Bacalao al Club Ranero

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide heavy cazuela or frying pan, 28 to 30cm
• •Second wide frying pan for the fritada
• •Small fine-mesh strainer
• •Instant-read thermometer

Instructions

1. 1

   Soften the choriceros

   Cover the stemmed and seeded choricero peppers with just-boiled water and leave them for 30 minutes. Drain, open them flat, and scrape the soft flesh from the skins with the back of a knife. You need about 30g of pulp. If you're using jarred choricero pulp, weigh it and skip the soaking.

   No choriceros where you are? Soak and scrape three dried ñoras in the same way. Their pulp is sweeter and less deep, so the finished fritada will taste gentler.
2. 2

   Cook the fritada slowly

   Heat 60ml of the olive oil in a wide frying pan over low heat. Add the onion, both peppers, and 1g salt. Cook for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring every few minutes, until the onion is deep gold and the peppers are completely soft and sweet. Add the grated tomato and cook for another 12 to 15 minutes, until no watery juice runs across the pan when you draw a spoon through it. Stir in the choricero pulp for 2 minutes, then take the fritada off the heat and let it cool until merely warm.

   The fritada must be concentrated, not wet. Loose tomato liquid thins the pil-pil and makes the emulsion harder to hold.
3. 3

   Perfume the oil

   Dry the desalinated cod very well with kitchen paper. Pour the remaining 290ml olive oil into a wide, heavy cazuela or frying pan and add the sliced garlic and guindilla. Warm over low heat for 4 to 6 minutes, until the garlic turns pale gold. Lift out the garlic and guindilla and reserve them. Let the oil cool to about 75°C.

4. 4

   Cook the cod gently

   Lay the cod in the warm oil with the skin facing up. Keep the oil between 70°C and 80°C, with only small bubbles gathering around the fish. Cook for 4 minutes, turn each piece carefully, and cook skin-side down for another 4 to 6 minutes, depending on thickness. The flesh should separate into broad, moist flakes and reach 60°C to 63°C at the centre. Transfer the cod to a warm plate without discarding any liquid it releases.

   Hard frying tightens the cod and cooks its gelatin onto the pan. Gentle heat lets that gelatin pass into the oil, which is why the pil-pil can bind.
5. 5

   Separate oil and juices

   Pour the oil from the cazuela into a heatproof jug and leave it undisturbed for 2 minutes. The pale, gelatin-rich cod juices will settle below the clear oil. Return those juices, together with everything collected on the cod plate, to the cazuela. Keep the oil in the jug warm, not hot.

6. 6

   Build the pil-pil

   Set the cazuela over the lowest heat just long enough to warm the cod juices to about 50°C, then remove it from the heat. Move a small fine-mesh strainer in tight circles through the liquid while adding the reserved oil one tablespoon at a time. Once the mixture turns pale and creamy, add the oil in a thin, steady thread. Stop now and then to make sure it has fully disappeared into the sauce. Keep the pil-pil below 60°C until it is glossy and thick enough to coat a spoon.

   The traditional motion is to rock the cazuela steadily by its handles. The strainer does the same work more quickly and costs the dish nothing. If the sauce separates, put 15ml warm water in a clean pan and work the split sauce into it one spoonful at a time.
7. 7

   Fold in the fritada

   Add the warm fritada to the finished pil-pil in three additions, folding gently after each one. The sauce should become mottled gold and brick red, with distinct pieces of pepper and onion still visible. Taste before adding anything. Salt cod usually brings all the seasoning the dish needs.

8. 8

   Warm and serve

   Return the cod to the cazuela skin-side down and spoon the Club Ranero sauce over each piece. Warm over the lowest heat for 3 to 4 minutes, moving the pan gently but never allowing the sauce to boil. Finish with the reserved golden garlic and guindilla rings. Serve at once, with bread for the sauce. Tal como se hace allí.

Chef Tips

• •Buy thick, skin-on salt cod loin rather than thin tail pieces. Portuguese bacalhau and boxed North Atlantic salt cod are the same preserved fish sold through different markets. The skin matters because its gelatin builds the pil-pil.
• •If you start with hard salt cod, the listed 800g is its weight after desalting. Pésalo, no lo adivines. Too much cod for the pan lowers the oil temperature unevenly, while too little may not release enough gelatin for this amount of sauce.
• •Jarred choricero pepper pulp is a proper kitchen convenience, not a compromise. Check that it contains pepper rather than a prepared sauce. If you use ñoras instead, expect a sweeter, less earthy result.
• •When fresh tomatoes are hard and pale, use 250g well-drained canned whole plum tomatoes and cook them about 5 minutes longer. A good canned tomato is better here than a sad winter one.
• •Keep the pil-pil warm after it forms. Boiling is what breaks it. If it starts looking oily around the edge, take the pan off the heat and move it in slow circles until the sauce gathers again.
• •A dry Bizkaiko Txakolina suits the salt cod and peppers: its acidity clears the olive-oil sauce without covering the choricero.

Advance Preparation

• •To desalt hard salt cod, cover it with at least three times its volume of cold water and refrigerate at 4°C or colder for 36 to 48 hours, changing the water every 8 to 12 hours. Keep the skin facing upward. Thick loins need the full 48 hours.
• •To check the salt after soaking, cut a tiny piece from the thickest part, cook it briefly in plain water, and taste it. If it remains sharply salty, soak the cod for another 4 hours in fresh cold water.
• •The fritada can be cooked up to 24 hours ahead and refrigerated in a covered container. Warm it gently and let it settle below 50°C before folding it into the pil-pil.
• •The finished dish is best served as soon as the cod returns to the sauce. Leftovers keep for one day refrigerated; reheat them over very low heat, moving the pan gently so the pil-pil does not separate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 400g)