Saltfish Pate Recipe - A Taste of The Virgin Islands at Home (2024)

🇻🇮U.S. Virgin Islands

Patrick

Being born and raised on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, there are two tastes of home that always transport me back to my days growing up. One, of course, is johnny cakes. But a close second has to be saltfish pate.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good ground beef pate, too. But saltfish pates (pronounced Pah Tays) offer a lighter, fluffier consistency. They’re perfect for a hot day on the beach, slipping in your backpack before a hike, a quick breakfast while sailing out to Buck Island, or helping recover from a night spent enjoying a little too much Cruzan Rum.

Normally, these would make an excellent breakfast, but they also are a fantastic lunch, too.

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Tips on Making the Best Saltfish Pate

Like many Caribbean dishes that employ a bread-like wrapper, saltfish pates live or die by their dough. They need to be just the right thinness without creating holes for the filling to fall out. And they need to be fried just right so their not soaked in oil and not burnt to a crisp. Shoot for the ever desired golden brown.

Saltfish Pate Recipe - A Taste of The Virgin Islands at Home (3)

The dough is the toughest part, so don’t get discouraged if your first few don’t turn out perfectly. Trust me, someone will eat them!

As for the filling, the ideal saltfish pate filling should still resemble saltfish! In our travels, I’ve had saltfish pates where the filling was pulverized into almost a paste. Don’t make that mistake.

Saltfish Pate Recipe - A Taste of The Virgin Islands at Home (4)

Keep your saltfish and other ingredients recognizable. When someone bites into your warm pate, they should see bits of fish, bits of pepper, and spices while the steam rises out of the interior. Remember, we taste with our eyes as well as our mouths!

This Virgin Islands Saltfish Pate Recipe

Now, there are only a couple of essential ingredients in a good Virgin Islands saltfish pate. To start, you need a great pate dough recipe. And then you need salted cod that’s been soaked, crumbled, then spiced. That’s it.

However, it’s this very simplicity that makes each tiny decision you make special for a flavor that’s uniquely yours.

In this recipe, we’ll be adding a little tomato paste to help hold our filling together more plus allow our spices to bond better with our fish. Also note that while the scotch bonnet peppers are optional, I highly recommend you experiment with adding at least a little to give your pate an internal heat that will enrich all the flavors.

In the end, part of what makes any saltfish pate amazing is that it comes from you. It’s your taste of the Virgin Islands.

Enjoy!

Saltfish Pate Recipe - A Taste of The Virgin Islands at Home (5)

Saltfish Pate

Saltfish pates (pronounced Pah Tays) offer a light, fluffy snack that’s perfect for a hot day on the beach, slipping in your backpack before a hike, a quick breakfast, or helping recover from a night spent enjoying a little too much Cruzan Rum.

Ingredients

  • 8 oz Salt Cod
  • 1/2 cup Bell Peppers, Chopped
  • 1/3 cup Celery, Chopped
  • 1/2 cup Onion, Chopped
  • 1 tbsp Garlic, Crushed
  • 2 tsp Thyme
  • 2 tsp Oregano
  • 3 tbsp Tomato Paste
  • 1 tbsp Olive Oil
  • 1/4 cup Water
  • 1/2 tsp Scotch Bonnet or other Hot Pepper, Finely Chopped (optional)
  • 3 cup flour
  • 2 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
  • 1/2 tsp Salt
  • 2 tsp Sugar
  • 3/4 cup Margarine
  • 1/2 cup Water

Instructions

    1. Starting with the dough, mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl.
    2. Add the margarine and use your hands to mush it all together until the begins to crumble.
    3. Add the water and continue to mix with your hands until it forms a dough. Set that aside.
    4. On to the filling! Add the oil to a pan and cook the onions, peppers, and celery until the onions are translucent. Around 5 minutes.
    5. Add oregano, thyme, garlic, and tomato paste. Let that cook for a minute.
    6. Mix in your salted cod and let cook for 5 minutes.
    7. Turn your heat to low and add the water and hot peppers. Cook for 10 minutes, or until the water has evaporated.
    8. Divide your dough into 10 equal-sized balls.
    9. One at a time, roll your ball into a flat circle and place your filling in the middle leaving an inch border around the edges. Fold your dough over and press the ends closed with a fork.
    10. Fry in hot oil on both sides until golden brown.
    11. Place on a paper towel-lined plate and allow to cool.S
    12. erve warm. Enjoy!

