The Home in Home Cooking

I fried my first dumpling just maybe a couple months ago. I hadn't really done it before. You don't really tread into those territories until you have an idea of what you're doing. You're used to having it done to perfection and you don't want to screw it up. My sister and I were responsible for making our own food at a pretty young age, because Mom was at work and you had to come home from school and make yourself something to eat. Sometimes my sister and I would make dinner, but most of the time it was my mother.

My cultural background is of Jamaican descent. Primarily the food that we ate on a daily basis was Caribbean based, but I would say that my mother was a little bit more experimental. There was the occasion of trying to mix in other cultural influences, probably influenced by the people that she worked with. That’s how she was introduced to cannolis. Her work place was the centerpiece of a lot of cultural food exchange.

I had a few favorite meals. It wasn't just one. Curry goat, stew peas, and curry chicken were some. But ackee and saltfish are up there as one of the things that I still eat from my childhood. To me, nothing says home cooking more than that. It was Saturday or Sunday breakfast. Those were the only days my mother had enough time to make that kind of meal. So yeah, that's definitely one of my favorites. As a kid you enjoy home cooking, but you take it for granted- especially with fast food. But now, with my family, it’s become everything to me. It’s how I share with, buy for, and nurture them.

Home cooking, to me, tastes better and it feels better than fast food at all. We’re pescatarians for the most part, so my diet is a little bit different than growing up because I don't eat meat or poultry now. I had to become creative with how we get our nourishment. A lot of leafy greens, a lot of beans, a lot of white fish. We occasionally do salmon, but not often. We have a lot of hake, shrimp, scallops.

The base of our food is almost always onions, garlic, scallions, thyme. And maybe allspice or pimento. Those two add a depth of flavor like you can't even imagine. I wouldn’t be able to pick that flavor out, but I know the difference between when I put it in my food and when I don't. It doesn't seem distinguishable on its own, but it heightens the other flavors. At least, I feel like it does. If you've got those few things, I think you're on your way to making a nice Caribbean dish.

I don't have one specific food moment that sticks with me, but I spent a lot of time in my mother's kitchen. I appreciate having that exposure and sort of paying attention to certain things. So now, I’m comfortable as I make a couple of saltfish dishes with my own spins. I substitute callaloo with kale or collards, or a different green. The texture is a little bit stiffer, but they have similar tastes, so I think it works well.

For more work by Alaric Campbell, visit his instagram @alaricphoto