Now this Bacalhau a Gomes de Sa – codfish, potatoes, and onion bake – it’s a classic at out tables for Christmas Eve dinner. So of course, this was one of the main courses that I prepared for my family.
I mentioned before that we are huge fans of codfish in Portugal and that we use always the salted version. It’s part of our tradition and it’s our national dish. When it comes to recipes, we have 1001 ways to cook codfish 🙂 it’s true! It’s a very versatile fish and we have lots of imagination! And if you wonder what we do to the salted cod to prepare it for cooking, check out Salted Codfish and how to remove the salt and rehydrate it.
Unfortunately, due to health problems, my mum didn’t prepare her usual treats for Christmas this year. In fact, I gave her strict instructions not to do anything. Me and my boyfriend would take care of all the meals. So off we went: cook for a crowd of 8 adults and 2 children. It would have been an easy task if everything went as planned. But things started with the wrong foot straight from the word go. We had quite an adventurous trip on the way there that involved plain delays, being sent to different airports and not being able to fly all the way to out last destination. So instead of arriving home at around 18hrs and being able to go food shopping, we arrived at 2am! Which means we add to go to the supermarket first thing on the 24th and try to get all the ingredients for all the meals. We were so tired from all the travel but we wanted to make everyone’s Xmas special! By lunch time we were back with everything we needed and cooking started. There were lots to do but the enthusiasm was even more. And with the help of my mum (yes, I couldn’t get her out of the kitchen!) and my aunt, me and my boyfriend managed to produce food for 2 very important meals 🙂
Codfish, potatoes and onion bake – Bacalhau a Gomes de Sa
Ingredients
- 1 kg salted cod already desalted
- 1 kg potatoes
- 3 onions
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 bay leaf
- 4 boiled eggs
- 2 dl olive oil
- Black olives to taste
- Chopped parsley to taste
- Salt & pepper to taste
- Hot milk as needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven - 180C
- In a large pan, cook the pieces of cod in water for 20 min.
- Drain and flake it. Put it in a deep bowl, cover with very hot milk and allow to stand for about 1 hour.
- Meanwhile, cut the onions and the garlic into slices. In a large pan, heat some olive oil and lightly brown the onions and garlic.
- Cook the potatoes with the skin on. Let it cool, remove the skin and cut into slices.
- Add the potatoes to the onions and garlic. Mix everything carefully.
- Drain the cod from the milk and add to the potatoes.
- Stir everything slightly and season with salt and pepper. Let it cook for another 2 mins.
- Pour the mixture into a baking dish. Cut the eggs into slices and spread over the top. Drizzle with a little olive oil and bake for about 10-15 mins.
- Remove from the oven, spread the olives on top and sprinkle with chopped parsley.