Ackee and Saltfish - Tips and Info

For starters, let me be completely honest: Ackee and Saltfish isn't exactly the easiest dish to prepare. If you have no idea how to cook the fruit or have little experience in the kitchen, then it may be a good idea for you to do a little research on the how-tos on cooking it (and here I am to help! ).

Here are a few things to note before you start:

The Fruit

A closed ackee pod

What ackee looks like on the tree
before it's ready to be picked

Ackee did not originate from Jamaica, however it is grown and eaten widely across the island (it is Jamaica's national fruit after all...  ). Another familiar name for ackee is Vegetable Brain, and Blighia Sapida being its botanical name.

The ackee tree grows up to 50 feet tall, depending, of course, on the conditions favourable to the tree's growth. It needs full sunlight  and proper moisture in order to grow and produce its best fruit.  Ackee is sold widely in Jamaica by supermarkets in tins. Bearing seasons come twice a year between January to March and June to August.

Ackee is not a fruit that is to be eaten raw!  When it is harvested before it is ready (when the hard red pod opens up naturally), or when not cooked properly, it is poisonous! So please... if there is one thing that you should not do is attempt to eat it raw. (Take it from personal experience, I did that when I was a kid... it was not fun).

Ackee contains hypoglycin A and B, which will cause you to get sick with what is called "Jamaican Vomiting Sickness Syndrome" (JVS) if you eat an unripe ackee. However, cases of JVS are rare nowadays with persons now being aware that they should cook and eat the fruit when ripe, and only when ripe. (So just a quick heads up on that).

Another thing about ackee is... well... its " more than just a fruit "

Dried and Salted Cod (known as 'Saltfish' in Jamaica)

Saltfish/Bacalhau/Dried and Salted Codfish/Salt Cod

Known as "Bacalhau" in some areas, salt cod can be prepared in many ways and is easy to prepare as well. "Saltfish" as Jamaicans call it, is most popularly cooked with the ackee in small pieces (kind of like a stir fry...), although Jamaicans also prepare it on its own and with other ingredients (such as okra... which is one of my favourites when prepared properly ). Preparing the saltfish to be cooked with the ackee is also easy, all you have to do is boil it down and ensure there is no pink mould. (I'll explain that further down).

Well since we've put all the "did-you-know"s aside, now it's time to get down to business and start making Ackee and Saltfish! And what could be more rewarding than learning to make it the hard way? (Don't worry, I'll mention easier methods as well as my own experiments and method of cooking it).

NB: Clicking through different sites and blogs I've noticed many people are scared to try and prepare ackee, because of the fact that it's poisonous if not done properly. Well I'm here to tell you that even a total newbie can prepare it properly from scratch without having to worry about whether he's going to get sick. Just relax. It's just a fruit! It's not going to come out of the pod and bite you with its poisonous fangs! You just need to know what to take off from it, that's all!

Shall we?

First things first:

Cleaning the Ackee

Picture of open ackee pods

So you have an ackee tree nearby? Maybe in your back yard? Well it's time to face your fears and get to picking! 

(If you decide that finding a tree and cleaning the ackee is too much work for you, you can always buy the canned ackee in a supermarket. I've never had canned ackee and have never seen the need to have ackee with preservatives in my food, as I have trees all around me, but not everyone has an ackee tree close by, so instead of driving miles to go search for an ackee tree in a hot area, just go to your nearest supermarket. There should be canned ackee there).

So, what you want to look for is the opened red pods before picking them. Make sure they're already open, as they split open from the sunlight. The more open they are the more suitable they are for cooking (although I don't recommend you picking the discoloured ones - those are rotting and should be disposed of). There are two types of ackee, and knowing the difference will help in determining how hard or how soft the ackee turns out to be after you cook it with the salt cod. One is called "butter" ackee, and is usually the softer aril (the yellow part - the edible part). If you overcook butter ackee then it will end up losing its shape and will turn out looking like mush on your plate. Some people prefer butter ackee, so it's really up to you to experiment and see which you like better. The other type is called "cheese" ackee, which is harder (obviously). This type is what I've known to be the favourite among Jamaicans while growing up. Personally it does not matter to me because they both taste the same if you cook it the same, one just loses its shape... oh well.

After picking to your heart's content, you may now go into your kitchen to start cleaning and washing the ackee. You will need:

• Three bowls (one for the ackee you haven't cleaned yet, one for the seeds and the unnecessary trash in the fruit, and one for the cleaned ackee).
• A pairing knife (or just a regular kitchen knife that you're willing to use that won't cut you - because you don't need a sharp knife)

Now take the fruits out of the red pod (you don't need the red pod) and put them in one of the bowls. 

The only things you need to remove are the seeds and the pink flesh on the insides of the aril (the yellow edible part of the fruit - which is the part that you want). 

So with the knife (or with your fingers - don't worry your fingers will be fine), twist/cut the seed off from the aril, open it up and take out the pink flesh. All those seeds I usually put in a separate bowl (proper hygiene, after all). The knife you will need for the knitty-gritty parts of cleaning. The seed tends to leave scabs on the top of the aril, make sure to scrape those scabs off and scrape out all the pink leftover flesh that you are unable to remove with your fingers.

