Around 3 years ago I went to St Lucia for a holiday and spent most of my time eating freshly grilled fish covered in a heavenly garlic sauce, I also tried rice and peas, green fig and saltfish, and conch. I remember enjoying everything I ate and I really cherish the time spent with local people, on my visit we only went to one sit in restaurant and spent the rest of the time looking for little street set ups where people were happy to welcome us for an hour or two - It was an amazing holiday.
Saltfish stuck in my mind because one day after a long hike we stopped at a shack and bought some lunch - just what they had on their daily menu - saltfish and green figs - to my surprise I got a plate full of vegetables with little bits of fish in there and green figs were more like green plantains - I was a bit taken aback at first, but actually it was delicious - so when I saw that one of the main dishes of Antigua and Barbuda was saltfish and Fungee I jumped at the chance to make this. Saltfish is basically white fish (like cod) that's been preserved in salt, and is then cooked with onions and peppers and fungee is cooked cornmeal and okra and is a staple of Antiguan cuisine.
The dish takes a little forward planning but is otherwise quite simple to make - it is however quite a 'fishy' dish so wouldn't recommend for anyone who isn't keen on fish!
Serves 2
Ingredients
For the Saltfish
1 pack of salt fish (200g) - you can also make your own and there many recipes online. (see photo below for what to expect, you can buy this in some Tesco supermakets)
1 onion
1 pepper
1 clove of garlic
2tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp butter
pepper to taste
about 2 litres of water
For the Fungee
1 cup cornmeal
2-3 cups of water
around 100g okra cut into 2cm pieces
1 tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste
Method
Around 4 hours before you're going to start cooking soak the fish in around 1 litre of water to wash the salt off. Change the water halfway through.
Cut the onion and pepper into thin slices, and cut the fish into small chunks, and crush the garlic glove.
Add the butter to a frying pan melt over a low-medium heat, and add the onion, pepper garlic and fish. Stir to make sure everything is mixed well and cover. Stir occasionally for around 10 minutes.
On a separate hob bring two cups of water to the boil, add the chopped okra and about 1tsp of salt. Reduce to medium heat.
In a bowl add the cornmeal and begin adding water and stirring until you have a thick paste.
Add the cornmeal paste to the water and okra and begin to stir constantly to prevent any lumps. The mixture will thicken considerably over the next 20-30 minutes. You will need to keep stirring relatively often, as you will see in the photo below it can get quite lumpy. Just keep stirring.
Once the fish has been cooking for about 10 minutes add the tomato paste and if it's looking a little dry add a little water, but by now the onion, peppers and fish should have sweated out enough water to keep the mixture moist. Continue cooking for 20 minutes.
Once the fungee starts to pull away from the side of the pan you are ready to serve, it should be quite hard to stir at this point. You can either roll it into balls or use a cup as a mold! Serve with the Saltfish and enjoy.
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