How to Smoke Fish the Gambian Way

Fish is part of the staple diet here in The Gambia, and I have never tasted such delicious fish anywhere else. The most commonly eaten fish is bonga fish (officially called Yellow-tailed Mullet) as it’s readily available and cheap. However, other fish includes ladyfish, butter fish, and more exotic examples such as barracuda. Catfish is also popular, and we also eat shark and stingray, although most Gambians tend not to eat it – it’s mainly the Senegalese and Ghanains who eat these fish. However, as few rural Gambians have fridges or freezers, fish is often smoked to help preserve it.

In the nearby fishing village in Gunjur, there are commercial smoke houses where the fish are set out.

One of the commercial smoke houses in Gunjur

The fish are laid out ready for smoking

A fire is lit and the smoke rises through the fish

These fires smoulder away for about three days, and when the process is finished, the result is absolutely delicious. Fish that are smoked this way are very much valued on days when the fishermen can’t go out because of rough weather.

Here at Balaba, we smoke our own fish, which means it will keep for four or five days. These photos have been taken over several visits here.

Firstly, prepare your fish by washing them, removing the scales and gutting them. Wash them in several changes of water to make sure they are really clean. You can add salt if you want to add some extra flavour. If you have very large fish, you may want to cut them into smaller chunks to help them smoke more quickly.

Take a large oil drum and put some sticks and leaves into the bottom. Set light to the sticks. Put some mesh across the top of the oil drum and arrange your fish – try to spread it out so that the fish smokes evenly.

Fish laid out on the oil drum ready to be smoked

Larger fish smoke better if cut into smaller chunks first

Cover the fish with a large palm leaf and maybe some cloth or cardboard. Damp it down with water.

Covering the fish with a palm leaf and damping it down

As the fire starts to take hold, lift the mesh and damp it down with water – you only want it to smoulder, not burn fiercely.

Lifting the mesh to damp the fire down

Smoking the fish will take several hours, so keep going back and damping down with more water to keep the smoke going. Turn the fish if necessary to let it smoke on both sides.

Keep the fish covered and smoking for several hours

When done, the fish should be a rich golden brown and have a delicious smoky smell.

Delicious smoked fish

Fish that is smoked this way tastes absolutely lovely, and it’s a great way to ring the changes with our daily fish and rice meals.