Podre means rotten, and this dish is nothing of the sort, though first-timers understandably eye the name warily. It is a Trás-os-Montes recipe for the season around Christmas: not the big Bacalhau com Todos of Christmas Eve itself, already on the site, but an everyday salt cod and potato bake from the time when good olive oil and salt cod were about the only luxuries an inland kitchen could count on.
The name comes from the texture, not the flavor: thin layers of fried potato slices and shredded salt cod, built up in a baking dish with plenty of caramelized onion and a generous hand with the olive oil, baked until the top goes deeply golden and almost crisp while everything underneath collapses into something soft, rich, and — yes — a little bit “rotten” in the most delicious sense of the word. It’s rustic in a way that a lot of Portuguese cooking from the interior tends to be: built from almost nothing, and better for it.
The potatoes crisp at the edges in the oil, which is the best part of the dish.
Bacalhau Podre Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds dried salt cod (bacalhau), soaked and desalted (see notes)
- 2 1/2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and sliced into very thin rounds (about 1/8 inch)
- Vegetable oil, for frying
- 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- 3 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 bay leaf
- Salt and black pepper, to taste
- 2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced (optional, for topping)
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Poach the desalted cod in a pot of gently simmering water for 8 to 10 minutes, until it flakes easily. Drain, cool, and shred into bite-sized flakes, checking for bones.
- Pat the potato slices dry with a kitchen towel. Working in batches, fry them in about 1/2 inch of vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes per side, until pale gold and just cooked through but not fully crisp — they will finish cooking in the oven. Drain on paper towels and season lightly with salt.
- Pour off the frying oil and wipe out the skillet. Heat 1/4 cup of the olive oil over medium heat, add the onions, garlic, and bay leaf, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 to 18 minutes, until deeply softened and lightly golden. Season with salt and pepper and discard the bay leaf.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Brush a 9-by-13-inch baking dish generously with olive oil. Layer a third of the potatoes in the bottom, followed by a third of the onions and a third of the shredded cod. Repeat the layers twice more, finishing with a layer of potatoes on top.
- Drizzle the remaining olive oil evenly over the top layer. Bake, uncovered, for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top potatoes are deeply golden and crisp at the edges and the dish is bubbling.
- Let rest for 5 minutes. Top with the sliced hard-boiled eggs, if using, and scatter with parsley before serving straight from the baking dish.
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