Bacalhau com Natas: Portuguese salt cod with cream sauce

Friends of ours mentioned enjoying this while traveling in Portugal and it sounded like fun since I enjoy Bacalao. It turned out well: very rich, creamy, with soft potatoes -- a fine dish for cooler weather. 

Crusty gratin with creamy bacalao and potatoes

This recipe is based on several I found: Crumb-Snatched, We Travel Portugal, Authentic Food Quest, and Portuguese Soul Kitchen. Most boil the fish in water but AFQ's cooks it in milk which makes more sense: it flavors the milk rather than diluting the fish. All the recipes call for Mozzarella for the gratin, but that seems too pizza-like so I used Parmesan and another cheese which I had on hand; you could use only Parmesan.

I'm using frozen Bacalao/Bacallà al punt de sal for convenience, and because it's less expensive than the dry salt cod I reserve for dishes like Pil Pil. If you use dry Bacalao, you'll need to hydrate for 2-3 days in several changes of water. Some recipes suggest using store bought shoestring fries instead of frying potatoes yourself, which I think is clever, but I'm not stooping to that yet. 

This serves 2 generously.

300 g      Bacalao al punt de sal, thawed

200 g      Milk

  1        Bay Leaf

 45 ml     Olive Oil

  1 large  Onion, yellow or white, peeled, sliced

  2 clove  Garlic, sliced

300 g      Potato, peeled, cut into 1 cm cubes

 20 g      Butter

 20 g      Flour

100 ml     Cream

           Nutmeg, grated

           Salt

           Pepper

 25 g      Cheese, Pecorino Romano, grated

 25 g      Cheese, Parmesan, grate

  5 sprigs Parsley, chopped 

If using dried Bacalao, hydrate it 2-3 days in multiple changes of water.

To save time, cook the Bacalao at the same time as you sauté the Onions, then make the bechamel while frying the Potatoes.

In a pot, simmer the Bacalao in the Milk with the Bay, covered on low for 10 minutes.

Drain, reserving the Milk.

Discard any skin, bones, and the Bay.

Flake the fish with fork or fingers.

Onions and garlic on left, bacalao and milk on right

In a skillet, sauté Onion and Garlic in 15 ml Oil until tender.

Add cooked Bacalao and fry 5 minutes; reserve to a cazuela or baking dish.

Coat the bottom of the same skillet with 30 ml Oil and fry the Potatoes until golden and barely cooked through; cover the skillet after developing the crust to speed the cooking.

In the same pot as you cooked the Bacalao, melt Butter and add Flour, whisk to create a paste and cook the Flour for a few minutes.

Slowly add the fishy Milk and cook, whisking continuously until you get a sauce a little thicker than heavy cream

Add the Cream and Nutmeg, then adjust with Salt and Pepper. 

Remove from heat.

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Layer the Potatoes on the Onions/Bacalao in the cazuela and shake to distribute evenly.

Top with the bechamel, and even out again.

Top with grated Cheese.

Bake at 200C for 20 minutes until cheese is melted and browned.

Garnish with Parsley.

Serve with a dry white wine.

Canelones Rossini: pâté for the gourmet

Canelones/Canalóns are well-loved in Catalunya; this blog post has a good history. The "Rossini" version is a bit fancy, adding pâté per the composer's reputation as a "militant connoisseur". This recipe comes from a Canal Sur video. 

We've made Canelones before with homemade pasta. Here in Barcelona, every store carries "placas" of Canelones: sheets of dried pasta that are uncooked or precooked; the latter saves the boiling time and reduces the risk of breaking the sheets. The original recipe used "carne" (beef) but beef/pork mixes are common, as are ground pork, chicken, and turkey -- you can use whichever you like. Rossini may have used Foie Gras, but Pâté has a better texture for this and is much more affordable. You can tweak the vegetables in the filling, but I think Onions should definitely be included. Other recipes don't use the veggies, add ham, while some mush up the meats and add cream, but we find the texture of the ground meat more pleasant. Tomate Frito is a cooked tomato sauce, thicker than uncooked puree. 

