Frituritas de Bacalao (Salted Cod Fritters)

These fritters are made from dry salted cod that has been de-salted and rehydrated. Dry salted cod is called "Bacalao" by Cubans, Spaniards, and I assume Portuguese to. Bacalao has been around for probably ages and was popular because it can last a very long time and didn't need refridgeration or anything in the old days. It is still popular in Spain and Cubans also enjoy Bacalao.

Salted cod fritters are more of a Spaniard thing but also enjoyed by Cubans (many of whom are of Spaniard parentage, etc. so much of it's cooking is heavely influenced and we share some dishes of course I am talking about pre-Castro Cuba the Cuba of today is different as well as the Cuban population there migration by Spaniards came to a halt after the Communist revolution, and most of Spanish parentage fled to USA or many left to Franco's Spain at the time.)

I have seen several recipes for salted-cod fritters and the recipe I am showing you today is from my great grandfather Raymundo Gutierrez, who was born in Spain and settled in Cuba. He is my grandmother's (my Tata's) father in law. He use to have a "Bodeguita" (like a type of food store) in Habana, Cuba around the streets "Bella's Quaine" (I hope I spelled it right) and "Louie" from (or maybe "Compastela"?) 1940- 50's not sure exactly where but my grandma said it wasn't to far from "Hobras Publicas" she said it was a large business district. The name of the store my Tata tell's me was "La Bodega de Clemente" (named after my Cuban born grandfather Clemente Gutierrez)

He use to be known for his salted cod fritters, and sold them in his "Bodega" (small food grocery place), my Tata tells me he use to make big batches and keep them warm in some container and start selling them at around 8 AM and everyone loved them at the time they sold for 10 cents each fritter.

So yeah this recipe is fairly old, the last time everyone heard from Raymundo Gutierrez was in 1963, he had citizen ship in the US and as well and fought in world war 1, he left Cuba during the revolution, but he was hearing rumours of how Fidel Castro was gonna "make Cuba better" and all his false promises, he was decieved and decided to go back to Cuba, he was told he could keep his business and what not, when he left my Tata and grandfather would send him his retirement checks from here but they would get cashed and they never would hear from him, after investigating someone was cashing them but it wasn't his signature, and he never responded to letters, time passed and they didn't here from him or anything.

They passed him for dead no one knows what really happened, my Tata thinks maybe he was killed like so many where during the first 5 years of the dictatorship for having a big mouth, or he realized what he got himself into and tried to escape and probably died at sea trying to get back to US. Not sure.

So there's a little backround story for those interested :)

Ingredients:
-1 lbs. Bacalao (dry salted cod preferebly the fillets)
-2 teaspoons baking soda
-2 cups all-purpose flour
-1 handful about 1 bunch finely minced fresh parsley leaves
-6 cloves garlic peeled mashed to a paste
-2 large eggs, beaten
-1 1/2 cups water (or more as needed)
Directions:
(1)Get the salted cod, rinse, and put in a large pot of water and bring to a boil, then when it comes to a boil drain, and put back in a pot with more water and bring to a boil again let it boil until salted cod can be flaked with a fork a bit, taste if it's salty if so, you need to drain it and bring to a boil again with more water (yeah I know time consuming but it's my grandmothers method she doesn't like to prepare in advance and soak the salted cod for several days or a day so yeah)




(2)Now get the de-salted bacalao and remove any spines or skins and flake into small bite size pieces, set aside.

(3)Now put the flour in a large bowl, and add baking soda, add eggs slowly add water until you get a pancake batter consistency, you may need more water than called for just eye ball it add a little at a time and be sure it's a loose pancake batter consistency. Mix in parsley and mashed garlic. Then fold incorporate flaked cond fish.

(4)You now have your batter, cover it all let it rest atleast 2-3 hours in the refridgerator preferably let it rest over night.

(5)When ready heat enough oil to deep or pan-fry at medium high heat for about 4-5 minutes (to test it I dip a wooden spoon and if it sizzles and or bubbles around it's ready) now get the batter and drop it by the tablespoonfuls and fry until golden on both sides you can move it around with a fork and a spoon.

(6)Do not over crowd pan, and have a large plate or whatever with papertowels or paper bags to drain them on.

(7) Enjoy while hot the batter can last a while so you can fry only what your gonna eat.

