Bake and Saltfish Buljol

Growing up, breakfast was sometimes more than just eggs, sausages or cereal. Sometimes, especially on a Sunday morning, breakfast was a party.

Once there's a party for breakfast I am front and present.

Why?

Because of this dish quintessential Caribbean breakfast: fry bake and saltfish.

Saltfish (salted fish) is essentially packaged fish (most times cod) that has been salted for preservation. To eat this fish, it has to be either "washed" or the salt boiled out.


Fry bake is almost like a fried bread that can be eaten with anything you can think of: cheese, jams, jellies, meats... anything. My mom eats bake and avocados.

Combine these two and you have an amazing breakfast that probably will require you to take a nap after because you cannot eat just one of these.

Making the bake is a bit of a process, just like bread. It requires mixing and leaving to yield.


Then you separate the balls on your floured surface and size them about 4 - 6 diameters. I have seen some bigger ones, I have also seen smaller ones.

A few deep fries later and you're full of a basket of bake and trying to fight off the many hands rushing to grab one to dive in.


The saltfish process is much easier. It's the part of the breakfast I volunteer for easily. The hardest process if getting rid of that salt in the fish.

Taking the salt out of the fish is a process that varies. Some boil it and others "wash".

I do the wash process, but it takes a bit longer. "Washing" is basically soaking the fish till the salt is removed.

This means that depending on how salty your fish is, it can take a while.  My mom actually chips up her saltfish while washing out the water. She says, to her, it cleans up faster


The boiling process is the same but much faster. Bring the saltfish to a high boil with the water, throw that water off, refill and boil again. Like the washing process, you do this until the salt is at a level you want.

Once the salt has been removed as much as possible, the task of chipping the fish up into little pieces.

I do this with two forks, this goes by in no time. Then a quick saute of your vegetables in olive oil and add the saltfish and the "meat" is done.


Now it's time to combine the two elements.

This is the easy part. And the best reward.

Slice your bake, grab a spoon and stuff your bake with saltfish and dive in.




Now my mom say I overdo it with the saltfish, but I ent find so nah. I mean, if it have buljol there to eat then, leh we eat it!! 




And eat it I do. I usually eat a good 2 bake and saltfish buljol in one sitting. *no shame face*

I also eat my saltfish buljol pizza with no shame face.



And the best pairing is some slices of avocados, and a tall mug of homemade hot chocolate or mauby, or peanut punch.

Oh, don't forget to add some slight pepper to your dish to get a little kick.


Check out some of my other posts: