Stephen Jackson’s recipe: Johnny cakes with grilled fish and fried plantains

Mar 12 2010 by Stephen Jackson

Stephen Jackson’s recipe: Johnny cakes with grilled fish and fried plantains

Barbados is less leafy, but still achingly beautiful, with wonderful beaches, cane fields and forests. It’s not often you have to stop your round of golf to allow a few dozen monkeys across the fairway, but this happens frequently!

There are some stunning hotels and restaurants up and down the West coast, from the very opulent (Sandy Lane’s ‘Acajou’ is world-class) to the plentiful little rum shops and roadside fish grills. There’s nothing like a flying fish sandwich for a quick snack on the hoof! The eastern coast is much less developed, and has some amazing surfing beaches and stunning views, and the south of the island caters for the ‘livelier’ market – pubs and clubs abound. You’ll no doubt be seething with jealousy by now, so I’ll get on with my recipe: Johnny cakes with grilled fish and fried plantains

I found myself having this for breakfast most mornings; it made such a refreshing change from eggs and bacon!

These ‘creole scones’ are popular as a quick snack or picnic staple in the Caribbean. Often served piping hot with lashings of butter, they can be baked, but are better fried. If you can’t find plantains, just use the greenest bananas you can find.

Johnny Cakes:

225g plain flour, 2 tbsps butter, cubed and chilled, ½ tsp salt, 2 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp sugar, 150ml milk

The fish:

4 8oz. pieces of firm white fish (coley, pollack, haddock, swordfish or halibut), S&P, the juice of 1 fresh lime

Plantains:

4 large green bananas or plantains, a pinch of flour, 1 egg, beaten, fine breadcrumbs, oil for deep-frying

Sift the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder into a bowl, then rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Pour in enough milk to make a soft dough. Knead well, and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Heat some oil in a pan, and roll ping-pong-ball-sized pieces of the dough, then flatten them to ½ inch thickness. Fry the cakes until golden and keep warm.

For the bananas, heat a pan with enough oil to deep-fry the bananas. Peel the fruit, cut into thick slices and roll in a little flour, then dip in the egg and finally the breadcrumbs. Repeat the egg and breadcrumbs stage. Deep fry the bananas until golden and crunchy, and keep warm.

To finish, season your fish steaks well, and simply fry or grill them until just cooked through. Sprinkle with fresh lime juice and serve with the cakes and plantains. See if you can find a nice fiery pepper sauce to go with this, too. Approach with caution!