McAnuff Craig - Original Flava

	Bring da sunshine to your day from early marnin to brunch, lunch and dinner
	Flavalicious sides, good nuff to nyam on their own, plus our special home-made sauces
	Snacks and meals with the carnival and beach vibe, inspired by stalls and cook shops around the Caribbean
	Fill up and feel good with natural, plant-based dishes full of vegan flavas inspired by the Rasta lifestyle
	Our favourite authentic dishes from growing up with Nan and from the heart of Caribbean homes
	Get da flava in your glass with drinks to chill out, warm up, quench thirst and party!
	Food to feed family and friends for feasts and good times together
	Treats to make you smile with Caribbean flavas and that sweet, happy buzz

INTRODUCTION

Were two brothers from South London sharing easy recipes from home. We started by filming recipes in our nans kitchen in London, gaining hundreds of thousands of online followers and having a #1 self-published book crazy, eh? Now weve explored the food stories of the streets and authentic flavours on a journey to our familys homeland of Jamaica the Original Flava!

Our motto is EAT: we make our recipes Easy, Accessible and Tasty. We want to give you platefuls that taste like Nans food, and we also like to twist it up a likkle to give dishes our modern spin. Caribbean food looks so good on the plate that you might ask How am I going to make that? Were here to show you how, making it easy like one-two-three.

In this book youll find recipes jus like back ah yard. There are recipes for all day, everyday food breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner; dishes for big gatherings with family and friends; the all-time Caribbean classics of Ackee and Saltfish and Curry Goat, and other island favourites such as Garlic Butter Lobster. Our chapter of Ital vegan recipes is inspired by Rastafarian culture, and theres another on the snacks and meals you enjoy at Carnival, roadside stalls and fish shacks. Theres sweet food and drinks to hit the sweet spot and Saturday soups and stews for deep-down comfort. Stout Stew and Rum Punch four ways? Throughout, weve been inspired by our time travelling in Jamaica, where we cooked with our family, ate jerk chicken, sipped pon a likkle rum and talked to the locals about the secrets of Caribbean cooking.

Jamaican food is so vibrant, lively, exciting and full of the influences from different cultures that make the island so wonderful. You look at it, smell it, you want to eat it! Most important of all is the togetherness it brings the same happiness we have with our family. We want to share this joy, a testament to the culture of Jamaica thats full of fun, fantastic FLAVAS, and the stories behind the food. So get your ingredients, turn on a likkle music, and lets get cooking!

YA MON!

MEET SHAUN

Growing up in a Caribbean household, cooking has always been a massive part of my life. Mum loves bringing people together with food, and she cooked for us at home every day, after work. Coming in, itd be Wheres Mum? and shed be in the kitchen. I wanted to see what was going on and be part of it. So I helped out with kitchen tasks for her, as well as for my nan, setting the table and taking dessert to serve to everyone.

I got used to the sweet-smelling recipes that woke me up out of my sleep. Easter time was my favourite. Grandma would make fried fish and plenty of carrot juice to wash it down delicious. And how could I forget Christmas? We had so much food and drink sorrel and Guinness punch filled up the fridge along with the turkey and the Christmas ham. I wanted to know how to make everything, so over the years I watched and learned, taking it all in.

What I came to understand was the process. Food isnt just about cooking but everything that leads up to it: the shopping; getting the right goat meat with the bone, because thats where all the flavour is; having a relationship with the butcher and fishmonger; and details such as soaking the peas in advance to make them cook quicker and have the best texture.

When I left home to go to uni, I started cooking properly for myself. Id make meals for my flatmates, and do my signature chicken wings for my friends annual BBQ. Grandma and Mum instilled in me: Make sure you season overnight and use all the seasonings you can find! Thats how you get all the FLAVA. When I went to work, Id come in on Monday with leftover Sunday dinner the Rice and Peas we had every Sunday without fail. Id eat that with a selection of flavaful meats, and my colleagues would smell it all and ask whod made it for me. They were just the meals I grew up learning how to cook stew chicken, dumplings, plantain.

Then my brother Craig and I started combining food with social media. Ill never forget the day: it was April 2016. Wed see queues of people in our high street buying Jamaican food. I thought, people love this so why dont we go round to Nannys and film a video of how to make it? We picked the spiced-bun bake, Bun and Cheese a recipe every Jamaican loves. We researched, got tips from Nan and made a one-minute film. It went viral. Thats how we started our business: cooking, showing and sharing Caribbean home-cooked food on the plate and online.

Now we help people all around the world to make delicious Caribbean recipes at home for family, friends, boyfriends and girlfriends, husbands and wives, children and adults. As well as cooking, Ive always enjoyed helping others and done voluntary work in hospitals and schools, as well as working in care homes. Through Original Flava, Im able to inspire kids to learn to cook and to help support disabled people to eat well and have a better quality of life. Love and food bring everyone together.