Bacalao a la Viscaina
A rich and delicious dish made with potatoes, succulent ham, pickled jalapeno peppers and pimento-stuffed green olives.
Yield
6 servingsPrep
Cook
50 minReady
Ingredients
| Amount | Measure | Ingredient | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | pound |
potatoes
small new, scrubbed, boiled peeled and cut into 3/4 inche pieces |
|
| ¼ | cup | olive oil |
|
| 2 | each |
white onion
peeled and chopped fine (2 cups) |
|
| 3 | each |
garlic cloves
minced |
|
| 4 | medium |
tomatoes
coarsely chopped (2 lbs or two 14 oz cans) |
|
| 4 | pounds |
ham
chopped |
|
| ¼ | cup |
parsley leaves
italian, chopped |
|
| 1 | teaspoon | black pepper |
|
| 8 | teaspoons |
cinnamon
ground |
|
| 1 | pound |
salt cod (bacalhau)
see note |
* |
| 4 | each |
pickled jalapenos
sliced into thin rings, plus 4 tablespoons of the liquid |
*
|
| 12 | large |
pimento stuffed green olives
sliced in half |
*
|
Directions
MikeNote; Salt Cod, soak for 24 hours and Gently rinse, to remove most but not all of the salt. Do not break up fish.
Put the potatoes in a large pan of cold, salted water, cutting any large potatoes in half or quarters first. Bring the water to a boil and simmer until the potatoes are just tender when pierced with a fork, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain and when cool enough to handle,, peel away the skin. Set aside. In a heavy pan such as a Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions, reduce the heat to very low and slowly sauté about one hour. Stir occasionally, watching that the onion doesn't burn. A few dribbles more of oil may be necessary. Pre-heat oven to 300F degrees.
Turn up the heat, add the garlic and tomato and cook, stirring constantly until the mixture becomes thick and the liquid is substantially reduced, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add the ham, parsley, pepper, cinnamon and cloves, then gently stir the cod, potatoes, jalapenos and their juice into the tomato mixture.
Transfer to a 1 to 2 quart casserole, preferably clay, sprinkle with the olives and bake for 30 minutes. Bacalao a la Viscaina can be made ahead and re-heated in a 300F oven for 20 minutes or until thoroughly hot.
Comments
recipe sounds good, but I question sauteing the onions for 1 hr. why so long?
I have cooked this recipe for several times, the white onions have to be cooked for 1 hour, it is similar way to make french onion soup, within 1 hour cooking onions, all the flavor from onions come out, it brings the whole dish huge tasty flavor.