Portugal · 60 min · Fish · Main course · For beginners
Arroz de Bacalhau
In German: Reis mit Stockfisch · In English: salt cod rice
For 4 servings · US units
Juicy one-pot rice with salt cod, tomatoes and a handful of fresh coriander
Arroz de Bacalhau is, quite simply, rice with salt cod: short-grain rice soaks up the cod's own cooking water, ripe tomatoes and golden onions until it turns lovely and moist. It's what you cook when you want to look after yourself a little, and it works any time of year. The soaking takes some planning ahead, but the rest is easygoing one-pot cooking.
Ingredients
- 1⅛ lbsoaked at least 12 hours, skinned, boned and roughly flakedCaution: Depending on thickness the fish must soak in the fridge for one to three days with several changes of water, or the dish will be inedibly salty.Cod that has been salted and dried, soaked for days before cooking; known as bacalhau or bacalao.Substitute: Fresh cod salted heavily overnight works for purées and fritters, but it stays softer and tastes flatter, lacking the firm, flaky texture and concentrated flavour.Read more
- 12⅓ ozshort-grain rice
- 5 tbspolive oilfor sautéing
- 1onionlarge, finely chopped
- 2 clovesgarlicfinely chopped
- 14⅛ oztomatoesripe, peeled, seeded and diced
- 3⅛ cupswaterideally the strained cod cooking liquid
- 1bay leafsautéed with the onion
- 1 bunchchopped, for sprinklingThe fresh leaves of the coriander plant, bright, lemony and faintly soapy in aroma.Substitute: Flat-leaf parsley gives colour and green freshness but not the lemony aroma that defines dishes like Portuguese açorda. It is therefore no true substitute, and dried coriander leaf or coriander seed will not do the job at all.Read more
- saltsparingly, the cod is salty
- pepperto taste
- ½ cupwhite wineto deglaze after sautéing (optional)
- 1 tsppaprikaadded with the wine (optional)
- to season (optional)A small, very hot chilli from Portuguese-speaking Africa, used in Portugal fresh, dried or as a hot sauce.Substitute: Thai bird's eye chillies come closest in heat and flavour; dried chilli flakes or cayenne also work but taste flatter and less fruity.Read more
Method
- Soak the salt cod in cold water for at least 12 hours so it can give up its salt.
- Cook the soaked cod in water, lift it out, remove the skin and bones and break the fish into rough flakes. Strain the cooking liquid through a sieve and set it aside.
- Finely chop the onion and garlic. Pour boiling water over the tomatoes for a moment, then peel, seed and dice them.
- Heat the olive oil in a pot and gently fry the onion, garlic and bay leaf until golden. If you like, deglaze now with the white wine and stir in the sweet paprika (colorau) at the same time.
- Add the diced tomatoes and let them cook down briefly with the onions.
- Stir in the short-grain rice, pour in the reserved cod cooking liquid (or plain water) and bring it to the boil.
- Fold in the flaked cod and cook everything over low heat for about 20 minutes, until the rice is tender.
- Remove the bay leaf. Season carefully with salt, since the cod brings plenty of its own, then add black pepper and, if you want some heat, a little piri piri. Scatter with chopped fresh coriander and serve straight away.
Tips and variations
Instead of fresh tomatoes you can use tomato pulp (polpa) and give the whole thing more punch with white wine, sweet paprika (colorau) and a pinch of piri piri. If you'd rather not pre-cook the fish, drop the soaked raw cod pieces straight into the rice about 10 minutes before the end. You can also cook the rice separately in water and only mix it with the stewed cod and tomato at the very end. Purists leave out the garlic, bay leaf and coriander and stick to just onion and tomato. A few cherry tomatoes on top make a pretty finish. Bring the rice to the table straight from the pot, while it's still nice and juicy.
Allergens
Contains: Fish
May contain if you use the optional ingredients: Sulphur dioxide and sulphites
Not every ingredient in this recipe has been checked, so nothing is promised as free from.
These notes follow from this recipe's ingredient list. Ready-made products and brands may contain further allergens — please check the packaging yourself.
Something not right?
This recipe was put together from independent sources and checked before publishing. Even so, a mistake can slip through — an amount that does not add up, a step that does not work as written. If you spot something, write to us: we will look into it and put it right.
