Baked cod with corn bread. Bacalhau with broa

Unquestionably, if there is a king product in Portuguese cuisine, that is cod . In the neighboring country we are told that there are more than 365 ways of preparing this fish, one for each day of the year, but perhaps within all, the most widespread may be cod or bacalhau à Brás , cod or bacalhau a Gomes de Sá , the cod fritters and the recipe that I bring you today, cod or bacalhau with broa .

The star ingredient of course is cod , but in this recipe it is accompanied by corn bread, broa or brona . In addition to Portugal, where we can find this bread in almost any bakery, there is also a tradition in our country. Specifically in my land, in Galicia, it is a bread among the classics of its own gastronomy. I know that it will not always be easy for you to get this bread, and although the flavor and texture will vary, we can always substitute it for another one with a compact crumb that we like, with the permission of the Portuguese, of course. In any case, it is a very tasty dish in which the combination of cod with almost caramelized onion and corn bread crumbs is perfect, I recommend it.

How to desalinate cod

1. If we choose the option of a salted cod fillet, we must desalinate it. To do this we must first cut it if it is very large.
2. To desalt the cod, the piece of fish must be covered in plenty of water. The thick parts will desalt for 48 hours, with water change approximately every 6 hours. The finer parts will desalinate for 36 hours, with a water change every 8 hours.
3. While the fish is desalting it must remain at a temperature between 6 and 8 º C in the refrigerator, since at room temperature it can ferment. If it happens to you, you will notice right away, it has happened to me before, the smell is … well, I don’t need to describe it. Inside the fridge we avoid temperature variations, which would accelerate or delay desalination, especially in summer.

Preparation of the cod with broa

1. In a saucepan, cook the cod in milk with a bay leaf, half an onion and a whole garlic clove. We cook the fish for 10 minutes and turn off the heat. When the cod is warm, drain it from the milk and proceed to break it into flakes and remove the thorns and skin. We reserve.
2. Peel the onions and cut them into julienne strips. In a frying pan, fry the onions over medium heat until they are very soft and transparent, almost caramelized. This process will take us about 20 minutes. We reserve.
3. We wash the potatoes and cook them whole and skinned in a saucepan with plenty of water. We cook the whole potatoes for 15 minutes and drain. When they have been tempered we peel them and reserve them.
4. In a bowl we crumble the crumb of the corn bread. Add 2 egg yolks, plenty of chopped parsley and black olives. We remove the mixture well and reserve.
5. In a deep source we are going to place the different layers that will later go into the oven. We water the base with a splash of olive oil and place the potatoes in slices of 1 cm. so that they cover the entire base of the fountain. We put the cod in flakes later, covering the cod, a new layer with the well poached onion. We cover all the ingredients with the corn bread crumbs and water with a splash of olive oil.
6. With the oven already preheated to 200º C we introduce the source and bake for 20 minutes. We must be aware in case the upper bread crust is toasted too much, if so we can cover the source with aluminum foil until the end of the process.

We serve hot cod without the need for any accompaniment other than a glass of good white wine, if we want, and wanting to enjoy.

Be sure to enjoy all the recipes for fish and seafood that we have on the blog, I assure you that you will find a lot of ideas to make yours much happier. You can see all the photos of the step by step in the next album.