Tag: codfish

Skillet Salt Cod Casserole (Bacalhau à Brás)

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It is said that there are over 700 different ways to prepare Portuguese style cod fish.  Bacalhau à Brás is one of the more popular and certainly one of the most famous ways to enjoy this versatile ingredient.

One might wonder why salt cod is so important and prevalent to the Portuguese cuisine.  But, one must only think about the historical aspect of the Portuguese culture to understand it.  The Portuguese have long been famous sea-faring people.  From the great Prince Henry the Navigator to Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese ruled the seas and for a short time in history were the most powerful nation in the world because of it.  So what sustained all those great sailors?  Why… salt cod of course.  While I’m sure the Portuguese had other foods among their mighty ships, salt cod was an easy sustainable and very easily stored source of protein for the men who braved the oceans for centuries.  It could be kept in a ship hold for months or even years if need be and if they ran out all they need do is make more right out on the ocean.

This particular dish is not something I would call a “weeknight” meal.  There are several stages to preparing the recipe not least of which includes soaking the cod overnight and changing out the water several times to tame down it’s saltiness.  Then there is the preparing of the potatoes which in my recipe are first par boiled and then fried.  Then making the sautéed onions, garlic and pepper and preparing the eggs.  Do this on a Friday night for lent or on a Sunday for lunch and you are sure to be pleased!

These are bits of salt cod soaking in water. I soaked them over night and changed the water 3 times before I used it in this dish.

This is one bit of cod. Place on a plate to work with it. Or you can place a bunch in a bowl, but be sure it has been drained.

The goal is to break apart the fish into small chunks, but not to shred it.

This should be your end result. This is now ready to add to your recipe.

Crack eggs into a large-ish bowl.

Beat well with a fork.

Fresh flat leaf parsley is very needed in this recipe for it’s freshness and taste. If you have curly leaf, that’s ok… but best is Italian Flat Leaf.

Roughly chop parsley.

Very thinly slice your onions.

Thinly slice and then dice your garlic.

Add cold/room temperature water to new potatoes and parboil for 10 minutes.

Once potatoes have been boiling for 10 minutes, drain water and allow to cool before working with them.

Cut in half to further allow for cooling.

The peels should easily come right off without taking any actual potato with them, in other words, you should be able to just remove the skin without any flesh.

Cut potatoes into a thin match stick type french fry.

Heat oil to the point of forming bubbles on the end of a wooden spoon when inserted. Or you can test oil by placing one piece of potato in and if it bubbles right up, the oil is ready. Once this happens keep heat to med/high.

Once fries come to this color, remove and place on some paper to drain. Lightly salt with kosher salt right away. (Do not over do it with the salt, remember the cod will be salty on its own.)

Sautée onions in olive oil over medium heat.

Once onions start to take on some color, add in garlic.

Add in some Pimenta Moida. (if you don’t have this handy, add in 1 tsp. dried pepper flakes.

Continue sautéing.

Add in prepared chunked cod. Stir to marry the flavors.

Add in reserved french fries.

Add egg and stir quickly so this doesn’t turn into an omelet.

Add in some parsley.

Once egg has almost set, add olives and finish with more parsley and a drizzle of olive oil.

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Bacalhau à Brás

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 – 1 1/2 lbs. salt cod tid bits, soaked, drained and chuncked

7-8 medium new potatoes, par boiled, peeled and cut into matchstick fries

8 lg. eggs, well beaten

4 onions, thinly sliced in rings

4 garlic cloves, sliced and chopped

4 Tbs. pimenta moida (alternatively 1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes)

1/2 cup chopped Italian flat leaf parsley, plus more for garnish

1/2 cup olive oil, plus more to finish dish

1 cup vegetable oil for frying potatoes only

1 cup olives (optional)

Directions:

Fry dry cut potatoes in either a skillet with 1 cup of veggie oil or in a deep fryer until golden.  Drain on pepper towels and lightly salt.

Sautée onions in a skillet with olive oil over med. heat.  When onions start to take on color, add in garlic, sautée another minute.  Add in Pimenta Moida, sautée another minute. Add in chunked cod, continue to sautée a few minutes.  Add french fries and stir to incorporate.  Add in egg and stir to coat all ingredients in the skillet.  Immediately add parsley and stir.  Cook until egg is almost set.  Garnish with additional parsley, olives and drizzle with fresh olive oil.  Serve hot.

