Trinidad Flavours: Bake and Shark

Trinidad Bake and Shark

Bake and shark is one of those classic street foods (sandwiches) in Trinidad and Tobago and if you’ve ever had the pleasure of spending a day on the beach at Maracas Bay. See recipe below, compliments www.caribbeanpot.com

You’ll Need for Bake…

3 cups all-purpose flour *
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon yeast (instant)
1 cup water * (warm)
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening
1 tablespoon margarine or butter
veg oil for frying

Notes: You can certainly use a combo of whole wheat flour and all purpose flour if you’d like to make it a bit healthier.

You’ll Need for Shark…

2 lb shark
1 lime or lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon green seasoning
1/4 scotch bonnet pepper
1 cup all purpose flour
veg oil for frying (about 2-3 cups)

Notes: Save a few drops of the lime or lemon juice for seasoning the shark as well.

To Prepare the Bake:

In a large bowl place the flour, yeast, salt, margarine, shortening and baking powder. Use your hands to mix everything together.. break up the margarine and shortening. The flour will take on the consistency of peas. Now start adding the water and form into a smooth dough. Please make sure the water is luke warn to help the yeast activate. It will take about 5 minutes of kneading to form a smooth dough. You can always use your standing mixer or food processor if you wish.

Now cover the bowl with a piece of plastic wrap to make it air tight and place it in a warm corner of your kitchen. Allow it to ‘rest’ for about 45 minutes. (we dusted the top of the dough with some flour)

After 45 minutes, it’s time to work the dough into smaller dough balls. All you have to do is break the main dough ball into 5 equal sized smaller balls (like the size of a tennis ball). Place them on a parchment lined cookie sheet (after you smooth them out) and cover with a kitchen towel to ‘rest’ further. All it takes is 15 minutes this time.

It’s now time to shape them into bake-like form and fry them. Set up a sort of station… the frying pan with the vegetable oil and a draining basket lined with paper towels.

Rub a little veg oil on your kitchen counter surface (we won’t be using a rolling pin) and place one of the dough balls.. rub some veg oil on your fingers and start to stretch the dough while pressing to form a 6 inch (diameter) circle. Work from the center out.

Heat about 2 cups of vegetable oil (any oil you like) on med/high and gently add the now formed bakes into the pot. Remember to place it away from your body, when adding it to the hot oil.

As soon as it hits the oil, be prepared to flip them over (my dad used a fork), this way you’ll have evenly fried and shaped fry bales. Allow them to cook for about 3 minutes, flipping them a couple times so each side cooks evenly. You can also spoon the hot oil on the exposed surface if you like.. not really necessary though. You’re looking for a crispy surface and a golden colour.

It’s then time to fish them out of the hot oil and place on the paper towels to drain off the extra oil. Repeat the steps until they are all fried.

To Prepare the Shark:

The first step is to prep the shark (cut into thin pieces). You can watch the following video: How To Fillet And Skin Shark For Frying or follow along with the aid of these pics.

The idea is to remove the skin, then remove the meat off the center bone and finally.. slice thinly.

Next up we need to wash the shark pieces with a bit of cool water and the juice of the lime or lemon. Rinse with cool water and squeeze dry. Shark ‘meat’ is known to hold extra liquid, so do remember to squeeze dry. Then place in a bowl and season with the salt, black pepper, crushed garlic, green seasoning and scotch bonnet pepper chopped finely.

Give it a good stir and allow to marinate for about 30 minutes in the fridge. Create a frying station as... Plate with flour, seasoned shark, pot with vegetable oil and a wire basket (or bowl) lined with paper towels to dry off the extra grease from frying.

Heat your oil on a med/high heat.. then take each piece of seasoned shark and dust all sides in the flour, then place into the now hot oil. Cook about 2-3 minutes on each side and remember to flip. If you over-cook the shark, it may go a bit tough. Remove from the hot oil, drain and get ready to assemble your bake and shark sandwiches.