Cod_ A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World - Mark Kurlansky [88]
An 1888 Spanish book made the claim that the two Spanish dishes most known in the rest of the world were paella and bacalao a la Vizcaína. More than 100 years later, this is still true. And yet bacalao a la Vizcaína is a dish that is almost impossible to reproduce. The sauce is based on a chubby little green pepper, the choricero, which grows to about three inches in length and then turns red and is dried. Until recently, the choricero grew only in the province of Vizcaya and is still native only to northern Spain.
In the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, where Cubans and Puerto Ricans regard this dish as part of their own national cuisine, their version does not even resemble the original. Not only is the pepper not available, but the West Indies quality of salt cod can only be broken up and stewed, usually with tomatoes and potatoes.
For 6 people:
12 pieces of salt cod 200 grams each
1 liter of vizcaina sauce
4 garlic cloves
I liter of olive oil
Soak the salt cod for about 36 to 44 hours. During this time change the water every 8 hours. Taste to see if it has been long enough for the fish to be perfectly desalinated. If so, remove the salt cod from the water and drain it. Scale it well and remove bones.
Place a deep pan with oil and sliced garlic cloves on heat, remove the garlics once they are golden. Place the salt cod with the skin side up in the pan and poach for about 5 minutes. Remove the salt cod when well-cooked and pour on the vizcaina sauce.
For 1 liter of vizcaina sauce:
I kilo of red and white onions
10 meaty choricero peppers
75 grams of ham
2 parsley bunches
½ liter olive oil
1 liter beef stock
30 grams of butter
3 garlic cloves
ground white pepper
salt
Put oil with garlic on heat in an aluminum pan. Once the garlic is golden add chopped onions, ham, and parsley, cooking strongly for 5 minutes and on low heat for another 30 minutes, stirring with a skimmer to avoid sticking to the pan. Open and remove seeds from the choricero peppers and place in lukewarm water over heat. When it starts to boil add a little cold water to slow it down. Repeat this four times. Drain the peppers well and add to the already prepared mixture. Cook for 5 minutes over a low heat, take off the oil and the parsley and add the beef stock, the white pepper, and salt, letting it cook 15 minutes more. When well cooked, pass through a blender and then twice through a strainer. Put it back on the heat for 5 minutes, work in the butter, and adjust salt and pepper to make it perfect.
—Jenaro Pildain, Restaurante Guria, Bilbao, 1996
HOW TO COOK THE LAST LARGE COD
ON CHOOSING A FRESH COD: “THE HEAD SHOULD BE
LARGE; TAIL SMALL; SHOULDERS THICK; LIVER,
CREAMY WHITE; AND THE SKIN CLEAR AND SILVERY
WITH A BRONZE LIKE SHEEN.”
—British Admiralty,
Manual of Naval Cookery, 1921
Only people who have lived by the North Atlantic understand the quality of fresh cod. It does not even resemble, except maybe in color, a fresh frozen cod. Fresh cod will inconveniently fall apart in cooking, which was why Sam Lee’s New Orleans customer did not like his shipment. If it does not flake, it is not fresh. Fresh cod is “white, delicate, resilient,” according to Paris chef Alain Senderens. “It will not tolerate long cooking. If you cook it carefully, cod will flake and give off milky cooking juices.”
People who know fresh cod—from the great restaurants of France, to British working-class fish shops, to the St. John’s waterfront—all agree on three things: It should be cooked quickly and gently, it should be prepared simply, and, above all, it must be a thick piece. Only a large piece can be properly cooked. The Lyons region’s celebrated Paul Bocuse begins a simple recipe for fresh cod with potatoes and onions: “Use a piece of cod about 30 centimeters long cut from the center of the fish.” The center of the fish is the thickest part. Bocuse is talking about the choice center of a three-foot