Saltfish Buljol

Saltfish buljol is one of those dishes that I have come to love after I gave up meat. I have always had it in some form throughout my life but mostly in the form of fishcakes or accra's. From the stories I heard growing up Saltfish, smoked herring, and other smoked or salted forms of meat and fish were perceived to be food for the poor. They were considered so because they were relatively cheap and able to be stored outside of an icebox. I guess this would be similar to traditional black southern foods like chitterlings and collard greens which were entrails and weeds given to the slaves to eat.  I am no historian so I cannot say this is the absolute truth but it doesn't seem far fetched at all but either way to me I find it extremely tasty. Every household has their own method for making saltfish some people boil it some soak it, some serve it with rice, some like it with ground provision but anyway you get some it shouldn't be anything less than satisfying. I like to boil my saltfish twice to remove the majority of the salt but not too much that I need to add salt in the final cooking, and then I like to cook it with lots of onion, garlic, some carrot, and fresh tomatoes. In my home I serve my saltfish with anything from fry bake to pasta...to me its all good. Depending on the area you live satfish or salted cod can be bought in an Asian market or the Caribbean/Latin section of your supermarket. Before I go I want to leave you with one last tip for frying up your saltfish...if you have any leftover oil from frying fish its a great way to get the most out of your oil and it adds some extra fishy flavor to your saltfish and when you serve it everyone will be saying "how yuh hand sweet so!!" Enjoy!

Saltfish Buljol

1lb Salted cod

1 medium onion, diced

4 cloves of garlic, diced

1 small carrot, diced

1 small hot pepper(I used a habenero)

4 Tbsp oil

1 medium tomato, diced

- Boil saltfish to remove enough salt until its your taste

- when saltfish is ready, drain, and set aside.

- Put a large saucepan on the stove with oil under medium to high heat.

- when the oil is hot place onion, garlic, carrot, and hot pepper in the pot, saute for 2 minutes.

- Add in saltfish to the pot and saute for 5 minutes

- After 5 minutes add in tomato's and saute for 1-2 minutes more, turn off the stove and add salt or more pepper to taste. 

- Serve with rice, fried bake, or ground provision