600 g Bacalhau (hard salted cod)
2 dl of good extra virgin olive oil
1 loaf of corn bread
6 garlic cloves
sea salt
freshly ground pepper
700g of new potatoes
Buying your Bacalhau
This dish starts when you buy your salted cod. Salted cod is not always easy to get in the UK, however there are always a few places online that will be happy to send you some by post. Choose Hard salted Cod, and because you will be using a whole fillet and not shredding it (another traditional way to have salt cod) you will need to choose "tall" fillets, and that means that the fillet came from a large cod, around 2.5 to 3 kg in weight.
Once you get your cod keep it as it is, well wrapped, in your fridge, until two days before your Christmas dinner.
Preparing your Bacalhau
Two days before you cook your Bacalhau, you will need to reconstitute it. Wash your fish under cold, running water to remove the majority of the salt. Now place it in a large, non-metallic container, skin side up, and fill it with cold water. Place it in the fridge and change the water every six hours. This process takes one to two days depending on how "tall" the fillet is, if you choose a fillet coming from a large fish it will take 48 hours, otherwise it will be done in 24 hours.
Cooking your Bacalhau
Now comes the easy part.
Turn your oven on to 200°C.
About 45 min before you want to serve your Bacalhau, wash your new potatoes, place them in an oven tray, sprinkle with salt and olive oil and place in the oven. They will be ready to serve by the time your Cod is done.
Remove the skin of the fish and rub the whole cod with two of the garlic cloves, sliced in half.
Now get yourself a nice oven tray, if you have an earthenware one, use it as it will lift the cod flavour.
Place the cod in the centre with a drizzle of olive oil and roast for 10 minutes. In the meanwhile prepare your corn breadcrumbs by whizzing the bread until fine breadcrumbs, mix with the remaining garlic cloves, finely diced, 2 dl of olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix well until uniform.
Remove your cod from the oven, it should be half cooked by now. Lift your cod off the oven dish and place it on a plate. Place a couple of slices of corn bread on the bottom of the oven dish and drizzle with some of the olive oil. Place your cod back on the dish (on top of the bread) and cover with the breadcrumb mix.
Place it back on the oven and roast until the breadcrumbs show a golden colour, this can take up to 30 minutes. Serve with your roasted new potatoes.