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Mannish Water
Kingston, Jamaica
A Jamaican goat-offal soup with a fearsome reputation as a virility tonic, traditionally served to the groom on his wedding night and ladled out at the rowdiest stage of any rural celebration. Everything from the goat is used, the head, tripe, feet, and other offal, simmered for hours with green bananas, yam, cho-cho (chayote), spinners (hand-rolled flour dumplings), scotch-bonnet pepper, thyme, and a generous splash of white rum stirred in at the end. The long, bony cook yields a deeply gelatinous, peppery broth that's considered restorative and aphrodisiac in equal measure. Mannish water is a fixture of the Jamaican 'curry goat' cook-out, where the prized cuts go to the curry and the rest, nothing wasted, becomes the soup. The name itself winks at its supposed power to 'make a man.' It's celebration food and folk medicine in one pot, ubiquitous in rural Jamaica yet largely a mystery to visitors who never leave the resort buffet.
Ingredients
- 1.5 kggoat head and tripe, cleaned and chopped
- 500 ggoat feet, chopped
- 3 wholegreen bananas, peeled and halved
- 400 gyellow yam, peeled and chunked
- 1 wholecho-cho (chayote), chopped
- 150 gflour (for spinners dumplings)
- 1 wholescotch bonnet pepper, whole
- 4 sprigsfresh thyme
- 4 clovesgarlic, crushed
- 3 stalksscallion, crushed
- 60 mlwhite rum
- 2 tspsalt
Directions
- 1
Wash the goat head, feet, and tripe thoroughly with lime or vinegar, then place in a large pot and cover generously with water.
- 2
Bring to a boil, skim off the foam, then add garlic, scallion, thyme, and salt and simmer for about 2 hours until the meat is tender and the broth is gelatinous.
- 3
Add the green bananas, yam, and cho-cho and cook until soft, about 25 minutes.
- 4
Make spinners by mixing flour with a little water and salt into a stiff dough, then roll pea-sized pieces between your palms into thin dumplings and drop into the pot.
- 5
Add the whole scotch bonnet (do not burst it unless you want intense heat) and simmer 10 minutes more.
- 6
Stir in the white rum at the very end and adjust salt.
- 7
Serve piping hot in bowls as a celebratory starter.