Breakfast for Dinner

A favourite childhood memory is eating at the dining table with my family. Although we weren't a formal family per se, we always ate our meals together at the table, talking about our day. Since both my parents worked, weekday breakfasts were always a rushed self-catering affair - usually some type of cereal eaten standing up as I put on my shoes because I was perpetually leaving for school late. But all that changed at the weekend when we would have a leisurely 'cooked breakfast' as my mum always referred to it. Being of Jamaican heritage, one of my favourite breakfasts is Ackee & Saltfish with fried dumplings.

Ackee is the national fruit of Jamaica, and is a main ingredient in the national dish, which - it may surprise you to learn - isn't Jerk Chicken... Ackee grows on an evergreen tree. It isn't indigenous to Jamaica, having been imported from West Africa in the 1700s. The fruit is pear-shaped, and when it ripens, it goes from green to a bright red to yellow-orange, and then splits open to reveal three large, shiny black seeds, each partly surrounded by soft, creamy or spongy, white to yellow flesh. Here in the UK it is available tinned, but my parents had a tree in their back garden in Kingston Jamaica, and fresh Ackee is just heavenly...

OK, I have to admit that Ackee is a bit of a 'Marmite' delicacy - you either love it, or hate it. I lurve Ackee; but my sister? Not so much. So, I was delighted when she gave me a tin, and I couldn't wait to whip up some Ackee & Saltfish this weekend. I had it for lunch with coconut, chilli and lemongrass basmati rice. It is good for breakfast with fried dumplings; and lunch... and dinner with roasted breadfruit ... Yum!

I'm not a purist so I add bacon and chilli flakes to mine, but I didn't have any red peppers on hand. BTW, there are lots of recipes on the interweb...