Bacalao Pil Pil sous vide: streamlined without oil in the bag

We've been making Bacalao Pil Pil in the US for years, and now that we're living in Barcelona, we have easy access to quality Bacalao. We hit upon a couple YouTube videos that streamline our sous vide technique by eliminating the oil from the sous vide bag when cooking the fish so we don't need to separate it from the fish liquid. We've made two variations that are very promising; we're zeroing in on a streamlined technique with terrific results.

There are multiple attempts in this post, scan down to find the latest findings and techniques. Sadly, I didn't take photos for most of these.

Streamlining: no oil in the sous vide bag

This first video (predating my sous vide technique) was done in 2015 and is cooked at 65C for 30 minutes, using the same strainer-in-skillet technique I used to create an emulsion from the exuded fish liquid. In the next, from 2020, the chef cooks at 48C for 20-30 minutes without oil, then drains off the fish elixir and emulsifies it quickly with a stick blender, then adds the oil. He cooks the garlic in oil in a jar in the same bath as the fish, so he doesn't even need a sauté pan. The last, from 2021, cooks at 60C for 20 minutes, again without oil. She too drains off the elixir into a cup and creates the emulsion with a stick blender, adding in the garlic-oil to build the sauce.

The temperatures above are 48C, 60C, and 65C; I think 48C (118F) is too low for "cooked" fish, but want to avoid overcooking it, so we'll pick a middling 55C (131F). Times ranged from 20 to 30 minutes, and we'll go with the higher end to make sure our relatively thick loin cuts are cooked through.

Both are portions for two, but the first is a bit meager since you lose some weight to the fish liquid.

First Try: too garlicky

250 g      Bacalao lomo, cut into 2 pieces for serving
  2 clove  Garlic, sliced thin
 80 ml     Extra Virgin Olive Oil

De-salt the Bacalao by washing the salt off, and putting in a bowl of water. Change it twice a day for two days, then once again the morning you're going to cook.

I bagged the Bacalao (without the frozen olive oil I used to use) and cooked sous vide 30 minutes at 55C / 131F. I put the Garlic and Oil in a ziptop bag and put it in the bath as well to infuse the oil and cook the garlic (or not!).

As expected, the fish liquid was easy to pour into the cup of a stick blender; I kept the fish warm in its bag in the bath.

I added the Garlic from the Oil bag and blitzed with with a stick blender. After it turned creamy white, I drizzled in the Oil. I think I added some Salt and that was too much. It didn't thicken as much as I'd like but had a light cream texture like I'd seen in the videos.

Plate the fish, top with the sauce.

Oh, my! That garlic was pretty raw, way too hot and unpleasant even for me; it was also too salty. Clearly, the garlic cannot cook enough in a 55C bag in 30 minutes, let alone the 48C bath the chef used. I would have preferred the sauce a bit thicker, but not as thick as the mayonnaise consistency I'd been making in the US. 

I kept the excess sauce in a baggie in the fridge for a few days for another attempt.

Second Try: tamed garlic, bacalao al punto de sal

I used some frozen Bacalao al Punto de Sal; this is fresh cod that's been brined with "just enough salt", then frozen. It's handy if you haven't planned ahead for the real thing.

360 g  Bacalao al punto de sal, frozen
       Leftover sauce from previous batch with too much garlic and salt

I divided the Bacalao between two bags, sealed, and cooked them sous vide -- again at 55C for 30 minutes. 

The pil pil sauce from the previous batch had gelled in the fridge, probably from the protein or collagen in the fish elixir. To tame the garlic, I cooked it in a small sauce pan on low, whisking occasionally; the texture seemed to stay the same. After a while, I turned up the heat to medium and let it bubble just a bit, and whisked again -- wow, it quickly developed a delightful light mousse-y texture.

I plated and sauced. As expected, this fresh-frozen cod did not have the intriguing funk of salt-cured Bacalao, and the texture seemed a little mushy compared to the real thing.

