Jerk seasoning

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Make this jerk seasoning to coat roast pork, chicken, ham, turkey, sausages - in truth, most meat or fish.

It keeps well, so you can afford to make a big batch, but because of the volumes, it's worth seeking out an ethnic food supplier for the spices as the little supermarket jars are an extremely expensive way to buy spices in quantity. Grind the spices yourself in a coffee grinder to ensure you get fresh powerful flavours.

Adjustments from the Jamie's television recipe

I have adjusted the recipe from that seen on the TV program as I thought it was too liquid and way too 'clovey', although it was brilliant. By the way, Jamie's original was 2 tablespoons of clove buds, 250 ml dark rum, 250 ml malt vinegar.

Ingredients

• 6 bay leaves
• 2 tablespoons freshly ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons freshly ground allspice
• 2 level teaspoons of clove buds
• 8 habanero chillies or Scotch bonnet chillies or of course any other types of chillies of your choice
• * I could not get habaneros so I used 16 medium sized (5 cm) red chillies, the anonymous types that most supermarkets sell.
• 2 tablespoons freshly grated nutmeg
• 8 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon freshly ground juniper berries
• 3 tablespoons freshly picked thyme leaves
• 200 ml dark rum
• 200 ml malt vinegar
• 2 red onions, peeled and quartered. White onions are fine too.

Method

1. Add everything but the rum, vinegar and onions to a food processor with a metal blade and blitz to a paste
2. Add the onions, rum and vinegar and blitz until they are totally combined
3. Store in sterilised bottles

Serving suggestions

Brush over meat, fish or poultry before cooking.

For hams, mix in a tablespoon of honey or marmalade and brush or spoon over all visible surfacs for the last 30 minutes of cooking.

Chef's notes

I marinated pan fried breaded pork fillets for 3 hours in a ladleful of this jerk seasoning and they were brilliant. As was Marmalade glazed jerk gammon, a version of marmalade ham that I made using this recipe.