The first time my friend and fellow food blogger Fernanda mentioned wanting to make a Portuguese salt cod stew, I was skeptical. (Though given how well Fernanda’s salmon fish stew had turned out what was I thinking?) Salt cod isn’t one of those easily-found-in-the-supermarket items. For hundreds of years codfish preserved in salt may have been a food staple in North America and Europe, but with the advances of modern refrigeration in the last century, it’s been sort of hard to come by actually, for decades. Too bad, as the drying process that preserves salt cod greatly concentrates its flavor.
I apologize in advance, as I know this recipe is a little far out, not exactly a simple midweek meal (actually it’s very easy to make, assuming you can get your hands on the salt cod). But the minute I first tasted Fernanda’s bacalhoada, as it is called in Portuguese, I knew I had to make it. We found the fish at Corti Brothers, a local Italian specialty food market. Fernanda’s instructions came with ingredients and method but not quantities, so for the most part I’m guessing here, based on my memory of the dish and on other bacalhoada recipes I’ve found online. Most recipes I found have salt cod, potatoes, and onions as a base. Many of the recipes also layered in sliced fresh tomatoes, which would be perfect in the summertime. I’ve double-layered this dish in a Dutch oven and cooked it on the stove-top; most recipes I found used a broad casserole dish, only had one layer of fish, and baked it in the oven. The hard boiled eggs, surprisingly, really work with the flavors of this dish.
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