Pataniscas

Pataniscas are cod cakes. Very economical and quick to prepare, these were traditionally a way of transforming leftover boiled cod into a meal.

The ingredients:

• 1/2 cup all purpose wheat flour
• 1/2 cup milk, preferably room temperature, or the same volume of the cooking liquid of boiling the cod
• 2 whole eggs
• salt, freshly ground white pepper to taste
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup loosely packed of finely chopped parsley 
• 1 portion of boiled cod, around 200 g, skin and bones removed, flaked, about two cups loosely packed

In a large bowl, start by making a batter: slowly incorporate the milk into the flour, baking powder and baking soda mix, using a whisk or  a fork, being careful to not create any lumps. Next, add the eggs, mixing to create a batter. Then, add the onion and parsley, season with salt and white pepper. The cod may be salty, so be careful with the salt. Do not over mix. Incorporate the cod. Then we have to evaluate the consistency in order to decide whether we need to add flour or milk in order to get to the consistency of cake batter. It should be pourable but not liquid.

Frying the cakes is tricky and the secret to a light and fluffy result. Cover the bottom of a frying pan with 1/4 inch of oil and let it get hot. Dump a spoonful onto the oil and let it fry. Turn to the other side with a spatula as soon as this side is lightly golden, and fry it. Lower the heat to allow the fritter to cook through. One may need to turn the fritters a few times to ensure that it is cooked through. Remove onto a paper lined tray and let them drain the excess oil. During the frying process, one may need to lower the heat ti avoid burning the fritters. Anytime the frying pan is empty, or anytime the volume of oil seems to low, add a bit more oil. In the end, they should look like this:

Sardines

Eating sardines in Portugal is a national endeavour. It starts when the fishermen are finally given permission to catch sardines and it ends when the fish disappears from our shores. Sadly, at the end of the season, when they are most flavourful, most people are already a bit tired of eating them.

Sardines are almost always eaten grilled on charcoal. Which means that you eat them at the restaurant or you have some place outside where you can grill them. If you live in an urban area, you most likely will annoy your neighbours, but no-one seems to care.

It's very hard to see beautiful sardines at the fishmonger but not being able to grill them. The recipe I found solves that conundrum. Apparently this is a modern take on a old technique: people used to sprinkle flour on roof tiles, the old kind that are basically shaped like a half cylinder, place the gutted and clean sardines on top, sprinkle more flour and bake them in a wood oven after having baked bread. This is essentially the same thing, but using a household oven:

• gut and carefully clean the sardines;
• generously sprinkle them with coarse sea salt and let them absorb it for half hour or so;
• line an oven tray with baking paper, which you liberally sprinkle with a layer of flour -- I used wheat flour but some people recommend corn flour;
• coat each sardine with flour and place them on the tray, making sure they do not overlap; alternating the orientation of each sardine helps;
• sprinkle with olive oil and bake at 200C for about 15-20 minutes - the sardines should gain a nice golden color but be careful not to overcook them.

It is amazing how satisfying these turned out. If you remove the skin, the actual flesh tastes very much like charcoal grilled sardines!