Bacalhau à Brás (Salt Cod with Eggs and Crispy Potatoes)
- Prep
- 30 min
- Total
- 55 min
- servings
- 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
Bacalhau à Brás is shredded salt cod, matchstick potatoes and onion, bound with beaten egg that comes off the heat while it’s still creamy. You’ll find it on the menu of almost every tasca in Lisbon, and it’s made in one pan in under an hour.
Three things make it work: onions cooked slowly, potatoes cut very thin, and eggs taken off the heat before they set.
Recipe
Bacalhau à Brás
Shredded salt cod folded into slow-cooked onions, crisp matchstick potatoes and beaten eggs taken off the heat while still creamy, finished with parsley and black olives. The Lisbon tasca classic, ready in under an hour.
Ingredients
Method
Matchstick potatoes
- 1Peel the potatoes and cut them into very thin sticks, 2 to 3 mm thick. A wide-blade grater or a mandoline makes this easier.
- 2Rinse the sticks in cold water until it runs clear, to wash off the starch, then dry them very well in a clean towel.
- 3Fry them in oil at 170 °C (350 °F), in several small batches, for 3 to 4 minutes each, until golden and crisp. Drain on paper towels and set aside.
Bacalhau à Brás
- 4Flake the raw cod into thin shreds with your fingers, removing the skin and bones. For softer flakes, blanch it first in boiling water for 2 minutes and drain well.
- 5In a wide pan or a deep frying pan, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the onion, garlic and bay leaf and cook for 12 to 15 minutes, stirring now and then, until the onion is soft and translucent but not browned.
- 6Add the shredded cod and stir for 4 to 5 minutes, until the flakes turn opaque and soak up the oil. Remove the bay leaf.
- 7Add the matchstick potatoes and fold them in gently so they don't break.
- 8Beat the eggs with pepper. Don't add salt yet, because the cod is already salty.
- 9Turn the heat down, pour the eggs over the cod and stir constantly for 1 to 2 minutes. Take the pan off the heat while the eggs still look wet and glossy; the heat of the pan finishes cooking them.
- 10Taste and add salt if needed. Sprinkle with the parsley, add the olives and serve right away.
Getting the eggs right
This is where most bacalhau à Brás goes wrong. The eggs should look like very soft scrambled eggs coating the cod and potatoes, never dry lumps. Turn the heat down before adding them, keep stirring, and take the pan off the stove while they still look underdone. In about 30 seconds the heat of the pan finishes them. If you wait until they look done on the stove, they’ll be dry by the time they reach the plate.
Six eggs to 450 g of cod gives a creamy result. If you like it softer, add one more egg or a yolk.
Homemade or bagged potatoes?
Homemade are better: thicker, tasting of potato, and they stay crisp under the egg. Rinse off the starch and dry the sticks completely before frying, or they stick together and go soft. Bagged ones save half an hour. Use 200 g and add them at the very end, just before the eggs, so they don’t go soft.
Which cod to buy
Soaked loins or thick pieces give bigger, juicier flakes. The cheaper bags of cod scraps (migas de bacalhau) also work, but they break up more and usually have more bones to pick out. Leftover boiled or roast cod is a good base too; shred it and give it less time in the pan.
Where the name comes from
The story goes that the dish was born in a tavern in Lisbon’s Bairro Alto in the early 20th century and is named after the tavern keeper, whose surname was Brás.
Storing
It’s best freshly made. Leftovers keep in a closed container in the fridge for up to 2 days; reheat them in a frying pan over low heat with a little olive oil, since the microwave dries out the egg. Don’t freeze it: the potatoes lose their crunch and the egg turns spongy.
