Ackee and saltfish

As tradition built it

Ackee and saltfish

Serves 4 . 1 hour 10 minutes, plus overnight soaking

Ingredients

• 1 x 540g tin, drained (or fresh ackee, naturally split open) ackee, naturally split open on the tree
• 225g, soaked overnight and flaked salt cod, softened and flaked
• 1/2, finely chopped onion
• 2, deseeded and chopped tomato
• 1, deseeded and finely chopped (or a third for milder heat) Scotch bonnet
• 3 sprigs, leaves only thyme
• 2 tbsp coconut oil

Method

1. Use only ackee that has split open naturally on the tree; unripe flesh, seeds and the pink membrane contain hypoglycin A, historically responsible for Jamaican vomiting sickness, and the toxin level drops roughly thirteen-fold as the fruit ripens, so it must never be picked or forced open.
2. Boil the ackee aril briefly.
3. Sauté with softened, flaked salt cod, onion, tomato, Scotch bonnet and thyme in coconut oil until just combined, handling the ackee gently so it keeps its soft, custardy texture rather than breaking down to mush.

What a modern chef changes

Sous vide cod, a silked sauce base

Method

1. In the UK, work from tinned ackee, Grace or Dunn's River, the correct and only necessary route here, not an apologetic compromise, so the elevation works on everything around the fruit rather than the fruit itself.
2. Poach the salt cod sous vide at a low, controlled temperature after its soak, giving a more even, less stringy flake than boiling allows.
3. Pass the finished sauce base, onion, tomato and Scotch bonnet, briefly through a high-power blender and a chinois for a silkier foundation the ackee folds through rather than sits in.