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Ackee and Salt Fish

Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)

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.
break 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.
fry
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.
add salt fish
9. Drain Ackee.
Ackee Drain
9. Add the ackee and take care not to mix too much – the ackee will come apart quite easily.
Ackee
10. Season with salt and peper and add hot pepper and plate.
Mixed

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

Ackee and Salt Fish
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!!!

Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)

Easton Hamilton / Seafood / Winterlicious — View Comments
22
Jan 10

YouCook makes Cajun Paella

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Alright, I was eager to try La Maquette’s recipe for Cajun Paella Risotto after the Toronto team visited Chef Easton Hamilton! I have always loved Paella in Barcelona and order it any chance I get at Spanish restaurants but have never made it at home. I wanted to see how the risotto goes with the Paella. Of course I’ll describe to you the pitfalls and learnings of a home chef

Vegetable Stock

I really hate forking out more than $1 to buy vegetable broth from a can or box. It doesn’t even take much time to make so I always try to make it myself.

All you need is 2 stalks of celery, 1 onion and 1 or 2 carrots (yup that’s less than $1!). Heat up a large pot of water – I put 2L of water in. Add in a bit of olive oil, chop up the vegetables into thick slices. Bring it to a boil, add salt and pepper and put in all the vegetables.

I also added parsley to this stock because I had some on hand and a bay leaf. That’s about it, leave the heat on low and let it brew for about an hour. I didn’t use much of it because I didn’t end up making risotto but you can easily freeze it to use at a later time. We came up with the idea of putting them in ice cube trays, so you’d have individual portions of veggie broth when you need it. Another way is to fill up Glad sandwich bags since you can stack them and they don’t take up much space in the fridge.

Arborio Rice

To my disappointment – I went on an Arborio rice search across downtown Vancouver today with no luck! 2 Safeways, an IGA and Save-on-Foods. They had every kind of pasta and rice except for Arborio rice! What gives? Has there been a sudden increase of interest in making risotto?? Does anybody know why?!?! Tell us!

Well as a backup I got Uncle Ben’s long grain wild rice so I didn’t make risotto. However in the rice cooker, I did add the celery and onions I was going to put in the risotto – the rice turned out delicious!

Spanish rice is supposed to be medium grain rice thats browned with onion and garlic first. I shall try that next time if I can’t hunt down my risotto rice.

Good old Uncle Ben’s to the rescue

Proportions

Since I was cooking for 3, I doubled Chef Easton’s recipes to make enough for 4 (left overs are awesome). I find cooking for 4 a little easier because doubling his recipe means using a whole onion and all the peppers which is convenient. I also put in way more mussels and 3 Italian sausages and shrimp. I compensated by using only 1 small chicken breast.

Here’s everything prepped in my kitchen:

Chicken:

Shrimps:

Sausages:

Mussels:

Instructions

I definitely enjoyed following this simple recipe after getting everything chopped up and prepared. I found that instead of waiting 2 min in between adding the different meats, I’d wait 4-5min instead – just in case. The steps are really easy to follow – I doubled the spices, vegetable stock called for as well.

Adding chicken:

Adding sausages:

Results

I really love the colour and texture that the dish turned out to be. My pan was so overloaded with stuff that I opted out of adding rice to it. I didn’t end up using any salt or pepper as seasoning because I think the sausage was salty and the cajun spice gave the dish a great flavour.

I also added chopped parsley into the dish which turned out really good. The chef recommended trying different meats and experimenting with different spices however I stuck to the instructions and really like this combination!!!! I was so happy when my friends opted to go for seconds I think the verdict is….MAKE THIS DISH! I really recommend it. It’s not hard and so delicious. The hardest/time consuming part is going grocery shopping.

