Cooking with funkit. Simple bacchalau.

Great success with my paleo cooking! But what happens when we move forward in history? Food preservation is a skill that has evolved. And this is a step forward in time. Stockfish has been the main commodities coming out of my region for centuries. And it is still valued today as it was hundred years ago. Stockfish can be any of the cod varieties, but the most common is the North Atlantic cod that comes to these waters to hatch in February-march every year. They are huge and are well suited for drying.

Image source: Wikipedia

Stockfish is saturated with salt and dried in the sun and wind. Due to the low fat flesh, it preserves the freshness and makes it easy to transport. The export goes to Portugal, Spain, Italy and Brazil mainly. But also other countries.

Image source: dybvik.no

Easy bacchalau

The word bacchalau is Portuguese for stockfish. I've never been there, but they say they have countless recipes for it. The way I learned it was from an old sailor who had very specific instructions. I just wanted to make it a bit easier and skip potatoes and boiling the dish. Instead I bake it in the oven.

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo bone free stockfish (or 1 1/2 with bones and skin)
• 3-4 large onions
• 1 garlic
• chili pepper (I used dried cayenne since I like it so much)
• 2 dl tomato purée
• olive oil
• green lentils

Preparations

The fish I found was without skin and bones. It was still very salt and had instructions on the package for how long it needed to soak. I let it soak in fresh water over night. For filets that are whole, more time and a few water changes might be needed. Remove the skin and bones before cooking. It takes some practice...

A teflon oven tray is perfect for baking anything. Just load it up with plenty of onions, layers of fish, spices, tomato purée and olive oil.

It is basically the same as the traditional bacchalau I make sometimes, only then I use a large casserole and layers of potatoes in between. It's messier, since you have to be careful not to burn. Using the oven, I had no worries about burning.

I baked it about 1-1 1/2 hour. It's easy to see when it's ready. The lovely tomato sauce rises to the top. 200 degrees celcius.

The lentils takes about half an hour to boil.

Bon apetite!