25 Lazy Casserole Recipes You'll Make Over and Over

Restaurants, Food And Drink

If you can't escape to the Caribbean this winter, then bring its spicy heat and tropical flavor to your kitchen. Jamaican jerk cuisine is a method of dry-rubbing or marinating meat in a jerk spice blend or paste packed with fresh chiles, herbs and spices. The marinade infuses flavor and tenderizes the meat, which is traditionally cooked on a grill.

Jerk seasoning is meant to be hot — very hot — which is typically achieved by adding Scotch bonnet or habanero peppers to the seasoning. If you are familiar with the Scoville scale (the measurement of the heat units of peppers), these peppers are at the top of the scale. This recipe tames the heat a bit by substituting jalapeno or serrano peppers so that you and your dinner companions won't self-combust. Just remember to carefully seed any peppers that pack heat with gloved hands.

The list of spices and aromatics in this jerk paste is lengthy, but the method is simple. Gather the ingredients and add them all at once to a food processor. Blend to a paste while taking care not to inhale any peppery air that may waft up from the feed tube while processing. Then slather the paste all over the chicken and let it marinate, ideally overnight.

Jerk chicken is typically cooked on a grill (it's from the Caribbean, after all). If grilling is not an option (for most of us, it's not the Caribbean, after all), then this recipe provides an option to oven roast.

Jerk Chicken

Serves 6 to 8

INGREDIENTS

4 garlic cloves, peeled

3 scallions, chopped

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

2 to 3 jalapeno or serrano chiles, stemmed (seeded optional)

1 (2-inch) knob ginger, peeled, chopped

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari

2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

2 teaspoons ground allspice

2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

8 whole chicken legs

Garnish: Chopped scallions, lime wedges

DIRECTIONS

Place the marinade ingredients — the garlic, scallions, onion, chiles, ginger, oil, lime, soy sauce, sugar, thyme, allspice, pepper, salt, coriander and cinnamon — in the bowl of a food processor and process to form a paste.

Make small incisions all over the chicken legs. Arrange the chicken in one layer in a large baking dish. Rub the marinade all over the chicken, under the skin and in the incisions. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or preferably overnight. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before grilling.

If using a grill, arrange the chicken on the grates over indirect medium heat. Cook until thoroughly cooked through, about 40 minutes, depending on the size of the legs, turning once or twice. During the last few minutes of cooking, move the chicken to direct heat to char the skin.

If using an oven, roast in a 375-degree oven until thoroughly cooked through, about 40 minutes, depending on the size of the legs. During the last few minutes of cooking, turn on the broiler to char the skin.

Serve garnished with chopped scallions and lime wedges.

Lynda Balslev is a San Francisco Bay Area cookbook author, food and travel writer and recipe developer. Learn more at TasteFoodBlog.Com.

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Originally Published: January 28, 2025 at 6:30 AM PST

Caribbean Students Recognised For Their Efforts To Reduce Region's Food Import Bill

Students of Georgetown High School, St Vincent and the Grenadines at the 2024 edition of the Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) (photo CMC)

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — The Caribbean Community (Caricom) has recognised students from St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and Belize for their interest in the agricultural sector, as efforts continue to reduce the region's food import bill by 25 per cent by the end of this year.

The students from the Georgetown High School of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Mopan Technical High School of Belize, and Pleasantville Secondary School of Trinidad and Tobago, took the top three prizes respectively in the Caricom High School Agriculture Video Competition 2024.The Guyana-based Caricom Secretariat said that the competition was held to generate interest in agriculture at the secondary school level, as the region works towards reducing its food import bill.

There were 43 submissions from high schools across the region.

Senior Economic Adviser to the Caricom Secretary-General Dr Wendell Samuel, in congratulating the winners, said that it was evident that young people are not only thinking about the future but are actively shaping it.

"The Caribbean Community has made it a priority to achieve the 25 by 2025 regional food and nutrition security goals, which are focused on enhancing food security, increasing the sustainability of our food systems, and promoting resilience across our region."

"We know that we cannot reach these ambitious goals without the creativity, innovation, and the energy of young people like you. You are not just the future of agriculture, you are the present," he said.