The precooked sheets ("Facil") are a little more expensive and a bit larger than the uncooked sheets. Our box had 18 sheets and we hydrated them all, but a few stuck so we ended up with 12 good ones. It's not nearly so common to find the pasta tubes I'm used to seeing in The States.

This makes 4 servings, and they reheat gracefully in the microwave.

 12 sheets  Canelone pasta (precooked)

            Olive Oil

  1         Onion, fine dice

  3 cloves  Garlic, finely sliced

  1         Carrot, grated

  1 small   Green/Red Pepper (mild), finely diced

300 g       Ground Beef/Pork mix

 60 ml      Tomate Frito [4 Tbs]

160 g       Pâté

            Salt

            Pepper

 50 g       Flour

 50 g       Olive Oil

500 ml      Milk

            Nutmeg

 30 ml      Tomate Frito [2 Tbs]

            Cheese (e.g., Parmesan, Manchego), grated or sliced

Hydrate pasta sheets in hot water, keeping the sheets separate so they don't stick together.

Sauté the Onions, Garlic, Carrot, Pepper.

Add the Meat and sauté until cooked.

Add 60 ml Tomate Frito and combine.

Turn off heat and add Pâté, then mix to meld the ingredients.

Add Salt and Pepper to taste.

Adding pâté to veg and meat

Put the Pasta sheets on a towel and gently dry them.

Add a bit of Oil and 30 ml Tomato Frito to a baking dish (we used two Pyrex loaf pans) and spread; this keeps the pasta from sticking to the dish.

Lay out a few Pasta Sheets and add about a finger-sized line of filling.

Roll them up, overlapping the seam a little, and place seam side down in a baking dish.

Preheat oven to 200C.

Cook the Flour in the Oil until the Flour's cooked.

Add the Milk and stir to make a Bechamel with a texture of light cream.

Grate in the Nutmeg.

Add 2 Tbs Tomato Sauce.

If it's a bit thick, add Milk; if too thin, boil to reduce.

Top the Canelones with the Bechamel, then add grated/sliced Cheese.

Bake 20 minutes until the Cheese is golden and the filling is heated through.

Let sit a few minutes to set up, then serve.

Japanese Cheesecake

I love cheesecake and have been hearing about this trendy light Japanese crustless version, so I tried to make it. On my third attempt, I think I've come up with something that works well: it's fluffy, almost soufflé-like. Everything here is taken from the exquisitely-detailed recipe/technique from Nami at Just One Cookbook, so look there for better photos and descriptions, including a link to a helpful video. Hers looks a lot more professional than mine, but I'm happy with the flavor and texture I've gotten with my too-short pan.

Cheesecake has a muffin top due to my short cake pan

For my first try, I used her parchment lining technique but with a springform pan and was annoyed by the fidgety parchment lining; worse, the water bath seeped through my tin foil lining making the bottom a bit soggy. For my second try, I realized I didn't need to line the springform pan -- it would release fine -- and I put the water bath below the cake pan (for humidity) instead of bathing the pan: it came out dense on the bottom, indicating the cake needed the heat moderated by the bath.  On my third try, I used a solid pan -- as Nami does -- directly in a water bath, and just dealt with the parchment lining; my pan is slope-sided where hers is straight, which makes lining a little more difficult, but it doesn't have to be exact; it worked well enough that I don't think I need to buy another pan with straight sides -- I can live with the muffin-top profile.

Her recipe is long, but very detailed, which I appreciate. First, note that if your pan is smaller than hers/mine, she provides ingredients scaled to a single egg, then she provides the full 6-egg recipe, so you can scale for your pan. 

As an overview, you "melt" the cream cheese and other batter ingredients then whisk in the egg yolks and flour to make a batter. Then you whip the egg whites into a stiff meringue, then gently fold them together.  I follow her advice about dropping the oven temperature twice.

The 6 eggs barely fit my slope-sided pan which is 20 cm at bottom and 23 cm at the top; the parchment lining must be higher than my pan's 4 cm to accommodate the rise, but the parchment lining flexed and created the muffin-top shape. If you have a different sized pan, scale the recipe appropriately, but realize this will rise dramatically before falling while it slowly cools.