Of course, the cleaned ones you put in your third bowl.

It should look like this when you're done. This is exactly what they do to canned ackee, but with the preservative added to keep them edible.

Canned ackee in a plate - freshly cleaned ackee will look just the same.

Preparing the Saltfish

(Salt cod can easily be found packaged at supermarkets).

Jamaicans have many ways of preparing saltfish. However, the most common I have known about from when I was a little girl growing up is to boil the salt cod in a pot for about 15-20 minutes, stripping off the scales and breaking up the cod into bite sized pieces. Boiling the cod helps to remove some of the salt on the cod (remember, you use dried, salted codfish, not stockfish, which is dried fish, but not salted). While this is the traditional method, I've been using a rendition of this method which, in my opinion I find to be easier when preparing this dish.

Which I am about to explain in a simple recipe I've tested and used on myself and my family...

Say you've collected enough ackee to prepare and serve for your household... which may consist of about 4 people. In that case you may need to collect 2 dozen ackee/ 2 cans of ackee (20 oz is fine). This would make the equivalent amount of saltfish you will need to be about 1/2 to 3/4 lb (depending on the thickness of the cod). 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 to 3/4 lbs of dried and salted cod
• 2 dozen ackee/ 2 cans of ackee (20 oz)
• 1/8 to 1/4 cup of vegetable/olive oil (coconut oil can be used instead of olive oil, but olive oil gives it a better flavour to me).
• 1 sweet/bell pepper (preferably green) diced
• 1 chili pepper/ scotch bonnet pepper chopped (preferably green for the flavour - I like to add some seeds for heat)
• 1/2 tsp of ground pimiento/3-4 pimiento seeds
• 1 onion/ 2 small onions, sliced
• 2 plum tomatoes, chopped
• 1/8 tsp cumin powder (optional)
• 1/4 tbsp of butter (for flavour)
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• black pepper

For the side:

• 4 green bananas
• 1/4 lb yellow yam, cut in even pieces
• 1 ripe plantain, cut in 4

Directions:

 Now this is where I had stated earlier that I did my preparations a bit differently from the traditional method of the everyday Jamaican. You may have noticed that I have no salt in my list of ingredients. Well with that salted cod you'll be holding in your hands, you may see the reason why i chose not to add salt to anything.

First, I put the saltfish to soak in some cold water. While I'm soaking it, I'm cleaning the ackee. Every 5 minutes I throw off the water from the cod and soak again in some fresh water. I do this twice before putting the cod to boil in a big pot.

Why a big pot? Because I'm putting everything I need to boil in the same pot! Soaking the cod twice would not remove enough of the salt content for you not to taste a spoonful of salt in your mouth when u taste it. So I disperse the rest of the excess salt left on the cod in the same pot with the ackee, banana, yam and plantain! (To add the bananas, plantain and yam, simply wash, peel and put to boil in the pot... it's that easy. If you don't want your ripe plantain to have any taste of salt then you may need to boil/fry it in a separate pot. To fry it you just need to cut it into slices. Your choice really).

TIP: Take 1/4 of the onion, half of a banana peel and half the butter you have in your ingredients and drop them into the pot for better flavour! These will help to give a great boost of flavour in your dish!

Check the pot occasionally. The first thing you will need to remove from the pot is the ackee. You don't want to overdo the ackee for it to look like mush on your plate. When you are able to pcik out the ackee with a fork without it losing its original shape, it's ready. Leave the rest of the ingredients to boil. (You may need a food lifter to get all the ackee out quickly from the pot).

And you wait... 

... until the everything is soft and ready!

Leave the bananas, plantain, and yam in the pot with the water to keep them moist.

Next is to saute your seasoning. Fire should be at medium to low heat, with the rest of your butter and oil in the pot heating up. Put your cumin powder and pimiento powder into the pot and stir it gently to get the flavours out into the oil. Then add your garlic, the rest of your sliced onions and your chili/scotch bonnet pepper to saute.

While that's going, I'd be scaling and breaking up the saltfish into bite sized pieces. (I just rip off the skin, and since it's soaked and boiled, you can literally do it with your fingers when you dip it in cold water after boiling). Add the saltfish and stir immediately. Turn up your fire to exactly medium heat and add the ackee, tomatoes and sweet/bell pepper and gently stir so that you don't mash the ackee in the pot. There's no need for it to stay long in the pan, it just needs to suck up the oil and the flavours together.

Now serve everything on your 4 plates and enjoy!


See, that wasn't so bad, was it?

My friend enjoying his meal!

All that brown, good-looking stuff at the right hand of the plate is called Johnny Cakes or Fry Dumplin in Jamaica and is a great addition to the meal! But that, my friends, I will save for another time.


-Jodi






Note: Pictures shown on my blog I do not claim to own. All pictures I have used for learning purposes only and are pictures under creative commons posted in the public domain or are free to use and share and modify for these purposes.