Destination
Rio de Janeiro
The story
Bolinho de bacalhau is the salt cod fritter served in every Brazilian boteco, corner bar and Saturday-afternoon padaria. Portuguese by inheritance (400 years of Lusitanian salt cod trade), Brazilian by ubiquity. A fluffy mash of desalted, poached bacalhau with mashed potato, onion and parsley, shaped into small ovals between two wet spoons, deep-fried until golden. Served hot with a wedge of lime, an ice-cold chopp and, if you're in the right kind of place, a bowl of homemade hot sauce.
Method
After the 24-hour soak, place the cod in a saucepan of cold water. Bring gently to a simmer, hold for 8 minutes, then lift out. Discard skin and bones, and flake the flesh finely with two forks. Taste: it should be pleasantly salty, not aggressive. If still too salty, soak the flakes in cold milk for 20 minutes.
Boil the potatoes whole in salted water until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain well and mash smooth. Let them dry out over low heat for 2 minutes, then cool slightly.
Warm the olive oil in a small pan. Sweat the onion and garlic over low heat 6 to 8 minutes until soft and translucent, no colour.
In a large bowl, mix the mashed potato, flaked cod, sweated onion, parsley, eggs and pepper. Mix well but don't overwork. Taste and only add salt if the cod was very well desalted.
Cover and chill 30 minutes. Cold mixture holds its shape when shaped between spoons and doesn't fall apart in the oil.
Wet two large spoons with cold water. Scoop a heaped tablespoon of mixture with one, use the other to shape it into a smooth oval quenelle. Slide gently into a lined tray. Repeat with the rest of the mixture.
Heat the oil in a deep pot to 175°C (350°F). Fry the bolinhos in batches of 4 or 5 for 3 to 4 minutes, turning once, until deep golden and crisp. Don't crowd the pot: it drops the temperature and they go greasy.
Lift onto kitchen paper, rest 1 minute, and serve immediately with lime wedges and hot sauce.
Tips
- Soak the cod properly. Twenty-four hours in cold water with four changes is the minimum. Under-soaked cod is inedibly salty. Over-soaked cod is bland, so taste a small flake after poaching before you commit the batch.
- Two wet spoons is the classic shape. The oval, football-like form is what makes it a bolinho and not a fishcake. Flat patties are a different dish.
- Chill before frying. Warm mixture falls apart the moment it hits the oil. Thirty minutes in the fridge lets the potato firm up and the eggs bind.
- Fry hot and don't crowd. 175°C is the sweet spot. Below that they soak up oil; above that they colour before the middle heats through. Three or four at a time is the max in most home fryers.
- Best eaten within 5 minutes of frying. Reheated bolinhos lose the crisp exterior. If you're prepping ahead, shape the ovals and refrigerate raw; fry to order.
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