The mackerel rundown or “rundung” as we Jamaicans say, is a traditional Jamaican dish usually eaten for breakfast.
Sunday mornings my grandmother would make run down (rundung) and serve it with hard food.
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Mackerel run down is salted mackerel cooked down in seasoned coconut milk until it is reduce to a oily custard sauce.
To get the oily custard sauce and the flavour right, use fresh coconut milk.
I wouldn’t recommend using canned coconut milk for the recipe.
How to cook mackerel rundown from scratch?
Step 1. Wash the salted mackerel with lime juice then put to scaled for five to ten minutes.
Step 2. Pour away the boiling water and wash the mackerel in cold water to cool it.
Step 3. Remove all the bone and break the fish into small pieces.
Step 4. Pour fresh coconut milk into a sauce pan and put it to boil on medium heat. Let the coconut milk boiled rapidly
Step 5. Add chopped onion, garlic, bell pepper, 5 pimento berries, chopped scallion, thyme and scotch bonnet pepper.
Step 6. Add the salted mackerel and stir well.
Step 7. Let the pot cook until the coconut milk is reduce to coconut oily custard sauce.
Once the coconut starts to thicken make sure to reduce the heat to prevent it sticking to the pot.
What Is Salted Mackerel
Salted mackerel is mackerel fish that have been cured by adding a great amount of salt to dry the moisture from the fish.
This process helps the preserve the fish.
Because of the amount of salt that is used to preserve the mackerel, you must give the fish a good wash before you cook it.
Using lime or lemon to wash the mackerel, will not only cut the fish smell but also help to cut the amount of salt in the fish.
Moreover, the amount of salt in the fish should be enough the season this dish, therefore no salt is added to this recipe.
What To Serve It With
The best side the serve with mackerel run down with is hard food, boiled dumpling, boiled green banana and boiled yellow yam.
In Jamaica hard food is most popular but we also have fried dumpling or roasted breadfruit with the mackerel rundown.
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Mackerel rundown recipe Jamaican dish
Ingredients
- 2 lbs Salt mackerel
- 2 Cups Fresh coconut milk
- 2 Cloves garlic Crushed
- 3 Sprigs of thyme
- 1 Stalks scallion Chopped
- 1 Onion Chopped
- 5 Pimento berries (Allspice)
- ½ Scotch bonnet Seeds removed and finely chopped
- 1 Lime/lemon To wash the mackerel
Instructions
- Wash the mackerel with the juice from the lime/lemon in some water.
- Then place the mackerel in a sauce pan with fresh water and put to scald for 5-8 minute.
- Remove from fire wash in cold water to cool. Pour water away. Deboned the mackerel then break into small pieces.
- Pour the fresh coconut milk in a sauce pan and let boil rapidly on medium heat.
- Stir in the mackerel, onion, garlic, dried pimento, scallion, scotch bonnet pepper and thyme.
- Cook until coconut milk is reduced to oily custard sauce.
I just tried this mackerel rundown. It came out perfectly and was a big hit with the family!
Wow, that’s very nice to hear. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Lesa! Just letting you know how much I’m enjoying looking at your recipes. I’m very much aware of most of them as I’m from Jamaica (Port Royal) and as a child would help my grand aunt every weekend to make her Ginger Beer. Chop up the seasonings for her Escovietch (for her fried fish). Meanwhile I’d be helping my other grand aunt in making Syrups, especially Strawberry (for her snow cones) and on Sundays make Coconut, Soursop and many other flavored Icecream recipes. Watching your recipes and others has certainly taken me back to my roots and childhood days of such good memories, even when I would sometimes grate my knuckles (as I grate the coconut or ginger) and would forget that I had just finished chopping up scotch bonnet peppers and went and rubbed my eyes or would touch my mouth…OMG! But I learned. And as I’m thinking back, I would not have traded it for anything else. Keep up the good work!
Excellent recipe. Clearly outlined even for a novice
Good cooking