Bring A Jamaican Flair To Your Fish Dishes With This Floral And Spicy Pepper

Jamaica is known for its tasty box food, with one of the best known being jerk chicken, a source of national pride (and justifiably so). Jerk chicken owes its flavor to a seasoning blend that includes allspice berries, ginger, green onions, and thyme, along with the distinctive and slightly sweet heat of scotch bonnet peppers. Scotch bonnets and chicken may be a flavor marriage made in heaven, but another box food classic, Jamaican ackee and saltfish, proves that this pepper goes equally well with fish. Culinary maestro, Keisha Miles, who offers cooking classes and catering via her website, Dine Out In, called the scotch bonnet "a versatile hot pepper often featured in Jamaican soups, rice and peas, and all our popular proteins, including fish ... as iconic to Jamaican food as [Bob] Marley is synonymous [with] Jamaican music."

Scotch bonnets are similar to habaneros in flavor, heat level, and appearance, although they are slightly more citrusy. Miles described the taste as bold, floral, and slightly sweet. She warned, however, "It's very hot, which means you only need a little to raise the bar in terms of flavor and heat. The heat is bright and starts at the front of the mouth, quickly spreading to the whole mouth." Scotch bonnets, similar to habaneros, typically have between 100,000 and 350,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU). In her opinion, "Fish goes from zero to hero really quickly when 'scotchie' is featured. It adds brightness and depth of flavor."

Keisha Miles mentioned several Jamaican seafood dishes that make use of scotch bonnet peppers. Beyond ackee and saltfish — Jamaica's national dish, as well as a favorite breakfast of Olympic gold-medalist sprinter, Usain Bolt — there's also a dish called escovitch fish. Escovitch is a cooking style derived from the Spanish escabeche. In Jamaica, the term is used to refer to deep-fried fish served with a sauce made from vinegar, sugar, carrots, onions, and of course, scotch bonnets. There's also Jamaican fish tea, which Miles characterized as "a flavorful thin-brothed soup made from fresh fish and veggies," and pepper shrimp, which is seasoned with allspice, garlic, onion, thyme, and scotch bonnets.

Even if you're not cooking Jamaican cuisine, Miles still suggests flavoring your fish (or shellfish) with scotch bonnets. As she told us, "Use it in brines to add brightness and depth of flavor to your fish, or any seafood, for that matter." These peppers can also be stirred into seafood stocks, soups, and sauces, and they can be used in either fresh aguachile or ceviche. You can even take Miles' tip for a sweet-and-spicy topping by making scotch bonnet-infused honey for drizzling over smoked salmon.