You can serve it as a appetizer, snack, or to replace the meat dish in a meal.As you can see in the picture below I was a gluttonous pig (yes I'm a sinner to I had Avocado salted, Platano Frito, Arroz Blanco, and Frijoles Negros topped with minced onion and very generous drizzles of olive oil with a sprinkle of salt yes we love olive oil)

I Apologize

I apologize to my readers for not being able to post as much as I used to.

It's just I've been more busy with my social life and school, I have had less time to cook and blog and haven't been home as much, but I will try to post atleast once a month or once a week.

Though I may have less posts I hope that people continue to enjoy my posts because I pour my heart into them :) I'll try to post something up this week.

Though I haven't had much time to visit and comment my fellow "foodies" blogs I still check in every now and then.

I'm still upset about not having my computer fixed up, but I will post from another computer.

Arroz Amarillo Con Chorizo y Garbanzo (Yellow Rice with Spanish Sausage and Chickpeas)

This is not my grandmother's recipe or anything like that, this is my recipe and I sorta made it up, well kinda.

I had seen a recipe behind the GOYA pack of dried garbanzos (or was it the can?), for yellow rice and chickpeas, I had also seen a recipe like that in another Cuban group, also on my blog when I posted "Arroz Amarillo Con Salchichas" one of my readers Mamey commented on rice with Spanish sausage.

So after a while of just thinking (I tend to day dream and yes sometimes I'll day dream about food and come up with idea's) I thought that a combination of Spanish Chorizo and Garbanzo would go really well cooked/ steamed together with rice. Sort of like a rice version of my grandma's (Tata's) Potaje de Garbanzo except no potatoes, cabbage, or squash, or chunks of pork or beef, just sausage and chickpeas and rice seasoned in the same fashion (yes yes I know I suck at expressing myself sometimes)

Ingredients:

-3 cups white long-grain rice

-water (depends 1 1/2 cups for regular long grain rice per 1 cup rice or equal water to rice for a new crop long-grain white jasmine rice)

-1-2 cans of drained and rinsed canned chickpeas/ garbanzo (I used 1 but if I had another can I would've added 2)

-2 links of "El Mino" Spanish Chorizo or 1/2 of regular "Chorizo Espanol" (I use Palacio's "Chorizo Autentico Espanol") remove casing, and thinly sliced into rounds.

-1 small- medium green or red bell pepper finely chopped

-1 medium onion finely chopped

-1/2 a head garlic mashed to a paste (mortar or garlic press, if you don't have just finely mince)

-extra-virgin olive oil (as needed to sautee, etc. atleast 1/4 cup)

-1/2- 1 teaspoon ground cumin

-1 teaspoon Bijol or even better for this dish I think "Saffron"

-2 bay leaves
-atleast 2 tsp. salt or more (tastethe rice water if it's salty like the ocean that's good)

Directions:
(1)Wash rice until water runs clear about 2-3 times. Add water, and set aside in rice cooker.

(2)Heat extra-virgin olive oil on medium to medium high heat, when hot enough add sliced spanish chorizo, fry the chorizo until the color and spices of the chorizo infuse into the oil (it won't take long maybe 1-2 minutes), now add onion and bell pepper sautee for 7 minutes or so until translucent, add garlic and sautee another 2-3 minutes.

(3)Turn off heat and add the sautee to the rice, add drained rinsed garbanzos, cumin, bay leaves, bijol or saffron and salt. Cover and turn on rice cooker, wait for it to beep when it beeps it's done, uncover and fluff rice and mix gently then serve.

(4)You can adjust the recipe to cook it on stovetop (simply sautee all the stuff, add washed drained rice seal it in the oil, add water, spices, chickpeas bring to boil and cover on low for about 30 minutes or so.

P.S.

Everyone in my house loved this dish, we served it with some "Camarones en Salsa Criolla" (shrimp in Cuban tomato based Creole sauce) and "Ensalada de Aji" (Fire roasted bell pepper in garlic lime sauce)

I know some may think, "Oh gosh another lame yellow rice dish they are all so the same" my response, "THEY ARE NOT!" they have common components but the slight changes make a huge impact on the taste of the resulting dish, the strong smokey flavor of the Spanish Sausage that is packed with spanish paprika makes this dish unique and have a distinct flavor, the little Chickpeas get flavored by everything and taste so good in there so don't leave them out I insist.

Hehe I'm posting this from my father's lap top, turns out he's okay with me storing my food pics in his computer for now :) until I get my computer back.