Bacalaitos!

You may recall that during our recent trip to Vieques we picked up some dried salted fish- Bacalao- with the intention of preparing salt cod fritters, AKA Bacalaitos. Here's the tale of our experiment:

So, the bacalao was purchased and soaked for 72 hours. (See our original post on prepping bacalao here) Each morning and again every evening we would drain, rinse and re-immerse the dried fish. Finally we were ready to try our hand at Bacalaitos or salt cod fritters. 

The recipe is pretty simple: Cut the desalted cod into 2 inch segments and gently poach for about 5 minutes. Clean off the skin, remove all bones, then flake the flesh. Meanwhile, make a paste from a clove or two of garlic and add salt and pepper. Prepare a batter using 1 1/2 cups each of flour and water and 1 tsp of baking soda. 

Heat oil for deep frying in a 9" wide pot tall enough to safely hold at least 3" of hot oil without splashing. If a small piece of bread bubbles when placed in the oil you know you're ready for action.  

Mix the flesh into the batter and incorporate the garlic paste. Carefully lower tablespoon sized dollops of the batter 3 or 4 at a time into the oil and leave in place till they turn golden. Lift them out with a slotted spoon onto paper towels and repeat. Salt them to your preference while they're still warm. Eat immediately, preferably with very cold beer or a margarita!

How did ours turn out? Well, let's say this was a learning experience! Here's why: Earlier in our vacation we had inherited a tub of pancake batter. We decided to not  purchase flour and baking soda, which we would certainly not consume before it was time to come home. Instead we thought we'd give the pancake batter a whirl. While the list of ingredients seemed pretty compatible with our objective, in the end the malt extract and some sugar in the mixture added an odd background flavour. We compensated by mixing up a lemony mayonnaise- based sauce with chopped Recao (also known as Culantro or "Mexican Cilantro"), but things still weren't quite right!

Oh, well. The exercise was valuable: the preparation is really very simple and the results encouraging. This is something we'll try again, this time without improvising on the cheap!