Dinner is the most enjoyable meal in my family: eating, talking, hearing about each other’s day. It was the same when I was growing up, so we kick off this section with a classic Jamaican recipe, Jerk Chicken. In truth, although chicken was a popular dinner dish in my childhood, I didn’t start coming to eat jerk chicken until I was a teenager. This recipe will taste best if you use Scotch bonnet peppers.

Wild Red Snapper is also very Jamaican, especially how it works with okra. A lot of us who grew up there love the food that has been passed on in stories as much as the plate. According to Jamaican folklore, okra makes you strong, more manly, more virile. Plus, Jamaica has the best okra I ever tasted. The other okra-based recipe we have here is the Whole Roasted Branzino, with a different twist: you caramelize the okra.

One of my favorite creations is the Coconut Dream Fish. We have been cooking with coconut for a long time in Jamaica. You’d get it from the people in the market who would boil it. It wasn’t something you would buy in a store. The Coconut Dream Fish is a take on the traditional Jamaican brown stew fish. You fry the sea bass lightly with coconut oil, then cook it down with onion, garlic, and other seasoning. Real herbs and spices from the earth give the best flavor. And then you add the coconut milk, so the whole thing have this deep coconutiness. When I first made it I thought, Oh, this is like a coconut dream! Makes you go to bed real nice.