On the heat. Extra hot

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg mutton curry pieces, bone in
• — SEASONING-UP — OVERNIGHT
• 4 tbsp Jamaican curry powder
• 1 tbsp allspice (pimento), ground
• 6 cloves garlic · 4 cm ginger, both crushed
• 1 bunch spring onions, chopped
• 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves · 2 tsp salt
• — THE POT
• 4 tbsp oil · 2 onions
• 1 scotch bonnet, whole and unbroken
• 4 potatoes · 6 pimento berries
• 500 ml water

Method

1. Season up overnight. Rub everything in the first group into the meat, cover, refrigerate. This is not optional in Jamaican cooking and it is the reason the dish tastes different from a Durban curry made with the same cut.
2. Heat the oil and burn the curry powder: a further 2 tbsp of curry powder into hot oil, fried 60 seconds until it darkens and smells toasted.
3. Meat in, seared hard, 10 minutes. Onions and pimento berries in.
4. Water in and the whole, unpierced scotch bonnet laid on top. Whole, it gives perfume; burst, it gives nothing but heat. Lid on, 2 hours.
5. Potatoes in for the last 30 minutes. Remove the scotch bonnet carefully before serving unless someone wants it.
6. Rest 15 minutes. White rice and peas, or roti.

Cook's note. Burning the curry powder is the technical difference from a Durban curry, where the masala goes in with a splash of water and is never allowed to darken.

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