Where it comes from
The bokit descends from the cassava bread of the Carib peoples and the 'journey cakes' of the enslaved — a fried-dough pocket stuffed with fish, meat or cheese. Once survival food, it is now Guadeloupe's iconic street snack.
On the plate
Bite a hot bokit and the fried bread is crisp and golden outside, soft and chewy within, hugging a savory salt-cod filling sharp with onion and scotch bonnet. Bite: the bread is pillowy and faintly oily, the cod savory and a little salty, the Creole sauce bright and fiery. Hearty and handheld, eaten dripping from a roadside van — Guadeloupe's street icon.
How it works
Baking powder and a hot fry make the unleavened dough puff hollow like a pita, ready to stuff. Frying fast at the right temperature crisps the outside while keeping the inside soft. The fillings — salt cod, chicken, cheese — and a fiery Creole sauce carry the flavor; the bread is the vessel.
Variations
With chicken or ham. With cheese and salad ('complet'). Spicier. With smoked fish. Vegetarian. With avocado.
On the Palate
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
8 steps · Show ↓35 min active · 35 min waiting
How it's made
8 steps · Show ↓- 134 min
Make a dough from 400 g flour, 1 tsp baking powder, salt, and water; knead and rest 30 min.
- 210 min
Soak and flake 200 g salt cod; sauté with onion, tomato, and scotch bonnet into a filling.
- 35 min
Divide the dough and roll into flat discs.
- 45 min
Heat oil in a deep pan to 180°C.
- 55 min
Fry each disc, spooning oil over, until puffed and golden, ~2 min per side.
- 62 min
Drain on paper.
- 72 min
Split each bokit open like a pita.
- 82 min
Stuff with the saltfish filling (and cheese or salad) and serve hot.