The sauce was a terrific texture, light and fluffy, not like thin cream nor thick mayonnaise: really great. The garlic had been tamed as desired: still assertive but very edible. It was still too salty but we can fix that next time.

We didn't use the liquid that was exuded from this fish because we didn't need it. I noticed it didn't seem to be a cloudy suspension like salt-cured bacalao provides, but more a separate clear liquid with flecks of white protein mixed through. It also did not turn to gel in the fridge like the salt-cured elixir. I suspect it will not make a creamy emulsion when blended, but it's worth a try.

What we learned, improvements for next time

Garlic cannot be cooked sufficiently in our sous vide temperatures and times. Next time, cook the garlic in oil in a sauce pan on low while the bacalao is in the bath; when cooked (but not browned), remove the garlic and save it to build the emulsion with the fish liquid. Keep the oil warm for the pil pil sauce.

If blitzing the elixir with garlic and drizzling in the oil doesn't make as thick a pil pil sauce as you'd like, heat it in a pan on medium and fluff with a manual whisk. Hold the fish in the bath its bag so it stays warm for service.  Don't add salt to the pil pil sauce, it'll have plenty from the fish.

2024-01-23 Pil Pil Espuma

This version learns from the above and is the simplest yet. However, I used an electric whisk to create the Pil Pil and it fluffed up into an espuma (foam) that was almost identical to whipped egg whites in texture; it was fun and unusual, but too fluffy to be a proper sauce. I think there may other interesting applications, but this veers too far from tradition -- Basque grandmothers would be spinning in their graves if they saw it.  

Pil Pil was an espuma rather than a sauce; served with fried polenta

300 g      Bacalao loin, cut in two pieces

 80 ml     Olive Oil

  2 clove  Garlic, lightly smashed, peeled

Hydrate the Bacalao and desalt over 2-3 days in water, changed daily.

Put the fish in a sous vide bag and seal on "wet" setting so it doesn't squeeze the fish.

Cook sous vide 30 minutes at 55C.

Meanwhile, heat the Garlic in the Oil on very low to extract flavor without browning garlic much.

When the time is up, drain the fish liquid into a stick blender jar; hold the fish in the bag in the hot sous vide bath for service.

Add the Garlic to the blender jar and whip with an electric whisk: it will froth up like a meringue; while whipping, drizzle in the infused Oil -- ours turned became a fluffy espuma rather than a sauce.

Plate the fish and top with the espuma sauce.

Next time, try using the regular stick blender blade rather than the whisk to discourage rabid foaming.

Use a larger weight of fish, this was a bit meager. 

2024-03-25 Blend instead of whisk

I buy a large high-quality Bacalao loin when they're on sale: they keep a long time in the fridge. I cut a 640 g piece in half for this, and the resulting 325 g piece was enough for two people with a large side dish. The pil pil was not an espuma this time, it was creamy after I thickened it a bit over heat.

Bacalao Pil Pil and Black Garlic, with sautéed Artichokes

325 g      Bacalao loin, cut into two serving pieces

 80 ml     Olive Oil

  2 clove  Garlic, peeled, sliced

  2 clove  Black Garlic, sliced, for garnish (optional)

Rehydrate the bacalao, bag and seal it, and cook 30 minutes at 55C.

Meanwhile, heat the Garlic in Oil on very low.

Pour the liquid from the sous vide bag into a stick blender jar with the Garlic and blend.

Drizzle in the Oil while stick blending.

If it's too thin, add it to the pot used for the Oil and whip with a hand whisk until it thicken.

Plate the Bacalao, top with the Pil Pil, garnish with Black Garlic.

I had extra Pil Pil which I put in the fridge. The next day, it firmed up like a mousse and was quite tasty. It made for a fine topping on earthy bread topped with smoked salmon, and I'll use it on Arroz Negro tonight.

Bacalao Stuffed Piquillos in Basque Sauce

Original recipe: from Teresa Barrenechea: The Basque Table -- “Pimientos del Piquillo Rellenos de Bacalao con Salsa Viscaina”

Serves: 4

This is roasted Spanish red peppers stuffed with a salt cod bechamel, baked in a sauce of chilis and onions. It’s rich, complex, and feels like a combination of rustic and something you’d find at a fine restaurant.

