Bacala Spanish Revolution - Bacalhau à Revolução Espanhola
It is a tradition in Brazil that "good Friday" (Friday before Easter) is a day of eating Bacalhau. I have no idea where it started bit as far as I understand it is a fantastic excuse to cook Bacalhau!
Bacalhau is a revolutionary invention. To travel long distances on a ship during the "discoveries period" Bacalhau was known as the "loyal friend". Dried Salted Cod fish, could be transported for long periods of time before the advent of refrigeration. It is preserved by the high content of salt and dehydration...
The first step of cooking it is to remove the salt and re-hydrate the fish. This process is better done in a period of 48 hours before cooking it.
The fish is divided in 9 or 12 rectangular parts thoroughly washed and then placed on a bowl, preferably stainless steel, and placed submerged in water to remove the salt.
Finally I cover my stainless steel bowl with glad-wrap (pvc) so it doesn't let my fridge smells fish, and if it does a place a bit of wood charcoal inside the fridge that will most certainly remove the fish odour.
Here in Tennant Creek, Central Australia, the temperatures are around 37º C to 42º C during this time of the year so. Before we started the cooking itself we prepared a good batch of watermelon juice (while you cook drink). It is just a lot of watermelon placed on a blender, nothing else., but really refreshing.
A trip to the backyard rendered a good bunch of Basil (Genovese) and the same amount of Coriander.
Also a few red chillies, I'll use only 2 or 3 of these long ones.
Using a V slicer, we prepare two lots of 1 capsicum each. 1 Red Capsicum and 1 Green Capsicum. (or 2 if they are small!) A couple of good size onions are also sliced very thinly with the V slicer !
Basil and Coriander are chopped coarsely and a few tomatoes (5) were diced to add to the mix.
I used 1 1/2 full head of whole garlic and add it to the pan without chopping! (Well...I love garlic!)
On a large pan fill it 70% with plain water and put it to boil.
Place 2 or 3 pieces of Bacalhau at the time to boil for 3 minutes and set it aside.
After finishing with the fish, remove all external bones from the already cooked fish and place it back in the pan, specially the tail.
We are using "red potatoes", 5 of them. Cook them in the same water until you can "hook them" with a fork. NOT too soft !
Assembling it!
On a "rechaud" style pan with lid or on a large and deep stainless steel baking tray, create a "bed" of tomatoes, onion, capsicum, green and red a couple of large whole chilies and sprinkle it with OREGANO (dried). I use ½ of the amount I previously prepared.
Break the potatoes in 8 and arrange the roughly on top of this bed.
Now place all the side parts of the fish in order to create a well covered layer of fish.
Use now ½ of the Coriander/Basil mix on top of the fish.
Place some calamata olives on top of the fish and 200ml of the water of the calamata olives jar. I'll end up using all the olives in this jar(image) and all water in it.
On top of this first layer of fish, create another layer of :
½ of What Is Left of your Coriander/Basil mix
½ of What Is Left of onions
½ of What Is Left of Capsicum Red/Green
Arrange all the central parts of the Bacalhau re-assembling the central spine of the fish on top of this layer.
Add what is left of:
Coriander/Basil mix
Onions
Capsicum Red/Green
Olives
Water from the olives jar
On top of it use ½ litre of Extra Virgin Olive oil.
My preference is Carbonell, but this is a personal choice. It must be fruity, full bodied and green, very green.
Lid on or covered with foil place in the oven 200º C for an hour.
Ready!
Serve with rice and a good wine!
I hope you enjoy it.
Viva el Bacalao!
Viva la revolucion!
Beto Boton
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