Samuel also acknowledged the "invaluable contribution" of the school teachers who provided support and mentorship, adding, "You are the guides who encourage curiosity, nurture talent and champion the potential of youth. Thank you for your unwavering dedication to this important cause."

Director of External and Institutional Relations of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Beverly Best, who addressed the ceremony, praised the students for their creativity, dedication and hard work.

"We trust this is just the beginning of your journey to greatness, as we urge you to keep pushing boundaries to inspire and captivate audiences — especially other young people, by telling powerful stories about the endless possibilities of this sector."

New Cafe Jadu Brings Magic To Jamaica Plain (And Yes, There Will Be Wine)

With thick slabs of pistachio butter-slathered sourdough toast, jammy egg-filled breakfast sandwiches, and wintery cardamom and clove lattes, a cozy new café has arrived in Jamaica Plain—and soon, it'll transform into a wine bar in the evenings, too. Jadu (Hindi for "magic") is now open in Centre Street's former Espresso Yourself space, and locals have been eagerly flocking to the narrow, sunshine-filled address in its early weeks.

"I love coffee and I love wine, and I see them as conduits for gathering," says owner Maya Mukhopadhaya, a relative newcomer to the hospitality industry, echoing the sentiments of the team behind another recently opened café/wine bar, Tilde in Cambridge. "My hope for [Jadu] is for it to be a neighborhood spot where you can roll on through with friends—or make new friends."

Jadu's pistachio butter toast with hemp crumble and rose petals. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal

Jadu's doors opened in December 2024, with some help from a SPACE Grant from the City of Boston's Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion. (Other recipients include Russ & Mimi's in Roslindale, the forthcoming East Boston expansion of Democracy Brewing, and many other local small businesses.) To start, it's a daytime café, operating from 8 a.M. To 3 p.M. Six days a week (closed Wednesdays). Evening wine bar service will debut in the middle of the year, adding to Greater Boston's seemingly growing trend of day-to-night venues. Within the last two months, both Tilde and Jadu have opened, as well as Lovestruck Books, a romance bookstore with a daytime café and, soon, a nighttime wine bar. Plus, Short Path Distillery recently announced that it'll soon open a café inside its Everett space. It's not exactly a new trend—look back a few years and you'll see, for example, the opening of several breweries that operate as cafés during the day, such as Remnant and Winter Hill Brewing in Somerville and Lamplighter in Cambridge. But this current wave feels fresh, with a rush of venues all opening around late 2024.

Jadu. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal

It could have something to do with "a collective yearning for gathering spaces" in the post-COVID-lockdown era, says Mukhopadhaya. "Coming out of pandemic-induced isolation, I was yearning for a space to be around other people. Jadu was born from that." And, she suspects, it's also why Tilde and Lovestruck popped up around the same time, and why the community has been so receptive to these venues. (JustBook-ish, a Dorchester café, bookstore, and gathering space, arguably falls into this category too, she notes. There's no booze, but there are fun tea-based mocktails.)

There's also the question of economics, both on the consumer side and the business side. Locals are looking for nights out that aren't as formal, or expensive, as reserving a fancy restaurant table weeks in advance and dropping hundreds of dollars there. Places like Jadu and its peers are conducive to just showing up. Local sports bars and dive bars fill a similar niche and are "magical community hubs in their own right," says Mukhopadhaya, but sometimes people want something "more curated, more concept-driven, and for lack of a better word, more vibey."

Jadu's "mezze situation." / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal

As for the business side, day-to-night concepts allow owners to make the most of fixed costs like rent and utilities. "By transforming a single space into a dual-purpose venue, we're able to optimize our fixed costs," says Mukhopadhaya. In other words: You're paying rent on the space whether you're using it during the day or the evening. Why not both?

If Mukhopadhaya sounds like someone with a head for business, it's because that's what brought her to Boston: She arrived here in 2013, earning an MBA at Babson. It's the longest she's lived anywhere, she says. Born in Cuba to Indian diplomats, she spent much of her childhood in Delhi, with a stint in New York in the middle. She finished high school in Lebanon and returned to New York and then India before landing here.