I’ve made this a bunch of times and it’s been surprisingly popular, even with folks that I thought might be scared off by Bacalao (dried salt cod).  The original recipe takes a while but it’s not really hard. Recently, I’ve streamlined it significantly by using a food processor rather than meticulously cutting the fish and chilis, and eliminated the need for a food mill.

Bacalao has a taste that’s different from fresh cod -- earthy, perhaps even a bit funky. I used to only be able to find it in Portuguese markets but now even BJ’s wholesale and my local grocery store carry it. Look for ones without bones (sin espinas) or skin, it’s worth the extra money. We get the Piquillo peppers from our Harris Teeter grocery store: they’re in a can and, surprisingly, are the store brand. The can holds about 20 peppers which is just right for this recipe. For the sauce, the original recipe calls for Choricero chili peppers but these are very difficult to find, I’ve only had them from tienda.com. I use a flavorful fruity but mild Mexican chili like ancho, pasilla or poblano -- good rich taste and readily available.

Dividing the dough for spooning

Spooning in dough; a pastry bag is much easier

 

Stuffed peppers arranged on a layer of sauce

Cover with sauce then bake

Bacalao-stuffed Pequillos

225 g 1/2 pound Bacalao (boned and skinned dried salt cod)

50 ml 3 Tbs Olive Oil

25 g 3 Tbs Flour

350 ml 1.5 Cup Milk, heated

20 Piquillo Peppers (approx, from 1 can)

Rehydrate the Bacalao 1-2 days, changing the water several times a day. It will never be as soft as fresh but it should be flexible rather than firm; consider saving some of the last soaking water to loosen the sauce.

Whiz it in a food processor until roughly the texture of cooked ground beef, not a mush.

In a non-stick pan, saute Bacalao in Oil until lightly browned,

add Flour and cook another 15-20 minutes.

Slowly add the heated Milk while stirring and cook until resulting bechamel is smooth and thickens.

Cool so it firms up: it’s easier to fill the Piquillos if it’s almost a dough than a gravy.

It's easiest to stuff these with a Pastry Bag: fill the bag, then squirt into each pequillo "sock";

if you don't have that, it helps to divide the dough into 4 lumps, then divide each lump between 1/4th of the peppers -- that way each is filled evenly and you won't run out; fill each pepper by spooning in filling.

Basque Sauce

While the bechamel is cooling, make the sauce. I’ve cut back on the oil a fair amount from the original recipe as I found it too oily; this still has plenty of richness.

45 g 1.25 oz Dried Choricero, Poblano, Ancho Chili (rich, not spicy)

2 medium Yellow Onion, quartered

1 medium Red Onion, quartered

80 ml 1/3 C Olive Oil

1 clove Garlic

2 T Serrano Ham or Prosciutto (I usually omit)

1 Plum Tomato

to taste Salt

Slit Chilis and shake out seeds.

Rehydrate Chilis in cold water at least 8 hours; drain, reserving 1 Cup liquid.

Scrape out remaining seeds gently so you don’t lose the flesh.

Whiz Onions in food processor until a chopped fine, maybe ¼ inch chunks.

Saute Onions in Oil until softened.

Whiz the Chilis, Garlic, Ham, Tomato and cooked Onions in a food processor until smooth.

Add back to pan and cook about 20-30 minutes until everything’s soft and sauce reduced a bit, perhaps not as thick as ketchup; add reserved hydrating Liquid if it gets too tight or you want to boost the flavor.

Assembly

Spoon a little of the sauce on the bottom of a casserole or baking dish.

Arrange stuffed Pequillos in the dish; handle them gently so the sauce doesn’t ooze out too much.

Remember the arrangement so it’s easier to remove them gracefully at service.

Add the rest of the sauce, it should cover the Pequillos.

Bake at 350F about 30 minutes until hot and bubbly and a bit browned on the top.

Let cool a bit and firm up before serving.