dinner...
I had a request to publish the recipe for tonight's dinner:
Take a pound of bacalao - salted cod - and put it into a basin. Wash it in cold water a few times. Cover it with cold water and put it into the refrigerator (or your cold garage.) Over the next 24 hours, change the water the cod is sitting in twice.
Put the washed cod in a pot with a quart of crushed tomatoes, a pint of cheap white wine and quart or two of warm water. Add two chopped onions, a couple of cloves of garlic and some fresh herbs (oregano, parsley, basil). Bring it to a low boil. Peel four small (yellow, waxy) potatoes - cube them and add them. If you like, add half a pound of dry orzo or ditalini - if you do, add a quart or two more of water/wine mixture. Season with red and black pepper - it won't need salt - and cook for at least an hour.
kassrachel and I made this today, throwing in the leftovers of Tuesday night's dinner. That dinner, by the way:
Take two pounds of tilapia fillets. Lay them on a large sheet of aluminum foil. Wet filets with fresh lemon juice, grate half a dozen garlic cloves onto the fillets, season with salt and black pepper. Layer the fillets with red and yellow peppers, young asparagus and artichoke hearts. Add an onion or two if you'd like, and a couple of teaspoons of capers, if you have them. Add oregano, basil and parsley. Lay a sheet of foil on top, seal on three sides. Add a cup of white wine through the fourth side, then seal. Bake for an hour at 350 degrees, cooking the fish by poaching in wine. Serve over a bed of couscous, ditalini or orzo.
The soup came out beautifully. We used the cooked orzo from Tuesday, which didn't absorb much more soup. The leftover tilapia was smooth and silky; the bacalao is firm, chewy and utterly amazing. We used Ghanaian red pepper to get some snap to soup. (If you're local, let me know and I'll give you some - it's the secret ingredient in most of my cooking.) Next time, I'll add some celery and a bay leaf... but otherwise, it's one of the very best things I've ever cooked.
Bacalao is an astounding ingredient. Salted cod basically enabled long-distance sea travel. It was a readily available protein source that could be salted, packed into barrels and reconstituted into amazingly tasty soup, stew or croquets. When you eat it, you're travelling back in time - in my case, as the great-grandchild of a ship captain, you're embracing your cultural heritage. Find your local Portuguese grocery store and give it a try...
Take a pound of bacalao - salted cod - and put it into a basin. Wash it in cold water a few times. Cover it with cold water and put it into the refrigerator (or your cold garage.) Over the next 24 hours, change the water the cod is sitting in twice.
Put the washed cod in a pot with a quart of crushed tomatoes, a pint of cheap white wine and quart or two of warm water. Add two chopped onions, a couple of cloves of garlic and some fresh herbs (oregano, parsley, basil). Bring it to a low boil. Peel four small (yellow, waxy) potatoes - cube them and add them. If you like, add half a pound of dry orzo or ditalini - if you do, add a quart or two more of water/wine mixture. Season with red and black pepper - it won't need salt - and cook for at least an hour.
kassrachel and I made this today, throwing in the leftovers of Tuesday night's dinner. That dinner, by the way:
Take two pounds of tilapia fillets. Lay them on a large sheet of aluminum foil. Wet filets with fresh lemon juice, grate half a dozen garlic cloves onto the fillets, season with salt and black pepper. Layer the fillets with red and yellow peppers, young asparagus and artichoke hearts. Add an onion or two if you'd like, and a couple of teaspoons of capers, if you have them. Add oregano, basil and parsley. Lay a sheet of foil on top, seal on three sides. Add a cup of white wine through the fourth side, then seal. Bake for an hour at 350 degrees, cooking the fish by poaching in wine. Serve over a bed of couscous, ditalini or orzo.
The soup came out beautifully. We used the cooked orzo from Tuesday, which didn't absorb much more soup. The leftover tilapia was smooth and silky; the bacalao is firm, chewy and utterly amazing. We used Ghanaian red pepper to get some snap to soup. (If you're local, let me know and I'll give you some - it's the secret ingredient in most of my cooking.) Next time, I'll add some celery and a bay leaf... but otherwise, it's one of the very best things I've ever cooked.
Bacalao is an astounding ingredient. Salted cod basically enabled long-distance sea travel. It was a readily available protein source that could be salted, packed into barrels and reconstituted into amazingly tasty soup, stew or croquets. When you eat it, you're travelling back in time - in my case, as the great-grandchild of a ship captain, you're embracing your cultural heritage. Find your local Portuguese grocery store and give it a try...