4 medium tomatoes, coarsely chopped or 2 14.4oz cans of tomatoes, diced
¼ pound ham, chopped
¼ cup parsley; Italian, chopped
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
Pinch of ground cloves
1 pound salt cod
4 pickled chilies jalapeno, sliced into thin rings
4 tablespoons liquid from pickled chilies
12 pimento-stuffed green olives, sliced in half
Directions
Directions
Soak salt cod for 24 hours and gently rinse to remove most but not all of the salt. Do not break up fish. 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.
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 sauté about an hour. Stir occasionally watching that the onion doesn’t burn. A few dribbles more of oil may be necessary.
Preheat 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. 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 reheated in a 300F oven for 20 minutes or until thoroughly hot.
