EVERYBODY knows the vibrant Intense host, Sanjay, but bet no one knew about the talented Chef Sanjay.

Indeed, Sanjay cooked up a storm, while preparing an ackee and saltfish dish, which tasted fantastic. His dish was served with some ground provisions — yellow yam, pumpkin, green banana — as any Jamaican would enjoy. TEENage thought it is a perfect treat to give your mother breakfast in bed.

TEENage: What does Mother’s Day mean to you?

Sanjay: Mother’s Day is the one day in the year when you try to make your mother feel appreciated and special. It’s one of those things where in an ideal world we should probably do it every day. But the reality of the matter is that we don’t. So if it’s even one day out the year, we make sure we set aside that day to make mommy feel appreciated and special.

Ingredients

8 fl oz vegetable oil

1 onion

1 oz green sweet pepper

1 oz yellow sweet pepper

1 large tomato (diced)

1 lb salt fish (boneless)

1/2 oz salt

1 oz black pepper

1 hot pepper

1 tin ackee

8 oz yellow yam

6 green bananas

8 oz pumpkin

2 oz fresh parsley

4 fl oz lime juice

Method

1. Peel and slice yam, then peel bananas and place both food groups in separate bowls of water with a little lime juice. Peel pumpkin and place in a bowl of fresh water.

2. In a sauce pot add one quart of water and bring to a boil. Remove the saltfish from its package, rinse and place it in the pot of water. Boil for about five minutes, pour off that water and boil again for another five minutes. Remove from the flame, refresh, and flake, set aside.

3. In a sauce pot add one quart of water and bring to a boil. Season with salt and add the yam, boil for five minutes before adding the banana and pumpkin. Boil for about 15 to 20 minutes or until all the vegetables are tender.

4. In a sauté pan over a medium flame add oil and onions, sauté for one minute, then add the hot pepper and cook for another minute. Add tomatoes and peppers and continue to cook for another two minutes.

5. Add the saltfish and sauté for two minutes; add the ackee over the top of the fish and vegetable, season with black pepper and gently stir the fish into the ackee.

6. Present the ackee and saltfish with the boiled ground provisions and garnish with a fresh sprig of parsley.

Tips

* When working with canned ackee, one has to be very gentle when combining it with the saltfish, so as not to crush the pods as it is fully cooked.

* Starting to cook the yam before the pumpkin and bananas helps to ensure that they all finish cooking at the same time.

* Boiling the saltfish twice not just makes the fish tender, but helps to remove the excess salt.

Special thanks to the University of Technology for allowing TEENChef to use the labs of the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management.