BACALAO FOR LENTEN MEALS

Do you observe Lent? Fish on Fridays and abstinence from luxuries and alcohol are some of the observances for the 40-day period preceding Easter (April 20, 2025). Spain, a predominantly Catholic country for the past 500+ years, has hundreds of special dishes and sweets for cuaresma, Lent. They are called comida de vigilia, or meals of abstinence, and include, besides fish, vegetarian and dairy dishes. Heading the list are the many recipes for bacalao, dried salt cod. 

Bacalao is dry salt cod.

Why cod, a fish that is not even captured in Spanish waters? Medieval Basques who engaged on long whaling expeditions, invented the method of salt-curing cod, making it an important food that would keep on long ocean voyages. Salt fish became an important item of trade. Before the days of refrigeration, unless you lived within a few hours by mule from a coastal port or on the banks of a trout stream, salt-cured fish was the only fish available. For observant Christians eating fish on Fridays meant salt cod and other salt fish as the only alternative to meat during Lent. 

Garden chard ready to cut.

Anyone interested in the history of cod should read Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky (Penguin Books, 1998).

My annual tribute to bacalao this Lenten season is an Andalusian potaje of bacalao, chickpeas, and chard. Chard because I am blessed with a small plot of chard (acelga) that needs harvesting right now.  

Potaje, which means “pottage,” is neither a soup nor a stew. It’s soupy and almost always contains legumes and other vegetables, sometimes with meat and sausages, sometimes vegetarian, and, this time of year, often with bacalao or fresh seafood. 

A hearty main dish with chickpeas, potatoes, vegetables, and cod.

A serving of potaje with eggs and crushed croutons.

Lenten Stew with Chickpeas, Bacalao, and Chard

Potaje de Cuaresma con Bacalao y Acelgas

Bacalao is sold whole, in pieces (the thick lomo or loin is the choicest cut), and in migas or scraps. In specialty shops you can find it already desalted and ready to use. 

If you are starting with dry salt cod, allow two or three days to desalt it. Wash the pieces of salt cod to remove surface salt. Place them in a glass container and cover with cold water. Cover the container and refrigerate. Soak the cod for 36 hours, changing the water twice daily during the soaking period. Drain well and keep refrigerated until ready to cook it.

If you’re starting with dried chickpeas: Put the chickpeas to soak in hot water for 8 hours or overnight. If your water is very hard, use bottled water or add a pinch of baking soda to both the soaking water and the cooking water. Add the chickpeas to a saucepan of hot water and bring to a boil. Add a whole tomato and onion. Cover the pan, reduce the heat, and simmer until tender, about 90 minutes. Drain the chickpeas, saving the cooking liquid and the cooked tomato and onion. One cup of dried chickpeas yields approximately 3 cups cooked. Puree the tomato and onion in a blender and use them in the recipe instead of the chopped onion and crushed tomatoes.

Serves 4-6.

1 pound desalted salt cod

12-16 ounces chard

¼ cup olive oil

1 cup chopped onion (or cooked onion)

½ cup diced carrot

3 cloves garlic

½ teaspoon smoked pimentón (paprika)

Pinch hot pimentón or cayenne (optional)

1 teaspoon cumin

½ cup crushed tomatoes (or cooked tomato)

4 cups drained, cooked chickpeas

5 cups water, chickpeas cooking liquid or fish stock

1 bay leaf

Salt to taste

2 medium potatoes, diced

Croutons of fried bread

Hard boiled eggs to garnish

Chopped parsley to garnish

Cut the cod into 1-inch pieces. Discard any skin and bones. Refrigerate the cod until ready to cook.

Wash chard and separate leaves and stalks. Strip away any stringy fibres from the stalks and chop the stalks. Shred or chop the leaves. 

Heat the oil in a soup pot and sauté the onion, carrot, and garlic until softened, 5 minutes. Stir in the pimentón and cumin. Add the tomatoes and chickpeas. Cover with the water and add the bay leaf and salt to taste. Bring the water to a boil and add the potatoes and chard. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, until potates are tender, 15 to 20 minutes. 

