Stir It Up!!

While I was at the food festival I met this super nice culinary student named Frank who was kind enough to give me a fellow student’s recipe for jerk marinade. A Jamaican fellow student! You can only imagine my excitement! I had the INS on the good Jamaican!!!

You may not know this about me, but I’m a big fan of Reggae music. But don’t ask me who I like because you may also not know that while I can probably sing every word to every song ever produced since 1960, I never know who wrote it, sang it or when! Josh regularly jokes that if college had been set to music I’d have breezed through!

So Wednesday night I turned my Pandora to my Reggae station and go to cooking. Truth is, however, I actually started the process on Monday night. I made the marinade Monday night, put the chicken in it Tuesday night and cooked it Wednesday night. I’m not sure its necessary to span it out like this, but I would recommend putting your chicken in the marinade the night before! And on Wednesday, we sat down to an amazing Jamaican meal that knocked our socks off!

Here’s the breakdown:

Marinade

5 scallions

5 sprigs of thyme,1  tbsp chopped

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tbsp brown sugar

2 tsp all spice

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

2 scotch bonnets

1/3 cup soy sauce

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1/4 vinegar

1 onion

1/2 cup orange juice

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp grated ginger

Combine in a blender and puree into marinade. Makes 3 cups. Marinate your chicken overnight. Then get your grill screaming hot and grill it up. Easy peasy.

I also had a quick and easy rice dish with this.

Grilled Pineapple and Black Bean Rice

4 servings worth Uncle Ben’s Fast and Natural Brown Rice

1 pineapple

1 can black beans

¾ cup salsa

Cook your brown rice according to the directions. Cut off the outside, top and bottom of your pineapple. Then cut into 8 spears, core removed. Grill the pineapple and cut into small cubes. Rinse the black beans. Throw all of the ingredients into a large saucepan and warm over low heat stirring frequently. STIR IT UP!! <-- Click!! Make sure the beans and pineapple are heated through.

This dinner was really really easy and full of big time flavor! And don’t forget to Stir It up!!!

Cheers Mon!!!!