Bake and Shark, or Shark and Bake — what­ev­er you call it — is ar­guably Trinidad and To­ba­go’s most fa­mous food. It’s the first stop you make at Mara­cas be­fore even putting your toes in the sand. And that makes to­tal sense.

This bake and shark recipe fries up crispy shark, mar­i­nat­ed in dried and fresh sea­son­ings for max­i­mum flavour. For the fry bake, we made life easy by us­ing Na­tion­al Flour Mills‘ Li­on Brand Fry Bake Mix, con­tain­ing every­thing you need. All you have to do is just add wa­ter! (But we al­so gave in­gre­di­ents just in case you can’t get your hands on the mix.)

One bite of this bake of shark takes your mind to the white sandy shores of Mara­cas Bay.

In­gre­di­ents

For the shark:

2 pounds shark meat

1 cup of Hi­bis­cus all-pur­pose flour

Salt to taste

Black pep­per

1 ta­ble­spoon minced gar­lic

1 scal­lion chopped

3 ta­ble­spoons green sea­son­ing

1 tea­spoon fish sea­son­ing

Dash of bit­ters

1 ta­ble­spoon lime pep­per sauce

1 tea­spoon pa­pri­ka

1 tea­spoon cel­ery salt

1 tea­spoon Ca­jun sea­son­ing

For the fry bake:

2 cups Li­on Brand’s Fry Bake Mix

1/2 to 3/4 cup wa­ter

OR

2 cups Hi­bis­cus all-pur­pose flour

2 tea­spoon yeast

1 ½ tea­spoon bak­ing pow­der

½ tea­spoon salt

1 cup luke­warm wa­ter

Lo­tus Soy­abean Oil, for fry­ing

Di­rec­tions

Sea­son shark with all the sea­son­ings and set aside to mar­i­nate.

Pre­pare bake dough, knead bake mix with wa­ter, salt, sug­ar to form a medi­um dough. Add enough wa­ter to make a soft but not sticky dough. Knead un­til smooth.

Let dough rest for 10 min­utes.

Sea­son flour to dredge shark.

Dredge shark in sea­soned flour and fry on medi­um heat.

Di­vide dough in­to small por­tions and shape in­to small balls, cov­er with a damp cloth and al­low to rest for 5-7 min­utes.

Roll out dough balls.

Fry on medi­um heat for 1-2 min­utes till the bake de­vel­ops a gold­en colour.

As­sem­ble your bake and shark with let­tuce, toma­toes, pineap­ple, gar­lic sauce and your favourite dress­ings.