Pastéis de Bacalhau (Salt Cod Fritters)
- Prep
- 15 min
- Total
- 1 h 15 min
- Servings
- 6
Bolinhos in the north, pastéis in the south: salt cod fritters are the snack everyone in Portugal agrees on. They’re eaten as a snack, a starter or picnic food, or as a meal with tomato rice.
The first known written recipe dates from 1904. The fritters were a way to use up cod scraps with potatoes, which were cheap and plentiful. Shaping them with two spoons gives an oval that fries to a golden crust while the inside stays soft.
Recipe
Pastéis de Bacalhau
Mashed potato and finely shredded salt cod with egg and parsley, shaped with two spoons and fried until golden. Crisp outside and soft inside, the classic Portuguese snack.
Ingredients
Method
- 1Halve the potatoes, wash them and boil them in salted water for 20 minutes.
- 2Drain them and mash them.
- 3Lay the cod on a clean cloth, close the cloth around it and rub to break it up very finely.
- 4Add it to the mashed potatoes, then add the onion, peeled and chopped very finely, the parsley and the eggs one at a time, stirring all the time.
- 5Check the salt, add a pinch of pepper and stir.
- 6Using 2 tablespoons, shape the mixture into ovals and fry them in hot oil until golden.
- 7Drain them and serve warm or cold.
Tips
The old rule is equal weights of mashed potato (weighed after boiling and mashing) and shredded cod; many cooks use a little more cod.
Use plenty of oil and get it hot, about 170 to 180 °C (around 350 °F). If it’s too cool, the fritters soak up oil; too hot, and they burn outside while the middle stays cold.
Dip both spoons in warm oil before shaping, so the mixture slides from one to the other.
Freezing
They freeze very well. Freeze them shaped and uncooked on a tray, then move them to a bag once hard. Fry them straight from the freezer.
