Bacalao A La Viscaina Recipe

( A Basque Recipe )
Ingredients:

1 lb Potatoes; small new
-scrubbed, boiled, peeled
-cut into 3/4″ chunks
1/4 c Olive Oil
2 White Onions; peeled,
-chop fine, makes 2 cups
3 Garlic Cloves; minced
4 md Tomatoes; coarsely chopped
-about 2 lbs, or two 14.4oz
-cans of tomatoes, diced
1/4 lb Ham; chopped
1/4 c Parsley; Italian, chopped
1 ts Black Pepper
1/8 ts Cinnamon; ground
pn Ground Cloves; pinch
1 lb Salt Cod; seenote
4 Pickled chiles Jalapeno
-sliced into thin rings
4 tb Liquid from pickled chiles
12 Pimento-stuffed Green Olives
-sliced in half



Directions:

1.Put the potatoes in a large pan of cold, salted water, cutting any large potatoes in half or quarters first. Bring the water to a boil and simmer until the potatoes are just tender when pierced with a fork, 15-20 minutes.

2.Drain and when cool enough to handle,, peel away the skin. Set aside. In a heavy pan such as a Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions, reduce the heat to very low and slowly saute about one hour.

3.Stir occasionally, watching that the onion doesn’t burn. A few dribbles more of oil may be necessary. Pre-heat oven to 300F degrees. Turn up the heat, add the garlic and tomato and cook, stirring constantly until the mixture becomes thick and the liquid is substantially reduced, about 10-15 minutes. Add the ham, parsley, pepper, cinnamon and cloves, then gently stir the cod, potatoes, jalapenos and their juice into the tomato mixture.

4.Transfer to a 1 to 2 quart casserole, preferably clay, sprinkle with the olives and bake for 30 minutes. Bacalao a la Viscaina can be made ahead and re-heated in a 300F oven for 20 minutes or until thoroughly hot.

Yields 6 Servings