Portuguese Christmas – Page 4

Bacalhau a Gomes de Sa

BACALHAU A GOMES DE SA

There’s a saying in Portugal; “There’s a recipe using Bacalhau for 365 days of the year”!

But this classic, is not only a year round treat it’s also a must have Christmas favorite.

In fact it wouldn’t be a traditional Portuguese Christmas Eve diner without it!

Ingredients:

2 lbs boneless salt cod

(Re-hydrate cod by soaking in large pan with water for a few days in fridge changing the water twice a day)

Click here for link to “how to hydrate salt cod”

4 pounds small peeled potatoes cut into 1 inch slices

2 large onions (sliced)

3 gloves chopped garlic

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 cup olive oil

6 hard boiled eggs (sliced)

1 cup olives

2 to 3 teaspoons chopped parsley

2 to 3 cloves of chopped garlic or 1 teaspoon garlic powder

Instructions:

In large pan, place potatoes covered with cold water. Add salt, and cod. Cook for about 10-15 minutes until cod is flaky.

Remove cod fish from pan and set aside to cool. Cook potatoes for another 8-10 minutes or until cooked. Pierce with a fork for doneness. Drain potatoes and set aside to cool. Slice potatoes into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices.

In large skillet, saute sliced onions, 1/2 tsp salt and bay leaf in 1/2 cup of the olive oil until golden brown. Add garlic during the last 2 minutes of cooking. Remove the bay leaf and let the onions cool for a few minutes.

Grease a large deep oven proof pan with olive oil. Start layering the potatoes, flaked cod then onions.

Drizzle olive oil and pepper over each layer. Add garlic powder if you like more garlic flavor.

Make sure you end up with onions on top. Cover with foil and cook for about 20 minutes.

Arrange cooked egg slices on top of the onion layer.

Cook uncovered for another 5-10 minutes to desired crispness.

Remove from oven and add parsley and olives for garnish. (add more salt, pepper or garlic if desired)

Enjoy!

https://tiamariasblog.com/hydrate-salt-cod-bacalhau/

Desserts / Holiday Recipes / Portuguese Christmas / Recipes

September 13, 2010

Caramel Flan – Pudim Flan

Hi Foodies,

It took me years to finally make a good caramel flan until I finally discovered the reason why I wasn’t successful. The reason was because I didn’t use whole milk. I also made the mistake of mixing cold milk with the cold eggs.

You have to warm up the milk and use room temperature eggs. Now my flan comes out perfect every time and it’ s a family favorite at every celebration.

My family enjoys lots of the candied caramel on top too and usually fight over it! Enjoy!

Flan ingredients:

6 large eggs

3 cups whole milk

1 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp either; (this is optional: vanilla, anisette liquor, or caramel glaze)

Caramel glaze ingredients:

1 cup sugar

Instructions:

Take your eggs out of the fridge a few hours before you start to get them to room temp or place them in a bowl of lukewarm water for about 20 minutes.

Prepare Caramel glaze first:

Place the sugar and water in a large heavy skillet. Continue stirring while cooking on med heat until the sugar melts and begins to turn caramel colored and thickens like corn syrup.(probably 5-8 min depending on your burners).

If the sugar is hardening too quickly, just drizzle a little water around the edges of the pan into the sugar.

Take the pan of the heat and let it rest for one minute. OUCH! It’s very hot! If you smell a burned smell, it means you’ve cooked it too long, so start over again.

Coat the bottom and up to 1 inch on the sides of a medium oven proof souffle pan with the caramel sauce. Let the Caramel harden and put aside while you make the custard. (Poor a few tablespoons of the caramel onto a small butter sheet pan and let it harden.)

Prepare custard:

In med bowl, beat the eggs with 1 cup sugar until lemony colored. Meanwhile, heat up the milk until hot but not boiling.

Let the milk cook down a little and then add about 1/4 cup of milk, to the eggs while continuing to beat on low. *If the milk is too hot, you’ll discover that you just made scrambled eggs.

Continue beating and slowly add the milk 1cup at a time until all of the milk is incorporated.

At this point you can beat in, either the 1 tsp vanilla extract, the anisette, or the caramel glaze if you desire.

Let the egg mixture rest to let the foam subside a little, then slowly pour it into the souffle dish that has been coated with the caramel.

Place the flan dish into a larger oven proof deep dish pan (bain -marie) that has been filled with 1 inch of water.

Cook at 350 for 60 -75 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the flan cool in it’s pan and place it in the dish in the refrigerator overnight.

When ready to serve, loosen the sides of the flan with a knife and giggle the pan to loosen it.

Cover the top of the flan with a deep serving dish and invert it. Spoon out the caramel over the flan.

Break the hardened sugar that you let sit in the sheet pan into small pieces and place on top of the flan.

You can place the souffle dish into a shallow bowl of hot water to melt the remaining caramel or brake up the hard caramel to serve on top as seen in the picture.

Serve as is, decorate with candy pearls or with whipped cream!

It’s amazing!