Grilled Jerk Sausage with Festival
Recipes with Jerk Sausage
The closest you can get to a Boston Bay pit without pimento wood: jerk sausage grilled hot over charcoal until the casing blisters and the fat drips. The char is part of it. Served with festival, the slightly sweet fried dumplings that the roadside vendors always have on the side, and a squeeze of lime.
Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
20 min
Servings
4
Difficulty
Easy
Ingredients
- 4 jerk sausage links (about 600g)
- Lime, halved
- For the festival: 250g plain flour, 100g fine cornmeal, 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp salt, 150ml water (approx), vegetable oil for deep frying
Steps
Light the charcoal grill and let it burn down to a medium-hot bed of coals with some white ash on top. You want direct heat but not a raging fire that will burn the casings before the inside cooks.
While the grill heats, make the festival dough. Mix flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add water little by little, mixing to a firm, slightly tacky dough. Divide into 8 equal pieces and roll each into a log about 8cm long. Rest for 10 minutes.
Grill the sausages over direct heat for 15-18 minutes, turning every 3-4 minutes. The casing should blister and darken in patches. A thermometer at the thickest point should read 70°C when done.
While the sausages grill, heat oil to 175°C in a deep pan and fry the festival logs in batches for 3-4 minutes until golden all over. Drain on paper towels.
Rest the sausages for 3 minutes off the heat. Serve with festival and lime halves to squeeze over.
Tips
If you have access to allspice berries, scatter a handful directly onto the charcoal just before putting the sausages on. The smoke adds a brief pimento note that approximates the pimento wood effect. Hard dough bread works just as well as festival if you skip the frying.