Globe-cooking recipe : Bacalhau A Bras (Portugal)

We all know the traditional combination of fish and chips, but what about fish and potato chips? That's what you get in the iconic Portuguese dish of Bacalhau A Bras, along with scrambled eggs. It sounds very weird and I was dubious but it's actually rather nice.

This was my first experience of using the classic Portuguese ingredient of salt cod. It comes covered in a thick crust of coarse salt.

It needs soaking for 24 hours in cold water before being used. Make sure you change the water regularly to remove the excess salt.

Bacalhau A Bras 

ingredients :

600g salt cod

2 onions

2 cloves of garlic

2tbsp olive oil

1 pack of Batata Palha (very thin chipsticks)

a handful of black olives

In a pan, bring some water to a gentle boil. As soon as the first bubbles start to appear, put in the salt cod (after soaking it for 24 hours - see above), put on a lid and turn off the heat. After 5 minutes, drain and break up the fish with a fork. Reserve.

In the same pan, heat the oil and fry the onion and garlic.

Add the fish and cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes until it is all nicely coloured.

Add the potato chips and cook for 5 minutes with a lid on the pan. Stir regularly because they will start to stick to the bottom of the pan.

Beat the eggs and add them to the dish. Cook for a couple of minutes until they are just firm and serve, studded with black olives.

It's a strange combination but it works. The salt cod remains very salty so don't skimp on the pre-soaking !

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