Jerk Pork from Jamaica

Jerk Pork is quite spicy and they say that slaves used to marinate their meat in this spicy mixture because they didn't have fridges and the marinade would disguise the flavour of meat that was starting to go off.  However, Ghanaians make something similar so maybe this recipe evolved from something that was brought across from West Africa.  Whatever the exact origin, this spicy dish is a Jamaican favourite.

1 kg pork tenderloin cut into thick steaks
3 large red chilies seeded and chopped
2 onions roughly chopped
5 cloves garlic roughly chopped
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rum
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Put all the ingredients except the pork steaks into a food processor.  Give it quite a few pulses until you have a thick sauce.  This will be your marinade.  In a large bowl, pour the sauce from the food processor over the pork steaks, making sure that the steaks are liberally covered in the marinade.  Put it aside for 2-3 hours.  Overnight is even better.  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius while you get the steaks ready in a grill pan.  When the oven is hot, cook the steaks for 8 minutes, turn them over and cook the other side for 8 minutes.  Serve with either rice, sweet potatoes or a salad.  Instead of cooking in the oven, this can also be cooked in a BBQ over hot coals.
Cindy Vine is a South African currently living and working in Kyiv in Ukraine. She is the author of Hush Baby, Defective, C U@ 8, Not Telling and The Case of Billy B. All her books are available on Amazon in both print and Kindle format. http://cindyvine.com