Immediately before serving add the pieces of cod to the pot. Cover and cook 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to settle 5 minutes. Lightly crush the croutons with a rolling pin or in a mini food processor. 

Serve the potaje in bowls garnished with quartered egg, the crouton crumbs, and parsley.

More potajes for Lenten meals:

Spinach and Chickpeas with Cod Dumplings.

Chickpeas with Shrimp and Seafood Sausage.

Cuttlefish and Chickpea Stew.

Lenten Fennel Potaje with Beans. (vegetarian)

Spinach with Chickpeas. (vegetarian)

SWEET AND MILKY PUDDINGS FOR SPRINGTIME

 

Catalan custards with burnt-sugar topping.

Springtime brings wildflowers, rain showers, baby lambs, strawberries, and Lent.  It is the season for sweet and milky puddings. 

Traditionally, spring lambing season meant an abundance of milk (from cows and goats as well as sheep). During Cuaresma, the Lenten period of abstinence from foods such as meat, dairy foods were a stand-in. Here is a round-up of typical puddings that continue to be favorites during Lent, Semana Santa (Holy Week) and Easter. Or any spring day, rainy or bright.

Catalan Custard with Burnt-Sugar Topping (Crema Catalana, Crema de San José). Pictured above, these sweet and rich custards are typical for the festivities of Spanish Fathers' Day, San José, (March 19) as well as for Lenten meals. The recipe, with instructions for caramelizing the sugar topping, is here. 

Creamy Rice Pudding (Arroz con Leche) in the traditional style is made with milk (often goat's milk) infused with cinnamon and lemon peel. Other versions might be flavored with vanilla or rum; have cream or butter incorporated, or be sweetened with honey or molasses instead of sugar. Restaurant renditions often have a burnt-sugar topping, similar to the above custards. The recipe for old-fashioned Spanish arroz con leche is below. Here is another version Rice Pudding with Cherries and almonds.

Custard Pudding with Meringue (Natillas con Merengue). Natillas is a simple homemade pudding, typical in rural areas where fresh milk and eggs are plentiful. In La Mancha it is made with warmed sheep’s milk (Manchego cheese is a sheep’s milk cheese). The custard is poured over tortas, sponge cookies, somewhat like ladyfingers, then sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon. In Andalusia natillas is made with goat’s milk and served with crispy galletas, plain cookies. The pudding is especially good with fruit. It can be topped with baked meringue made with leftover egg whites. Get the recipe for Natillas here.

Honey with Fresh Cheese (Mel i Mató). So simple it is not really a pudding--a fresh, unsalted cream cheese, in Catalonia called mató, served with honey or fruit in syrup. The recipe for serving is here. 

"Burnt" Cheesecake (Quesada al Estilo de Cantábria). This is a cheesecake with no crust, more of a baked custard, made with soft, fresh cheese. Should you have a surplus of milk, you can easily make the cheese yourself. The recipes for both cheesecake and cheese making are here.

Mango Pudding with Fresh Cheese (Pudín de Mango con Cuajada). Cuajada is a sort of “custard” with no eggs. In Spain you can find cuajada in individual cups in the dairy section of grocery stores. Cuajo, an enzyme (rennet or junket), sets the custard. Cuajada is, basically, the first step in cheese making. But, instead of cutting the curds and draining off the whey, the thickened milk is poured into cups and allowed to cuajar, set. Serve it with honey, fruit and nuts, an old-fashioned traditional dessert especially in Euskadi (Basque Land). For this pudding the cuajada is mixed with fruit, sugar, and whipped cream. The recipe for the pudding is here.

Caramel Custards (Flan con Caramelo). Old-fashioned flan is as Spanish as sunshine! Baked in caramel-coated molds, the custards are easy to prepare and can be made in advance of serving. The basic recipe is here.