Do take her advice to measure the ingredients beforehand: there's plenty of prep work. I'm trying to simplify this a little by combining measuring into cooking vessels.

Prep the Cake Pan

Use a 23 cm / 9 inch solid cake pan, preferably 10 cm / 4 inch high (mine's only about 4 cm).
Butter the pan bottom and sides so the parchment will stick.
Cut parchment strips to make straps long enough to cross the bottom, up the sides, and over the edge; set them in an X-shaped pattern to make a sling to remove the finished cake.
Cut another strip 10 cm high and line the side of the pan.
Cut a disk for the bottom and press into place.
Set aside.

Sling straps, sides and bottom lined

Batter

  6    Eggs, large

300 g  Cream Cheese

 60 g  Unsalted Butter

200 ml Heavy Whipping Cream (about 35% fat)

       Zest from 1/2 Lemon

 30 ml Lemon Juice (from about 1/2 lemon)

 80 g  Cake Flour

Separate the Eggs and chill the Whites for the Meringue below.
Make a double boiler from a pot of water topped by a medium-sized bowl.
Weigh the Cream Cheese, Butter, Cream, Sugar directly in the bowl.
Add to the double boiler and warm to melt the ingredients, combining with spatula or whisk.
When blended, remove from heat.
Sift in the Cake Flour through a strainer, and whisk to blend.
Strain through the strainer into a large bowl.
Whisk in the Lemon Zest and Juice.
Whisk in the Egg Yolks, one by one, with a hand whisk.

Prepare Oven and Water Bath

Put a roasting pan in the oven and preheat to 165C with convection (15C higher without).

Bring 1 Liter of water to boil.

Meringue

  6   Egg Whites from above, cold

100 g Sugar

1.5 g Cream of Tartar (optional to stabilize)

Clean the medium bowl thoroughly for the Meringue: don't leave any fat, soap, or water on it which would interfere with the development of the foam.

Whip the Egg Whites with an electric whisk (stick blender attachment) on medium until opaque, foamy, and just a little bubbly, about 2-4 minutes.

Whisk in the Sugar and Cream of Tartar, a bit at a time, then increase whisk speed to high; whip until quite dense and it forms stiff peaks.

Gently fold in a third of the Batter with a hand whisk, then repeat with another third, then finally mix it back into the Batter and gently combine with the whisk.

Pour into the lined cake pan.

Pour boiling water carefully into the hot roasting pan, then place the cake pan in water bath; ideally the water will come half way up the cake pan.

Drop the temperature to 145C convection, bake 70-75 minutes.

Reduce temperature to 135C convection and bake another 10 minutes.

Check for doneness: a skewer should come out clean.

Turn off the oven and open the door a crack but let the cake cool very slowly to minimize collapse.

After 20 minutes, remove from the oven.

Use the straps as a sling and move the cake to a plate.

Remove the parchment around the sides. 

Let cool and serve.

Bacalao Stuffed Piquillos in Basque Sauce: richer, for two

We've been making this for years based on the book by Teresa Barrenechea: The Basque Table. Irene said the sauce overwhelmed the dish and that she wanted more fish with larger chunks in the peppers. This revised recipe addresses those desires, and scales it for a dinner for two. 

We're scaling some of the proportions based on ingredients we can find here. For example, instead of the dried salt cod at 24€/Kg, we can use half a bag of frozen Bacalao de Punto de Sal which is just 6€/Kg and doesn't require hydration to de-salt. The Pequillos come in 220 mg jar and ours contained 11 peppers. I had one Choricero pepper, not enough, so I added a Ñora. A pastry bag really simplifies stuffing the peppers, but a zip-top bag with corner cut off should work, or you can use a spoon if you're a masochist.

Stuffed and sauced, before baking

Bacalao Béchamel

250 g      Bacalao del Punto de Sal, frozen

 40 ml     Olive Oil

 20 g      Flour

175 g      Milk

Chop the Bacalao into pea-sized chunks, this is easier while it's still partially frozen.

