It’s Jamaican me crazy! Sorry, I just had to. One of my brothers had that shirt growing up and we would all run around the house screaming “Jamaican Me Crazy”! Really, I just think we were making my mom crazy, but I always say she is the one who signed on to seven kids… plus friends.
But really, this is fun, fresh food in the middle of winter and that is much-needed around here. Like I have said all week, it has snowed pretty much non-stop since Christmas and if you lost track of time that was over three weeks ago now.
I am still into the snow, but just give me a few more weeks. Trust me, I will be complaining about it.
All the cold snow has left me wanting tropical foods. I am on a huge tropical kick and if you didn’t know, both plantains and pineapple are winter fruits. Ahh huh. Look it up, it’s true. So while I am currently going orange and pomegranate crazy over here, I am also into the tropical fruits. Oh, and limes, avocados and cilantro, I cannot seem to stop using these ingredients. Honestly, I use them at least once or twice a day. Addicted.
Also, I think my oldest brother is going to kill me if I try to force him to eat another quinoa dish. He’s not really into the quinoa or really anything green and colorful. No, he is more into the beige foods, which I personally hate. But mostly only because they are no fun to photograph.
Alright, so here is the deal with this quinoa. It is like fried rice, but with quinoa, and instead of the traditional Asian flavors, I threw in a big old Jamaican kick. I was going to use shrimp instead of chicken, but I knew in the back of my head that the seafood haters here would throw a hissy fit just like a five-year old. Normally I just make two separate dishes. One with chicken and one with shrimp, but I just did not feel like doing both. So chicken it was. I gotta say though, I think shrimp would be amazing. Don’t get me wrong, the chicken was really good, but I give all the credit to the seasoning. Ooooh, shrimp with the jerk seasoning would be so good too. Ok, ok – yes, I would have enjoyed seeing how the dish would have turned out with shrimp, but I wouldn’t have had anyone besides myself to eat it!
Next time for sure.
And wow, the fried plantains make this dish. So incredibly good… and good for you. They are like a less sweet version of a banana and they work incredibly well with these flavors. Right there is another reason to make this dish.
The best part about this meal is that it is a quick, easy, one-pan meal that comes together in under an hour. And it is pretty healthy too. Swapping the quinoa for rice is good and adds some really awesome texture. And you know I am a texture freak. So I loved this. Oh, and if you are worried about too much of a coconut flavor, don’t be. Just leave the toasted coconut out, but use the coconut oil. It really adds no flavor at all. But do not skip the nuts. The nuts are so good and if macadamia nuts are too expensive use cashews. Cashews would be awesome too. One last thing, I am thinking that since the Olympics are coming up I would like to start doing a lot more foods from around the world leading up to them. What do you guys think?
I hear the French like a ton of chocolate and bread. Sounds pretty good to me.
