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Recipe

Alentejo Açorda

Serves

10

Active Time

25 MIN

Origin

ALENTEJO

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Alentejo Açorda

During tomato season, there are no bad cooks.

— PORTUGUESE SAYING

The recipe and the photograph you are looking at, contrary to what it might seem, are not a "correction" to one of the recipes dearest to me in the universe of great Alentejo cuisine: the açorda. I simply wanted to show that, even with the very simple ingredients that compose it, the Alentejo açorda also has a place in haute cuisine (cozinha de autor). It was with a lot of love that I approached it! Eating it with grapes is not even my own invention. They, my ancestors, already did it.

THE RECIPE

Ingredients

Serves 10

  1. For the broth:
  2. Cilantro — 200 g
  3. Garlic — 5 cloves
  4. Eggs — 10
  5. Cooking water from the cod — 1 l
  6. Sea salt — as needed (q.b.)
  7. Extra virgin olive oil — as needed (q.b.)
  8. For the garnish:
  9. Soaked codfish (bacalhau demolhado) — 1 kg
  10. Alentejo bread — 1 kg
  11. Grapes — 200 g
  12. Pennyroyal (poejos) — as needed (q.b.)
  13. For the emulsion:
  14. Black grapes — 50 g
  15. Extra virgin olive oil — 2 dl
  16. White wine vinegar — as needed (q.b.)

Preparation

Cook the codfish in water seasoned with extra virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper. Flake the cod and strain the cooking water. Crush the cilantro and garlic cloves in a mortar and add this mixture to the cod's cooking water. Bring the broth to the heat and add the eggs, which have been previously beaten, stirring constantly so they curdle until they break apart into shreds. Season with salt and pepper.

For the garnish:

Cut the Alentejo bread into rectangular slices and toast them in an oven preheated to 160 °C for 8 to 10 minutes.

For the emulsion:

Peel the grapes, remove their seeds, and emulsify them in a blender cup with a thread of extra virgin olive oil and a splash of vinegar.

Presentation

Place a slice of bread in the center of the plate, over which you arrange a few flakes of cod, repeating this assembly three times. Finish the composition with a few grapes cut in half and deseeded. Surround everything with the hot broth and flavor with the emulsion. Decorate the plate with a small sprig of pennyroyal.

Olive Oil Suggestion:

Alentejo olive oils from Moura or northern Alentejo.