At Casa Aguiar, there is one real bacalhau com broa fan who will choose it from a menu without hesitation, and there is someone who wouldn’t order it on a menu if bacalhau com natas were available. I fall into the latter category.
Bacalhau com broa is an oven dish, and depending on the kitchen, it can emerge quite dry and dense. I love it when the outer broa (corn bread) is crunchy and crispy, but I prefer the inner bacalhau when it’s the complete opposite — prepared as if it were fresh instead of salted and dried. This is a tall order, I know, even in a commercial kitchen. But that’s why I don’t usually order it, because I’d rather just steal a bit of Paulo’s than commit to an entire dish that may fall short.
However, my mother-in-law’s bacalhau com broa is perfection. Well, my idea of perfection, anyway. In the photo above, it’s hard to make out the bed of potatoes underneath the bacalhau because it’s covered in bread, but it’s there. I had a couple of helpings at lunch today. Maybe two and a half. OK, closer to three. I posted a bacalhau com broa dish she made a year ago, but this one is even better!
I jokingly refer to my mother-in-laws’ kitchen as a restaurant, but she has high standards (the salad is consistently like this) and we always eat very well. I mean, just look at this appetizer dish:
Dessert today was extra decadent: pastel de nata with pastel de nata ice cream. (Both from Lidl.) It was probably overkill to have them together, but these are sacrifices made in the name of research. According to the package, the ice cream contains 25% pastel de nata.
Verdict: mixed.
The Sweet-Toothed Portuguese wasn’t too keen on the texture, he found it granular. The non-Sweet-Toothed Canadian found the texture normal for ice cream, but the sugar needed to be dialled down. Way down. I would’ve asked the Portuguese Dog, but he needs to lay off the sugar.
September 12, 2015
Album: Portugal [Summer 2015]
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