***Gluten-free

Codfish Omelet Sandwich (Torta de Bacalhau)

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There are some foods that are wonderful and then there are some foods that are made exponentially more wonderful when they are transformed into a left over dish.  With the base main meal being Baked Codfish Casserole (Bacalhau Assado), Torta de Bacalhau is one of those foods.  Much like how people quite often calculate their Thanksgiving dinner to not only include enough turkey and stuffing for the dinner itself, but to also account for a sufficient amount of leftovers, most Portuguese people do the same with their Bacalhau Assado.  On Thanksgiving night or the next morning there is really nothing like biting into that Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing sandwich topped with just a bit of cranberry… Well, with Bacalhau Assado, there is nothing like frying up some left over casserole into an omelet and adding in a nice slice of cheese and serving it up on a nice fresh pop-seco roll.

In Portuguese Torta is meant to mean any leftover food that has been folded into egg and fried up and then stuffed into a sandwich.  In my opinion, Torta de Bacalhau is the king of that particular type of sandwich.  Not to say that a turkey dinner is not grande and wonderful, but that sandwich the next day is a meal all on its own.  The same is true for the Codfish Omelet Sandwich!

You will need to start by gathering about 2 cups of leftover codfish casserole.

Place that on a cutting board.

Dice it up a bit into even smaller pieces.

Get 10″ non-stick skillet ready with a fair amount of olive oil. Heat over med/high heat.

Place 1/2 your chopped casserole into the preheated skillet. This recipe will yield 4 sandwiches, but to keep it manageable, it needs to be done in two stages.

While the codfish is reheating in the pan… Crack 6 eggs into a bowl. Normally I like to add cream or milk to an omelet, not here.

Vigorously beat eggs.

Move the contents around a bit until you have some caramelazation.

Add in a small pinch of salt, just enough to season the egg… remember the cod is salty itself.

When it gets to this stage, its time for the flip. “Have courage” as Julia Child would say. The reason we used so much olive oil was so this step would not overwhelm you.

Once flipped, cook for another minute and remove from pan.

Add on two slices of whatever cheese suits your fancy, I prefer good old-fashioned melty American cheese.

Split down the middle.

You need to act quickly because we want the cheese to melt in while the egg is still hot.

Gently fold the egg up and over the cheese.

Once you’ve done this on both, they are ready for bread.

A pop-seco (Portuguese bread roll) is the best choice here. You want a medium bodied bread with a crispy crust.

Slice open while leaving it still attached.

Add the omelet right onto the bread.

Serve immediately!

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Recipe for Torta de Bacalhau:

(serves 4)

2 cups prepared Baked Codfish Casserole

1/4 cup olive oil

4 slices American cheese

pinch of salt

4 Portuguese pop-seco bread rolls

Directions:

Chop prepared codfish casserole.  Add 1/2 to a preheated 10″ non-stick skillet with olive oil.  Fry codfish casserole over medium heat. Beat 6 eggs.  Once codfish casserole is heated through and starting to caramelize, add in 1/2 egg mixture, sprinkle with a small pinch of salt.  Cook 3/4 way through, then flip.  Remove from skillet.  Add two slices of cheese to one side of the round omelet.  Divide in half and gently fold cooked egg over the cheese.  Serve in fresh bread roll. Serve hot.  Enjoy!

Codfish Cakes (Bolinhos de Bacalhau)

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AdoneFriday’s in my house growing up were always grocery shopping day.  That being said, having a full-time working mother, also meant that it was “take-out” day.  We would usually toggle between three things, pizza from Atlas Pizza, Chinese from China Royal or fish and chips from Flint Fish Market.  Sometimes if we were lucky we could tack a little on to that fish and chips order, like shrimp cakes or codfish cakes.

Codfish is a staple in the Portuguese diet.  And although fresh caught Cod is delicious, what most portuguese people think of when they think of codfish is dry salt cod, bacalhau.  This is not fish that has been left to sit with salt on it for a day or two.  We are talking about a drying and salting process that changes the entire consistency of the fish to something amazing and if you know how to work with it, you can create some incredible dishes.

