WHEN THE NEIGHBORS COME FOR DRINKS

 

Salt cod fritters, a dipping sauce and a few other tidbits to serve with drinks.

I invited my new neighbors down for drinks this evening and then thought, “so what am I going to serve them?” 

Desalted cod scraps.

I had part of a package of bacalao (salt cod) that I had used for another recipe (see the orange-olive-cod salad here). These migas, or scraps, needed only two to three hours of soaking to desalt them (rather than the 36 to 48 hours needed for a thick piece of salt cod). Just right for making buñuelos de bacalao, cod fritters.

The fritters make good finger food, speared on picks and served with a spicy tomato dipping sauce. They go particularly well with white wine, fino Sherry or beer, but, hey, if guests want red wine or gin-tonic, that’s fine too. 

I gave my mini-processor a good workout, using it to flake the cod, chop ham, mince onions and parsley for the fritter batter and to blitz the tomatoes for the dipping sauce. 

Buñuelos are best, hot or room temperature, within an hour of frying them.

Dipping sauce is optional. The fritters are also good with alioli, garlic mayonnaise.

Fritters are crisp on the outside, spongy inside.

Salt Cod Fritters

Buñuelos de Bacalao

If starting with dry salt cod, cut it into small pieces and soak in several changes of water to rehydrate and remove salt.

Be careful about adding salt to the batter, as both cod and ham are salty. Best to taste the batter or fry up a sample fritter and add more salt if necessary. 

Moderate the heat so the fritters don’t brown too quickly. They need time to allow the flour to cook. 

The fritters are best within an hour of frying them. But, fried in advance, they can be successfully crisped up by submerging them briefly again in hot oil. 

Makes 1 dozen fritters.

Use food processor to chop ingredients.

3 ounces salt cod, desalted

1 ounce cooked ham

1 large egg

½ cup flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Pinch of saffron threads

1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley

1 tablespoon finely chopped onion or scallion

¼ cup water

Olive oil for frying

Tomato dipping sauce, to serve (recipe follows)

Squeeze out excess moisture from the cod. Chop it finely with a knife or in a mini-processor. Finely chop the ham in the same manner.

Add saffron to batter.

Beat the egg in a bowl. Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt. Beat in the water. The batter should be the consistency of thick pancake batter. Mix in the saffron. Add the parsley, onion, cod and ham. Stir to combine thoroughly.

Cover and refrigerate the batter for at least 30 minutes or up to 24 hours.

Place oil in a heavy skillet to a depth of 1 inch and heat the oil on moderate-high heat. Test the oil by dropping a little of the batter into the oil. When the oil is ready (360ºF), the batter should begin to sizzle and rise to the surface of the oil. 

Use two teaspoons to drop balls of batter into the oil. Don’t crowd the pan. The fritters will puff up and bob to the surface as they cook. 

Moderate heat so fritters don't brown too quickly.

When golden-brown on the bottom, carefully turn the fritters and brown the reverse side. In total, the fritters need about 3 minutes. 

Remove the fritters with a skimmer or slotted spoon and drain them on paper towels. Serve them hot or room temperature accompanied by Tomato Dipping Sauce.

Spicy Tomato Dipping Sauce

Salsa de Tomate Picante

Serve spicy tomato sauce for dipping the fritters.

This sauce goes very well with fried foods.

I used the mini-processor to finely chop the onions and garlic and to chop the skinned tomatoes as well. How spicy? That’s up to you. I added 1 whole chile (I think a cayenne) and fished it out afterward. The sauce was not very spicy. Using chopped chile with seeds makes a hotter sauce. 

Chiles for picante.

1 ½ pounds plum tomatoes (8-10)

3 tablespoons olive oil

½ cup finely chopped onion

1 clove garlic

¼ teaspoon cumin

¼ teaspoon oregano

½ teaspoon salt

1 chile pepper or to taste

1 bay leaf

Peel tomatoes easily.

Cut out the stems and cut a slash on the bottoms of the tomatoes. Place in a single layer on a plate and microwave on High for 2 minutes. Turn the tomatoes over and microwave on High 1 minute longer. The skins should begin to peel away. Let the tomatoes cool. Slip off the skins and either chop the tomatoes or blitz them in the mini-processor. Save the pulp and juice. You should have about 1 ½ cups.

Heat the oil in a heavy pot and sauté the onion and garlic on moderate heat until softened, 5 minutes. Stir in the cumin, oregano and salt. Add the chopped tomatoes. Add the chile and bay leaf.

