Bajan Seasoning

Barbados's green seasoning paste of spring onion, onion, garlic, fresh thyme and marjoram, scotch bonnet, and lime, rubbed into fish and meat before cooking

Origin: Bridgetown & Barbados

From the journey of Marjoram.

Every Caribbean island has its green seasoning, the blended paste of herbs, alliums, and pepper that starts most savoury cooking, and each is recognisably its own. Trinidad's is built on culantro. Barbados's is built on thyme and marjoram, the herbs of the English kitchen garden that the island's first settlers, who landed in 1627, would have known at home, and it is the marjoram that gives Bajan seasoning its particular warm, sweet edge amongst its neighbours. It is spring onion, onion, garlic, fresh thyme and marjoram, parsley, and scotch bonnet, blended with lime juice and salt, and sometimes with a little Worcestershire sauce, cloves, or paprika according to the family recipe. Households keep a jar of it in the refrigerator permanently. Fish is scored and the seasoning pressed into the cuts; chicken is rubbed with it the night before; and the flying fish of Barbados's national dish, served with cou-cou, is steamed or fried in a sauce begun with it. The paste is sold in jars on the island and abroad, but every Bajan cook will say that the bought kind is a poor relation of the one made at home.

Ingredients

  • 1 bunch spring onions, roughly chopped
  • 1 onion, roughly chopped
  • 8 garlic cloves, peeled
  • 15 g fresh thyme leaves
  • 15 g fresh marjoram leaves
  • 1 small handful flat-leaf parsley
  • 1 scotch bonnet pepper, seeded, or to taste
  • 4 tbsp lime juice
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce (optional)

Method

  1. Put everything in a blender or food processor and pulse to a coarse, wet paste.
  2. Taste and adjust the salt, lime, and pepper.
  3. Pack into a clean jar, cover with a thin film of lime juice, and refrigerate.
  4. To use, score fish or meat and press the seasoning into the cuts, then leave for at least an hour, or overnight, before cooking.

Notes

Fresh marjoram is essential; dried marjoram gives a flat, dusty result in a fresh paste. Two tablespoons season about 500 g of fish or chicken.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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