Jadu's chicken and rice. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal

After grad school, Mukhopadhaya saw her identity tied up in "product management in tech," she says, but by 2022 realized it didn't fulfill her anymore. "I wanted to open a coffee shop and wine bar in Jamaica Plain, because I live here and felt the lack of spaces like this." And so she spent a bit of time learning the ropes of the industry—working at a coffee shop, serving at JP restaurant Tres Gatos, and co-running Jadu (version 1.0) as a pop-up series with Gabrielle Malina. In mid-2024, the collaborators announced their diverging paths: Mukhopadhaya took the reins of Jadu, bringing it into its brick-and-mortar era, while Malina is now running wine-filled pop-ups under the moniker First Crush.

Jadu's menu is "somewhat autobiographical," says Mukhopadhaya, reflecting her time in India, Lebanon, and beyond. "These are things that are informed by foods I grew up eating and memories I have of eating with people I love."

Jadu drinks and a scone from Monumental Market down the street. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal

That means plenty of nods to India: Parle-G biscuits, masala chai, a sweet-and-salty lime soda. "The South Asian community in Boston gets very nostalgic when they see we have Parle-G and Indian instant noodles on the menu," says Mukhopadhaya. Pair the former with a chai; try the latter at lunch, either on their own as a snack or in "deluxe" form with chili-roasted tofu, avocado, pickled onions, and cilantro.

Other menu items with international inspiration include a lunch selection called "the mezze situation," an homage to Mukhopadhaya's memories of "grabbing lunch with my girlfriends on a weekend outdoors somewhere at a restaurant in Beirut." The dish complements a fluffy pita and housemade hummus with beet-walnut dip, harissa-roasted carrots, olives, and pickled vegetables. There's also Turkish-style eggs with garlic labneh and a peanutty chicken and rice dish "loosely inspired by chicken satay." Avocado toast is sprinkled with an Indian spice mix; miso, tamari, and chili crisp liven up a savory oat bowl.

Jadu brings in baked goods (all nut-free) from Monumental Market nearby. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal

"I want to balance what I call the foreign and the familiar," says Mukhopadhaya. "For someone who likes your staples, your comfort food, I want you to be able to find something on the menu that doesn't scare you away, and then hopefully once you have that foundation of trust, you'll venture into something a little bit more out of left field." The best-selling "breakfast sammy" is a good coming-to-Jadu-for-the-first-time pick, she says, with jammy eggs, cheddar, Calabrian chili butter, arugula, and focaccia.

Jadu's savory oats with chili crisp. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal

Jadu also serves a rotating selection of pastries from Monumental Market down the street, which makes 100% nut-free treats. And another local collab? Jadu's cups are made by Somerville-based Mak Ceramics. "We co-designed our espresso, latte, and cappuccino cups [with Mak] with a hint of our 'Jadu green,'" says Mukhopadhaya, nodding at the relaxing green tones found throughout Jadu's branding and space. The cups are also for sale at the café.

When Jadu adds evening wine bar service around the middle of 2025, it'll have a streamlined food menu of snacks and small plates for "noshing while you drink," says Mukhopadhaya. The focus will be wine and beer, and maybe some fun cordial-based cocktails. (Jadu has one of Boston's wine, beer, and cordials licenses, which allow some but not all hard liquor, prompting license-holders to get a little creative with their mixed drinks.)

Jadu. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal

Day or night, Jadu is meant to feel comfortable—"like your best friend's living room," says Mukhopadhaya. "A place where you can go and leave the pretense of outside behind and settle into the space." But there's a bit of sparkle to it, too, that makes Jadu's name fit. "I feel like there's been a lot of magic, or serendipity, that has gone into the making of this," says Mukhopadhaya, meeting the right people at the right time to make the venue come to life. (For example: Mukhopadhaya's cousin's girlfriend, whom she met one time, put her in touch with a friend who's an interior designer—DotOBJ Design Studio—who ended up designing the space.)

"Also, I think people come in here and there's this serendipitous connection or spark that happens with people making new friends," says Mukhopadhaya. "That feels heartwarming."

Jadu's labneh parfait with pomegranate molasses and hemp crumble. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal

767 Centre St., Jamaica Plain, Boston, jaduboston.Com.

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