Ackee and Saltfish

What is Saltfish?

Saltfish is a white fish; usually cod, haddock or pollock, dried and salted to preserve it. You may hear it called salt fish, salt cod or dry salted codfish.

The drying and salting method preserves the fish for over a year without refrigerating, which is one reason it became a popular staple worldwide in the 17th century.   

It is harder to find in the UK nowadays. You will usually find it in the Caribbean or world food section down the grocery aisle. We buy ours in a large Tesco store. The brand is Cawoods, skinless and boneless saltfish.

How to prepare Saltfish

There are two methods for preparing saltfish. Before cooking the ackee and saltfish dish, be sure to follow one of the methods below.

Overnight Method

1-3 days before making this recipe, rinse the saltfish in fresh water to remove excess salt, soak the saltfish in cold water.

Drain and top up with fresh water before going to bed. Drain and repeat with fresh water in the morning.

Then when ready to cook, drain and place the saltfish in a saucepan with cold water, bring to the boil over high heat, lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Quick boil method

The quick way to desalt saltfish is to rinse excess salt off saltfish in freshwater, then place in a large saucepan of cold water and bring it to a boil.

Drain the water and repeat the boiling from cold water again. Twice usually is enough; it depends on the saltfish you have purchased and your taste.

Taste and repeat once more if necessary. 

Break the salt fish into your desired size chunks. We use two forks to make smaller flakes to add to the ackee and saltfish recipe.

Substitute for saltfish

If you struggle to find saltfish, you can use fresh cod, haddock or pollock instead. Salt it yourself at least an hour before cooking the ackee and saltfish recipe.

Lay the white fish fillet on a plate covered generously with rock salt (coarse or kosher salt). Leave to allow the fish to absorb the salt flavour and lose some liquid. 

Before cooking, remove excess salt by rinsing it under cold water. Place in a saucepan with cold water, bring to a boil and lower to a simmer—Cook the fresh salted fish for 10 minutes.

Seasoning

Dunn's River Jerk seasoning is available in most supermarkets, with Jamaican spices and herbs needed to give ackee and saltfish authentic flavour.

You could try Jamaican all-purpose seasoning instead.

Oil

Jamaican cooking often uses coconut oil, olive oil, vegetable oil or sunflower oil.

Vegetables

This recipe uses fresh vegetables: onions, garlic, spring onions (scallions), sweet peppers, spicy peppers, and fresh tomato.

Peppers

In the UK, we call them peppers. They are known as sweet peppers in Jamaica. Or bell peppers in the US.

We could only get orange or yellow peppers at our local store when we made this for the blog. You can use a sweet red pepper, or for a more robust, slightly bitter flavour, use green pepper. Or a mixture, a great way to add more colour to the ackee and saltfish dish.

Scotch Bonnet Peppers

Scotch bonnet pepper is commonly used in Jamaican recipes, referred to as the Caribbean red pepper.

They are about 1 to 1 ½ inches and shaped like a bonnet colours range from green, yellow, orange or red. They are very hot and sweet with a Scoville rating of 100,000-350,000.

Adjust the amount of scotch bonnet used to your desired taste. We used ½, which was comfortable heat.

Substitute for scotch bonnet

We are lucky to have a fantastic local greengrocer who ordered these scotch bonnets, especially for us.

If you can't find scotch bonnets, you can use an equal amount of habanero pepper; they still have a fruitiness and similar heat to scotch bonnet peppers but a slightly more bitter taste.

Can't find either chilli peppers? The easiest to find in the UK is jalapeno or serrano peppers; they won't add the fruitiness but will still give some spice. You may need to add more than one!

Thyme

Add some fresh thyme leaves in with the saltfish for extra flavour. Season with black pepper only, as the fish adds saltiness.

What is Ackee?

Ackee is a Jamaican fruit rich in nutrition, especially protein and vitamin C.  Fresh ackee is a pear-shaped fruit with 2-4 openings that will fully open when ripe and ready to pick. 

The edible part is the arils attached to the seeds. If the Ackee fruit is under-ripe, the ackee will be poisonous, which worries and fears people!

There is no need to worry; finding canned ackee stored in brine is easier. Ackee is picked and cooked before being canned, meaning it is ready to add to the dish.

Canned ackee loses some nutrients during the canning process, but it is still good for you.

Ensure to drain all the salty brine from the ackee can; you may want to rinse it too.

Canned ackee is already cooked, so it only needs to be warmed up.

Add the ackee to the dish at the end and try not to stir too much to prevent it from becoming mushy.

Serving Suggestions

Traditionally this Jamaican breakfast recipe is served with dumplings or freshly baked bread. We like to serve it at dinnertime with a wedge of lime and rice and peas.

History

Introduced during colonial times to the Jamaican breakfast table by enslaved West African's who combined their ackee fruit with the local salt fish.

The perfect mix of African and Jamaican foods now famously known as Ackee and Saltfish.