Sometimes when I am away from home I will buy things not because I necessarily want them but just because they remind me of Jamaica and that makes me happy. If I’m in New York at an event that has Red Stripe available I will order one even though I’m not a beer drinker. I’ll take a few sips, take a picture on my phone and mention on twitter that pieces of Jamaica are everywhere before offloading it to one of my friends. Well I was in the supermarket and saw salted Pollock, it reminded me of saltfish (salted cod), a key ingredient for our national dish ackee and saltfish, which I’d get at my local supermarket in Jamaica so you know I had to buy it.
Cabbage
Truth is it sat in my refrigerator until the day before its sell by date because I just wasn’t inspired by this dry looking piece of fish. I only really use saltfish with ackee, beans, or calalloo (similar to spinach) and I had none of those ingredients on hand. At the time I was going to be travelling for a while so I didn’t want to buy groceries and thus a delicious healthy dish was born. When a girl has salted Pollock and half a purple cabbage, she has to make some magic happen.
Salted Pollock & Braised Cabbage
Live, Love, Eat!
April x
- 1.25 lbs Salted Pollock (soaked overnight)
- 3/4 cup cherry tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 4 scallions (spring onions, green onions)
- 1/2 scotch bonnet pepper (or other chilli)
- 1/2 lime
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Dash of black pepper
- 1/2 small red/purple cabbage
- handful of cauliflower florets (optional)
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 1/2 onion, sliced
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves finely chopped)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Over medium heat in a sauté pan add butter and wine until hot then add onions and garlic for 2 minutes until they are soft.
- Add all the cabbage ingredients and stir then cover for approximately 20 minutes until the cabbage is soft but still has a crunch.
- Meanwhile heat another pan over medium heat with a tbsp of olive oil and then add tomatoes for about 3 minutes. Then add all the other ingredients and cook for another 5 minutes uncovered.
- Serve salted Pollock over cabbage and enjoy!
- Any salted fish will work, eg. salted codfish.
