Bacalhau com batatas. Salt cod with potatoes.

•  1 lb/450 gms dry or smoked cod
• 3 eggs
• 1 large green pepper
• 2 lbs/900 gms potatoes
• 1 onion, sliced.
• 8 oz/225 gms fresh or tinned tomatoes
• 1 clove garlic, optional
• Parsley and other herbs such as rosemary
• Tin of tomato purée
• Olives.

Serves 4.

1. If using dried cod, soak it for about 12 hours, changing the water every 2 hours – that’ll be fun overnight.
2. Hard boil, peel and slice the eggs.
3. Steam or boil the potatoes.  Up to you whether you peel them or not.
4. Fry the onion, pepper, garlic and tomatoes.
5. Boil the fish until lightly cooked, then flake and remove the bones.
6. Slice the potatoes and put them in layers, alternating with the fish and the vegetables in an oven proof dish.
7. Top with the sliced eggs and olives and pour over a tomato sauce made from the tomato purée and herbs.
8. Bake in a moderate oven until the fish is cooked.

I have not cooked this recipe, having no easy source of salt cod.   However, I intend to track it down and when I do cook it, I will substitute the onion with fennel or maybe thinly sliced carrots.

The recipe is Brazilian and comes from the Oxfam book, ‘Recipes of many lands’.