What a recipe simple and nice? Salt fish and Baked beans are a staple in our Jamaican culture as a breakfast item but really you can eat this for breakfast, lunch or dinner, its that good. Savory and sweet, filling and delicious, comforting and simple.
What will you need?
Love, patience and an empty stomach 🙂 Seriously though, baked beans, salt fish, onions, garlic, pepper, thyme, sugar, flour, salt and good vibes. That’s it, pretty simple right? This dish will serve well and is very affordable.
What are dumplings and what can I have them with?
There are many different versions of dumplings across different cultures around the world. I am sure what they all have in common are simple ingredients. However, the dumplings I am referring to are Jamaican dumplings, that are made with simply flour, salt and water. That’s it and you have a side dish that’s so filling and goes well with most meals. Sometimes we have the dumplings fried instead of boiled and that’s often served with breakfast especially Ackee and salt fish. There are also other versions such as festival which we often have with fried fish or escoveitch fish. However, boiled dumplings we have with more stew type meals and goes across different eating occasions. Its serves well with, you guessed it salt fish and baked beans, stew chicken, curry chicken, stew pork, Ackee and salt fish, callaloo and salt fish, mackerel run down or canned mackerel. I could go on because the list is long, that’s how versatile and pivotal dumpling is to our food culture.
How to make dumplings?
So in a bowl add flour and salt and here is where the skill comes in. Add small amounts of water periodically to the flour and using your hands mix until the mixture becomes sticky and doughy. Once it becomes doughy yet not too sticky and soft that it cant hold form, (if that happens you can correct by adding more flour) knead the flour with your hands until its smooth creating one big dough. This process requires you to use your entire hand, fingers will push and prod the dough while the heel of your hand applies pressure to the dough thereby manipulating its form. In tandem this process is basically kneading. Cover the dough and let it rest. You definitely need clean hands for this. I know most people use their hands but my mother taught me to mix the dough with a spoon. Its not until the very last moment that I would use my hands to add the finishing touch to the kneading process. I find this creates a softer dumpling. The more you need the dough the tighter it becomes and can result in a pretty hard to bite dumpling. So its important to find that balance.
How to prepare the salt fish?
Salt fish or cod fish is cured fish which is preserved with salt, hence the name. Now the name and the process would suggest that you tread carefully with any additional sodium for any dish using salt fish. There are different ways to prepare the salt fish. Some people rinse and soak it in water over night or they scald or boil the salt fish in water. I prefer the latter because I rarely remember to do the former. Start by rinsing the salt fish to get rid of the salt coating on top ( there’s a lot on it). Fill a large sauce pot with water, bring to a boil, add the fish and boil for 30 minutes. This soften up the fish and extracts the salt making it easier for deboning. Let the fish cool then proceed with removing the skin and bones. This is a test to patience and skill because you do not want to waste any of the fish and it can be dangerous to mistakenly leave bones in. For the skin I use my thumb and gently push against the skin and if it was boiled long enough it should easily lift. Remove the primary bones, that’s easy but while your are shredding or flaking the fish to small pieces be sure to remove the finer bones. After that your salt fish is ready to be the star of the show.
So now that we are ready to create something great, lets get cooking!
Salt fish and Baked Beans. Quick and delicious.
Course: EntreeDifficulty: moderate2
servings30
minutes30
minutesIngredients
Can Grace spicy baked beans, 10oz
Salt fish 0.180kg (soaked overnight or already boiled)
Medium onion, sliced (Pantry Item)
3 cloves garlic, chopped (Pantry Item)
Scotch Bonnet, chopped (Pantry Item)
Flour, 2 cups
Vegetable oil, 2 tbsp. (Pantry Item)
Salt, 1 tsp. (Pantry Item)
Brown Sugar, 1 tbsp. (Pantry Item)
Thyme, 2 sprigs (Pantry Item)
Directions
- Rinse salt fish to get rid of salt coating. Boil salt fish in 4 cups of water for 30 minutes. Drain, cool then remove the skin and debone. After deboning start breaking the fish apart until it is flaky. Set aside.
- Add flour and salt to a bowl and mix. Add small amounts of water at a time to the flour mixture. Each time mix the flour until it starts to become doughy.
- Using your hands knead the flour until until dough is firm and smooth. Cover and let sit for 5-10 minutes.
- Bring water to a boil, pinch chunks of the dough and roll in your palms to form a ball. Using your thumb gently press in the centre of the dough. Working from the centre continue to lightly and evenly press the dough into a semi flat round shape. The size and number of dumplings will be determined by the amount of dough you break off. This should yield 6 or 7.
- While the dumpling boils for 25 minutes. heat a large pot on medium heat with vegetable oil. Add onions, garlic, thyme and pepper and sauté for 2 minutes then add salt fish and continue to sauté.
- Add baked beans and sugar, mix, cover and cook for 10 minutes. Do not dry out.
- Enjoy!
Price Range: $500 JMD or $5 USD. (Price range based on type of supermarket, brand, season exchange rate and inflation. Does not include Pantry Items and tax)
Eating in can be easy on the pocket yet just as fun and tasty as dining out. Enjoy!
Brawta: Flour. (Non pantry ingredients that are leftovers for future use.)