“Bakaliaros skordaliá” is a typical recipe from Greek taverns, comparable to the famous English “fish and chips”. In this case, the battered cod is served along with a delicious mashed potato with crushed garlic, which is an unbeatable accompaniment.
Ingredients for 2 people:
For the fish:
2 cod fillets (ideally desalted)
Wheat or chickpea flour
1 egg (optional)
Salt, pepper, chopped parsley
For the “skordalia”:
2 large potatoes
2-3 cloves of garlic (according to taste)
Extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice
Salt and pepper
Parsley or chives to decorate
The cod and the puree are prepared in two different steps but simultaneously.
How to prepare the traditional skordaliá:
Peel and cut the potatoes into not very large pieces. Boil in salted water until tender (depends on their size, but will be around 10 minutes). Meanwhile, crush the garlic and emulsify it with a generous splash of extra virgin olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, and vinegar and/or lemon juice.
When the potatoes are ready, strain and wait a few minutes until they stop smoking, this way they will be drier when making the puree.
Finally, mash them with a fork or utensil for this purpose, and mix them with the previously prepared emulsion until everything is well integrated. Add a little more extra virgin olive oil, if you want a less dense puree. Garnish with chopped parsley or chives.
How to prepare the fish:
Desalt the cod, remove the skin and cut into large pieces. Dry the fish with kitchen paper, season with salt and pepper on both sides and set aside. Put the flour in a deep bowl and coat the cod pieces on both sides.
It’s not traditional, but I like to add the following additional step to the batter: beat an egg in a bowl, season lightly with salt and add a little chopped parsley. Coat the floured fish in the egg on both sides and set aside.
Heat a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil in a deep, not very wide saucepan. Wait until the oil is very hot but before it reaches the point of smoking. Fry the battered fish on both sides for a few minutes.
As the cod is ready, remove it from the saucepan and set aside on a plate lined with kitchen paper, in order to absorb any excess of oil.
Tips and tricks:
- It’s possible to use fresh cod if we do not have desalted one. The advantage of the latter is that being a bit drier and more compact, the coating is then easier.
- If it’s not available, it’s also possible to use another white fish such as hake. In fact, the term bakaliaros is often used colloquially in Greek to interchangeably refer to both hake and cod (which are also fish from the same family and therefore quite similar).
- Any flour works for the batter, I usually use chickpea flour.
- The longer it takes to consume the skordaliá, the greater the garlic taste, and the firmer its consistency.
- The term skordaliá comes from skordo (garlic in Greek), while the suffix alia probably derives from agliata or aglio (garlic in Italian). This dip or puree is a widely used mezze, and in this recipe, the garlic mashed potatoes combine wonderfully with the fish. However, there is also another traditional version of skordaliá, based on bread moistened with milk, instead of potatoes. The paste is usually then thickened with chopped walnuts.