Bacalhau à Minhota (Fried Salt Cod with Potatoes and Onions)
- Prep
- 15 min
- Total
- 45 min
- servings
- 4
- Calories
- 640 kcal
- Difficulty
- Easy
Bacalhau à minhota is one of the great classics of northern Portugal: thick salt cod steaks dusted in flour and sweet paprika, fried in olive oil until they have a golden crust, and served on sliced potatoes under a generous topping of onion, garlic and peppers. It takes 45 minutes and tastes of Sunday lunches in the Minho.
Recipe
Bacalhau à Minhota
Thick salt cod steaks dusted in flour and sweet paprika, fried in olive oil and served on sliced potatoes with a generous Minho-style onion topping, peppers and olives.
Ingredients
For the cod and potatoes
For the onions
Method
Frying the potatoes and the cod
- 1Dry the cod steaks very well with paper towels or a clean cloth so they don't spit in the pan. Season with a pinch of black pepper.
- 2Peel the potatoes, cut them into thick rounds (about 1 cm) and fry them until golden outside and soft inside, 10 to 12 minutes. Drain and spread them as a bed on a deep serving dish.
- 3Mix the flour with the paprika on a plate. Coat the cod steaks in the mixture, shaking off the excess.
- 4Heat the olive oil in a wide frying pan and fry the cod over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes (4 to 5 minutes per side), until it has a golden crust and the flakes start to open. Put the cod in the middle of the dish, on top of the potatoes.
Making the onions
- 5In the same pan, keep the flavored oil and add the onion half-moons, the sliced garlic and the bay leaf.
- 6Cook over low heat for 12 to 15 minutes, stirring now and then, until the onion is translucent, soft and golden at the edges.
- 7Pour the onions and all the hot oil over the cod and potatoes. Garnish with the strips of red pepper, the black olives and the chopped parsley, and serve right away.
The golden crust
Dry the cod well after soaking: if it’s wet, the flour turns gluey and falls off in the pan. The spoonful of paprika in the flour gives the steaks their reddish color and flavors the oil the onions cook in afterwards. Four to five minutes per side over medium heat is enough to brown the crust while the inside stays flaky and juicy.
In the oven
For a lighter version, roast the potato rounds in a clay dish at 200 °C (400 °F) for 20 minutes with salt, pepper and olive oil. Add the cod steaks, brushed with oil and dusted with paprika, and roast for 20 minutes more while you make the onions in a pan. Pour the onions over the cod 5 minutes before the end.
Minhota or à Braga?
They’re sister recipes from the Minho. Both use fried cod steaks, sliced potatoes and onions with peppers. In the minhota version the flour is mixed with paprika; bacalhau à Braga uses plain flour, and its onions often get a splash of vinegar at the end.
A dry vinho verde with good acidity, such as an Alvarinho or a Loureiro, goes well with all that olive oil.
