Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Jamaica's National Dish-Ackee & Saltfish



Plate with Ackee and Saltfish meal with Dumpling, Yam and Green Banana
Ackee and Saltfish meal. Photo courtesy of Juici Patties 

As the national dish of Jamaica, Ackee and Saltfish is internationally known and locally loved. 
The ackee fruit was imported to Jamaica from West Africa (probably on a slave ship) before 1778. It is also known as Blighia Sapida. The scientific name honors Captain William Bligh who took the fruit from Jamaica to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England in 1793 and introduced it to science. Because parts of the fruit are toxic, there are shipping restrictions when being exported from Jamaica. Saltfish is cod that has been preserved by drying after salting. Below is a method for preparing this meal. 


Opened Ackee Pod
Ackee fruit  in the pod

The ackee pod should be fully open and exposing the seeds in order to be deemed safe for consumption. You will be poisoned if you consume ackee from unopened pods.

Ackee Pod opened
Ackee fruit in the pod

 Next, you should remove the ackee fruit from the pod as shown below.



Ackee
Ackee that has been picked from the pod

You then move to remove the seeds from the ackee arils and clean everything so that it looks like the picture below.
Seedless Ackee Pod
Ackee with the seeds removed

Cleaned Ackee Aril
Cleaned aril

Saltfish
Saltfish aka Salted Codfish

Garlic and Pimento Seeds
Garlic cloves and Pimento seed

The saltfish, spices, and ackee arils are then put to boil until the arils become tender but firm and also to aid in the removal of the scales on the saltfish.


Boiled Ackee Aril
Boiled Ackee arils

Softened Ackee arils

Boiled Saltfish
Boiled Saltfish

Flaked Saltfish
Deboned and Flaked Saltfish

At this point, everything is seasoned with, salt (No, boiling it with the saltfish was not enough),  pepper, garlic, onions, thyme, pimento, tomato, and scallion.  The flaked saltfish is then sautéed with the seasonings for a few seconds before adding the cooked ackee arils. Leave it to simmer for about two minutes and then turn off the stove.

Ackee and Saltfish

The Finished Product



1 comments:

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