well sort of. since this is fake-meat week, i make this dish using "king fish" from jean's vegetarian restaurant. i recently ordered the king fish curry from this vegetarian thai-malay restaurant (all of the "meat" options are really glutin, soy, tempeh etc.) and the texture and taste of the mock fish was impressive. it really was reminiscent of king fish, but the texture reminded me more of salted cod. that made me want to try to recreate the best salt fish recipes i've ever had, made by one of my closest friend's grandmother, jamican salt fish and dumplings and of course, ackee and saltfish.
jean's kindly sold me just the "fish" alone, which i flaked and then, um, salted. well, i had to mimic salt fish so i threw heart health to the wind and salt all over these flakes. because they weren't dry, i was able to really press the salt into the "fish" and it clung to it without seeping too much into the rest of the dish. i fried some onion, a sweet pepper and half a seeded scotch bonnet pepper, and added fresh thyme, canned tomatoes and simmered this for a five minutes before adding the "fish". last came the canned and drained ackees, which i stirred thougth carefully to avoid breaking them too much. i believe this is typically a breakfast dish but i always had it for dinner. and the leftoevers make a working lunch at your desk nicer. thanks to the friend i mentioned above, i am addicted to eating the tiniest bites of scotch bonnet pepper when eating anything cooked with it now. so delicious and now i even like the tiny bursts of pain.
