In the Kitchen: Making a Delicious Jamaican Ackee & Saltfish Lunch Dish

It’s day three of week 2 of the current lockdown measures in Jamaica. Did I get that right? It’s now a few minutes before midday, and I’m standing in the kitchen picking saltfish. Technically I’m working from home but I decided to take a quick break to make some lunch. I mean what are the alternatives?

I’ve had some ackee in the freezer that I was saving for a rainy day and I thought why not cook it today. As I stood and picked the saltfish, my surroundings were filled with the aroma of the freshly cut seasonings, just sitting and awaiting their time to be placed in the pot. The smell of the tomatoes, onions and sweet peppers (or bell peppers for my non Jamaican friends) made me hungrier by the second.

Freshly cut seasonings (tomatoes, onions and sweet peppers).

Still picking the saltfish and rocking to the sounds of a Bob Marley mix playing on YouTube in the background. The bubbling sounds from the “food pot” (boiled dumplings and sweet potato) was hard to ignore and out of nowhere my stomach let out a loud-ish growl. Man, I’m hungry.

The timer for the “food pot” went off and I quickly turned it off, as I placed the dutch pot on the stove for the ackee and saltfish and poured some vegetable oil in. After giving the oil some time to heat, I scraped the seasoning into the pot. At this point the kitchen was filled with the sweet smell of oil and seasoning.

“Oh, please don’t you rock my boat” – a line from the Bob Marley song now playing rings out as I place the saltfish in the pot. After allowing the saltfish to cook for a bit, I mixed in the ackee which had been thawing out on the counter for a bit. After about 8 minutes or so I turned the stove off. My lockdown lunch was finally ready, and so was I.

As I sat down to eat, I remembered that there was some passion fruit juice in the fridge. I laughed as I poured a glass, remembering the poll I had on Instagram asking out of 4 fruits which one you’d get rid of. Funnily enough, passion fruit was the most popular choice; although many people commented that they loved the juice and it’s many other uses. You can join in with your own comments on Instagram here.

Ackee & Saltfish with boiled dumplings and sweet potato with passion fruit juice

Now I must tell you, I’m no chef, but one thing my mother ensured I could do was cook and boy oh boy do I surprise myself sometimes. Below is a YouTube Short of today’s kitchen shenanigans. Please Like, Share and Subscribe to our YouTube Channel. And remember to click the bell so you’ll get a notification every time we post a new video.

And here’s a simple recipe to follow for your own Ackee and Saltfish dish.