Cook the tomatoes, partially covered to avoid splattering, on moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thick and jammy, 30 minutes.  Remove and discard the chile and bay leaf.

Serve the sauce room temperature or chilled. 

More buñuelos:

Puffy Cauliflower Fritters.

Fried Crullers for Day of the Dead.

Cheese Puffs.

Figgy Fritters.

Welcomd to new neighbors, Nina and Urban.

IF IT'S GOOD FRIDAY, IT MUST BE BACALAO--PART 2

Tortillitas are pancake-like fritters of salt cod, drizzled with molasses.

I hear the solemn drumming. The village streets are slicked with candle wax after processions have passed. Holy Week is here again. That means it’s time again for bacalao—dry salt cod—the meal of choice for Viernes Santo, Good Friday.

Truthfully, cooking salt cod but once a year is not sufficient to really get a handle on it. Last year I prepared and photographed my salt cod recipe before tasting it. Later, I added tasting notes to the blog, saying that the cod needed additional soaking time before cooking. You can read Part 1 of “IF IT’S GOOD FRIDAY, IT MUST BE BACALAO  here   Actually, I did make salt cod another time and it wasn’t even Good Friday, as a delicious dip called brandada that is ever so easy. That recipe is here.

Bacalao--salt cod--at the Barcelona market.

Last year, having just come back from a few days in Barcelona, I was inspired to prepare a Catalan dish with salt cod, bacalao a la llauna. This year, for Bacalao Part 2, I am making a traditional Málaga dish that’s been popularized in tapa bars--tortillitas de bacalao con miel de caña, cod fritters with molasses.

If this sounds unusual, trust me, it’s absolutely brilliant. Flaked cod is combined in a saffron-tinged batter, fried in olive oil, then drizzled with just a little dark-sweet molasses. The sweetness complements the cod’s saltiness. Delicious.

Why molasses? In southern Spain, in the coastal areas of Málaga and Granada, sugar refineries, established at the end of the 1500s, thrived for several hundred years, spawning related industries such as rum distilleries. Cane syrup, a light molasses, entered the local culinary tradition.

Instead of molasses, you could use honey, corn syrup or even your favorite pancake syrup in this recipe. In fact, you need very little. It is the intriguing contrast of salty and sweet that makes this an outstanding dish, typical of Holy Week in Málaga.


Tasting notes: I used small, boneless pieces of salt cod for this recipe. Twenty-four hours of soaking was sufficient, leaving just enough salt to contrast with the batter. Taste the cod after soaking--if it's not salty enough, add salt to the batter.

To Prepare Bacalao

   
Scrape off surface salt and wash the fish in running water. Put it in a bowl and cover with water. Soak the bacalao, covered and refrigerated, 24 to 36 hours, changing the water three times. Each time you change the water, wash the fish under running water, squeeze it gently and wash out the container.

After soaking, place the pieces of bacalao on a clean towel and cover with another to soak up excess water. Remove scales and bones. The skin may be required for some dishes, as its gelatinous quality thickens the sauce. Big chunks are usually cooked whole, but scraps can be cooked, de-boned and used in fritters and fish balls.

To pre-cook bacalao, place it in enough water to cover and bring it just barely to a simmer. Hold it at a simmer for five minutes.

Saffron, garlic and parsley flavor the cod fritters.

Cod Fritters with Molasses
Tortillitas de Bacalao con Miel de Caña

Makes 30 fritters.

1/4 pound dry salt cod, soaked for 24 hours in several changes of water
pinch of crushed saffron
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 clove garlic, minced
1 egg, separated
2/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
olive oil for frying
2 tablespoons molasses

Drain the salt cod and put it in a pan with water to cover and bring just to a simmer. Do not boil. Remove from heat. Drain and save the liquid. When the cod is cool enough to handle, remove any bones and skin and flake or chop the fish.

Measure 1 cup of the reserved liquid. Add the saffron to it and allow to infuse for 10 minutes.

Combine the parsley, garlic, saffron and egg yolk. Beat in the reserved saffron liquid, then the flour combined with the baking powder. Add the flaked cod. The batter should be the consistency of pancake batter. Let the batter rest for 15 minutes or up to 2 hours.

Beat the egg white until stiff and fold into the batter.

Heat oil in a skillet to a depth of 1/4 inch. Drop batter by tablespoons, turning to brown on both sides. Add additional oil as needed so that the bottom of skillet is always covered. Drain the fritters on absorbent paper. Serve them hot or room temperature, drizzled with molasses.

Sweet molasses complements salty cod.