Bacalao A la Catalana

Welcome to December and with December 07 I am sharing one of my favorite personal recipes.

I grew up with a Roman Catholic Background and part of my family came from the Northern Part of Spain. My maternal grand mother used to make this dish sometimes, specially on Friday. It was special since we could not eat Red Meat because it was a Catholic thing. I enjoyed the Bacalao prepared this way ever since any day. The main dish is a Mediterranean dish , the side orders have a Caribbean flair, from sea to sea as they say.

Ingredients:

Salted Codfish 1 pound

1 onion

1/8 cup of minced garlic

1 can of diced tomatoes, or 4 to 6 tomatoes diced even better

a small jar of stuffed Spanish olives (around 30 olives)

1/4 cup of Olive oil

1/8 cup of Vinegar (as natural as you can get it) , Apple cider vinegar is good as well

Laurel Leaves

Ground Pepper to taste

The picture that you see is of salted codfish.

Directions:

1) You let it soak overnight in a deep pot full of water, then the next day you throw the water out and refill.

*

In the meantime you can slice some onions and green,red and yellow peppers julienne style.

*

2) You boil the fish for about 30 minutes and then decant the water once more. Let it cool.

*

3) Once cool , wash your hands well and start to debone the Cod by hand, you need to separate the meat with your fingers looking for bones, so make sure your hands are very clean. I look for bones twice, it is always safe. Once this is done then you will proceed to take about a 1/4 cup of olive oil and some minced garlic and let it simmer in low in a pan.

*

4) Once you get the garlic going in a low simmer you can add the codfish and stir the fish and the garlic with a wooden spoon, you can add the peppers at this time . In about ten minutes of this cooking you can add the olives with some of the juice from the olives as well, add the tomatoes and sprinkle the laurel leaves, mix well and cover. Raise the heat to medium high for about two minutes and turn it off. You can add the pepper later before serving.

*

This plate is accompanied by a side dish of rice and other vegetables if desired.

Gandules (Congo Peas)salad and sweet potato and taro root, Bon Appetite