Gluten Free Seafood

Festive Saltfish Buljol Recipe.

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This being the holiday season I thought I’d take a classic recipe for making saltfish buljol and put a little festive spin on it, to serve at your holiday party or to take with you as you visit family this holiday season. We’ll follow the same basic rules of making traditional saltfish buljol (basically a fish salad)  and add a few other ingredients to help balance and brighten up the overall flavors of this classic dish. You’ll notice that I did post this under the gluten free recipe section, but do keep in mind that you’ll need a gluten free bread or cracker to serve these on, to meet with your complete gluten free dietary needs.

You’ll Need…

2 cups prepared salted fish (cod / shredded)
2 scallions (green part only)
1 cup diced mango
1 cup diced cucumber
1/2 cup diced tomato (seeded)
1/3 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 lemon (juice)
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 sprig thyme (chopped)
2 birds eye pepper (bird pepper) seeded and diced

 

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The first step is to prepare the salted cod – place in a deep pot with cold water, bring to a boil, reduce and simmer for about 20 minutes (you can watch this video : How To Prepare Salted Fish For Use. Then drain, rinse with cool water and flake/shred. This process removes the majority of the salt (or it will be too salty) and rehydrates the fish. I would recommend using deboned salted fish as it makes for less work. But do remember to still be on the lookout for tiny bones as you flake the fish after boiling. Tip – after preparing the saltish, you can add it to a food processor and give it a couple pulses to get a lovely shredded texture.

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Basically all you have to do now is dice the mango, tomato (please remove the seeds), scallion and cucumber. If you want to add more pizzazz to the dish you can also add some chopped grapes or pineapple.. or basically any firm fruit you like.

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It’s all about assembling now. In a large blow place all the ingredients and gently fold together so you keep the shape of the mango and any tender fruit you use. I would then allow this to marinate for about 30 minutes, then top on your favourite cracker or bread.. in my case I used slices of French Baguettes. Another great idea would be to use lettuce leaves as wrappers and scoop some of the buljol in the middle and wrap them like spring rolls.

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You’ll notice that we didn’t add any salt to this dish as the remaining salt from the salted cod (or whatever salted fish you use) will be enough to season this dish. Be carefully when handling the hot pepper and be sure to wash your hands with soap and water immediately after. I would not recommend assembling these (on the bread etc) until you’re about to serve it as the bread or cracker will go a bit soggy after about 30 minutes.

 

 

Seafood

Oh lovely sardines from a can?

trinidad sardine chokaFish is a serious turn off for a lot of people and even more unattractive is when that fish comes in a can. But if you’re a regular on the site, you’ll know that I have a series that I call “lazy man” dishes (Corned Beef / Salmon). And today we’re about to add a new member into the family. Since it’s one of those meals you can put together in mere minutes and it’s very delicious. Providing you’re not afraid to try something a bit different.

My Trinbagonian people will know that this is a common snack type dish and everyone seems to have their own way of putting this together. No real cooking is involved, and you can experiment with ingredients as well.

BTW, fellas this is not something you eat before that big date your special someone. The combo of sardines and onions on your breath will not win you any points.

You’ll Need…

1 can sardines (I like the ones with the peppers made by Brunswick)
1/2 tomato sliced thin
1 scallion sliced thin (optional)
Juice of 1/2 lime or lemon
Black pepper
1/4 onion sliced thin
1/4 hot pepper sliced (I used a habanero – you can use whatever you have or like)
2 tablespoon vegetable oil (I like using olive oil)

Let’s see if we can do this in 3 steps.

Step 1.

Slice the onion, tomato, scallion and hot pepper very thin and set aside.

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Step 2.

Open and empty the sardines into a bowl. The following step is optional, but this is the way I saw my mom doing it… break each sardine down the middle (length-wise) and remove the middle bone (can be left, but I find that it gives the dish a gritty texture that I don’t like) and secondly you must remove the inside of the belly (there’s no polite way of saying “guts’). Then break apart each fish so you have chunky pieces.

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Step 3.

Top with all the stuff we sliced earlier, squeeze in the lime or lemon juice and add a dash of black pepper. Then on high heat, heat the oil in a small frying pan and allow to heat until you’re about to start seeing smoke. Now pour the hot oil over everything and stir well. YOU’RE DONE!

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You can call this a salad, choka, talkarie or as in my case… a lazy man’s dish. Works well as a topping for Crix (a locally made crackers), on sandwiches, with roti , pita… you get the point.

I’d love to hear how our friends from the other islands and around the world make this (if you do) so please leave me a comment below and don’t forget to join us on Facebook. Our goal is to have 25,000 fans by the end of the year. Please help us make it happen.

Happy Cooking

Chris…

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