Bake and saltfish pairs a fried (or baked) dough with sautéed salt cod — an Eastern Caribbean breakfast staple across Saint Lucia and the islands. The salt cod is a legacy of the colonial trade, now beloved morning food.
Split a hot bake and steam escapes the soft, puffed bread; fill it with the savory saltfish and bite. Bite: the bake is crisp outside, pillowy and faintly sweet within, the saltfish savory and a little salty with sweet pepper and tomato, the scotch bonnet warming. The hearty handheld Saint Lucian breakfast, washed down with cocoa tea.
Baking powder puffs the dough in hot oil into a light, hollow bake; a little sugar and butter give tenderness. The saltfish is cooked separately so the bake stays crisp until filled. Soaking and flaking the cod tames its salt — the two staples reunited in a sandwich.
Variations
With baked bakes instead of fried (lighter). With avocado. With a fried egg. Spicier. With cucumber. With smoked herring instead of saltfish.
On the Palate
Where Bake and Saltfish sits in the Saint Lucian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
8 steps · 30 min active · 25 min waiting
- 124 min
Make a dough from 300 g flour, 1 tsp baking powder, a little butter, sugar, salt, and water; rest 20 min.
- 210 min
Soak 250 g salt cod, boil briefly, and flake.
- 36 min
Fry 1 chopped onion, sweet pepper, tomato, and thyme in oil.
- 44 min
Add the flaked saltfish and a little scotch bonnet; sauté 4 min.
- 510 min
Divide the dough, flatten into rounds, and fry in hot oil until puffed and golden (the 'bakes').
- 62 min
Drain the bakes on paper.
- 72 min
Split each bake open.
- 81 min
Fill with the warm saltfish and serve immediately.
