Grenada's national dish — breadfruit, salt cod or salt meat, callaloo, dumplings, and chicken slow-braised in coconut milk with turmeric until the liquid cooks away and the coconut oil 'comes down' to the bottom of the pot.
Oil down takes its name from the final stage of cooking, when the coconut-milk braise reduces until the coconut oil separates and 'comes down' to coat everything. A communal one-pot, often cooked outdoors over wood.
Dig into oil down and the breadfruit is soft and golden, soaked through with coconut and turmeric, the salt cod savory, the callaloo silky, the dumplings chewy, the whole pot glossy with the coconut oil that has 'come down'. Bite: rich, deeply coconut-savory, faintly sweet from the milk, the turmeric earthy, the salt cod and chicken meaty. A communal feast in one pot — the taste of a Grenadian Sunday lime.
Layering (not stirring) lets each ingredient steam in the coconut milk while the breadfruit absorbs it from below. As the liquid reduces, the coconut milk breaks and its oil separates out — the 'oil down' — coating everything in rich coconut fat and concentrating the flavor.
Variations
With salt pork/pig tail instead of salt cod. With ground provisions added. With more callaloo. With turmeric-heavy 'saffron'. Vegetarian with extra breadfruit. With breadnut.
On the Palate
Where Oil Down sits in the Grenadian flavor cloud
Layer the pot and never stir — the whole dish is defined by letting the coconut milk reduce until its oil breaks out and 'comes down' to coat everything at the base.
Ingredients
Serves 8
How it's made
8 steps · 45 min active + 1 hour 15 min waiting
- 118 min
Soak 300 g salt cod, then flake; brown 8 chicken pieces.
- 212 min
Peel and chunk 1 breadfruit; wash a bundle of callaloo (dasheen leaves) and chop.
- 310 min
Make a dumpling dough from flour, water, and salt; roll into 'spinners'.
- 46 min
Layer the pot: callaloo on the bottom, then breadfruit, chicken, salt cod, and dumplings.
Watch outBuild the layers deliberately with callaloo cushioning the bottom so nothing scorches before the milk goes in.
- 53 min
Season with turmeric, thyme, garlic, scotch bonnet, and black pepper.
- 62 min
Pour over 800 ml coconut milk to nearly cover.
- 755 min
Cover and simmer 45-60 min, not stirring, until the breadfruit is tender and the liquid has cooked down to coconut oil at the base.
Watch outNear the end, tilt the pot: clear coconut oil should glisten at the base and the breadfruit yields to a fork.
- 82 min
Serve straight from the pot.
