Salt Cod

 Me to the woman at the fish counter: I need salted cod, please.

Woman at fish counter: *gives me a puzzled look* We have cod for $$/lb.

Me: It's for a new recipe I have. It has to be salted?

Woman at fish counter: *gives me an enlightened look* Follow me. 

She walks to the fish freezer and opens the door and pulls out an adorable little wooden box and hands it to me. Exactly one pound of salted cod, folded into this wee wooden box. Amazing!

Obviously, cooking salt cod is a new experience for me. So, I buy the wee wooden box, planning to cook it the following day. The following day arrives, and my schedule changes unexpectedly, requiring me to be out of town all day. So, I couldn't prepare the cod. I wondered how long it would be okay to leave it in the fridge (silly, in retrospect, but I had worries on my mind crowding out my common sense). I googled salt cod longevity. And had a good laugh at my own expense. Of course, it lasts virtually forever, being as how before refrigeration technology, this is how people preserved fish. So it sat in my fridge for about a week before I could plan to prepare it for a meal (I split the fish in half, using half for the other salt cod recipe, Congolese Makayabu, see blog for that recipe).

I put the cod to soak, per recipe instructions. It soaked all night and all the next day, till supper time, with two changes of water. I set the onion slices to marinate in vinegar and sugar. Wow, what a simple, yet powerful taste experience in the marinated onion slices, which compliment the fish/potatoes/pork flavors perfectly!

I cubed the salt pork and browned them and set them aside. Meanwhile, the peeled potatoes were happily cooking in boiling water. All that remained was to put that cod into a pan of water and poach it to perfection! I did a final rinse of the cod and slipped it into the simmering water. It seemed to take a long time to become flaky, but eventually it flaked.

The recipe recommends creamed corn, which I did serve, however, if in season, I would personally prefer corn on the cob. I cannot say enough good about the flavor pop that results with a blending of vinegar-marinated onions, the satisfying starch of potatoes, the sweetness of butter on the potatoes, salty-fat flavor of salt pork cubes, the flaky fish, and salt and pepper. Just magnificent, is all I can say. This recipe was submitted by Michael Ball of Swanville, but the story is that it originally comes from a seaman in Nova Scotia. Hats off to the seaman from Nova Scotia!