‘Exposure Eats’: Toni’s fishcakes and bakes from Barbados

My family is broadly from the Caribbean, but I closely identify with my dad’s Bajan heritage. As a frequent visitor to Barbados throughout my childhood, my father’s culture has always been an important part of my life, and I have grown up dancing to soca music (a genre of music defined as the “Soul of Calypso” by its inventor, Lord Shorty) and squabbling with cousins over the last dumpling.

The national dish of Barbados is flying fish, however it’s fairly hard to get hold of in the UK! Instead, I’ll be making fishcakes and bakes – traditional street foods that are also served as finger food at parties.

As an island culture, fish makes up the majority of the traditional dishes. Before refrigeration was widely available, fish was often salted to keep it fresh for longer. Now salted cod (saltfish) is eaten more for its flavour than because the fish needs preserving.

These are some photos I’ve taken around my hometown, Christchurch:

Toni’s fishcakes and bakes
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes

Total time: 55 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients
For the fishcakes:
(makes 8-10)

• 250g skinless, boneless, salted cod
• 1 large onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• ½ scotch bonnet chilli
• 1 teaspoon all-purpose seasoning
• 1 teaspoon mixed herbs
• 2 eggs
• 180g plain white flour
• salt and pepper, to taste
• water, to bind the mixture
• 2 tablespoons oil, to shallow fry the fishcakes

For the bakes:
(makes 8)

• 200g plain white flour
• 25g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon oil, for the mixture
• water, to bind the mixture
• 2 tablespoons oil, to shallow fry the bakes

Method
To make the fishcakes:

1. Boil the salted cod for 10 minutes (or soak overnight in a bowl of water), then drain the water and flake the fish with a fork.
2. Finely chop the onion, garlic and chilli.
3. Put all ingredients into a large mixing bowl.
4. Mix the ingredients together, adding more water or flour as necessary to combine the ingredients and form a dough (the consistency should be like cake batter).
5. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Fry the mixture, one tablespoon at a time and turning halfway through, until golden brown on both sides – for me, this took about 15 minutes.

To make the bakes:

6. Put the flour and sugar into a large mixing bowl and mix together.
7. Add the oil and enough water to form dough.
8. Mix the dough with your hands until it forms a ball.

9. Heat the oil in a frying pan until it’s hot enough that a small piece of dough bubbles when dropped in.
10. Turn down the heat. Pull off a piece of dough (a little smaller than an egg) and fry it on a medium-low heat. Turn halfway through cooking and fry until golden brown on both sides – for me, this took about 10 minutes.

I’m happy with the results! Every fishcake recipe is different, but these are based on the ones my dad makes. Street vendors typically use a lot more flour in fishcakes to spread the ingredients further. Also, bakes and fishcakes are traditionally deep fried, but my family shallow fry them for health reasons.

When I shared my food with Exposure’s staff and contributors, Arjan said, “I really liked the fishcakes, they were well-seasoned and really tasty!”

I also took some of the photos for this article and learned how to handle a professional camera, frame photos and edit them for purposes other than social media.

I would wholeheartedly encourage others to explore their culture like I have. The best way to learn about other cultures is to experience them with all five senses – especially taste!

Toni is a 24-year-old aspiring horticulturalist who enjoys reading, drinking tea and dabbling in the occult. She is primarily focussed on issues of identity and culture, and the interplay between these issues and modern life.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Exposure is an award-winning youth communications charity giving young people in north London a voice. Please support us to continue our work. Thank you.

__________________________________________________________________________________