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Recipe

Poached Fresh Cod in Extra Virgin Olive Oil with Acidulated Emulsion

Serves

10

Active Time

25 MIN

Origin

ALENTEJO

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Poached Fresh Cod in Extra Virgin Olive Oil with Acidulated Emulsion

During tomato season, there are no bad cooks.

— PORTUGUESE SAYING

Cooking and preserving food in fat has been a constant in our cuisine over time. Pursuing this truth, and after refined experiments, I managed to create this delicious recipe from the otherwise poorly expressive fresh cod, which I present to you here. The leftover olive oil should not be discarded. It is far too precious! I reuse it, obviously respecting the family of the base food item. Therefore, I only reuse this olive oil in other fish dishes.

THE RECIPE

Ingredients

Serves 10

  1. For the cod "confit":
  2. Fresh cod (bacalhau fresco) — 2 kg
  3. Rosemary (alecrim) — as needed (q.b.)
  4. Garlic with skin (elhos em camisa) — 10 cloves
  5. Allspice (pimenta-da-jamaica) — as needed (q.b.)
  6. Cloves (cravinho) — as needed (q.b.)
  7. Lemon zest (zesto de limão) — as needed (q.b.)
  8. Extra virgin olive oil — as needed (q.b.)
  9. Fleur de sel — as needed (q.b.)
  10. For the garnish:
  11. New potatoes — 1.5 kg
  12. Extra virgin olive oil — as needed (q.b.)
  13. Sea salt — as needed (q.b.)
  14. Bok choy / Chinese cabbage (couve chinesa) — 1 kg
  15. Turnip greens (grelos) — 500 g
  16. Chopped garlic — 6 cloves
  17. For the emulsion:
  18. Zucchini (courgettes) — 350 g
  19. Garlic — 4 cloves
  20. Onion — 100 g
  21. Lemon juice — as needed (q.b.)
  22. Extra virgin olive oil — as needed (q.b.)
  23. Fleur de sel — as needed (q.b.)
  24. Chives — as needed (q.b.)

Preparation

Season the cod with fleur de sel and poach it in extra virgin olive oil, scented with sprigs of rosemary, unpeeled garlic cloves, allspice, cloves, and lemon zest. The cod should cook very slowly, in a way that the olive oil does not boil. The oil should be enough to submerge the cod up to half its height.

For the garnish:

Cut the potatoes in half and season them with a thread of extra virgin olive oil and sea salt. Bake them in a preheated oven at 160 °C for approximately 45 minutes. Peel the potatoes, crush them with a fork, and bind this puree with a little extra virgin olive oil. Blanch the cabbage and turnip greens in water and salt, and cool them down immediately by plunging them into ice water. At serving time, sauté them in a little extra virgin olive oil and chopped garlic.

For the emulsion:

Peel the zucchini, cut the skin into small cubes, and set them aside. Blanch the zucchini flesh along with the garlic and onion. Drain and emulsify everything in a blender cup with a thread of extra virgin olive oil. Season with fleur de sel, flavor with a few splashes of lemon juice to taste, and fold the reserved zucchini skin cubes into this emulsion.

Presentation

Arrange the potato puree in the center of the plate, place the cabbage and turnip greens on top, followed by the slice of cod, and finish the composition with the unpeeled garlic. Drizzle with the emulsion. Sprinkle everything with chopped chives.

Olive Oil Suggestion:

For poaching the cod and seasoning the potatoes, sweet olive oils like those from northern Alentejo, Ribatejo, or the Beiras region. For the emulsion, fruitier olive oils, such as those from Moura or Trás-os-Montes