Salted Codfish (Bacalao) and Bakes (Floats, Jonny cakes)

Salted cod fish is a favorite in the Caribbean. In restaurants and bars and snackets you can find bakes stuffed with either codfish or corned beef.

The Fish has been preserved in salt and most times doesn’t even need to be refrigerated. It’s so salty that it needs to be boiled several times to removed the salt in the Fish. Salted and smoked meats in the Caribbean are part of our diets due to not have access to refrigeration back in the old days.

The salting process in the fish concentrates the flavors.

The Elements

Salted Cod Fish (Bacalao)
Seasoning herbs: Parsley, coriander, Green onions, purple onions, red chillies, yellow sweet peppers
Spices: Curry Powder, Tumeric
Lime Juice, lemon juice
Garlic
Coconut milk
Bakes (Johnny Cakes, Floats): Self-rising flour, sugar, salt, warm water

The Bakes

This time I used the Yeast-free version of bakes and I deep-fried them. This type is called Floats because they float to the top of the oil and puff up. This type of bakes is usually what you would buy from a snackette or at a restaurant.

Season your warm water with salt and sugar to your taste
Form a dough with 2 Cups of Self-rising flour
Let your dough rest for 30 minutes, you can make your codfish in the meantime.

The Codfish

Desalinate your salted cod by boiling it over and over, until when you taste it it’s just as salty as you want it. That would mean you don’t need to add salt to your codfish (unless you over boil it).

Season with Lime juice, lemon juice, Parsley, coriander, Green onions, purple onions, red chilies, yellow sweet peppers and garlic. This is something you can do the day before (or earlier)

Stir-fry your seasoned codfish flakes in coconut oil, add tumeric, curry powder, once the onions and herbs start to soften and heat through, add 1/4 cup of coconut milk. You want to keep that flavor of the coconut, so don’t simmer it too much or that coconut taste cooks out.

Your codfish stir-fry is done.

Preparing and cooking your Floats / bakes

Separate your rested dough into balls, and use our rolling pin to flatten these into disks. We’re going to deep-fry these so heat up a heavy pot with oil.