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Saltfish flavours - Trinidad and Tobago Newsday

Salted fish has fallen from grace on our twin islands, mostly because the younger generation is somewhat clueless to the preparation, or has not had a good culinary experience with this traditional ingredient. This is another indication that our traditional foods are not being prepared as often as they used to be.

It’s one of my favourite foods. Who can resist a good saltfish accra, or a stewed saltfish with provisions and buljol.

The supply of salted cod, as we knew it long ago, has decreased considerably on the world market due to overfishing. Nowadays the fish that is mainly salted is pollock, a poor cousin to cod, but useful nonetheless.

It’s easy to prepare saltfish, simply soak for about 20 minutes, and repeat. Squeeze out excess water and flake. Because the fish is not as heavily salted these days, lots of soaking is not necessary.

The next time you are shopping in the supermarket, don’t pass that salted pollock up, take home a package and try it in any one of these sumptuous recipes.

Stewed saltfish

4 tbs olive oil

1 lb saltfish, washed and soaked see note

1 lb ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1 pimento pepper

2 cloves garlic chopped

4 onions, peeled and thinly sliced

2 blades chadon beni, finely chopped

hot pepper, optional

lime

Heat oil in a sauté pan, add onions, garlic and pepper, sauté until fragrant, add saltfish and stir and fry until the saltfish has become mixed in well with the onions in the pot.

Add the tomatoes and stir, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Stir in chadon beni.

Serve with boiled provisions.

Cassava and saltfish cookup

[caption id="attachment_1133450" align="alignnone" width="768"] Saltfish and cassava - Photo by Wendy Rahamut[/caption]

If you have leftover stewed saltfish and boiled cassava, the next day add some olive oil to a frying pan, heat, add the left over saltfish with some additional sliced onions if you prefer. Heat well, now cut the cassava into one-inch pieces and add it to the saltfish, cook until mixture is dry turning frequently until cassava is brown and crusty and all the pan juices are dried up. Serve with pepper sauce and enjoy!

Saltfish buljol

½ lb saltfish

½ fresh lime, juiced

2 large tomatoes, thinly sliced

2 large onions, chopped very fine

4 tbs olive oil

½ large bell pepper, seeded and cut into strips, or chopped fine

2 hard-boiled eggs

8 lettuce leaves, washed and dried

1 small avocado, sliced

Cut the saltfish into chunks and soak in warm water, overnight.

Drain and flake fish.

Add lime juice to saltfish and rinse, cover the fish with warm water again and let soak for 30 mins.

Rinse fish and taste for salt, if there is too much salt, let soak for another 30 minutes. (Alternatively place the fish in a saucepan, cover with cold water, boil and remove fish, taste for salt and repeat if necessary.)

Drain fish, bone and flake.

Place fish on a serving platter.

Heat 2 tbs olive oil in a non-stick frying pan, add onion and sauté for two minutes, add tomatoes and remove from heat.

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