Bacalao forever! Bacalao Dishes to crave for (Updated March 2019)

The protagonist

The protagonist of this post is bacalao, or cod. The trigger was the proximity of two important dates in the Greek Calendar: The 25th March, which is the National Revolution Day in Greece, and Palm Sunday. The Greek tradition has it that on both dates we eat salted cod with garlic sauce or aioli. 

The idea here is to present some of the highlights of my “bacalao” experience and some of the ideas that I have seen and appreciate, even though I have not tasted the dish yet.

But history comes first. Here is a post I have written on the history of fishing cod in Newfoundland.

The massive fishing of cod in Newfoundland supplied the European populaiton with the salt dried fish that nurtured generation after generation of people who would otherwise would not have been able to buy and eat fish. In Greece this was also the case. Fresh fish and seafood in Greece was and still is expensive and hard to get, as the quantities are small. The only way a lot of people could eat fish was to import the salt dried cod from abroad.  

No lets get to the fish and the dishes. 

I will start with some photos of the raw material and then go to the dishes.

You can eat bacalao fresh. The head picture comes form La Boqueria, the Central Market in Barcelona. The filet picture comes from La Bretxa, the Central Market in San Sebastian.

Filetes de Bacalao

The second filet photo is from my kitchen. You can easily notice the difference in the size of the fish in Spain and in Greece! Not to mention the price. In Greece the fish – even in today’s lousy market conditions – sells for more than 20 Euros per kilo, in Spain it sells for 14 Euros per kilo of filet!

Salted bacalao can be delicious, but is not always. It depends on the quality of the fish and the time of curing and preserving. In any case, the best salted bacalao comes from Spain. I have one shop in Barcelona and another in San Sebastian, where I buy salted bacalao. Superb quality, specialization to the task, they sell more than 15 different cuts of salted bacalao.

Salted Bacalao

Bacalao Wafer

I start the bacalao dishes with one of the most delicious bacalao dishes I have ever tasted. It  is Martin Berasategui’s wafer of lightly smoked bacalao, served with a wonderful parmesan sauce, hazelnuts, coffee and vanilla. The thin slice of the fish rests on a puree where the taste and flavor of parmesan cheese is prominent. The fish actually dissolves into the puree and the combination is inspiring!

Lightly smoked cod with powder of hazelnuts, coffee and vanilla

Esquisada di Bacala

 

Esquisada di Bacala

This is a wonderful dish, it is so simple and so difficult at the same time! I tasted it in Ristorante Uliassi, in Senigalia, Italy. Raw cod chunks (salted cod from San Sebastian in the Basque Country, quite possibly the best in the world), with potatoes, pendolini tomatoes and basil.This is a hymn to primary ingredients of the best quality, as the cod’s texture  is supplemented by the sweetness of the potatoes and the incredible acidity of the small tomatoes that have been blessed by the volcanic soil of Vesuvius.

Bacalao Tripe

The tripe of bacalao is one of the delicacies I discovered in Cataluna. What a great taste!

Sea Urchin Eggs with Bacalao Tripe

Another great dish from  Mauro Uliassi (Ristorante Uliassi) Sea Urchin Eggs with bacalao tripe dish. The velvety texture and mild, soothing flavors of the tripe, contrasted with the intensity of the flavors in the sea urchin eggs, creating an unforgettable experience.

Bacalao Tripe with Rabbit and Salmon Roe

I have not yet tasted Carlo Cracco’s (Ristorante Cracco, Milano, Italia) bacalao tripe with rabbit and salmon’s roe, but this recipe definitely can give me a huge appetite, even by reading it.

Bacalao Tripe with Artichokes and Robellones Mushrooms

La Cocina Plural’s Bacalao Tripe with Artichokes and Robellones Mushrooms, reminds me a an excellent dish I tasted in Barcelona’s “Els Pescadors” Restaurante, but instead of mushrooms it was served with rice.

Bacalao in the Boroa Restaurant, near Bilbao

A trio of tastes, grilled, vizcaina and pil pil, served in the Boroa Retaurant, near Bilbao.

Bacalao Cheeks – Kokotxas

This is one of the best recoveries I have made in the great country of the Basques, the Kokotxas! They are the cheeks of the cod (or hake) and are unbelievably soft, velvety smooth in texture, and full of the gelatin of the fresh fish.

 

Fresh kokotxas in the Boqueria

The other great Land, Cataluna is also very fond of kokotxas, so here I have a photo taken from the Boqueria market in Barcelona.

