Jamaican Festival (Sweet Dumpling) Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the Jamaican festival made of? ›

It is a dough made with wheat flour, Cornmeal, baking powder, salt, milk powder unflavored milk or evaporated milk, sugar and water, then fried in a neutral cooking oil and served hot. The finished festival should be crispy on the outside while soft and fluffy on the inside.

Baking powder: When using plain flour, you must use baking powder to help make the dumplings soft. The dumplings won't swell without the baking powder, and they will turn out hard.

The main thing that distinguishes Jamaican festival dumplings from fried dumplings is cornmeal. Whilst fried dumpling is plain flour mixed with salt and water, festival dumpling mix flour and yellow cornmeal. The cornmeal makes the festival dumplings crispy on the outside, unlike the softer outsider of fried dumplings.

What are dumplings made of? The dumpling dough is made of three main ingredients: flour, water and salt.

Seventh Day Adventists and some other Sabbath keepers don't eat it. They say it is forbidden by God, which they say is in the Bible. Rastafarians also have this belief. Some ministers of religion interpret it that because the law is in the Old Testament it is meant only for Jews so therefore Christians can eat it.

The origins of festival come from the period in the 18th century when enslaved Africans in Jamaica were given a weekly ration of both cornmeal and salted fish. This led to the creation of a variety of cornmeal-based dishes -- and the fact they're typically served alongside fish.

Coco bread is the Jamaican answer to American-style yeast rolls. The bread is made with flour, sugar, salt, yeast, butter, and coconut milk. Nestled in the Karibe 12" cast-iron skillet and baked until puffy and golden brown, each roll is slightly sweet due to the addition of granulated sugar and full-fat coconut milk.

These slightly sweet fritters are fluffy inside and crisp on the outside. According to legend, these light Jamaican corn bread fritters got their name because eating them is fun — like a festival.

Hand-mincing meat and adding more pork belly results in the juiciest dumplings. Traditionally, some Chinese cuisine uses hand minced meat for their dishes. For example, lots of dim sum items like siu mai, pork buns, beef meatball, and more use hand minced meat to control the texture and fat content of the dish!

Jamaican fried dumplings can be eaten as and served alongside traditional savory dishes. I love serving mine with Vegan Ackee and Saltfish, Jerk Tofu and pretty much any other savoury dish as a side. You can also serve them with hot sauce, ketchup, or chutney. Another option is to make them sweet.

Are dumplings sweet or savory? ›

North America. American dumplings may be of the filled pastry type (which are usually baked), or they may be little pieces of dough added to a savoury or sweet dish, in which case they are usually boiled. Baked sweet dumplings are a popular dessert in American cuisine.

The steaming process is what creates the shiny-looking soft exterior! Steaming is the traditional way of preparing dumplings and has never gone out of style. Many people around the world are loyal to this method of cooking and prefer it over pan-fried dumplings.

A notable part of celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival is making and eating zongzi, also known as sticky rice dumplings, with family members and friends. People traditionally make zongzi by wrapping glutinous rice and fillings in leaves of reed or bamboo, forming a pyramid shape.

Dumpling is a broad class of dishes that consist of pieces of cooked dough (made from a variety of starchy sources), often wrapped around a filling. The dough can be based on bread, wheat or other flours, or potatoes, and it may be filled with meat, fish, tofu, cheese, vegetables, or a combination.

Dumplings are most commonly formed from flour or meal bound with egg and then simmered in water or gravy stock until they take on a light cakey texture. Many recipes call for herbs, onions, grated cheese, or chopped meat to be rolled into the dough before cooking.

The Chinese had figured out how to grind flour about 300 years earlier, which led to noodles and, eventually, dumplings. Some say that the first dumplings were made with lamb and pepper, but since then, they have adapted. Most dumplings now have a pork mixture as their filling.

Fried dumplings have their origins in Jamaican colonization and slavery, where workers would pack fried biscuits to take with them on long journeys.