Pigs in Blankets

Pil-Pil Cod

Bacalao al pil-pil is a traditional recipe from the Basque Country or País Vasco, which is a region in the north of Spain. Bacalao is Spanish for cod and pil-pil is the name of the sauce you serve the cod with. In Spain it is common to find salt cod (which is salted and dried cod) as opposed to fresh one. For the fish to be suitable to eat, it needs to be prepared a couple of days in advance to eliminate all the salt in the flesh.

To eliminate the salt, rinse the cod fillets with cold running water. Then place the cod in a container big enough to form a single layer of fish (don't stack the pieces one on top of the other). Cover the fish with water and place in the refrigerator for at about 36 hours, changing the water every eight hours. Once unsalted and ready to use, remove cod from water and dry with the help of paper towels. When the fish is ready, it's time to prepare the sauce.

Ingredients

Red Chilli Pepper, cut in rings
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Garlic, thinly sliced

Instructions

As you can see, there are no measurements on the ingredients, because they depend on the amount of cod you are going to cook. Use one clove of garlic and two or three rings of chilly (you can add more if you enjoy hot food) per cod fillet. The amount of oil should be enough to cover 3/4 of the height of your fish when placed in a saucepan.

Place oil in a wide and low saucepan and heat it over low heat. Add the thinly sliced garlic to the oil and let it simmer. This should be done slowly so that the garlic golds evenly. When the slices just start to brown, add small rings of chilly to the oil. Let it fry until golden brown. Remove garlic and chilly from the sauce pan and reserve.

Add the cod fillets skin-side-up. The oil should be hot enough to form bubbles around the fish pieces but not so hot as to splatter violently.

It should be more a cooking over low heat than a frying process. Keep the fish a couple minutes with its skin up and then turn it and cook for a couple more minutes. You will notice that the skin releases a whitish substance, which is the gelatin that will thicken the sauce. The gelatin will form bubbles and sink to the bottom of the pan.

Remove the fish from the oil and reserve on a plate. Cover to maintain heat. Remove oil from heat and let cool. When lukewarm, start stirring the sauce (at this point it will be oil with bubbles of gelatin at the bottom) with a fine sieve or a slotted spoon, in a circular motion. Start working on a small area on the edge of the pan and don't move to the next area until the sauce is ready.

You will notice the white bubbles on the bottom of the pan will emulsify with the oil, creating a mayonnaise-like sauce. Keep working all around the pan until all of the oil is emulsified. The sauce must be under 80 ºC (176 F) or it will never emulsify, no matter how much time you spend stirring it.

Check the temperature of the fish. If it is too cold, reheat it in the oven for a couple of minutes, making sure it never surpasses the 80 ºC limit. You can reheat the sauce too, taking into account the same consideration. You can also add the fish to the sauce and heat them at the same time. To serve, place sauce on the bottom of a plate, put a cod fillet on top and decorate with a slice of garlic and chilli.