Sauté on high heat in 40 ml Olive Oil to drive off water, about 5 minutes.

Add Flour and cook off the raw edge on medium, about 5 minutes.

Add Milk and continue cooking until it's noticeably thicker; you don't want it pour-able when hot.

Load a pastry bag with the filling, making sure its snout is big enough to accommodate the Bacalao chunks; let cool while you make the Sauce in the same skillet.

Basque Sauce

The original recipe hydrates dried Spanish chilis, but here we can find jars of Choricero and Ñora flesh ("carne") which is convenient if you haven't planned ahead.

 14 g      Choricero or Ñora Peppers, dried, or 150 g jar "carne"

165 g      Onion, 1 small to medium, diced

 30 ml     Olive Oil

  2 cloves Garlic

 15 g      Tomato (1/4 small)

           Salt

Seed the Chili Peppers and hydrate 8 hours; you can also simmer in hot water for about 30-60 minutes if needed. Keep the hydrating water. Roughly chop the Chilis.

Sauté the Onion in the 30 ml Olive Oil until soft.

Add the Garlic, Chilis, and Tomato, and continue to cook until the Garlic is soft; it's fine if the Onions take on a bit of color.

Transfer to the jar of a stick blender and whiz to make a sauce. You may need to add some of the reserved Chili hydration water to thin it enough -- that's fine, it has flavor. 

Taste and adjust Salt. 

If the Sauce is too thin, return it to the skillet and cook down to thicken.

Assembly

10-12  Pequillo Peppers, whole, from 290 g gross / 220 g net jar

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Drain the Pequillos and arrange on a plate; I find it handy to put a shot glass in the center to hold the Pequillos as I'm stuffing them.

Fill the Pequillos with the Bacalao Béchamel using the pastry bag.

Spoon about a third of the Sauce into an oven proof baking dish.

Arrange the stuffed Pequillos around the dish and top with the remaining Sauce.

Bake for 15-30 minutes so everything's hot.

Serve.

"King of Carbonara" sauce: rich and indulgent

We saw this video of "The King of Carbonara" in Rome and new we had to try it: the technique of using the fat from the Guanciale and gently cooking the sauce in a bain-marie appealed to us.

We first had Bucatini alla Carbonara at A. V. Restaurante Italiano (RIP) in Washington DC years ago; it is one of our "go to" dishes at home when we want some easy comfort food. Irene and I have slightly different approaches: she adds the hot pasta to the sauce and relies on the retained heat to cook the sauce, while I find that a bit too raw and add a bit of heat when combining in a pan. Either way, it's fast and satisfying: you can prep the sauce in the time it takes the pasta to cook.

With another practice or two, I should be able to prep the sauce while the pasta cooks for chef Chef Monosilio's more careful technique. In the video, he cuts a large slab of Guanciale into cubes, fries them to render the fat and crisp the meat, and uses some of that fat in the sauce -- that's what hooked us. We can readily find 100 g packages of sliced Guanciale here in Barcelona: it's not cubed, but sliced like thick American bacon; it does have a good piggy funk to it. He uses a mix of Pecorino and Grana Padano because he said that folks now don't like the high salt level of Pecorino; the version of that cheese we get here isn't as dry and salty as what we found in the States, but we'll use his mix.  The proportions below are for two, and it's quite rich; here, I'm backing out the cheese a bit from my first attempt which was just too much.

133 g Long Pasta: Bucatini, Spaghetti, etc

100 g Guanciale, sliced 1-2 mm x 2 cm (or 1 cm cubes)

 25 g Grana Padano (a good aged Parmesan should work)

 25 g Pecorino Romana

  2   Egg Yolks

      Black Pepper

Get a pot of salted water boiling and find a pan that sits on top to create a bain-marie. 

Cook the pasta until its fully done (not al dente), probably 10-12 minutes.

While it's cooking, prepare the sauce.

Sauté the Guanciale with fairly high heat: you want to render fat and crisp the pork. When the meat's crispy and just browned, reserve it and let the fat cool down.

