Akee
is a favorite fruit in the Caribbean, but is a native of
Africa where it is often eaten raw, cooked in a soup or fried in oil. Captain Bligh (show below, the
infamous subject of the mutiny on his ship the
Bounty) is said to have imported it from Guinea to feed slaves in
the West Indies. (Illustration
by B. E. Nicholson and published in The Oxford Book of Food Plants)
http://www.plantexplorers.com/Explorers/Biographies/Captain/Bligh.htm
The Genus Blighia, which consists of some
four species of evergreen tropical shrubs and trees was named in his
honor. The Lychee of SE Asia is a close relative. The
most commonly cultivated of these is Blighia
sapida. Bligh introduced this unusual fruit tree to Jamaica
from Africa in 1793. Although oral history has the seeds
transported to the West Indies by slaves desperate to hold onto a
favorite food from home.
http://www.rarefruit.org/ianmaguire/akee5.jpg
Akee
is often described as
looking like a peach and tasting like scambled eggs. Only the fleshy part around the
seeds is edible. The rest of the
fruit and seeds are poisonous. The fruit is picked only after it has
opened naturally. Here's a description from Linda Wolfe, author
of The Cooking of the
Caribbean Islands (Time-Life, Alexandria, VA, 1970)
"This is the akee, which a friend of mine once described as looking "like a one-pot meal." Split, its yellow flesh resembles a plateful of scrambled eggs, its seeds a garnish of shiny black olives and its mottled red skin a glazed pottery casserole; its texture is soft and its flavor mild."
"Oddly, akee never caught on anywhere in the Caribbean except Jamaica. "Akee, rice, salt fish are nice," goes a verse in the song "Jamaica Farewell," only Jamaica has akee and salt fish, which as any Jamaican will tell you, is one of the finest dishes anywhere in the Caribbean. The cod is soaked overnight to reduce its saltiness; then it is boiled and shredded. A sauce of sauteed garlic, onions, sweet or hot peppers and bits of bacon punctuates the mildness of the akee. But stubbornly, the fish stays salty and the akee stays mild, and the combination is so felicitous that they seem an ideally married pair, able to accommodate to any course that follows. "
Photo by Richard Meek.
"This is the akee, which a friend of mine once described as looking "like a one-pot meal." Split, its yellow flesh resembles a plateful of scrambled eggs, its seeds a garnish of shiny black olives and its mottled red skin a glazed pottery casserole; its texture is soft and its flavor mild."
"Oddly, akee never caught on anywhere in the Caribbean except Jamaica. "Akee, rice, salt fish are nice," goes a verse in the song "Jamaica Farewell," only Jamaica has akee and salt fish, which as any Jamaican will tell you, is one of the finest dishes anywhere in the Caribbean. The cod is soaked overnight to reduce its saltiness; then it is boiled and shredded. A sauce of sauteed garlic, onions, sweet or hot peppers and bits of bacon punctuates the mildness of the akee. But stubbornly, the fish stays salty and the akee stays mild, and the combination is so felicitous that they seem an ideally married pair, able to accommodate to any course that follows. "
Photo by Richard Meek.
Akee
and salt
cod is the national dish of Jamaica. The cod is sauteed with akee
and port fat, onions, peppers, tomatoes and herbs are added.
Photo of Jamaican salt cod and akee
taken by Richard Meek
and published in Time-Life's The
Cooking of the Caribbean Islands by Linda Wolfe (Alexandria, VA,
1970)
Here's a review
of a Jamaican restaurant in Brooklyn, NY that serves akee in several
dishes.