Being born and raised on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, there are two tastes of home that always transport me back to my days growing up. One, of course, is johnny cakes. But a close second has to be saltfish pate.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good ground beef pate, too. But saltfish pates (pronounced Pah Tays) offer a lighter, fluffier consistency. They’re perfect for a hot day on the beach, slipping in your backpack before a hike, a quick breakfast while sailing out to Buck Island, or helping recover from a night spent enjoying a little too much Cruzan Rum.
Normally, these would make an excellent breakfast, but they also are a fantastic lunch, too.
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Tips on Making the Best Saltfish Pate
Like many Caribbean dishes that employ a bread-like wrapper, saltfish pates live or die by their dough. They need to be just the right thinness without creating holes for the filling to fall out. And they need to be fried just right so their not soaked in oil and not burnt to a crisp. Shoot for the ever desired golden brown.
The dough is the toughest part, so don’t get discouraged if your first few don’t turn out perfectly. Trust me, someone will eat them!
As for the filling, the ideal saltfish pate filling should still resemble saltfish! In our travels, I’ve had saltfish pates where the filling was pulverized into almost a paste. Don’t make that mistake.
Keep your saltfish and other ingredients recognizable. When someone bites into your warm pate, they should see bits of fish, bits of pepper, and spices while the steam rises out of the interior. Remember, we taste with our eyes as well as our mouths!
This Virgin Islands Saltfish Pate Recipe
Now, there are only a couple of essential ingredients in a good Virgin Islands saltfish pate. To start, you need a great pate dough recipe. And then you need salted cod that’s been soaked, crumbled, then spiced. That’s it.
However, it’s this very simplicity that makes each tiny decision you make special for a flavor that’s uniquely yours.
In this recipe, we’ll be adding a little tomato paste to help hold our filling together more plus allow our spices to bond better with our fish. Also note that while the scotch bonnet peppers are optional, I highly recommend you experiment with adding at least a little to give your pate an internal heat that will enrich all the flavors.
In the end, part of what makes any saltfish pate amazing is that it comes from you. It’s your taste of the Virgin Islands.
Enjoy!
Saltfish Pate
Saltfish pates (pronounced Pah Tays) offer a light, fluffy snack that’s perfect for a hot day on the beach, slipping in your backpack before a hike, a quick breakfast, or helping recover from a night spent enjoying a little too much Cruzan Rum.
Ingredients
8 oz Salt Cod
1/2 cup Bell Peppers, Chopped
1/3 cup Celery, Chopped
1/2 cup Onion, Chopped
1 tbsp Garlic, Crushed
2 tsp Thyme
2 tsp Oregano
3 tbsp Tomato Paste
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1/4 cup Water
1/2 tsp Scotch Bonnet or other Hot Pepper, Finely Chopped (optional)
3 cup flour
2 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Sugar
3/4 cup Margarine
1/2 cup Water
Instructions
Starting with the dough, mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl.
Add the margarine and use your hands to mush it all together until the begins to crumble.
Add the water and continue to mix with your hands until it forms a dough. Set that aside.
On to the filling! Add the oil to a pan and cook the onions, peppers, and celery until the onions are translucent. Around 5 minutes.
Add oregano, thyme, garlic, and tomato paste. Let that cook for a minute.
Mix in your salted cod and let cook for 5 minutes.
Turn your heat to low and add the water and hot peppers. Cook for 10 minutes, or until the water has evaporated.
Divide your dough into 10 equal-sized balls.
One at a time, roll your ball into a flat circle and place your filling in the middle leaving an inch border around the edges. Fold your dough over and press the ends closed with a fork.
Fry in hot oil on both sides until golden brown.
Place on a paper towel-lined plate and allow to cool.S
erve warm. Enjoy!
Last updated by Patrick Bennett on .
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Place the fish into a large bowl and pour boiling water over the fish. The water should cover the fish. Cover the bowl and let the saltfish soak overnight.
In the Caribbean, the tasty finger food is a pate (pronounced pah-tey), and is one of the best local foods to try. The crunchy dough is stuffed with vegetables, seafood (often salted cod), or ground meat.
In the Caribbean, salt fish, also called bacalao, bacalhau, baccalà or dried fish, is fresh, meaty white fish (typically cod) that has been preserved for longer storage by salt-curing and drying until all the moisture has been extracted.
Soak your saltfish overnight in cold water. In the morning, drain the water and soak for one hour in hot water. The fish will now be rehydrated and ready to use.
Next time you want to cook salt fish, don't boil it or soak it in boiling water to remove the salt, rather, soak it in regular cold tap water for 12 – 24 hours and you will be rewarded with perfectly de-salted salt fish that is tender, and easy to flake, to prepare in a variety of ways.
Les Caraïbes (lay kah-rah-eeb, the Caribbean)! There are lots of beautiful beaches in the Caribbean. Les Caraïbes are home to 13 independent nations, as well as several dependent territoires (teh-ree-twahr, territories).
High sodium intake: Salted fish contains high levels of sodium, which can increase blood pressure and lead to various health problems, such as heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease.
The unripe ackee fruit contains poisonous chemicals that can cause dangerously low blood sugar, liver damage, and death. Most ackee products have been banned from import into the US due to concerns about poisoning from the unripe fruit.
The first signs of deterioration are that the flesh starts to turn pink in the vicinity of the head, eventually the fish becomes a liquid mass. Care should be taken by the surveyor not to mistake this deterioration as being due to contact with water.
Saltfish and klippfisk contain a lot of salt in order for it to be stored for long periods of time. Before we can eat it, we need to remove most of the added salt by soaking the fish in water.
Place it in a bowl with cold water to cover and soak for 24 hours, changing the water three or four times. If you're in a hurry, try the quick-soak method. Rinse the cod under cold running water for 15 minutes. Place it in a pan with cold water to cover and gradually bring to a boil.
Soak the Bacalao in the refrigerator for 8 hours with 2 to 3 changes of fresh cold water. After soaking the Bacalao for 2 hours in the refrigerator, drain the water from the bowl. Cover the bowl again completely with fresh cold water and repeat this process after 3 more hours of soaking in the refrigerator.
Introduction: My name is Tyson Zemlak, I am a excited, light, sparkling, super, open, fair, magnificent person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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