How to Make Escoveitch Fish and Bammie

Escoveitch Fish and Bammie is a regular part of every Jamaican's diet. I've been eating this for as long as I can remember, and the smell of a fish frying is enough to make me salivate. Here is how you can enjoy escoveitch fish and bammie too.

First, you need to buy a whole snapper fish from the Meat and Produce Store (also known as the West Indian store) on highway 441 and 26th Street in Fort Lauderdale. They are scaled before they go on sale, but you may find a few scales lurking on the fish. Do not be surprised, just get a knife and scrape them off. Also, bammies are scarce here in the US, so I usually get mine from Jamaica and freeze them. Let a bammie defrost for about an hour before you are ready to fry it.

Wash the fish in cold running water, rubbing it both inside and out, and then wrap it in paper towel to dry. After this, make a three-inch slit vertically on both sides of the fish. Then, take about a teaspoon each of salt and ground black pepper. Mix them together, and use a knife to insert a satisfactory amount of mixture in the slits.

Heat a frying pan on medium flame with a generous amount of cooking oil. This is the tricky part. Frying a fish means that you will get burned by the oil. There's no real way around that, unless you have a splatter guard. When the oil is hot, gently lay the fish in the pan and leave it to fry. While it is frying, chop an onion and a few scotch bonnet peppers and put them to soak in about half a cup of vinegar. Turn the fish after the first side is fried to satisfaction. Heat another frying pan on medium flame with a little oil (a smaller pan is suitable for this). When this pan is hot, pour in the vinegar mixture and let it heat to satisfaction, stirring it ocassionally.

When the fish has been fried, lay it in a shallow dish and pour the vinegar mixture over it. Let it soak.

When the bammie has thawed, cut it in four (this can be a bit difficult, but cut it nonetheless) and soak it in milk. Not too much to make it soggy, and not too little to keep it dry. Heat another frying pan on medium-low flame with a generous amount of oil, and when the oil is hot, place the bammies in the pan. No worries here, the bammies won't make the oil pop. Let it fry on one side for five to ten minutes, or until it has reached a desired color. I prefer mine golden brown. Turn and let the other side fry. When the bammie is done, place it on a plate with the fish and serve.

Caution: Bammies are extremely hot straight out of the pan, so you may want to wait a while before eating or be very careful. Also, whole fishes have a lot of bones, so inspect each forkful for bones, and if any happen to make their way to your mouth, carefully remove it. Do not, under any circumstance, try to chew it, much less swallow it.