Rita and Lita in the Kitchen!

Island Girls in the Big Apple

Bakes, Saltfish and Cocoa Tea with the Besties 

During my trip to NYC, I met up with some of my long time 'besties'; Cadecia, Lita and Yolanda. It was so great to meet up with old friends! The memories and jokes that we shared made for the most amazing experience! I wish that the other girls were able to make it but I guess we can hope for next year. We've agreed to make it an annual get-together!

So what's for breakfast when island girls meet up in the Big Apple? We always go back to our roots and the favorite is bake and saltfish. Lita was kind enough to share her method of preparing this 'delicacy' with me. She worked off of memory here but I tried my best to get the accurate measurements.  I have since tried her recipe again and it worked well for me but please free to makes changes if necessary.

Fried Bakes (Johnny Cakes)

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
2 cups of white flour
2 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp. sugar
3 tbsp vegetable shortening
1 tbsp yeast
1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
warm water as necessary (about 1 1/2  - 2 cups of warm water)

*Yielded about 18 bakes.

Please note if using self-rising flour, you may need to omit the baking powder and salt (or use enough salt to taste).

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl; white flour, wheat flour, baking powder, salt, yeast and sugar.
2. Rub the shortening into the mixture.
3. Add water to the mixture until it gets to a dough consistency. 
4. Knead the dough until smooth. If the dough is too sticky, add 1 tsp of flour at at time until it gets to the desired consistency.
5. At this point you can cover the dough with a moist (paper) towel for about 30 minutes. We were eager to have breakfast so we shortened out rest time down to about 10 minutes.
6. Cut the dough into pieces and form each piece into a ball.
7. Roll out each ball shaped piece of dough using a rolling pin or something round and clean in your kitchen like a glass.
8. Heat the oil until hot. Ensure that there's enough oil for the dough to float when frying. To use less oil, it may be best to use a small saucepan rather than a large frying pan and fry the bakes individually to allow the bake enough space to rise while cooking.

Stewed Saltfish (Salted Codfish)

Breakfast is served! Sweet memories of home!