Last updated by Patrick Bennett on .

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Saltfish Pate Recipe - A Taste of The Virgin Islands at Home (2024)

FAQs

How long do you have to soak saltfish? ›

Method:
  1. Soak your saltfish overnight in cold water.
  2. In the morning, drain the water and soak for one hour in hot water. ...
  3. Fry garlic, thyme, onions, bell peppers and Scotch bonnet on the stove for five minutes. ...
  4. Add your saltfish to the pan of garlic, thyme, onions, bell peppers and Scotch bonnet peppers.
Jun 15, 2018

How do you pronounce pate in the Caribbean? ›

In the Caribbean, the tasty finger food is a pate (pronounced pah-tey), and is one of the best local foods to try. The crunchy dough is stuffed with vegetables, seafood (often salted cod), or ground meat.

How to make frizzled saltfish? ›

Instructions
  1. Soak salt fish, squeeze dry and pound finely.
  2. Boil fish approximately 5 mins.
  3. Rinse with cold water, squeeze dry & put into a bowl.
  4. Mix with fish with fresh Bajan seasonings.
  5. Stir fry fish with ingredients & Bajan seasonings.
  6. Garnish with parsley or thyme.
Aug 17, 2023

Why is pâté so expensive? ›

Often artisanal pâté is made with locally sourced ingredients, with meat and fat from small farms instead of large corporations. The practices the company adheres to can drastically influence the price of the final product, creating a rather large gap between mass-market production and artisanal product.

What is pâté called in America? ›

Usually made in a terrine (a porcelain dish), pâté may also be referred to as terrine, used as an abbreviation of pâté en terrine. Though some consider terrine to imply a coarser, heartier pâté, the two terms are used interchangeably today.

What is pâté called in english? ›

The former gives the original meaning as a "culinary preparation consisting of minced meat or fish surrounded by dough and baked in the oven"; the OED's definition is "a pie or pasty usually filled with finely minced meat, fish, vegetables, etc." The French words pâte (pastry) and pâté are both derived from the Latin ...

How do jamaicans pronounce caribbean? ›

The correct pronunciation is “care-ih-BEE-an.” So, have you been getting it right? How do we know this is the right way to say Caribbean? A few ways. First, most people who live in the islands say “care-ih-BEE-an.” If you're going to trust anyone's opinion on how to say Caribbean, I'd go with the region's residents.

What kind of fish is saltfish? ›

In the Caribbean, salt fish, also called bacalao, bacalhau, baccalà or dried fish, is fresh, meaty white fish (typically cod) that has been preserved for longer storage by salt-curing and drying until all the moisture has been extracted.

Can you eat salted fish raw? ›

However, depending on the preservation process, uncooked salted fish may contain high levels of sodium and bacteria that could cause upset stomach or other health issues. It is best to verify the manufacturer's processing and storage practices before eating dried salted fish without cooking it.

Why do you soak saltfish? ›

Saltfish and klippfisk contain a lot of salt in order for it to be stored for long periods of time. Before we can eat it, we need to remove most of the added salt by soaking the fish in water.

What does pâté consist of? ›

Pâté is often made of pig meat and parts, but wild game like snipe, partridge, venison or wild boar can be cooked into a pâté, as can farm-raised duck, rabbit or pheasant. Even vegetables can be made into pâté. Lean meats might require the addition of some pork fat to keep the pâté from drying out in the oven.

What kind of food is pâté? ›

Paté (pronounced pah-tay) is a French term that loosely translates to paste. Paté is a savory filling of meat and fat that is baked in a terrine (an earthenware vessel) and served hot or cold. Traditionally, paté was baked in pastry, aka paté en croute.

What is a traditional pâté? ›

Pâté is traditionally a mixture of ground meat, seasonings, assorted vegetables, and spirits like brandy or cognac. The texture ranges from velvety smooth to hearty and coarse, depending on regional style and preference.

What is it called pâté? ›

1. : a spread of finely chopped or pureed seasoned meat. chicken liver pâté 2. : a meat or fish pie or patty.

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