Ackee and Saltfish

Ingredients

• 1 large tin of ackee, drained very gently
• 350 g salt cod
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 red pepper, sliced
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 4 spring onions, sliced
• 1/2 scotch bonnet, finely chopped
• 3 sprigs of thyme
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• plenty of black pepper
• 2 ripe plantains, to serve

Method

1. Soak the salt cod

   Soak overnight in several changes of cold water, then simmer for 15 minutes and flake, checking for bones. Taste before you go further — if it is still aggressively salty, soak it longer, because nothing later will fix it.

   12 h

2. Use tinned ackee

   Only ever use tinned ackee. The raw fruit is genuinely toxic unless picked fully ripe and prepared correctly, and the tinned version has already been through that.

3. Build the base

   Fry the onion, pepper, spring onions, scotch bonnet and thyme in the oil until soft, then add the tomatoes and cook until they slump.

   10 min

4. Fold, do not stir

   Add the flaked fish, then tip the ackee in and fold it through with a spatula two or three times only. Ackee has the texture of soft scrambled egg and it collapses into mush if stirred — this is the one thing that separates good ackee and saltfish from bad.

5. Warm through

   Cover and warm gently for three minutes. Season with black pepper and probably no salt at all.

   3 min

6. Serve

   Serve with fried ripe plantain, and bread or boiled dumplings.