What is Bammy

 Early Sunday morning you can find many Jamaican families eating traditional ackee and saltfish, boiled green banana, bammy or breadfruit.

So what is bammy. Bammy is a type of flatbread made from cassava. The native Arawak Indians (Jamaica's original inhabitants) used these in many of their meals. When wheat flour began importation into Jamaica many Jamaicans got away from using this as a staple in their diet.

It is reported that the United Nations and the Jamaican government established a program to revive bammy production. It is now marketed as a modern accessible food product.

How to make bammy?

1. grate cassava (or you can find it grated in many stores and sold frozen)
2. place the grated cassava in cheese cloth or muslin cloth and drain the liquid into a container and add salt.
3. Then gather cassava and press about one cup into a greased frying pan
4. Cook over moderate heat, turn when the edges shrink (about 10 minutes)
5. Soak the bammies in coconut milk for about 5 minutes until they absorb the mixture
6. put more oil in the frying pan , let it get to frying temperature and fry until light brown

I love this fish dish. I happen to love Mackerel. I like Herring as well (which if I don't have Mackerel I can substitute.) The key to this dish (in my opinion is the combination of the spices and coconut milk).

Ingredients


2lb salted mackerel
1can of coconut milk (or make your own fresh)
1 cup water
1 onion
3 scallion
2 tomatoes
A few sprigs of thyme (about 4 or 5)
3 garlic cloves
vinegar, black pepper and salt to taste (generally about 1 or 2 teaspoons of each)
1 tablespoon butter (I add this because it give the dish a nice flavor)

Method

Soak mackerel in water overnight, changing water regularly. Boil the mackerel for 15 minutes then allow to cool. You can remove the mackerel heads if you want to. I leave mine on. Then cut the fish in to small pieces. Chop the onion, scallion, tomato and garlic. Combine the coconut milk and water in a saucepan, bring to the boil then turn the heat down to simmer. Add onion, scallion, tomato, garlic and thyme, cook for 10 minutes more.
If sauce is still watery, mix 1 tablespoon of flour in 1/4 cup of water and stir in to the mixture.

When finished you can serve it with traditional green banana and flour dumpling. Or you can use rice. A nice salad adds to the meal.