Where does Bacalao al pil pil come from?
Bacalao al pil pil is one of the most characteristics recipes of the Basque Countries. This recipe is based in a sauce called pil pil, that is made binding the oil where we have made the cod. This fish releases a jelly when it is fried, this jelly is the one that we bind with the oil to create a delicious sauce.
This dish is typical from Easter, because the cod is usually fished at this time of the year, although if we buy it salty, we can have it at every time of the year.
The traditional way to make the recipe is moving the pot with the cod inside and, little by little the sauce start to be formed. There are some chefs that say the best way to make this sauce is making “88 eights” with the pot.
What is the origin of Bacalao al pil pil?
The origin of this delicious Basque recipe has a lot of legent and some of reality, I guess. The history says that in the end of the 19th century a Merchant from Bilabao, with Gurtubay as last name, ordered 20 or 22 cods. However, due to a misunderstood he finished having 2.022 cods. At that time, Bilbao lived a siege for the Carlist’s war and the merchant made a fortune with his exceeds of cod. With the shortage of ingredients, someone finished making a sauce formed only by olive oil, chilli peppers and garlic. And, joining both, we have the origin of the famous Bacalao al pil pil.
Ingredients:
- 4 pieces of salty cod (better if is the fillet).
- 8 garlic cloves.
- 3 chilli pepper.
- Virgin Extra Olive Oil, if possible soft oil.
Time of preparation: 1 hour.
How to cook Bacalao al pil pil:
First step: Ingredients preparation.
To prepare the cod, we should first clean the pieces with water and preserve. Then fill a recipient with water and put the cleaned pieces inside.
You should change the water every 8 hours. The number of times you shoul renew the water depends on the cut of the cod. If is fined cut, with three times (24 hours) will be enough but, if is thicker, you will have to do it at least 5 or 6 times (48 hours).
After removing the salt, drain all the water and preserve inside the fridge until you are going to use it.
Peel the garlic cloves and preserve.
Now, clean and peel the chilli pepper and remove the seeds, we don’t want an extremely hot dish. Cut it in 4 pieces afterwards.
Top Tip: put the recipient with water and the salty cod inside the fridge, this is advisable to avoid the cod suffer temperature changes.
Top Tip: you can also buy non-salty cod and avoid all the preparation but, if you have time, definitely make the dish with salty cod, the results will be dramatically different.
Second step: Fry the ingredients.
First of all, we are going to take a large and short pot, we are going to put some olive oil in the bottom and put on the fire until it is completely cooked.
When the oil is hot, take the peeled garlic cloves and put them inside, fry them until they get a golden colour, afterwards take them out and preserve.
Now, is time for the chilli pepper, put them inside the pot and stir fry them slightly, then take them out and preserve.
Don’t throw the oil away! We are going to use it to cook the cod too!
Top Tip: be careful both the garlics and the chilli peppers don’t burn. If they do they will give the dish some disagreeable-burn taste.
Third step: Fry the cod.
Now is time for the main ingredient of our dish: the cod. Take the pieces of cod and put them into the pot, you should cook them with the skin upside down for four minutes approximately first.
After this four minutes, turn the pieces over and cook for another four minutes.
Now is time to remove the pieces of cod from the pot and preserve.
You should preserve the jelly that the cod is releasing in a bowl to make the sauce.
Preserve also the oil where you have cooked all the ingredients in another bowl.
Top Tip: put the pieces separate inside the pot, they shouldn’t touch each other, if the pot is not big enough, then cook 2 pieces before and the other 2 afterwards.
Top Tip: is important to cook the cod with the skin upside first, to preserve the taste and let it release as much jelly as possible.
Fourth step: Make the sauce.
First of all, you have to wait for the oil to cool and put a small pot with low heat. When the oil is temperate, we have to put some of the oil that was in the bowl in a small pot and some of the jelly too.
Bind the oil and the jelly stirring them softly. Then keep adding the oil and the jelly little by little and never stop stirring until all the oil and the jelly is bind and you have a sauce with a thick consistency.
Now, put the pieces of cod inside the sauce to warm them up.
Top Tip: be careful to never stop stirring. If you do, the jelly and the oil will never bind and your dish will be spoiled.
Final Step.
Once the pieces of cod are warm, the dish is almost finished. We only have to serve it.
To do that, put one piece of cod in each plate and cover them with the sauce.
To finish, distribute the preserved garlic gloves and chilli peppers between the plates.
Now you have an awesome Bacalao al pil pil to eat!!!
