Bacalhau a Gome de Sa

When I was growing up, we would spend every Saturday with my mother's side of the family. That was what we did. There was no debating or choosing to go elsewhere (at least, not until I got older). Every Saturday we would go over to my Grandparents where my cousins and my Mom's sisters would be. There wasn't anything special about it... I would pay in the front yard or pick berries in the back yard and we would later have a simple supper of kale/sausage/potatoes or braised beef or marinated pork with taro root. Anytime you wanted a snack, you had to open at least a half dozen containers of Country Crock to find out which on actually had butter in it (since all the others had some form of leftovers in them.)

 

We wouldn't have salt cod often since it's a little expensive and there were always a lot of us. They would make double the recipe I'm giving you today (and my recipe is easily enough for 6 people. At $12 per pound (or so) salt cod isn't cheap. You won't be able to find it in your regular grocery store, but you might find it at a specialty grocery store or a European food market, if you have one in your neighborhood.

 

I got my salt cod at a Special Spanish/Brazilian/Portuguese food mart. I even got some of my favorite soda when I was growing up. Sumol is a passionfruit soda and it is fantastic!

 

Note: This recipe traditionally uses olives as well. I hate olives so I omit, but you can use them if you wish.

 

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lb salt cod
• 6 baking or new potatoes, well scrubbed
• 9 hard boiled eggs
• 1 bunch flat leaf parsley
• 1 onion
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp paprika
• good quality olive oil.
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Soak salt cod in the refrigerator overnight, changing the water twice
2. The next day, hard boil the eggs.
3. In liberally salted water, boil the potatoes until almost tender. Add cod to the water and boil for 5 more minutes until fish can flake apart with your fingers
4. Drain water. Flake part fish, peel and dice potatoes, and peel and slice eggs. Layer the ingredients in a baking dish, starting with half the potatoes, half the fish and half the eggs. Repeat.
5. Sautee onion with cumin and paprika in a decent amount of good olive oil. Add parsley and salt if needed.
6. Pour onion mixture over the casserole. Cover and bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes. Serve immediately.