After meeting Chef Easton Hamilton from La Maquette for Winterlicious, we learned that he loves to make Ackee and Salt fish, Jamaica’s National Dish. Because of the lack of Jamaican food in Vancouver, I immediately packed my bags and flew back to Toronto to show up at his kitchen to learn how to make authentic Saltfish and Ackee! I have not had this dish in at least 5 years and was very excited to see first hand how to make it.
When we sat down to eat, Chef Easton Hamilton talked about his view of Organic food. In Jamaica, fruits and veggies just grow in people’s backyard. There were no chemicals added; fruits aren’t picked before they’re ripe, to ripen while in transit to grocery stores. They’re picked when they’re ready to eat and enjoyed right away.
Ackee is a good example. Ackee is Jamaica’s national fruit. It is green until it ripens into a bright red or yellow colour revealing the seed and the white/yellow flesh. If you try to pry the fruit open before it’s ripe, you’ll get poisoned by the toxins. You have to wait for the fruit to open itself then it can be eaten.
So according to Chef Easton Hamilton, organic food means food grown locally, using the basic elements of sun, soil, and water, no chemicals, no preservatives, no genetic modifications. We thought that was a pretty cool definition as opposed to this:
Foods claiming to be organic must be free of artificial food additives, and are often processed with fewer artificial methods, materials and conditions, such as chemical ripening, food irradiation, and genetically modified ingredients. Pesticides are allowed so long as they are not synthetic.
We were delighted to listen to Chef Easton Hamilton’s experiences in Jamaica, Whistler and Toronto while we feasted on our meal. I finished everything on my plate rather too quickly.
Summary
Preparation Time: 15 min
Servings: 4
Meal type: Breakfast
Recipe Rating: 
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb of boneless salt fish (salted cod)
I’ve never tried to get salty fish from the supermarkets yet but the chef assured me that you could
- 1 can of Ackee
- 1 green pepper, 1/2 red pepper, 1/2 yellow pepper sliced
- 1 onion sliced
- 1 tomato
- Sprinkle of minced green onion
- Thyme, salt and pepper to taste
Procedure
1. Break up the salt fish.
2. Heat up a pot of water (don’t let it boil).
3. Drain the ackee can.
4. Put ackee into the pot of hot water.
5. Heat up pan with olive oil.
6. Add the vegetables: onion, green onion, thyme, tomato, and all the peppers.
Chef’s tip: Traditional Ackee and Salt fish does not have all these vegetables but they make the dish much more colourful and delicious. The chef made a point that if you find it visually appealing, it enhances the taste of the dish!
7. Don’t cook all the way, so that everything is too soft, but long enough so that the veggies are no longer crunchy.
8. Add the salt fish and mix.
9. Drain Ackee.
9. Add the ackee and take care not to mix too much – the ackee will come apart quite easily.
10. Season with salt and peper and add hot pepper and plate.
Variations
Ackee’s texture is similar to a scrambled egg. Chef Easton’s addition of green/red/yellow peppers, tomatoes, green onions and onions really enhanced the taste of the ackee and salt fish. If you want to stray from the traditional meal even more, you can experiment with other combinations you would typically have in your breakfast omlette.
Chef Easton also decided to boil some side dishes before our visit to his kitchen. There was boiled dumplings (potato), green (completely unripe) banana, and pumpkin (yes not squash but what you carve for Halowe’en). I enjoyed the pumpkin the most! I think I needed some seasoning to enjoy the banana and dumpling. I’m likening this to eating breakfast with a side of hashbrowns or sweet potatoes.
Results
Delicious! I love the taste of Ackee and Saltfish and really enjoy the colourful peppers and onion flavours to go with the dish. Watching Chef Easton make this so quickly and simply makes me hope that it is actually that easy and simple! I have yet to try this at home but will update the post when I do.
I want to thank Chef Easton Hamilton and La Maquette’s staff for hosting us during a busy time of Winterlicious!! This dish might not appear on La Maquette’s menu anytime soon but I know it’s going to come out of my kitchen shortly! Chef Easton Hamilton also sent us home with his home made Jerk sauce. We made Jerk Chicken that weekend and it was sooo good. If we can get the recipe from the chef, we’ll let you know!!!
I was really tempted to put in cinnamon in this french toast as I really like cinnamon, which I refrained from doing this time, but I can see that also going nicely.
