Salt Fish and Bake-A delightful blend of Salt fish sautéed with onions, garlic, tomatoes and thyme makes you think of the Caribbean’s, yes?
Yes Yes. If you travel to the Caribbean islands(Jamaican, Guyana, Trinidad) just to name a few, you can’t help but try salt fish… at least once. They are being sold everywhere and enjoyed for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and in between. People like me, once we like it we go bananas over it- religiously going through every menu to experience it, one more time. This, Salt fish and bake right here is one of my favorite ways of enjoying Salt-fish sautéed and sandwich in between a slightly sweet bread. Yum! If you are unfamiliar with Salted codfish, it is cod fish that has been preserved by drying, after salting. In Africa, this fish is referred to as stock fish- (A very popular and expensive dried unsalted fish). In Italy it is known as baccala and the Portuguese call it bacalhau. No matter what you call this, it is dried Atlantic cod. So here is the deal, to make this fish edible, it is important that you soak the fish in water for about 1-3 days to get rid of the salt –if not you would have wasted an expensive fish.
You want to hear some good news? You can do the desalting in a matter of hours by boiling the fish, and changing it’s water till you reach desired taste. Some merchants do carry frozen fish that has been desalted for you. You might want to ask if you have a Caribbean market in the neighborhood. This dish appears to be complicated but it is really fairly simple to prepare and well worth the effort. It also reminds me of African fish roll in taste and texture but these bakes are slightly firmer and spicy in a good way. Questions? Can you use regular fish to make these – Yes, It’s still going to taste Fabulous but would not have that distinct taste. Can you bake these – ABSOLUTELY! So there is no excuse not to make it. Now let’s getting cooking!!! Enjoy!
