5 years ago, I travelled around South America for 6 weeks. Brazil was the first stop. Monica joined me for that leg of the trip & I had planned it such that we would be in Rio for the New Year. It was awesome. On top of that, my Brazilian friend Michael was in town visiting his folks so he brought us around. We went to all the cool spots & met all his cool friends. But most of all, he introduced us to Bolinhos de Bacalhau.
Every night, after we'd been out drinking (oh man those caiprinhas - Monica & Michael, if you're reading this, you know what I'm talking about), we would head over to Michael's favorite joint for supper. There's always a lot of food but I only remember Bolinhos de Bacalhau. They are basically codfish balls & the perfect late night supper snack.
But after I left Rio, I never had it again & also never thought about it until.......I came across this post from Beaulotus @ East meets West (that's why I love reading her blog, she comes up with gems like these) How could I have forgotten about these babies ? I have to make these.
Every night, after we'd been out drinking (oh man those caiprinhas - Monica & Michael, if you're reading this, you know what I'm talking about), we would head over to Michael's favorite joint for supper. There's always a lot of food but I only remember Bolinhos de Bacalhau. They are basically codfish balls & the perfect late night supper snack.
But after I left Rio, I never had it again & also never thought about it until.......I came across this post from Beaulotus @ East meets West (that's why I love reading her blog, she comes up with gems like these) How could I have forgotten about these babies ? I have to make these.
Bolinhos de Bacalhau (codfish balls) recipe from East meet West
500g salted cod
2-3 potatoes
2 eggs
1 small onion
bay leaf / chopped parsley / nutmeg / peppercorns
1. Rinse cod off the salt, soak in cold water for no less than 12 hours with at least 3 changes of water
2. Drain cod
3. Fry onions, peppercorns & bay leaf. Then add the fish skin side down
4. Add 500ml of water (enough to cover the fish entirely)
5. Bring to boil. Then lower the flame & simmer for 10-15 mins
6. In the meantime, boil potatoes till soft
7. Mash with fork (AND don't do like me, got distracted & proceeded to pour milk over to make mashed potatoes so I had to go boil another 2 more potatoes !)
8. Drain cod, remove skin & bones
9. Mash the cod with a fork as well & then add potatoes, 2 beaten eggs, chopped parsley & a pinch of nutmeg
10. Set mixture aside for 30 mins
11. Shape into balls & fry till golden brown.
Serve with an ice cold beer.
7 comments:
Hi Petite Fleur!
Your bolinhos were way prettier than mine haha. I'm not manual alas...
So we have another Singaporean girl hiding out in France :-). How long have you been living there? Did you meet X back home? And your little girl is gorgeous, how old is she?
I know I know, so kaypo...
Well, will be looking forward to reading more of your adventures!
PS : Just one thing, my blog's East meets West without the kitchen. Coz there's another blog called East meets West Kitchen and it's owned by another Singaporean girl who lives in the USA! But that's how she found me and vice versa and she has a great food blog and is a lovely gal too.
Cheers!!!!
May I join this 6 degree of separation thingy?
Lotus, le Petite Fleur (what's this with flowers between the 2 of you huh?) and I know each other from a parenting forum which we are both members of.
The world is indeed very small.
5 years have already passed by...
rio caiprinhas & bolinhos de bacalhau what a nice memory!
Learn it well so when we meet we cook a beautiful brazilian dinner with all that + the stunning bahia fish soup (can't remember the name, I'm pretty sure you remember it!) besos...
Lotus & Dutchess
It's great to know all you overseas Singaporean mums who have a blog. Not sure about Lotus, but petite fleur is a reference to my Chinese name (literally little wallflower which I'm most certainly not).
Monica
I actually don't remember the fish soup. I will have to go look it up. When I will be in Rome, I'm not sure if I'm going to be doing any cooking !
Dutchess and Petite Fleur - wah lau you are very KS mothers alright :-). Parenting forum haha.
Yeah Beau Lotus is the direct translation of my Chinese name. Used to cannot stand it but well, managed to find some use for it after all.
Dutchess, good to see that you're alive and kicking, and hopefully we'll still get to read about your shopping sprees in Beijing :-).
this looks absolutely delicious Mei! do you think i can substitute the cod with canned tuna? am quite lazy to go to the wet market to buy fish :p or can you suggest another ingredient to replace the cod? thanks!
Maryann - you can replace it with anything. Another type of fish. Meat eg. chicken. Or make it vegetarian with very small diced carrots & zucchinis (X made them like that once & they were really good). Or even plain - just potatoes, eggs & whatever spice/herbs - like curry powder.
Then they won't be Bolinhos de bacalhau. They'll be Bolinhos de Maryann
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