Cooking with the Campbells

Get ready to indulge in your new favourite cooking show – inspired by After Sunday.

In the same way music can evoke the memory of an emotion, a person or a place, food can also connect us to time, people and home.

In Cooking with the Campbells, Corey Campbell (the director of After Sunday) and his Mom, Clarita, prepare a selection of Caribbean meals together – Clarita as Tutor, Corey as Apprentice. 

Just as the memories are stirred up in the Campbell kitchen, After Sunday explores how the past lingers in the present, and how the people and places we carry with us shape who we are today. It’s a reminder that home isn’t always about where you live, but what lives in you.

• Episode 1 – Saturday Soup
• Episode 2 – Ackee & Saltfish
• Episode 3 – Caribbean-style all-day breakfast
• Episode 4 – Curry Mutton, Jerk Chicken and Mac & Cheese

__________

Episode 1

In this first episode, the Campbells discuss memories of childhood, touch on family experiences of autism, debate Corey’s self-proclaimed title as a ‘Master Chef’ and explain why every ‘Dutch Pot’ – a staple in all Caribbean homes – should be black! Corey insists Celebrity Chef Wolfgang Puck taught him everything he knows. Clarita disagrees.

Then from a bubbling pot made under his mom’s watchful eye, Corey serves up his first ever attempt at Saturday Soup to episode 1’s guests, Joelle Ikwa (Belgrade’s Community Embedded Producer) and her sister, Christa.

Traditionally cooked on a Saturday (hence the name), this dish was once a way to use up the week’s leftover groceries. ‘Hard food’ (such as yam, green banana, breadfruit and pumpkin) would be added to a Dutch Pot, along with a meat of choice, making this a thrifty meal that is tasty, hearty, and packed with nutrients!

If you fancy whipping up your own pot of Saturday Soup, here’s a recipe for you to try.

Mrs Campbell’s Saturday Soup

Ingredients (all amounts are approximate)

“Caribbean people don’t measure”- Clarita Campbell

Ingredients

• 1kg Diced Lamb (or mutton)
• 200g Yam peeled & diced
• 200g Cho Cho peeled & diced
• ½ Pumpkin peeled & diced
• 1 Coco (Dasheen/ Taro) peeled & chopped
• 3 Carrots peeled & chopped
• 2 Sweet potato peeled & diced
• 2 white potatoes peeled & diced
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Black pepper
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• 3 garlic cloves crushed
• 1 Onion peeled & sliced
• Scallion (spring onion) chopped
• 1 Leeks chopped
• Fresh Thyme
• 1 tsp Pimento
• 1 Scotch bonnet pepper sliced 
• 1 bell pepper chopped
• 1 corn on the cob cut into 5
• Dumplings & spinners – plain flour and water
• 1 packet Cock Soup mix

Method

1. Prep your meat by rinsing with lemon juice or vinegar, then season with salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder.
2. Half fill your pot with water and bring to a boil.
3. Add your meat into the boiling pot and return to a boil until the meat is tender – 15 mins.
4. Add half of your veggies – onion, leeks, garlic, pumpkin, carrots to a blender with some water and blitz to a pulp to create your soup base.
5. Add this to your pot, stir, and bring back to a boil.
6. Add everything else and simmer on a low heat for 1 hour or until your meat is tender and your potatoes etc are nearly cooked.
7. To make your dumplings add plain flour and a pinch of salt to a bowl, slowly add water and knead well until it forms a soft dough. Pinch off a small amount and roll into a flat ball or long tube.
8. Add your dumplings/spinners and packet soup mix to your pot. Gently stir, then simmer for another 20 mins.
9. Serve and enjoy.

__________

Glossary of Terms:

Dutch Pot/ ‘Dutchie’ – A heavy, typically cast-iron, lidded pot originally imported to the Caribbean by Dutch traders. Available in different sizes, they are a staple in every Caribbean home.

‘Hard Food’ – Starchy staples such as yam, green banana, breadfruit, pumpkins and boiled dumplings. So called because they are dense, filling and provide sustained energy.

‘Spinners’ – boiled dumplings that are long rather than round.

__________

Episode 2

In episode 2 of Cooking with the Campbells, Clarita tasks Corey with cooking Jamaica’s National dish, Ackee & Saltfish. There are moments of reflection as Corey discusses the importance of spending time with loved ones; the Mom and son duo connect through song; and it’s round two of the dumpling off – last time it was boiled dumplings, this time they’re fried. 

Corey and Clarita are joined by Joelle Ikwa (Belgrade’s Community Embedded Producer), who stops by for a second helping of Campbell cuisine, and Aimee Powell – who is playing Naomi in After Sunday – also joins for the dumpling taste test! Will sabotage and secret ingredients affect the outcome? Tune in to find out.

Fun fact

The ackee fruit is a native of West Africa and was brought to Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean in the 1800s. Its name was derived from the West African word Akye fufo.

While being a gorgeous specimen of fruit, a delicious staple food, the National Fruit of Jamaica, and part of Jamaica’s signature dish, unripe ackee are poisonous and quite deadly causing severe vomiting, loss of consciousness, seizures or even death.

However, when the ackee is fully matured, the colour of the outer skin is bright orange, and it is split open exposing the yellow flesh and black seeds of the fruit. At this point the level of hypoglycin (the poison in the fruit) is completely undetectable and the fruit is safe for consumption, as evidenced by it being eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner in Jamaica.

If you are feeling adventurous, give Mrs Campbell’s Ackee & Saltfish recipe a try:

Mrs Campbell’s Ackee & Saltfish

Ingredients (all amounts are approximate)

Ingredients

• 2 Cans Ackee
• 1 pack boneless saltfish
• 1 Onions sliced
• 1 Small tomato diced
• 1 Sweet bell pepper sliced
• 1 Stalk scallions chopped
• 3 Sprigs thyme
• ¼ Scotch bonnet pepper seeds removed
• ½ tsp Black pepper
• 2 tbsp Cooking oil

Method

1. Rinse the saltfish in cold water to remove the salt
2. Add the saltfish to a pan and cover with fresh water. Boil on a medium heat for 15 minutes.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and pour away the hot water. Rinse the fish in cold water to cool it.
4. Pour the water away then break the saltfish into flakes and set aside.
5. On a medium fire, heat the oil in a cooking a Dutch pot (or deep pan). Add the onions, thyme, tomato, sweet pepper, scotch bonnet pepper, scallions and sauté for 3 minutes or until soft.
6. Add the flaked saltfish and cook for another 3 minutes.
7. Carefully fold the drained ackee into the saltfish, lower the heat and let it simmer for another 10-15 minutes.
8. Add the black pepper to taste.
9. Serve and enjoy.

Ackee & saltfish is usually served with fried dumplings, fried or roasted breadfruit, hard food or any rice dish.

__________

Episode 3

Episode 3 of Cooking with the Campbells brings a Caribbean-style all-day breakfast served with plantain, jokes and a set of hungry bellies from Cooking with the Campbells’ film crew.

Corey reminisces on the memories of Christmas mornings, the desserts that only the ‘big people’ were allowed to eat, and the legend of the Caribbean ‘Front Room’.

__________

Episode 4

Episode 3 of Cooking with the Campbells piles the table high with curry mutton, jerk chicken, rice & peas, and mac & cheese. Then Corey faces his toughest critics yet: his nieces and nephews.

Mom and Son spend time reflecting on times gone by, touch on some of the themes from After Sunday, and take a moment to think about the time they’ve spent together making the show.