Caribbean food may be known for its deep flavours, comforting dishes and generous use of seasoning, but that does not mean it has to take hours to prepare.

The pair, from South London, began filming basic cooking videos in their grandmother’s kitchen in 2016 and have since amassed close to one million followers, released cookbooks and appeared on the BBC, Sunday Brunch, Buzzfeed, BET Network, London Live and Reprezent Radio.

Their fourth cookbook, Easy Caribbean, features 80 traditional and modern recipes designed to deliver authentic Caribbean flavours with less fuss.

“As fathers, we’ve had to adapt,” explains Craig McAnuff, 37. “Oftentimes, we’re in a rush to do something, we’re tired from a long day or we’re cooking for the family and doing a long meal prep for the week.

“We wanted to maintain that authentic Caribbean flavour and those authentic Caribbean recipes, but make them in shorter times and with everyday equipment in our kitchens like air fryers and pressure cookers.

“This book is about the same authentic flavour, but with less fuss and less hassle.”

Here, McAnuff shares his tips for making easy Caribbean dishes at home.

Build your collection of essential ingredients

For anyone trying Caribbean cooking for the first time, McAnuff recommends starting with a small selection of fresh ingredients and versatile seasonings.

“Garlic, onions, spring onions and Scotch bonnet are essentially used in every single recipe,” he says.

“If you’re making a curry, then you’re looking at spices like curry powder and seasonings like all-purpose seasoning. I’d say those things are the main things that you need.”

He adds that browning sauce can be used to add colour and flavour to gravies and stews.

However, beginners do not need to buy a cupboard full of unfamiliar products before they start cooking.

“If you have spring onion, garlic, bell peppers, Scotch bonnet and the basic seasonings in your house, you’re pretty much halfway there,” McAnuff says.

“It’s then about getting the poultry or vegetables and cooking them in that Jamaican way.”

Do not assume big flavour means complicated cooking

McAnuff believes some people are intimidated by Caribbean food because its rich appearance and flavour can make the cooking process seem more complex than it is.

“You think of Jamaican food and think it tastes amazing, so much must have gone into this to make it – but it’s really not that at all,” he says. “It’s really simple processes and often key foundations of ingredients that are used.”

“Jamaican food is very palatable. It’s not overly complex ingredients, it’s just a way of cooking and combining different spices and seasonings together that you might not have done before.

“It might be combining garlic with cinnamon, or spring onions with a really sweet product like browning sauce. You don’t necessarily think about combining those things, but that’s what Jamaican food is about.”

Make use of your air fryer

An air fryer can offer a simple starting point for people who enjoy jerk chicken but are not confident preparing it using more traditional cooking methods.

“There’s an air fryer jerk chicken recipe in the book,” says McAnuff. “You can literally get a store-bought jerk machine, put it on there with some seasonings and then put it in the air fryer.”

Let a pressure cooker do the hard work

Traditional dishes that usually require a long cooking time can become more manageable with a pressure cooker or slow cooker.

“We use the pressure cooker at home,” McAnuff says. “Before we go to work, we put on the seasoning for goat meat and season it as we usually would for an authentic Jamaican curry goat recipe.

“We throw it in and, by the time we get home, it’s all cooked.”

Although cooking Caribbean dishes slowly over the stove remains a good method, McAnuff stresses that convenience does not have to mean compromising on flavour.

“You can do also do it with convenience and cook smarter, which is where the pressure cooker comes in,” he adds.

Try rice and peas in a rice cooker

Rice and peas can feel daunting for those who struggle to get rice right, but a rice cooker can make the process easier and free up time to prepare other parts of the meal.

“The rice and peas technique is seasoning the peas, boiling the peas and putting in the rice and seasoning,” McAnuff explains.

“There are a few elements to it, but the rice cooker definitely makes it a lot easier. It’s a smarter way to cook it alongside other things.”

Start with a quick noodle dish

For a fast midweek meal, McAnuff recommends the curry chicken noodles from the new book, which he says can be ready in around 30 minutes.

“It was so, so good,” he says. “It was cut pieces of boneless chicken seasoned with curry powder, garlic, Scotch bonnet, bell peppers and spring onions.”

The chicken is browned first to create caramelisation, before noodles are added towards the end of cooking.

“The curry sauce on the noodles was absolutely delicious,” McAnuff adds. “It cooked so fast, it was spicy and it was just so wholesome.

“I’ve got some left over for today as well, so that’s a win for me.”

Cooking food that brings people together

For the brothers, making Caribbean cooking more accessible is also a way of preserving the recipes and memories passed down through their family.

McAnuff recalls staying at his grandmother’s house and waking up to staple Caribbean breakfasts, as well as spending weekends eating with relatives.

“It gives you that real comforting feeling of togetherness and knowing that you’re really going to enjoy the food you’re about to eat,” he says. “That’s the feeling we had growing up and what we’re always trying to emulated in our cooking and with our families today.”

The brothers now run workshops for children and parents, alongside sharing recipes through their books and online platforms.

“Food is a pivotal part of Caribbean culture,” McAnuff says. “It’s a unifying time for families to get together and sit around the table.

“Whether it’s at a barbecue or a family gathering, those things are very important to our culture. It shapes who we are, it shapes our conversations and our personalities, and it’s a real driving force in keeping families together.

“We want to continue that legacy and those traditions through our cookbooks.”

Original Flava, Easy Caribbean: 80 quick and easy recipes with feel-good flava by Craig and Shaun McAnuff is published in hardback by Bloomsbury Publishing, priced £25. Photography by Matt Russell. Available now