Codfish cakes can be served warm or room temperature.  For breakfast, lunch, dinner or brunch.  They are great for parties and picnics.  They can be a main course or a side dish.

Here I will take you through the process of rehydrating and cooking with this particular Portuguese mainstay.

cod11111

This is bacalhau (dry salt cod). For this recipe we are using deboned codfish bits… Normally the best thing to use is a nice thick piece and if I were making almost anything else, that’s what I would get. But, this is actually less expensive and less work, so for something I will mush up anyway, bits are the way to go.

rinse

The first step is to rinse out the fish, get all that initial salt off. Rinse until the water runs relatively clear.

washed cod

Once you have some clear water, you will want to boil this. Then drain. Then boil again. Then drain again. You are not only rehyrating with this process, but removing the majority of the salt. After the second boiling, taste for salt. You still want it salty, but not crazy. Sometimes I go as far as to boil a third time.

cooked fish

This is what your boiled fish will look like.

cod in cloth

Place on a flour sack towel. (or any clean kitchen towel)

wrap

Wrap and twist the end. Wring out all the water. For Cod Fish Cakes we want only moister we add coming to the party.

mush

Once all the water has been removed and the fish is still in the cloth, mush with your hands.

mushed cod

The fish will look very mashed now, which is what you want… you should now go through with your fingers and check for any random bones. Set this aside.

potatoes

Boil potatoes whole with skins on to preserve the starch.

cooked potatoes

Peel boiled potatoes.

mash potatoes

Start mashing potatoes with a masher then finish with a fork in order to get potatoes really fine. You don’t want big chucks. If you have a ricer, this would be the perfect use. (Do not add anything to the potatoes) Set aside to cool.

dice onions

Finely dice onions. The easiest way I find to do this is to cut onion in half and in half again. Then slice several small slices throughout and turn and slice the other way, like so.

onions in pan

Place onions in a small skillet with a drop of olive oil and gently saute. When onions start to develop color, remove and set aside to cool.

parsley

Mince parsley finely.

add to potatoes

Add onions and parsley to potato. Mash together.

mix in cod

Add fish to mash. Mash together. At this point taste for salt. If it does not have a light salty taste, add a pinch of kosher salt.

add egg

Add in one egg and combine.

scoop mixture

Your mixture should hold together at this point.

oil spoons

Put a dab of olive oil on two soup spoons.

spoons

Mold with two spoons. It should for a tri-sided croquette.

raw

Line up on parchment until ready to fry. (At this point they can be covered and refrigerated for 24 hours or flash frozen and stored for a couple of months until ready to fry)

fry1

Heat canola oil in a large skillet on med/high heat. Place croquettes in oil with lots of room around them. Do not crowd pan. Turn the burner down to medium heat.

flip

Because the croquettes are three-sided, it is easy to turn them as they cook. You want to take your time with this.

flip2

The whole process of frying should take 10-15 mins. Be sure each side is golden brown without burning. If they cook too quickly, the inside will not properly cook through.

drain2

Drain on paper towels. Normally with fried food, I would tell you to salt at this point, but these are naturally salty, so no need.

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Transfer to a serving dish. They can be served warm or room temperature.

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Enjoy!

Recipe for Cod Fish Cakes:

(serves 4-6)

3/4 lb. dry salt cod, prepared (hydrated and mashed)

3 medium potatoes, boiled, peeled and mashed

2 tsp. minced parsley

1/2 medium onion, finely minced, sautéed

1 egg

kosher salt to taste

1 c. canola oil

Directions:

Combine mashed potato (cooled), minced and sautéed onion (cooled), parsley.  Add in mashed fish. Mash together.  Add in egg, combine.

Spoon out one soup spoon of mixture.  With another soup spoon, form into tri-sided croquettes.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium/high heat.  Place croquettes in heated oil to fry.  Turn down heat to medium.  Fry over 10-15 minutes turning periodically until golden brown.  Drain on paper towel.

Enjoy!

*note – this recipe is gluten-free