At its essence, Bacalhau à Brás is a 3 factor dish. The ones 3 substances are salt cod, potato and eggs. The recipe’s different substances, like bay leaves and cilantro, are supporting avid gamers that entire the dish.
That being stated, salt cod is the dish’s megastar factor.
Component amounts are detailed within the printable recipe card beneath.
Why Salt Cod?
We didn’t steadily come upon salt cod once we lived in The united states aside from throughout vacations like Easter and Christmas. However salt cod, i.e. bacalhau, imported from Norway is all over in Portugal. You will be questioning why the Portuguese import such a lot salt cod since there’s such a lot recent fish in Portugal. We puzzled the similar prior to we moved to Lisbon.
The solution lies in Portugal’s sea business and bacalhau’s integral position within the country’s maritime historical past. Preserved cod won recognition again when sailors wanted protein that they might maintain with out refrigeration. Through the years, bacalhau left the shipyards and landed on Portuguese dinner tables each at eating places and in houses. It’s a novel product – a salty, funky delicacy that tastes remarkably other from recent fish and but similarly gratifying.
Good enough. So now that we’ve distributed of slightly of historical past, let’s speak about which salt cod to make use of and tips on how to prepare dinner it.
Purchasing Salt Cod
Not like markets in Portugal, American retail outlets infrequently (if ever) promote salt cod. Then again, due to the miracle of the web, you’ll purchase pre-cut bacalhau on-line.
We propose purchasing loin or lombo because it’s referred to as in Portuguese. It’s a costlier minimize however, as soon as reconstituted, cod loin has a phenomenal flake and silky texture. You’ll be able to additionally purchase salt cod ‘desfiado’ which is offered deboned and shredded. We choose the loin in spite of the little bit of additional paintings required.
