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AI-generated photograph: Three golden festival dumplings stacked at an angle on a dark slate plate, crisp ridged skins catching the light, a small ramekin of hot pepper sauce beside them

Home · Recipes · Jamaican festival (sweet fried dumplings)

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Jamaican festival (sweet fried dumplings)

sweet cornmeal dough · crisp golden fry · warm vanilla

AI-generated photograph

Festival is a Jamaican fried dumpling made with flour, cornmeal and a little sugar: crisp and golden outside, soft and lightly sweet inside. It is the classic partner for fried fish and jerk.

Contains: cereals containing gluten, as written. Contains gluten from the plain flour. Cornmeal and baking powder are usually gluten free, but check the packets.

Ingredients

  • 150g plain flour
  • 75g fine cornmeal (sold as fine cornmeal or fine polenta)
  • 2 tablespoons caster sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • A quarter teaspoon salt
  • Half a teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 500ml vegetable oil, for frying

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Let's cook

  1. Mix the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
  2. Stir the vanilla into 100ml cold water. Pour it into the bowl a little at a time, mixing with your hand, until it comes together as a soft dough that is not sticky. You may need a spoonful more water or flour.
  3. Knead the dough on the worktop for 2 minutes until smooth. Cover it with the upturned bowl and leave it to rest for 10 minutes. Resting makes it easier to shape.
  4. Cut the dough into 8 equal pieces. Roll each one between your palms into a sausage about 10cm long and a little fatter in the middle, like a small cigar.
  5. Pour the oil into a deep, heavy pan so it is about 4cm deep. Never fill a pan more than a third full. Heat it on a medium heat to 170C; if you have no thermometer, a small piece of dough should sizzle and float up in about 30 seconds.
  6. Fry 4 festivals at a time for 4 to 5 minutes, turning them often with tongs, until deep golden all over. Lift them out onto kitchen paper.
  7. Fry the rest the same way and serve warm.

Tips

  • Do not crowd the pan: too many at once cools the oil and the festivals turn greasy.
  • If they brown in under 3 minutes the oil is too hot and the middle will be raw. Turn the heat down a little.
  • Let the oil cool completely in the pan before you pour it away or keep it.

Swaps

  • Spiced: add a pinch of ground nutmeg or cinnamon to the dry mix.
  • Less sweet: use 1 tablespoon of sugar.

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Our own recipe. The photograph is AI-generated.

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