Dark Chocolate Cream Custards (Crema de Chocolate). Perhaps these rich custards are a bit too decadent for Lenten abstemiousness, but joyous feasting of Easter is near, when chocolate is very much on the menu. The recipe for Chocolate Custards is here.

Creamy Rice Pudding

Arroz con Leche

Serves 4-6.

6 cups whole milk

1 strip lemon peel

1 (2-inch) cinnamon stick

½ cup medium-grain rice

Pinch salt

1/3 cup sugar

Ground cinnamon, for dusting

Place the milk in a pan with the lemon peel and cinnamon stick. Bring just to a boil over high heat, then remove the pan from the heat and let the milk infuse 10 minutes. Strain the milk, discarding the cinnamon and peel.

Add the rice and salt to the milk. Heat over medium heat until the milk begins to barely bubble. Cook, stirring frequently, until the rice is very soft and the milk thickens, about 45 minutes. Add the sugar and cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly so the sugar doesn’t scorch on the bottom.

Ladle the hot pudding into dessert cups or a pudding bowl. Allow the pudding to cool. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until serving time. The pudding will thicken as it cools. Sprinkle generously with ground cinnamon before serving.

FROM GARDEN TO TABLE

 

Garden fava beans.

A heap of fava beans landed on my kitchen table, picked by Ben from the kitchen garden. A little later, a handful of shelling peas, broccoli, and some stalks of chard arrived. Two hours later, I had dinner on, a vegetable menestra. 

Another day a small basketful of assorted peas was the bounty. The peas are confusing: seemingly on the same vine are snow peas or mange touts, perfect for stir-fries, and non-edible pods with tiny baby peas. Some I eat raw--those wee peas are ever so sweet. The remainder get tossed in hot oil with pieces of ibérico ham. There are hardly enough at one picking to be more than a starter.

"Menestra" means a vegetable mixture. Although the word is similar to Italian minestrone, this is not a soup but a stew that can be served as a starter or, with the addition of meat, ham or bacon, a sturdy main dish. 

The menestra from Tudela (Navarra, northern Spain) is classic. It consists only of white asparagus, artichokes, peas, and fava beans, all cooked separately and combined in a light sauce. Sometimes the sauce is slightly thickened with flour. In Bilbao (Euskadi/Basque Country) menestra often accompanies braised lamb. For the Basque version, some of the cooked vegetables (such as chard stems, cauliflower florets) are floured, dipped in beaten egg, fried, and served on top of the menestra.

Mixed vegetables in a light sauce.

Medley of Garden Vegetables

Menestra de Verduras

This menestra depends entirely on what late-winter/early-spring vegetables you’ve got in the garden or can find at the farmers' market. For example, if you’ve got a cache of wild mushrooms, use a pound or two of them and only a cupful of peas. 

I’ve used fava beans, peas, chard, artichokes, carrots, and potatoes. I included smoked panceta (pork belly) and pieces of leftover cooked lamb, but the menestra can just as well be vegetarian, an excellent Lenten dish. 

Each vegetable is cooked separately then combined in sauce to finish cooking.

Use a light stock made from chicken and/or ibérico ham bone or, for a vegetarian version, vegetable cooking water from carrots, peas, cauliflower or white asparagus. Don’t use the cooking water from artichokes, favas, or chard as it tends to darken the mixture. Although tomatoes are not in season in the winter-to-spring garden, it’s fine to add canned tomatoes or paste to the cooking liquid.

