May09thTue Fried Dumplings 'Johnny Cakes'

Jamaican fried dumplings, ‘johnny cakes’, are a great compliment to many traditional Jamaican dishes. This small hot cake is great for buttering and enjoying on its own or sopping up the sauce of the main entrée, whether it’s a Jamaican breakfast of ackee and saltfish with boiled green banana or as part of a traditional Rastafarian ital meal.

‘Johnny cakes’ are a simple food, basically flour, salt and water kneaded together and tossed into hot oil until golden brown. The boiled version is pretty yummy too!

Ingredients
3 Cups Plain (counter) flour mixed with 3 tsp Baking Powder/3 Cups Self-Raising Flour
1/3 to 1 tsp Salt
3 tsp Sugar (optional)
3 tsp Butter/ Margarine
¾ Cup Water, or enough to make the dough firm
¾ Cup Cooking Oil

Method
Warm up frying pan or pre seasoned dutch pot ( a great Jamaican staple pot!) for 2- 3 minutes
Carefully add the cooking oil and leave to heat up
Add all dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl and mix together evenly
If using butter / margarine, add this to the dry ingredients and rub the flour through your fingers until it mixes together with the butter evenly and resembles fine breadcrumbs – do not leave blobs of butter in the mixture
Add water (slowly) and continuously knead the dough until it is firm and there is no dry flour in the bowl.
The dough should NOT stick to your fingers once finished and should form into one large ball
Pinch a golf ball sized piece of the dough and place in the palm of your hand, use the other hand to fold the outer edges into the middle until the dumpling has a ‘firmness’ to it
Keep kneading in this way for about 30 seconds until firm
Roll dumplings. Traditionally you simply make a ball but you can play with the shapes
Leave formed dumplings to one side of the bowl until the oil is ready
Carefully place dumplings into the hot cooking oil and leave for a few minutes until they are fried golden brown on the underside
Gently turn over and brown the other side – do not overload the pot, the dumplings shouldn’t be touching one another too much
Pierce the dumplings to cook more easily
Test the dumpling by piercing with fork, if it comes out clean the dumplings are ready.
If it yields and the fork comes out clean, its ready to come out of the oil
Remove and place on paper towelling on plate to drain off any remaining excess oil and keep warm

Cooking Tips:
Serves 4 -6 people

Takes about 10 minutes to prepare and another 20 minutes to cook

If you want to feed more people, just increase the quantities.