Bacalao al Piemiento Morron

(Recipe from Gabriela Barraza)

Garbriela’s Salt Cod with Peppers is a Mexican version. Here it is eaten traditionally on Christmas Eve.

• 3 lbs salt cod, soaked, cleaned and cubed
• 6 lbs.green peppers, roasted, deveined, and halved
• 3 medium onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic

Fry garlic and onion until tender. Add green peppers and cook, stirring, until soft. Add the salt cod cook over low flame until done. May add a little olive oil if desired.

Don’t let salt cod recipes scare you off. Just make sure you really soak the cod for many hours and change the water often in order to get the saltiness out.

When my friend Linda and I went to Lisbon in 1991, we took a tram northiward along the coast and finally came to the end of the line. Being hungry, we went into a tiny restaurant that from the looks of it was the proprietor’s living room. No space to waste. The place was crowded. and looked like a good bet for some good food. Since one of the only things I recognized on the menu was Salt Cod, and since in Portugal it is something like the national dish, I ordered it. With wine, of course. I could not beliieve how delicious it was and I keep looking for more recipes, trying to equal what I had at the end of the tram-line.