Festival

Jamaican Festival

Festival is Jamaica's beloved sweet cornmeal dumpling, shaped into fingers and deep-fried until golden and crisp on the outside, with a soft, cake-like interior. It is the classic street-food partner to jerk chicken, jerk pork, fried fish, or escovitch.

Prep

15 min

Cook

20 min

Total

35 min

Serves

8

Difficulty

Easy

Recipe ingredients

• •200 g (7 oz / 1¼ cups) fine yellow cornmeal, fine grind, not polenta
• •100 g (3½ oz / ¾ cup) plain all-purpose flour
• •50 g (¼ cup) granulated sugar
• •4 g (1 tsp) baking powder
• •2 g (½ tsp) fine sea salt
• •5 ml (1 tsp) vanilla extract, Jamaican vanilla preferred if available
• •180 ml (¾ cup) cold water, plus extra if needed; add gradually
• •750 ml (3 cups) neutral frying oil, vegetable, canola, or sunflower; for deep-frying

Steps

1. 1 In a large bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until evenly combined.
2. 2 Pour in the vanilla and about two-thirds of the cold water. Mix with a wooden spoon or your hand, adding more water a little at a time, until you have a soft, pliable dough that is just slightly tacky but not sticky. Do not overwork it; stop as soon as the flour is incorporated.
3. 3 Cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel and let the dough rest for 10 minutes so the cornmeal can hydrate.
4. 4 Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces (about 50 g / 1¾ oz each). On a lightly floured surface, roll each piece between your palms into a smooth log about 10–12 cm long (4–4¾ in) and roughly 2.5 cm (1 in) thick, tapering the ends slightly. Cover shaped pieces with a damp towel as you work.
5. 5 Pour the oil into a heavy-bottomed pot or deep skillet to a depth of about 5 cm (2 in). Heat over medium heat until the oil reaches 175–180 °C (350–356 °F) on a deep-fry or instant-read thermometer. If you do not have a thermometer, drop in a small pinch of dough; it should sizzle immediately and rise to the surface within a few seconds, with steady (not violent) bubbling around it.
6. 6 Carefully lower 3–4 festivals into the hot oil, taking care not to crowd the pan. Fry, turning occasionally with a slotted spoon or tongs, for 5–7 minutes total, until deeply golden brown all over and floating high in the oil.
7. 7 Lift the cooked festivals out and drain on a wire rack (not paper towels, which can make the underside soggy). Keep warm in a low oven (90 °C / 200 °F) while you fry the remaining batches, returning the oil to 175–180 °C (350–356 °F) between each batch.
8. 8 Serve hot, alongside jerk meats, fried fish, escovitch fish, or by themselves as a snack. Doneness cue: the outside should be crisp and uniformly deep golden; when broken open, the inside should be fully cooked through (no raw, gritty cornmeal in the center) and tender, with no gummy streaks.
9. 9 Safety note on the oil: never leave hot oil unattended, keep it away from water, and if it ever smokes heavily or smells sharp, switch off the heat, ventilate, and start with fresh oil, as overheated oil is a fire risk.