bakala | Imamother

e1234 ↓

Tue, Jul 13 2010, 1:13 am

I see bakala on sale

if I buy it - how do you cook it?

Mrs Bissli ↓

Tue, Jul 13 2010, 1:36 am

It's VERY salty, so you need to soak for 1.5-2 days before you even try cooking.
You need to change the water twice a day. After 1.5day, see if the water/fish is
still too salty (it probaby is), in which case, change water again and soak for another
half a day.

After the fish is soaked, remove skin and as much visible bones as possible, and
cut each pieces into 2-3 manageable but still biggish chunks. In a large pot, boil
the fish with fresh water, several garlic cloves (skinned but whole) and juice from
1/2 lemon for about 15-20min. Make sure to remove the scum that floats.

Remove baccalao from the water, mash with fork. From here,

A) you can make venetian style "creamy" baccalao. Mash boiled garlic cloves as well,
and add olive oil a bit at a time. I can't give exact amount of oil as it depends, but
it's a lot--almost like making mayonnaise. If it's too fishy, you can mix with mashed
potato.

B) make salt cod fritter (more carribean). Add mashed potato, eggs, chopped corriander
optional. Take about 1tbsp into a flattish ball. Fry in a skillet with 1" oil (make sure
the oil is hot) till golden and puffy. Kinda cross between fried gefilte fish ball (except
it's not sweet) and latkes.

In either cases, you can boil unpeeled potatoes (cut in 1/2 o 1/4 if large) together with the cod.
AND THE KITCHIN WILL SMELL FISHY--hope you have a good room refresher. A rabbi I know loves baccalao, but his wife only cooks it once a year.

↑ e1234 ↓

Tue, Jul 13 2010, 3:02 am

so it's not like a fish you can just boil with spices and eat??

↑ Mrs Bissli ↓

Tue, Jul 13 2010, 6:24 am

Unfortunately no. You have to soak before boiling. Otherwise it will be too salty and too hard (the same consistency as leather shoes). But it's actually quite delicious prepared properly. Soaking doesn't take much labour though it does take time.

grin

Tue, Jul 13 2010, 7:12 am

what bakala are you talking about that's salty? frozen bakala is bland like any other uncooked fish. it tends to the dry side, so you can either bread and fry it or add some oil and lemon juice when you cook it - carrots and onions add taste too.

↑ e1234

Tue, Jul 13 2010, 9:28 am

I'm talking about the bakala on sale at yesh http://www.yesh.co.il/Yesh/Sale.htm
is that the same thing your talking about

↑ Mrs Bissli

Wed, Jul 14 2010, 7:38 am

sorry it could be a cultural/linguistical misunderstanding. Bakala I know is DRIED, SALTED cod. It's sold ambient, not frozen.