Fishy!

[echolalia]

Bacalhao!

O fiel amigo!

[echolalia]

Jesus - what IS it with that stuff in Portugal?! You'd see mountains of the stuff standing near the door in even the smallest supermarket. I never tried it once, but I heard you were supposed to soak it in milk for a while before cooking...

I’m surprised you never tried bacalhau when you lived in Coimbra. You soak it in water or milk to rehydrate and de-salt it. Obviously water is cheaper, although some recipes demand milk. Babies!

I made this Portuguese salt cod recipe for a friend of mine when I was in London a couple of months ago. He got fresh cod instead of salted and I didn’t think it would work, but it did, more or less.

And as for the Portuguese obsession with salt cod, who knows. It’s eaten all over southern Europe, especially in the Basque country and parts of Italy, but it’s only in Portugal that it has fetish status. Historical reasons no doubt: strike west from Portugal and you eventually get to the Grand Banks, where they used to fish the cod.

[The Modernist]

I can't believe you've fallen for the charms of pollock ...

Listen to and watch this entire clip, while my good friend explains -- and then act!

Brilliant!

[Bungo the Mungo]

Jesus - what IS it with that stuff in Portugal?! You'd see mountains of the stuff standing near the door in even the smallest supermarket. I never tried it once, but I heard you were supposed to soak it in milk for a while before cooking...

I’m surprised you never tried bacalhau when you lived in Coimbra. You soak it in water or milk to rehydrate and de-salt it. Obviously water is cheaper, although some recipes demand milk. Babies!

I made this Portuguese salt cod recipe for a friend of mine when I was in London a couple of months ago. He got fresh cod instead of salted and I didn’t think it would work, but it did, more or less.

And as for the Portuguese obsession with salt cod, who knows. It’s eaten all over southern Europe, especially in the Basque country and parts of Italy, but it’s only in Portugal that it has fetish status. Historical reasons no doubt: strike west from Portugal and you eventually get to the Grand Banks, where they used to fish the cod.

Yes! Thanks.

Yeah, I should have tried it. I know in Spain bacalao con tomate is a common tapas dish, and one of my favourites if it's done well.

[echolalia]

Yeah, I should have tried it. I know in Spain bacalao con tomate is a common tapas dish, and one of my favourites if it's done well.

I'm not familiar with it - never saw it in Madrid - but it sounds fine. Fish with tomato is very Portuguese in fact: tomato's rarely cooked with meat here, always fish or shellfish.

Bacalao was also the name of a kind of house music that was big in Iberia, especially Valencia and Lisbon, from about 1990. Very fast and abrasive (like the times).

[Bungo the Mungo]

Yes! I remember going to a club in Galicia in around 1998 that was actually called Bacalao, and they played nothing but...

bacalao con tomate is easy to make at home - I'd just fry half a chopped onion and a couple of crushed cloves of garlic in some olive oil, add a tin of tomatoes, some cod (I actually used fresh fillets but you're supposed to use the dried stuff) and salt and pepper. Add a bay leaf. Reduce the sauce for a few minutes, serve with crusty bread.

[echolalia]

bacalao con tomate is easy to make at home - I'd just fry half a chopped onion and a couple of crushed cloves of garlic in some olive oil, add a tin of tomatoes, some cod (I actually used fresh fillets but you're supposed to use the dried stuff) and salt and pepper. Add a bay leaf. Reduce the sauce for a few minutes, serve with crusty bread.

That has all the essential ingredients of deliciousness.

What I love is the old-fashioned designs you still get on the tinned fish and squid etc. There are some real beauties:

[Bungo the Mungo]

What I love is the old-fashioned designs you still get on the tinned fish and squid etc. There are some real beauties:

That stuff's fantastic. I used to put it on my Pingo Doce frozen pizzas all the time.

[echolalia]

That stuff's fantastic. I used to put it on my Pingo Doce frozen pizzas all the time.

Isn't it - you can actually see that it's fish, the way it flakes, even before you taste it. Pingo Doce are evil morons, though.

And then there are sardines, born to be canned:

[Betty Denim]

Two rules I have for fish:

Never from a river.

Never with tomatoes.

[Maryann]

of the two choices, i say battered... but it's actually neither... i'm a big fan of salmon, and swordfish steak... i bake them, or pan fry them with just a gentle touch of olive oil so as not to stick... for a while, i was adding to the salmon my own concoction, sort of a béarnaise sauce for fish, for lack of a better description... i still haven't come up with the correct ratio of ingredients to make it thicker, so it sort of seasons the pan more than the fish .... but whatever stays on it makes it taste pretty nice... i haven't tried it on swordfish yet, though... usually, it's just some garlic powder and maybe some lemon, and that's it, so as not to disguise the flavor of the fish too much...