Bacalhau à Brás (Portuguese salt cod with eggs and straw potatoes)
60 min · 34 g protein · 455 cals / serving
Lisbon's favourite way with salt cod: flaked bacalhau and soft golden onions folded through creamy, barely set eggs with a tangle of crisp matchstick potatoes, finished with black olives and parsley. The potatoes are oven-crisped rather than deep-fried, and the dish keeps its soft, custardy heart.
Ingredients
- 1 lb soaked salt cod, soaked 24–36 hours in several changes of cold water (or fresh cod, see tips)
Straw potatoes
- 1 lb 2 oz (3 medium) russet potatoes, peeled, cut into thin matchsticks
- 1 tbsp canola oil, or another neutral oil
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 medium onions, halved and thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 bay leaf
- 6 large eggs, beaten
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 small handful fresh parsley, chopped
- 12 black olives
Salada mista
- 1 small head romaine lettuce, torn
- 2 medium tomatoes, in wedges
- a few thin rings red onions
- 2 tsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tsp olive oil
Steps
- Put the soaked cod in a pan of barely simmering water for 5 minutes, then lift it out, let it cool a little and flake it finely with your fingers, pulling out every bone and the skin. Taste a flake: it should be pleasantly seasoned, not salty. If it is still salty, soak the flakes in fresh water for 15 minutes and squeeze dry.
- Heat the oven to 425°F. Rinse the potato matchsticks well, dry them thoroughly in a clean towel, toss with the first measure of oil and spread over two lined baking sheets in a single layer. Bake 18–22 minutes, tossing twice, until golden and crisp. They will soften slightly in the eggs, which is how the dish is meant to be.
- Meanwhile, warm the second measure of oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onion, garlic and bay leaf and cook gently, stirring now and then, for 15 minutes, until soft, sweet and pale gold. Add the flaked cod and stir for 3–4 minutes so it takes on the onion flavour.
- Fish out the bay leaf, fold in the potatoes, then turn the heat to low and pour in the beaten eggs with the pepper. Stir gently and constantly for 1–2 minutes, lifting from the bottom, and take the pan off the heat while the eggs are still creamy and loose: they finish setting on the way to the table.
- Scatter with parsley and olives. Toss the lettuce, tomato and onion with the vinegar, oil and a pinch of salt, and serve the bacalhau straight away with the salad, the way it comes in a Lisbon tasca.
Good to know
Can I use fresh cod instead of salt cod?
Yes, and many cooks outside Portugal do. Salt 450 g of fresh cod fillet generously, leave it 30 minutes, rinse, then poach and flake it the same way. The texture is softer and flakier than salt cod, and the flavour milder, but the dish still works, at about the same score.
How do I know when the eggs are done?
Stop while they still look wet and creamy, like a loose scramble. Bacalhau à Brás should be moist and custardy, never dry and set; the residual heat in the pan finishes the job.
What about traditional deep-fried straw potatoes?
Fry the matchsticks in hot oil for the classic crunch, or use a bag of shop-bought straw potatoes, which is what plenty of Lisbon home cooks do. Fried potatoes soak up roughly 40 g more oil, which makes the dish richer and lowers the score to about 45 instead of 54.
Alternatives
Per
- Calories
- 109
- Protein
- (31%)
- 8 g
- Fat
- (39%)
- 5 g
- Carbohydrates
- (30%)
- 9 g
- of which sugar
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 531 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 1819 kcal goes into the pot and 2094 g of ingredients comes out as about 1665 g of food: 109 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.