Salted cod à la Gomes de Sá

Portuguese like eating salted cod during the Christmas season. Actually, unlike the British who seem to like turkey only for Christmas, we eat salted cod all year round.

I inherited a cook book from my mother. I don't know when it was published but I would hint at around 1950's. It's called 'School of brides'... The name is quite scary but amongst tips on how to run the home, it has recipes as well. There's only one problem: only SOME recipes have a list of ingredients with quantities! Who the hell writes recipes with method but no ingredient's list?

So I used the method to make a list of ingredients and then used my palate memory to decide how much of each to add. Well... maybe I used the internet as my sous-chef...

This is an easy and hearty recipe.

Serves: 5 persons.

Ingredients:

• 450g salted cod (after cooked and deboned) - about 3 cod steaks
• 675g potatoes, peeled and sliced 
• 3 onions, peeled, cut in half and sliced 
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
• 2 bay leaves
• 4  eggs 
• olive oil
• black olives to taste (I used 12)
• parsley to taste
• salt & pepper to taste

Method:

1. Soak the salted cod over a 24h period, changing the water 3 times.
2. Cook the cod in unsalted water. Debone it in large pieces and reserve.
   
   
   
3. Weight the cod and calculate how many potatoes you'll need. Keep the ratio of salted cod to potato of 40%-60%. Remember it is peeled potatoes weight!
4. Boil the potatoes in the water of the boiling of the cod for 5 min or until they are al dente. Don't let them cook too much or they will come apart later!
5. Cool down the potatoes in cold water so that they don't cook any further. Reserve.
   
   
   
6. Boil the eggs in the same water for 10 min until hard. Let them cool down and peel. Cut in quarters. Reserve.
   
   
   
7. In a large frying pan, fry the onions, garlic and bay leaves in olive oil for 10 min or until they are lightly golden.
   

   
   
   
   
8. Add the cod, mix and let it fry for a few minutes, stirring continuously.
   
   
   
9. Add the potatoes and season with salt & pepper to taste and mix. Let the potatoes warm up and fry a little.
   
   
   
10. Remove from the heat and add the (the majority of the) parsley. Mix and put in a serving dish or leave it in the frying pan.
    
    
    
11. Scatter the remaining parsley, the olives and the eggs on top.
    
    
    
12. Serve immediately.