Why York's new restaurant Turtle Bay is turning up the heat

CARIBBEAN cuisine has five simple ingredients: chilli, pimento, black pepper, thyme and sunshine.

So begins Colin Scott, executive chef at Turtle Bay – one of Britain’s fastest growing restaurant chains that has just opened an outpost on Little Stonegate, York.

In front of us is an array of dishes filled with these colourful components – except the sunshine, of course. It’s a rainy Thursday in York, but you wouldn’t know it from our vantage point, on a bar stool at the front of the spacious eaterie. Bright yellow bursts out from every wall: from the murals for Caribbean drinks to the yellow canopy over the bar, made from planks of wood to resemble a beach-side shack.

Posters of Bob Marley bear down on diners while reggae music transports you 3,000 miles away to the land of Rastafarians, steel drums and rum.

It’s mid afternoon, but already people are gathered round the bar, making the most of the 2-for-1 cocktail offer that runs every day from 11.30am-7pm and 10pm until closing time.

Turtle Bay's interior brings the sunshine indoors

Caribbean classics feature on the menu as you would expect. There is plantain, which looks like a banana, but is less sweet and needs cooking before eating. At Turtle Bay, they wait until it is so ripe it has turned black then fry it and serve it as a side order. It may still look like a giant banana, but it tastes more like a sweet potato.

Goat is a staple in the Caribbean, but rarely seen on a British high street menu. Colin says the animal is leaner than a sheep, making its meat denser. It requires slow cooking to break down the fibres – which is exactly what happens in the traditional goat curry. A marinade begins the tenderisation process, followed by a long, slow cook.

“Goat has a very unique flavour,” says Colin. “It is richer than lamb, and gamier.”

The curry is cooked with white and sweet potatoes and carrots and comes with rice 'n' peas and a sweet onion chutney. At the moment, it is served with a flatbread, but from January, it will come with Caribbean dumplings. It will be the 18th time Colin has tweaked the recipe, improving it, he says, each time.

He must be doing something right – goat curry is a best seller at the 22 Turtle Bays in the UK.

Sharing star billing is jerk chicken. Jerk is a classic Jamaican way of cooking and refers to the use of spices and smoke to flavour food. Traditionally this food was pork, but today, chicken, seafood and beef are prepared this way.

At Turtle Bay, you’ll find shell-on prawns, pork ribs, lamb, salmon and beef as well as chicken all receive the jerk treatment. Even the goat burger (80 per cent goat/20 per cent lamb) is spiced with the special jerk seasoning.

Again, the secret is in the preparation. Take the jerk chicken. It rests in the bespoke marinade overnight, then is cooked in the oven, before being finished off on the flamed grill, where lashings of jerk glaze are applied to send its spice levels through the stratosphere. If you like your food not so spicy, ask for them to hold the glaze.

Colin makes no apologies for the hotness of the food. Most dishes feature Scotch Bonnet chillies, some of the hottest around – on the Richter scale of chillies, they score a 9 out of ten.

But, he says, most dishes are only as hot as a medium curry – like a madras.

And if things get a little too hot, he knows the perfect way to cool it down.

“They say whisky or rum will neutralise the heat of chilli.”

I’ll raise a cocktail glass (or two) to that.

Taste of the Caribbean, clockwise from top left, curried goat, jerk chicken, spices and fried plantain

Recipe

Simple jerk chicken

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken (1.2-1.6kg bird)

50g jerk seasoning (available in supermarkets)

5 drops of liquid smoke (optional)

2 springs of fresh thyme

5g ground pimento powder

Pinch of sea salt

Pinch of black pepper

Equipment: Roasting tray

Method:

1. Coat the whole chicken with jerk seasoning, liquid smoke (optional) fresh thyme, ground pimento, salt and black pepper

2. Place on a tray, covered and refrigerate over night

3. Remove from fridge and place into a roasted dish, pour ½ a cup of water and cover with foil

4. Put into a pre-heated oven for 45 minutes on 180-200C

5. Remove from the oven, take off foil, baste the chicken with the cooking juices and return to the oven on 180-200C for 15 minutes

6. Remove from oven and leave to rest for 15 minutes before serving

7. At Turtle Bay, it is served with rice 'n' peas, fried plantain and dumplings.