Finely grate the Cheeses and add most of it to the pan; reserve some for the garnish.

Separate the Eggs and add the Yolks to the pan (save the whites to make Chocolate Angel Food cake).

Add the Fat from the Guanciale; I used all of it (maybe 30 ml / 2 Tbs) but you might not be so gluttonous.

Add plenty of coarse freshly ground Black Pepper.

Whisk to combine, and add a little of the Pasta Water so it's a thick liquid rather than a paste.

When the Pasta is done, transfer it with tongs to the sauce pan; it's OK if some water clings to it. 

Put the Pan on the water Pot and stir the sauce over the gentle heat; after a while, it should start to thicken a bit.

Add the crispy Guanciale and stir some more; you probably will have to add some more of the Pasta Water to thin the sauce a little so it coats well. Continue stirring until the sauce is creamy and everything is well coated. (Take a look at the video to see the texture you're looking for.)

Plate the Pasta and garnish with the reserved grated Cheese and a healthy grind of Pepper.

Sopa de Ajo a la Castellana (Garlic Soup)

This recipe is based on our first use of Penelope Casas' recipe from ¡Delicioso! The Regional Cooking of Spain. It sounds like the flavor might be scary, but the garlic is cooked so long that it loses its vehemence. It's a very traditional soup here in Barcelona, especially around Christmastime.

She claims the secret is "the order in which the ingredients were combined" but I found it needlessly complex so I'm simplifying it here. I don't see any reason to create the water-garlic broth separately from adding the beef stock. Heating bowls of stock with the eggs in a hot oven to cook the eggs is a time/energy-waste and makes the bowls too hot to touch. I doubt it's critical to use 4.5 Cup of water but 4.0 Cup of stock, so I'm rounding to convenient metric units. Maybe it makes sense in the restaurant kitchen where she got the recipe, but it's unnecessary work for a home cook.

I also question whether we need water and stock: why not just use all stock for more flavor? Perhaps it would have too much mouth feel and get sticky with a good-quality homemade beef stock. I used a good Spanish boxed chicken stock because it's what I had, and I've seen many other recipes (including other Casas books) that use chicken stock. 

Overview: make a garlic broth, toast the bread in garlic-infused oil to make croutons, serve in bowls filled with an egg, ham, broth, and croutons. There's a lot of broth so make sure your pot can hold 2 Liters.

Servings: 6; with the egg, ham, and croutons, it's a filling lunch.
Duration: 1 hour.

 15 ml      1 Tbs     Olive Oil

  4 cloves  4 cloves  Garlic, lightly crushed and peeled

  3 g       1   tsp   Pimenton dulce (sweet smoked paprika)

                      Pepper

  1 L       4   C     Stock, beef or chicken

  1 L       4.5 C     Water

                      Salt

 75 ml      5 Tbs     Olive Oil

  4 cloves  4 cloves  Garlic, minced

  1 L       4.5 C     stale/dry Bread, sliced/torn into crouton sizes

  3 g       1 tsp     Pimenton dulce (sweet smoked paprika)

  6         6         Eggs

 30 g       6 Tbs     Jamon Serrano, cut small for a spoon

In a large pot, add the Oil and crushed Garlic. Sauté slowly until lightly browned and beginning to soften.
Add the Pimenton and Pepper to bloom briefly, then the Stock and Water.
Simmer slowly, covered, for 45 minutes to extract the Garlic flavor.
Taste and add Salt as needed.

Meanwhile, put the Oil and minced Garlic in a large wide skillet and slowly cook until the Garlic begin to take on just a little color; don't darken too much as you'll be heating it more with the bread. 
Add the Bread pieces and sauté until they are crisp and golden, about 15 minutes; stop if the Garlic is getting too dark and acrid.
Remove from heat and add the Pimenton, stir to coat and bloom flavor.

To serve, crack an egg and slide whole into each bowl.
Top with Jamon.
Bring Broth to vigorous boil and pour over Egg and Jamon; the Egg should poach a little.
Top with Garlic Croutons.
Serve.