Choice of vegetables:

Artichokes

Asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch lengths

Broccoli, florets

Brussels sprouts

Cardoons, trimmed and cut into 1 ½ inch pieces

Carrots, peeled and sliced

Cauliflower, florets

Celery, sliced

Chard, stems cut into 2-inch lengths, greens shredded

Fava Beans, shelled

Garlic cloves or green garlic shoots, chopped

Lettuce hearts, sliced

Mushrooms, sliced

Onion or leek, chopped

Peas, shelled

Potatoes, cut in 1 ½ -inch chunks

Panceta (pork belly)

Extra virgin olive oil

Panceta or bacon, cut in strips

Canned crushed tomato (optional)

Light chicken stock or vegetable cooking water

Chopped parsley, fennel or mint to garnish

Hard-boiled egg to garnish

If you are using fresh artichokes, cut off the stems and trim off the tough outer leaves. Cut the artichokes in quarters. Cook them in boiling salted water with a squeeze of lemon juice until a leaf pulls off easily, about 12 minutes. Drain. Scrape out the fuzzy chokes. 

Cook each of the vegetables separately in boiling, salted water until tender. Asparagus and chard cook in 5 to 6 minutes. Tiny peas and baby favas need to be blanched only about 1 minute. Carrots and potatoes, which can cook together, take about 12 minutes. Drain and refresh the vegetables in cold water.

Heat the oil in a skillet or cazuela over medium heat. Add the pieces of panceta, the chopped onion, garlic, and mushrooms and sauté until onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato, if using, and the stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.

Return the cooked vegetables to the pan, saving a few to garnish the top. Simmer them all together for 5 minutes, adding additional stock if needed to keep the vegetables saucy. Serve hot garnished with reserved vegetables, chopped herb, and quartered eggs. 

Baby Peas with Ham

Guisantes Lágrimas con Jamón

Tiny peas sautéed with ham and a poached egg.

Lágrima means “teardrop.” These tiny baby peas, a seasonal delicacy in the Basque Country, are so-called for their delicate oval shape. They hardly need cooking at all. For this recipe use any variety of very small pea, preferably straight from the garden! 

Don’t cook the serrano or ibérico ham because heat toughens it. Add ham to the peas and immediately remove the pan from the heat.

Use the fresh pods to make a light caldo, or pea broth, to serve alongside the dish of peas with ham.

Use pea pods to make caldo, pea broth, to go with the peas.

For 1 or 2 servings

1 pound peas in the pods or 1 cup (about 4 ounces) shelled baby peas 

Salt 

Pea pods

2 cups light chicken broth

1 cup pea cooking water

Slice of onion

Freshly ground black pepper

Lemon juice

1 large egg

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped spring onions

Diced or slivered serrano or ibérico ham

Shell the peas and save the pods. There should be about 1 cup of shelled peas. Bring a pan of salted water to a boil. Blanch the peas for 30 seconds if they are tiny, “teardrop” peas. For mature (or frozen) peas, cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain, saving the cooking water. 

Place 1 cup of the cooking water back in the pan with the chicken broth and onion slice. Add all of the reserved pea pods. Bring to a boil and simmer, uncovered, 20 minutes or until reduced by half. Pour through a fine strainer. Discard solids. Season the pea-pod broth with salt to taste, pepper and a few drops of lemon juice.

Egg in plastic wrap to poach.

Line a small cup with plastic wrap. Add a few drops of oil. Crack the egg and drop it into the cup. Gather the corners of the plastic wrap together and twist them to enclose the egg. Tie with kitchen twine. Bring a small pan of water to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and add the egg wrapped in plastic. Poach the egg 4 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to lift the egg out. Leave it enclosed until ready to serve.

Heat the oil in a small skillet and sauté the chopped onions on medium heat until softened, 5 minutes. Don’t let them brown. Add the blanched peas and sauté on medium-high for 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the diced ham and immediately remove the pan from the heat.

Reheat the pea broth and serve it into demitasse cups. Serve the peas with ham on a plate. Snip the plastic wrap to release the poached egg. Place it beside or on top of the peas.   

More recipes with fava beans and peas:

Fava Beans in Their "Britches"

Fava Bean Cream

Fava Bean Salad with Mint.

Tortilla with Fava Beans and Potatoes

Rice with Peas and Cuttlefish

Vegetarian Stew with Peas, Favas, and Dumplings (Pipeo)