Jamaican Rundown Recipe

Why It Works

  • Soaking the pickled mackerel sooner than simmering inside the aromatic coconut milk is important to temper the saltiness of the mackerel.
  • The boiled inexperienced bananas take up the coconut “gravy,” making them the most effective accompaniment.

One in all many further well-liked Jamaican breakfast dishes, and definitely one in every of our non-public favorites, is salt mackerel rundown. This generally is a rich and textured meal that is most steadily cherished on Sundays, when there could also be ample time to arrange it, along with time to leisurely imbibe and digest. Many childhood Sunday mornings have been made memorable with this unusual fish-forward breakfast. After we lived in Trinidad and have been anticipating an actual fashion of Jamaica, this recipe would transport us there. Our father, Peter, cherished rundown mackerel, so this dish was steadily on the menu. His love for it helped to solidify our love for it, and explains why it obtained right here to characterize residence for us all through the chapter of our lives after we weren’t in Jamaica.

In rundown, the salty mackerel is cooked down in a savory-sweet coconut custard that is created by lowering coconut milk with a medley of fundamental Jamaican spices and greens like tomato, scallion, Scotch bonnet pepper, onion, and thyme. The mackerel is allowed to simmer inside the coconut custard for about 20 minutes, which tempers its intense saltiness and leaves you with a creamy, rich, successfully seasoned, and barely sweet dish.

Essential Eats / Karina Matalon


Rundown is traditionally prepared with modern coconut milk, which is cooked to a custard consistency, as is part of the tactic for making handmade coconut oil in days handed by: modern coconut milk is lowered in a saucepan until it is thick and custardy and the fat separates from the coconut solids, leaving a layer of clear oil on prime. Making modern coconut milk is unquestionably pretty simple, but it surely certainly does require some effort, so whereas our recipe affords instructions for making it from scratch, you have to be at liberty to utilize canned coconut milk in its place.

The boiled inexperienced bananas which will be served as an accompaniment are moreover worth mentioning proper right here. On many islands in our space, inexperienced bananas are boiled and served as a starch to accompany proteins at any meal of the day. In Jamaica, we add a contact of salt and a pat of butter as shortly as they arrive scorching out of the pot; sometimes we mash them, so much as one would mash potatoes. The result is insanely delicious.

Essential Eats / Karina Matalon


When blended with the spicy and savory mackerel, it is an explosion of style and texture that you’re going to not shortly neglect. Along with boiled inexperienced banana, mackerel rundown would generally even be served with ripe plantain, callaloo, and fried breakfast dumplings known as Johnny truffles. Mackerel rundown is among the many most shocking and delicious breakfast dishes you will ever encounter. Like many typical Jamaican dishes, it is time-consuming to arrange, nonetheless it is worth every ounce of the effort and time that it takes to make it.

Jamaican Rundown Recipe


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For the Rundown:

  • 1 pound (454g) pickled boneless mackerel (see notes)

  • 1 tablespoon (15ml) coconut oil

  • 1 large yellow onion (12 ounces; 340g), diced

  • 2 plum tomatoes (about 4 ounces; 115g each), cored and diced

  • 2 scallionsends trimmed and scale back into 1/4-inch lengths

  • 1 medium clove garlicminced

  • 3 cups modern coconut milk or canned coconut milk (about two 13.5 ounce cans (see notes)

  • 1 complete Scotch bonnet pepper

  • 4 allspice berries

  • 1 spring modern thyme

  • 1 banana boiled inexperienced bananas

For the Boiled Inexperienced Banana:

  • 1 bunch very inexperienced bananas (see notes)

  • Kosher salt

  • Unsalted butter, softened

  1. For the Rundown: In an enormous bowl, soak mackerel in scorching water, altering the water a few instances all through soaking, until saltiness has been lowered, 2 to a few hours (the mackerel must nonetheless be noticeably salty, nonetheless not painfully so, as it is the solely provide of salt inside the dish). Drain mackerel and completely take away any remaining fish bones. Decrease or tear mackerel into bite-sized gadgets (about 1-inch). Put apart.

    Essential Eats / Karina Matalon


  2. In a Dutch oven, soften coconut oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, tomatoes, scallions, and garlic, then stir in modern or canned coconut milk. Add Scotch bonnet, allspice berries, and thyme. Convey to a simmer, then in the reduction of heat to maintain up simmer, adjusting heat as wished, and put together dinner until coconut milk has lowered to a creamy, custardy texture, about 10 minutes. That’s known as rundown sauce.

    Essential Eats / Karina Matalon


  3. Stir torn mackerel into rundown sauce and put together dinner over medium heat until liquid is further lowered and fish, greens, and rundown sauce are blended in a thick and creamy stew, about quarter-hour.

    Essential Eats / Karina Matalon


  4. Within the meantime, for the Boiled Inexperienced Bananas (Non-obligatory): Fill an enormous bowl with chilly water. Using gloved palms, scale back ends off inexperienced bananas. Then, using a paring knife and coping with one banana at a time, make a lengthwise slit into the pores and pores and skin from prime to bottom. Take away pores and pores and skin from banana, then, scrape away any stringy bits from the banana. Change to an enormous bowl of water and repeat with remaining bananas.

    Essential Eats / Karina Matalon


  5. In an enormous pot of salted boiling water, boil bananas until fork-tender, about 20 minutes (cooking time will vary counting on the size of the bananas). Drain bananas, swap to bowl, and season with salt and butter to fashion. Use the once more of a fork to mash boiled bananas, if desired.

    Essential Eats / Karina Matalon


  6. Serve rundown warmth, with the boiled inexperienced bananas. (see notes)

    Essential Eats / Karina Matalon


Specific Gear

Dutch oven, large pot (for the non-compulsory boiled inexperienced bananas)

Notes

Two 13.5 ounce cans of coconut milk may be substituted for the modern coconut milk.

Pickled mackerel, moreover often provided as “salt mackerel,” is often provided at Jamaican and West Indian markets. When searching for pickled mackerel, make it doable for the fish is company to the contact. Whereas any measurement mackerel will be utilized, it is easier to remove bones from greater mackerel.

Inexperienced bananas aren’t the an identical as inexperienced plantains; you probably can often uncover inexperienced bananas at Caribbean markets. These boiled bananas needs to be actually inexperienced, not merely under-ripe as is frequent for bananas in markets in North America. Ensure that the damage and tear gloves whereas peeling the bananas to steer clear of purple stained fingers.

Rundown will be greats served with fried yellow plantain, callaloo, and fried breakfast dumplings known as Johnny truffles.

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