A Jamaican Christmas Up North

Christmas is full of amazing aromas and flavors. Amp those up and you have a Jamaican holiday. The Jamaicans have always amped up everything about Christmas, from shopping with a junkanoo band playing to cooking and baking flavorful rich dishes. They do the day right.

Famed cookbook writer  and regular contributor, Priya Krishna wrote about it for today's new York Times's Food section. She not only got tot taste the best of Jamaican home chef Hazel Craig but also saw how she created these amazing dishes. Her assistant was her daughter , Jessica, the head  pastry chef at L'Artusa in  Manhattan's West Village.Hazel lives for Christmas celebration It has been the one constant n her family's trouble life here first in Queens , then Islip Long Island. They had even suffered a fire that completely destroyed their house. Yet Hazel would not be deterred during the holidays. She cooked curried goat, callaloo,ackee and saltfish in a small trailer. Even in their rebuilt house, she made sure they had the same feasting as they did before. It stems from Hazel's Jamaican upbringing. The island goes into full partying mode every December. She grew up in Spanish Town where people would dress up, playing drums and dancing in the streets. Her grandmother made her favorite dishes which included curried goat and a fruitcake rife with cherries and raisins marinated in rum since the Christmas before, Hazel's dessert nowadays is a sweet potato pudding , dusted with nutmeg.

The family comes from all over the US for a traditional Jamaican Christmas. Hazel makes the fiery callaloo which would be a perfect chill chaser. right now.It's a fish and greens stew chock full of all sorts of flavors. The original recipe calls for Amaranth and water spinach but Ms. Krishna suggests subbing in kale and Swiss chard with their stems removed. Saltfish or baccalao (cod) is also added for substance along with tomatoes and onions, Hazel adds a teaspoon of Lawry's Seasoned Salt which also has paprika and garlic.It's also cooked with vegetable or canola oil. The fish is first boiled and then shredded into little pieces. The tomato and onion are sauteed , then the saltfish and greens are added and stewed.The other recipe is for curried goat.If you do try this, remember that most supermarkets don't sell it. You'll have to go to a halal butcher for it.Onions and potatoes are added to it along with that famed Jamaican Scotch Bonnet pepper - which is pure fire.There is also the addition of Jamaican curry which also has allspice added ,a spin on the true Indian curry.It takes anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours to cook in a Dutch oven.

Jamaicans know how to do Christmas right. They make it a festival of food, both fiery and warming and sweet and calming. That's exactly what a holiday should be.