Bring some sunshine into your cooking with some authentic family recipes from the nation’s favourite Jamaican celebrities. We're going to be bringing you a series of lip-smakingly good recipes over the net few days. First up Levi Roots.

Dragon’s Den success story and king of caribbean cooking, Levi Roots shares a delicious sunny pattie recipe. It's an unbeatable family recipe he swears will bowl over your taste-buds.

Ingredients

Prep Time -  15 mins
Cooking Time 30 mins
Makes 6-8

1 yellow pepper, deseeded and  cut into 1cm (1?2in) dice
150g (51?2oz) carrots, cut into 1cm (1?2in) dice
300g (101?2oz) butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into 1cm (1?2in) dice
4 tbsp chopped fresh coriander leaves
4 spring onions, finely chopped
200g can sweetcorn, drained
100g (31?2oz) orange cheese (such as Double Gloucester), grated
2–4 tsp salt
1 x quantity Patty Pastry (see page 140)
1?2 egg, lightly beaten, to glaze

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas mark 6.
2. Put the pepper, carrots and squash in a saucepan with a small amount of just-boiled water. Cover and cook for 4 minutes. Drain, put in a bowl and mix with all the other ingredients, except the pastry and beaten egg. Leave to cool completely.
3. Cut the pastry into 6 or 8 pieces, depending on whether you want larger or smaller patties. Roll the first piece out into a large circle, with the pastry about ½cm (¼in) thick. Put an eighth of the filling (or a sixth, if making 6 patties) on one side of the pastry, leaving about 1cm (½in) around the edge. Brush the edge with some of the egg glaze. Fold the other half of the pastry circle over the filled half and press the edges together to seal, using a fork to crimp the edges.
4. Brush the patties with the remaining beaten egg glaze, place on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper and cook in the oven for 25 minutes or until nice and golden on the outside as well as on the inside.

Extracted from Caribbean Food Made Easy with Levi Roots, published by Mitchell Beazley, priced £17.99. Photography copyright Chris Terry.

Recipes are brought to you by Red Red Stripe, Jamaica’s No 1 lager beer who donated to a charity of the celebrities choice for every recipe received.

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