Kokotxas in salsa

I have tasted the perfect dish in Rekondo’s, a restaurant in San Sebastian.

Fried Cod

This is simply fried cod. I tasted it in the Fishtavern Aristodimos in Pachi, near Megara, some 40 km west of Athens. As you can see the fish is fresh, and small. Overall, cod in Greece is small, the size rarely goes over 2 kilos. The fish is cut in small pieces and fried in olive oil. Here what matters the most is the technique of the cook, so that the fish is juicy inside, and crispy outside. This case was a success.

Bacalao Pil Pil

 

Bacalao Pil Pil

This is a dish from the Basque country, delicious in its simplicity and execution.

Bacalao with Estragon

Bacalao with Estragon

This is my recipe, based on my love for the two key ingredients: the bacalao and estragon.

Detail with Sauce

Many more dishes could be here, but this is not the point.

The point is that like every great food, bacalao is the source of inspiration for many great chefs of the world, and pleasure for the millions of people enjoying it in their meals.

Bacalao with String Beans

One of the minimalist school dishes that I have created, slow cooked bacalao fillets in a sea of garlic and red chilli peppers, served on top of steamed crunchy string beans. 

It cannot easily get better than that!

 

Brandada de Bacalao – Salt Cod Mash (Brandade)

This is another favourite, a dish popular in Spain, Portugal and France. 

Restaurant Guth, Lauterach, Bregenz, Austria

“Lets go  and have a nice meal, this is no weather for being outdoors”, said Manolis, when the snow started accumulating on the ground and the visibility was reduced to less than 50 meters. You have seen the pictures in the “white” post, now its time to get down to the eating and drinking business.

Restaurant Guth was around the corner, at the outskirts of Bregenz by lake Constance in the Austrian – German borders. In the map below, you can see Bregenz in the lowest right side of the lake.

Chef Thomas Scheucher is one of the most creative Austrian chefs and has created a modern environment to serve his creations.

The building is new, and the outside is austere in style. The inside is warm and with a beautiful garden view.

The chef’s menu was our choice, but Manolis asked for a swap. Instead of the soup, he asked for the tripe. Such a request would not be honoured in France, where you would be asked to order it as extra. Not in friendly, hospitable Austria, where the request was accepted with a smile.

The amuse bouche was a slice of foie with brioche and quince and pear marmalade, accompanied by scallop’s and musel’s hot beverage. Exquisite and multilayered in taste and flavours, this was one of the best amuse I have ever tasted! The philosppher of Atelier will offer his own views while he comments on the post, so I will not try to interpet him, which would in any case be sacrilegious!

Marinated tuna with horseradish mousse, accompanied by a pike croquette served on cubes of beetroot. The tuna was soft and sweet, the horseradish perfectly accompanied the oily flesh, while the croquette was like solid foam (a contradiction of terms and senses).

Sauteed tripe with herbs of the nearby forest. Never had this dish before, and it was worth the wait of so many years! A complete game with the senses this one, thin threads of tripe enveloped in the aromas of the forest, melt in the mouth and bless it with eternal memories of gastronomic pleasures.

Zander fillet with octopus, on a bed of fresh green beans. The dish of extreme lightness, attempted to supplement the memory of the mighty tripe with a presence of indelible subtlety and kindness to the palate.

Free-range beef fillet with mushrooms, celery and semolina crack dumplings (knoedel). The ultimate in meaty texture and taste, medium to rare, the knife was practically not needed to cut through this velvety flesh!

Hot chocolate desert, with fried bananas and bitter sweet foam. The perfect conclusion to a perfect meal. It took the chef almost 20 minutes to prepare the cylinders of delight, and was well worth it!

In the basement, you can find another source of pleasures, the wine cellar. We were served excellent austrian wines to accompany the dishes. More on austrian wines will come in a future post, they are the big discovery of the year for me!

Conclusion: When you get a chance, visit Guth, you will thank me for that!

P.S. For the culturally oriented, there is fantastic Opera Festival during the summer in Bregenz. Just imagine the immense combination of a beautiful opera performance accompanied by a meal in Restaurant Guth…..

P.S.2 Thank you Manoli for opening guth’s door for me!

P.S.3 Thank you Nature, for creating the unique Christmas images on the last day of November in the year of 2009.

P.S4 Thank you Romania, for having your National Day on the 1st December, which gave me the opportunity to visit Manolis and Guth and…

P.S5 At the time of the visit, the restaurant was recommended by the Michelin Red Guide as “one star”.