needed. Cover and heat through, then serve with a scattering of the green part of the spring onions. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and saute for two minutes, add the garlic, ginger and the white part of the spring onions, then cook for another two minutes.

Want to feel like you’re on a walk in Jamaica with a local, talking to his friends and sharing plates of food? Then this is the cookbook for you. In retrospect, both point to the same Western reverence and sanctity towards eating certain animals, and the seeming disgust of consuming others. While goat is widely available at local butchers across Britain, particularly in areas with a high ethnic population, it has never fully entered the British culinary repertoire and it’s likely this prejudice is the reason. Although goat (and mutton) was favoured during the Tudor period of British history, especially in pies, it doesn’t seem to have caught the national imagination since. Did you know that there has been growing interest in Caribbean food worldwide, with the highest number of searches taking place in Australia, India, Western Europe, and the US. There has also been a strong rise in Caribbean cooking in the UK, which has remained a popular search over the last year. Whilst there are not many Caribbean cookbooks on the market, especially those that include vegan food, baking, and zero-waste dishes, West Winds successfully taps into fashionable food trends such as fakeaways, veganism and baking. Place a large pan of water over a high heat and bring to the boil. Meanwhile, fill a large bowl with cold water. Working in batches, add the pepper, courgette, carrot and beetroot to the pan for 10 secs, then transfer to the bowl of cold water for 10 secs. Scoop them out, drain and pat dry with kitchen paper.

From the book: West Winds: Recipes, history, and tales from Jamaica

At one point, though, I realised I didn’t actually know how to cook a lot of the stuff myself. I’d just been enjoying eating it for so long, and I was never really pressured to get into the kitchen in the same way my female cousins were. I couldn’t live with myself not knowing, so I started to learn the recipes, and things grew from there. TI: There’s a gap in the syllabus when it comes to imperialism and colonialism. Do you think that food could be a good vehicle to turn that into more mainstream knowledge? What’s it about? Celebrating Jamaican culture, cuisine, and history, West Winds is a uniquely rich and deeply personal cookbook. Award-winning writer Riaz Phillips draws on his own memories of growing up in the Caribbean diaspora of London, as well as of his time spent living in Jamaica, to create a set of over 100 vibrant and intensely flavoursome recipes, interspersed with travel and food photography. From hearty soups and bakes to thirst-quenching drinks, these recipes are rooted in centuries of Jamaican traditions, folktales, and anecdotes. Riaz also explores how veganism, healthy eating, fermentation, and zero-waste cooking formed part of Jamaican cuisine long before they became modern trends. Whether you want to delve deeper into your heritage or discover new facets of regional Caribbean cuisine, West Winds will help you bring the spirit of traditional Jamaican cooking to your kitchen.