🎶If I were a rich man. Yada dida dida”🎶 😉 Enough. (I hope you were able to recognize the Fiddler on the Roof reference.) Let us get serious a moment. Surely, you did not think that I could go more than a day, or so, without writing, did you? Good, because you were correct.
Well, I trust your Christmas festivities, thus far, have been all you had hoped, and planned? The presents all got wrapped, and, all of the decorations got hung on the tree, and, the awesome meal you planned was, truly, awesome? Great. I am very glad to say the same for the holidays, thus far, here in México.
In México, at the holidays, there are several traditional things that happen. One of them is preparing, and, sharing a delicious fish stew called Bacalao, and, another, is enjoying a Mediterranean bread that is filled with sweet pork, raisins, and nuts.
Now, Bacalao is made, using a goodly amount of salted cod fish (I believe they used six kilos, in this house), six kilos of new potatoes, two kilos of onions, six heads of garlic, two jars of capers, about a dozen Bay Leaves, one cup of thyme, two large bunches of parsley, two kilos of olives (with the pit, as I have been told, by Pepe, it helps maintain the shape of the olive), and, I believe ten kilos of Roma tomatoes.
We bought most of this at a local market, called Mi Mercado Esquadrón, which is close to five kilometers from the house here, but will be much closer once we move. Yay!
Paty, and, Pepe, and, yesterday, our cousin, Glorita, (we call her Glorita, because, like the name José, which is the primary name in this family, Gloria is also very common name in this family), have been working tirelessly on all of the ingredients, for the past two days, because each ingredient requires its own amount of care.
Try to imagine, if you can, dealing with twenty pounds of tomatoes (envision a reusable grocery bag three quarters full), needing to be “burned”, (normally done on a griddle, on the stovetop), according to the recipe.
Always looking for the easier, faster way, (you knew I was going to say that), I suggested to P&P, that, since I was already using the oven to bake the Turcos, (coming up in another post), we could use the oven. Simply put them in the baking pans I was using, and roast them all until they were the desired consistency. It took the male Alpha a few minutes to come around, but, eventually he did. It took only about forty five minutes to roast all twenty pounds of tomatoes, instead of hours, burning them on the comal.
Do you remember, I said that the bacalao is salted cod? It is salted as a means of preservation, so all of the fish has to be desalinated prior to cooking it. That requires a day, or two, to change the water it is soaking in, until it no longer tastes salty. It is not a “heavy” chore, in itself, nor is it time consuming- meaning, no one has to be around to “tend it”. But, if not done properly, it will be the demise of this spectacular dish.
So, for the past twenty, or so, hours, the aroma in this home has, well, it has left this one speechless. That should be testimony on its own. I cannot wait to have some, later this evening, after all of the cousins arrive. Until then, we only get to enjoy the tease.
Post script: The bacalao tasted just as wonderful as it smelled. But, then there were the Romeritos en Mole. That is for another post.