NEW YORK, NY - In the days of the cold supper shops in Jamaica, before Tastee Patty, jerk chicken and jerk pork and proper restaurants, fried saltfish, fried dumplings, hard dough bread, fried sprat, and escoveitched fish were the only available snacks to buy while traveling across the island and even in the capital city, Kingston.
As a child who traveled with my father across the island of Jamaica, it was always a treat to stop at these various cold supper shops that displayed their cooked food items in a glass and wooden box on a wooden counter.
These cold supper shops also sold soft drinks and beer and rum. White rum was my father’s favorite while I had soft drinks and fried sprat with hard dough bread!
I love fried sprat. It’s a tasty fish – small but with lots of bones. Preparing the fish for frying is the key to cooking it. After washing it with lime, it is patted dry and salt and black pepper added. The fish is then put to marinate for about two hours. Here is my recipe for Jamaican Fried Sprat served with hard dough bread.
Jamaican Fried Sprat
INGREDIENTS
2 dozen sprats
Vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
4 cups Coconut oil
METHOD
Clean and wash the sprats with lime and water.
Dry with paper towel.
Season with salt and black pepper
Marinate for two hours.
Fry in hot coconut oil.
Place fried sprat on paper towel to drain oil.
Bon Appetite
Minna LaFortune is a trained Caribbean caterer and also president of the Society for the Advancement of the Caribbean Diaspora (SACD).
