Levi Roots Spice It Up

I have Levi Roots first Cook Book bought at the Good Food Show, straight from his hands and signed.

He is a very tall imposing character and stood out amongst all the Dragons Den winners both at the show then  and I believe since. His sauces, huge range of foods TV show and cook books are impressive. We went to Cornwall last year and saw a huge lorry park with containers all emblazoned with Reggae Reggae Sauce logos. A strange sight near the sea.

At that Good food Show I also bought a book for a Jamaican friend at the time, I was interested to see how the viewed the recipes and how they held up by somebody used to cooking these dishes without aid of a recipe book, but from lessons handed down from parents and grandparents.

I've been cooking Jamaican food since I was about 17 too so Levi Roots had to impress a tougher set of judges.

I can tell you we both found the recipes inside were true, a few methods were different, some seemed a little English, expected really as  it was selling to a UK readership, on the whole it was a collection of authentic West Indian dishes.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on the latest serving in the entrepreneurs collection Spice It Up. Described below.

Spice It Up is a collection of 100 recipes, Levi Roots plunders his spice cupboard to create some exciting new dishes using everyday ingredients. Levi dubs up all of our favourite classic recipes, adding a tamarind and orange glaze to lamb chops, making a lime jerk marinade for chicken, cooking salmon with chilli and dishing up a spiced tropical fruit pilaf.

As you would expect from Levi, everything in this book is easy to prepare, and there are lots of ideas for quick suppers. With chapters packed with ideas for spicing up everything from chicken to chocolate, tropical fruit to tea, root vegetables to rum, this book is full of delicious and surprising recipes to add some spice to your life.

I found the recipes interesting lots of ordinary foods jazzed up Levi Roots Style, I did not fancy some of them they seemed strange spice combinations, for example, Pork chops in pineapple, molasses and tamarind. Roasted nutmeg cauliflower. Its a move away from some of the traditional west Indian dishes but still using the familiar spices.

For my trial recipe, my eye had been caught by the dish on the front of the book Lime Jerk Chicken Drumsticks, as you know Jerk chicken has featured already on the blog so this would be a good recipe test. I have actually made a similar marinade before.

Lime Jerk Chicken Drumsticks

Serves 4

12 chicken drumsticks

1 lime halved

For the marinade

8cm (3 1/4 inch) fresh ginger peeled and finely chopped

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp grated rind and the juice of two limes

1 tbsp clear honey

2 tbsp olive oil ( I used 1)

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 1/2 tsp ground allspice

1/2 red chilli (ideally Scotch Bonnet), finely chopped with or without seeds.

Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a shallow dish.

Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. Add the chicken, reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Drain and cool slightly.

Now you need to 'juck' the chicken, as we say in Jamaica - prod it all over with the tip of a knife, to open up the meat to the marinade. Add the chicken and mix until well coated. Cover and transfer to the fridge when cool. Leave for at least an hour, but ideally a couple or overnight.

Light a BBQ. When flames die down and coals are glowing, lift the chicken and put onto the grill for about 15 minutes. Turning and basting with the marinade. Alternatively in a pre heated grill cook until brown still using the marinade to baste.

Squeeze the lime juice over the chicken before serving.

So how did it go, I found this incredibly easy to make, the chicken being cooked in the water first makes it really tender and also I like the confidence of BBQing pre cooked meat, no risk of food poisoning. I marinated over night for the full flavour effect.

I served mine with a fried rice and it was delicious. Sweet lime and honeied meat fired up by the chilli, the thyme actually was very dominant despite so little used.

My offering looks nothing like the one on the front cover of Levi Roots book, blame my lighting, camera, and the fact mine are the real mccoy not ones for a photo shoot.

Still think they look scrumptious though!!

I am keen to try more of the recipes I would have liked to see more of the spiced up meat dishes. This is a great book if you have a sweet tooth as the largest chapters are for cakes and desserts.

Buy Spice It Up - Levi Roots (Hardback) by - ISBN: 9781845335922 - Publisher: Conran Octopus Ltd

RRP £18.99