Rundown

Ingredients

Coconut

• 2dried coconuts, grated and pressed for milk
• or 800 ml thick tinned coconut milk

Fish

• 600 gsalted mackerel, or fresh mackerel
• or salt cod

Aromatics

• 1onion, sliced
• 6spring onions, chopped
• 6 sprigsthyme
• 4 clovesgarlic
• 1 tbspallspice berries, pimento
• 1whole scotch bonnet pepper
• 2tomatoes, chopped

Also

• 1 tbspvinegar
• black pepper
• salt, if needed

To serve

• boiled green banana
• yam
• dumplings
• or bread

Directions

1. Taste a flake after soaking to judge whether it needs longer. Flake the fish and remove every bone. Now the coconut milk, which is best pressed fresh if you can.
2. Grate a dried coconut, cover it with hot water, work it hard with your hands and strain it through a cloth, pressing. Fresh-pressed coconut milk separates far more readily and cleanly than tinned, which is stabilised to stop exactly that happening.
3. Pour the coconut milk into a wide heavy pot and bring it to a simmer. Now cook it, uncovered, over a medium heat for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring often. Stir it regularly and scrape the base once it thickens, because it catches quickly. Cook them in the coconut oil for 5 minutes. Add the whole scotch bonnet, unbroken.
4. Leave it whole so it perfumes the pot without releasing its heat, and lift it out before it splits. Add the flaked fish and turn it gently through the sauce.
5. Add the fish at the end and warm it through for 8 to 10 minutes only. The salted fish is already cooked and long simmering makes it dry and stringy. Add the vinegar and plenty of black pepper.
6. Taste before adding salt at all, because salted fish brings a great deal. The finished rundown should be thick, oily and rich, coating the fish rather than pooling around it.
7. Serve it with boiled green banana, yam and dumplings, which is the standard Jamaican plate. Peel the green bananas under running water or with oiled hands, because their sap stains skin and clothes black.

Technique

• Salted mackerel is the traditional fish and gives the deepest flavour.
• It thickens further as it stands and reheats well.
• Dip and fall back is a closely related Jamaican dish made the same way with dumplings cooked in it.

Substitutions

• Fresh mackerel, added at the very end and cooked briefly.
• Full-fat tinned coconut milk, which reduces less readily.

Variations

• Made with fresh fish rather than salted.
• With shrimp or crab.
• Dip and fall back, with dumplings cooked in the sauce.

History

A dish made by simmering coconut milk until it reduces and separates into a thick, oily curd, then cooking fish or mackerel within that reduced coconut base along with onion, tomato and Scotch bonnet pepper, documented across Jamaica as a traditional dish reflecting the island’s African culinary heritage and its long-standing reliance on coconut as a significant cooking ingredient. Its name describes the technique of running down, or reducing, the coconut milk through slow cooking until it thickens and takes on a distinctive nutty, slightly oily character that forms the dish’s flavour base. Rundown remains a traditional Jamaican dish, particularly associated with the island’s rural and coastal culinary heritage.

Frequently asked questions

What is Rundown?

Rundown is a main from Jamaica: mackerel simmered in reduced spiced coconut milk. A dish made by simmering coconut milk until it reduces and separates into a thick, oily curd, then cooking fish or mackerel within that reduced coconut base along with onion, tomato and Scotch bonnet pepper, documented across Jamaica as a traditional dish reflecting the island’s African culinary heritage and its long-standing reliance on coconut as a significant cooking ingredient. Its name describes the technique of running down, or reducing, the coconut milk through slow cooking until it thickens and takes on a distinctive nutty, slightly oily character that forms the dish’s flavour base. Rundown remains a traditional Jamaican dish, particularly associated with the island’s rural and coastal culinary heritage.

How long does Rundown take to make?

Rundown takes 20 min of preparation and 45 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Rundown?

Yes, within limits. Fresh mackerel, added at the very end and cooked briefly. Full-fat tinned coconut milk, which reduces less readily.

What is the most important thing to get right in Rundown?

Pour the coconut milk into a wide heavy pot and bring it to a simmer. Now cook it, uncovered, over a medium heat for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring often. Stir it regularly and scrape the base once it thickens, because it catches quickly. Cook them in the coconut oil for 5 minutes. Add the whole scotch bonnet, unbroken.