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Easton Hamilton / Winterlicious — View Comments
21
Jan 10

YouCook talks with Chef Easton Hamilton

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Before learning how to make Cajun Risotto Paella with La Maquette’s Chef Easton Hamilton, we were lucky enough to sit down and chat with him about the restaurant, his inspirations for dishes, and his likes and dislikes. Chef Hamilton grew up in St Thomas, Jamaica and immigrated to Canada in 1980. He was intrigued by his auntie’s cooking at 6 years old and has ever since taught himself with inspiration from skilled chefs. It shows in his passion for food and the creativity that he brings to his dishes.

Grabbing a seat in the first floor dining room, we could see why La Maquette was voted Most Romantic Restaurant in Toronto as well as Most Memorable Meal. Add to that the fact that even for large private events the meals are all cooked to order with no pre-set orders necessary, no wonder this place is popular for weddings and events! In the soft cozy glow of the restaurant (photos do not do this place justice) we could have talked for a lot longer but the paella was calling.

YouCook: I noticed that you have a “Maquettelicious” option on your “A la Carte”, which includes your daily three-course creation. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? How do you become inspired to create a 3-course lunch or dinner for your guests?

Easton: It’s a challenge. We’ll run it for a week and change it up. It depends on what we can source at the time. There’s always something going on in my head. It’s trial and error. We ask guests how they like it and make modifications based on feedback.

YouCook: What sort of dishes or flavours do you remember enjoying the most as a child?

Easton: I’d have to say my national dish.

YouCook: Which is?

Easton: Ackee. It’s a fruit like a pear, starts off yellow and then turns red. It will open up on its own and once it’s open, you can eat it. If you force it to open, you’ll be poisoned. The best way to describe the taste and texture is like scrambled eggs. The way we cook it is with salt fish. To make it you boil it for 20 minutes and then toss it with cod fish. You cook it up with that and with onions and pepper. For canned ackee [note: you can only only get ackee in a can in Toronto!], you prep it different. You first boil the water, then put the ackee in and turn off the heat. That’s just to finish it off, if you leave canned ackee in boiling water it will fall apart.

YouCook: And what sort of dishes or flavours do you enjoy the most now? Do you have a favourite?

Easton: I don’t really have a favourite, there’s too many. I like seafood with my own sauce. Like salmon with Cajun flavour, or herbs like oregano, marjoram, tarragon or Filet of fish with julienned peppers.

YouCook: Do you like spicy food?

Easton: I like flavour first then spice. Spice must hit you at the back of your throat, not burn. I don’t like food that is so spicy you can’t taste the flavour of the food.

YouCook: What is your style of cooking when you are at home?

Easton: I don’t cook at home much. I’ll mostly cook family style dinners, West Indian style. Like oxtail and jerk chicken.

YouCook: How have you evolved in your cooking?

Easton: When I first got here, I would NOT eat anything not Jamaican. Now, I try everything at least once. You have to try food to know how to cook it. The only thing I don’t eat is pork.
I think my next step is Asian food or something. Something different. I’m always trying new things because that’s how you learn.
I learn by doing. I taught myself. If you tell me something can’t be done, I will go all out to prove otherwise. I pick things up from everyone I work with and take it with me…it’s the little things.

YouCook: So if someone wanted you to do a cooking show for TV, would you do it?

Easton: No. I’d rather cook. And I hate being filmed!

Chef Easton hates being filmed but doesn’t mind photographs. Here he kindly obliges to pose with part of our YouCook team.

Use our What.2.Eat application to see what else La Maquette has on their Winterlicious menus and vote on your favourite dish during Winterlicious!

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Main / Seafood / Winterlicious — View Comments
21
Jan 10

Winterlicious Recipe Feature: La Maquette Cajun Risotto Paella

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Last week YouCook visited La Maquette, voted one of the most romantic restaurants in Toronto, to make their featured Cajun Risotto Paella on the Winterlicious menu. “Risotto Paella?!” you ask? Yep that’s right and the Arborio rice adds just enough twist to the classic paella to make it special while fully satisfying your craving for seafood and rice. Chef Easton Hamilton took the time to show us how to make this dish …and we even got to eat it !!!

Use our What.2.Eat application to see what else La Maquette has on their Winterlicious menus and vote on your favourite dish during Winterlicious!