There are so many cod dishes in Portuguese cuisine – the Portuguese call it “faithful friend” for a reason – that they boast of having at least as many recipes for cooking it as there are days in the year. Among them we find the tasty formula that concerns us, cod Gomes de Sá. What is currently known as the king ingredient of Portuguese cuisine, salt cod, is a fish that is extracted from the sea thousands of kilometers from the country and does not exist nor has it ever existed in its waters. How did it come to acquire that leading role in our neighbor’s gastronomy? During the Middle Ages, one of the Portuguese merchandise desired by other countries was salt, in which the Nordics who fished for cod were interested, among others. As our colleague David Remartínez recounted, the Vikings were the first to dry cod, but they lacked a good supply of salt. However, the conservation of a dried fish improves if it is cured with it in the first phase.
Seems to be this exchange of fish for salt, in addition to the Catholic prohibition of eating meat during Lent, which popularizes the consumption of cod in Portugal, which since the 14th century the Portuguese bought from the fishing villages of northern Europe. It is in the mid-1500s, after the ‘rediscovery’ of the American continent, when they venture to fish with their own fleet for the cod of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, an extensive fishery on the continental shelf off the east coast of Canada that goes many kilometers in the Atlantic Ocean.
In these waters that do not exceed 200 meters in depth, the warm Gulf Stream and the icy Labrador Current rub against each other circulating in opposite directions: this combination of fortunate circumstances made it one of the richest fishing grounds on the planet, a paradise for fish in general and for cod in particular; waters in which you could almost fish by dipping baskets in the water to extract them brimming with fish. Until humans fleece it, of course. As a curiosity, it is towards one of these Grand Banks, Flemish Cap, where George Clooney’s fishing boat goes to try its luck in The perfect Storm. And then they say that fish is expensive.
as it counts mark kurlansky in a gripping book on the history of salt cod, Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, fishing began in Newfoundland for the bulk of Europeans -the aforementioned Vikings and even the Basques already fished there in the Middle Ages- starting in 1497 with the enthusiasm of the gold rush. Around the year 1508, 10% of the fish sold in the Portuguese ports of Douro and Minho was salt cod from Newfoundland. By the middle of the 16th century, 60% of all the fish consumed in Europe was salt cod, a percentage that would remain stable for the next two centuries. However, the Portuguese fishing boats in Newfoundland ended up being expelled in the 16th century by English and French corsairs, nationalities that from then on would dominate fishing in this area. And the Portuguese had already taken a liking to cod.
Until the 19th century in Portugal it was not consumed in a proportion comparable to the current one -Portugal takes the cake for fish consumption per capita in Europe-; It was, despite everything, a food more typical of the wealthy classes than of the humble, who flocked to sardines. The consumption of cod on a large scale in the neighboring country that begins in the 19th century becomes exponential with the Salazar dictatorshipthe call new state, from 1934, when its fishing was centralized and organized by the State, in order to reduce external dependency and guarantee the country’s food supply.
This Gomes de Sá cod recipe comes from the cookbook The Taste of Portugal by Edite Vieira; The author comments that when there are many variations of a popular dish, the most elaborate usually turns out to be the original. Legend has it that the name of this dish is attributed to the fact that it was created by a merchant from the city of Porto and, the present version having been endorsed by the descendants of that merchant, they say that the secret lies in soaking the cod in milk. . Side note: I firmly believe that if the cod is of excellent quality and perfectly desalted, not only does it not need to be soaked in milk, but the effect of doing so is almost nil. Hala, you Portuguese can chase me with pitchforks and torches.
Difficulty
That of finding a quality cod in which we do not leave half a salary.
Ingredients
for 4 people
- 450 g of salted cod
- 200 ml of whole milk
- 600g of potatoes
- 4 tbsp. Of olive oil
- 1 large onion
- 2 garlic cloves
- Salt to taste
- Pitted black olives
- 2 hard-boiled eggs
- Fresh parsley
Preparation
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Desalt the cod by putting it in cold water in the fridge, well covered with water that we will change every eight hours, more or less, for a period of 24 to 48 hours depending on the size of the pieces; the larger they will take to desalt.
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Drain the desalted cod. Put water in a casserole in which the cod pieces fit and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and add the cod pieces, cover the casserole and let the cod cook in the remaining heat for at least 15 minutes, although it will depend on the thickness of the pieces.
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Remove the cod from the hot water and let cool; once warm, crumble by hand and put it in a bowl.
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Heat the milk until it boils and cover the cod with it. Let it soak in the milk for at least an hour and a half, tightly covered.
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Wash the potatoes and cook them with their skin on in a saucepan with water or in a container in the microwave, with a finger of water and tightly covered. When they are tender, let cool and peel them. Also cook the eggs for 10 minutes and refresh them in cold water.
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Meanwhile, peel and julienne the onion, and fry it over low heat in the olive oil until smooth and transparent. Add the laminated garlic and give it a few turns.
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Add the boiled and sliced potatoes to the onion, as well as the cod drained from the milk. Heat for 10 minutes over very low heat, until the whole is barely browned, turning from time to time.
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Check the seasoning and add salt if necessary. Transfer the whole to a baking dish and lightly toast it on the grill. Serve immediately mixed with the hard-boiled eggs, with the olives on top and the parsley.
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