What is esqueixar cod? Well, crumble it with your hands. Something so simple is the base of one of the most refreshing and complete salads of the summer, a very nutritious classic of traditional Catalan cuisine that has managed to reach our times in full form. A fresh and easy-to-make dish where cod is king, which has multiple versions, but some basic rules that we cannot ignore. The cod must be cured in salt (therefore we do not need to cook it) and perfectly desalted. He has his tricks. And we also have to know what to surround it with. That's why we spoke to a cod expert, a cook who knows by heart the dishes from the compilation of Catalan gastronomic heritage, the Corpus de la Cuina Catalana, and we spy on the tricks of Montserrat Fontané, Joan Roca's mother. We serve the result well plated. These are the seven mistakes you should not make when preparing your summer esqueixada:
To make an esqueixada we can use noble or not so noble parts of the cod, "it's like making grilled meat, you can always choose a steak or an entrecôte and you will have the same preparation with more or less quality," explains Ricard Perelló, in charge. of the Perelló cod fisheries in Barcelona, with 120 years of history.
Many areas can be used but the most gelatinous ones, such as the cococha (so typical of pil pil) or the tripe (great in a stew), are not suitable "because they need to be cooked," says the expert, who also advises us that the fish is of good quality. "If you normally do much better if you buy a good one from a trusted cod market, in this case even more so because we are talking about making a salad that is served raw, so naked that it doesn't fool anyone." Perelló recommends the wild species Gadus Morhua, which is caught with a hook and cured in salt in a traditional way, and highlights the cod loin as its richest and also the most expensive part. “For me, the best thing is to let yourself be guided by the cod fishery, buy cod cuts that they usually have already prepared to make the esqueixada.” It is advisable to use pieces or crumbles left over from profiling the finest fillets.
An important warning: Do not buy fresh cod that has been injected with salt water to simulate the salting point of traditional salt curing. “Curing in salt means giving the fish a first cooking that it does not have, therefore it cannot be eaten in esqueixada because it is raw,” the expert tells us.
If the most important thing in an esqueixada is the cod, the way we present it is essential to obtain the appropriate result. Because if esqueixar means crumbling, the cod, obviously, should be served well crumbled and without skin. “The traditional and best way to do it is with your fingers,” says Ricard Perelló, who encourages us to buy it already chopped in the market if we don't want to crumble it ourselves at home.
If you choose to do it, you should not be obsessed with making all the pieces look exactly the same, although it is nicer if they are more or less regular. “I take the piece, preferably a loin, and I cut it up by pinching it,” says David Rodriguez, chef at the Windsor restaurant, who in this post-confinement stage has added an interesting menu to his offer, recovering the traditional dishes that we ate in the decades of the 70s and 80s, “when our mothers did not worry about making sophisticated preparations to impress us but only wanted to nourish us well,” says its director Joan Junyent, who has even recovered the legendary Duralex tableware. They are based on the dishes that appear in the Corpus de la Cuina Catalana (compilation of Catalan gastronomic heritage), and the esqueixada is undoubtedly included. “This book is now my Bible,” says David.
Esqueixada is a cold salad made with desalted cod “but that has not lost its salt flavor, therefore, we have to control the desalting process very well and not overdo it,” Ricard Perelló tells us.
It is very effective to buy the animal cured in salt at the source and already desalted by professionals, and if possible, also already crumbled. But if we buy it salted, we must necessarily desalt it at home. “Large pieces should not be desalted for the same amount of time as crumbled pieces,” explains the cod expert. If we are talking about a loin that has not yet been crumbled, the process takes about 4 days. “We put the cod in very cold water so that it is very compact, covering it completely, placing it in the lower part of the refrigerator without covering it.” It's about rehydrating it so that the saltiness disappears. We will change the water every 8-12 hours if the cod is whole (3 to 5), "but if it is already crumbled pieces, it will only need to soak for between 3 and 5 hours and 2 changes will be enough," says the expert.
In Joan Roca's book dedicated to the traditional cooking that her mother makes, she describes a simple and effective way to desalt and hydrate it: “we crumble it with our fingers under the running tap and then let it hydrate for a few hours in the refrigerator, changing the water a couple of times.”
When he has desalted an entire loin (before cutting it to cook it and make esqueixada with the remains), David Rodríguez checks the degree of saltiness of the interior before cutting it, “because the sides are not as salty,” explains the chef at the Windsor. “If it’s still too salty, you submerge it in water again.”
Once the desalting process is complete, it is very important to drain the cod and help it dry by wrapping it in a kitchen towel or placing it on absorbent kitchen paper, says Perelló, who at La Barra in the Mercat del Ninot, in charge of chef Guada Reig, prepare different types of esqueixadas, among many other dishes with cod as the protagonist. “We were not able to open until Phase 3 but now we are fully operational and the response from customers has been very good.”
In the recipe book where Joan Roca collects the dishes of her mother, Montserrat Fontané, the importance of draining it well "so that there is no water left, squeezing it with both hands" is also highlighted, and then they place it on a soup plate, point now to receive the rest of the ingredients. “If we don't do it this way, it will release water,” Rodríguez warns us, who, once the dish is finished, serves it a little cold, “but not too iced so that it doesn't lose flavor.” Ricard Perelló advises us to serve it straight out of the refrigerator. And if we have leftovers, “we can keep them in the refrigerator without a problem, but not freeze them because the cod will lose texture,” says the chef at the Windsor.
According to the recipe that appears in the Corpus de la cuina catalana, the most complete recipe book of Catalan cuisine, to make the esqueixada we need: 500 grams of crumbled and desalted cod, 4 sliced ripe tomatoes, black olives, oil, salt and pepper. Allows variations by adding hard-boiled egg, green or red peppers, sweet or tender onion and even chopped garlic. In reality, onion is always usually present in esqueixada. Joan Roca's mother uses it (cleaned, peeled and cut), David Rodríguez chooses it sweet from Figueras, so that it is not too strong and takes away the prominence of the cod, and Ricard Perelló cuts it into julienne and leaves it for 30 minutes two hours marinating in vinegar and salt to reduce its intensity.
The chef from Windsor likes his tomato natural, very ripe and firm, Rosa de Barbastro type, for example. He adds it grated, “although it can also be cut in rounds, diced or quartered.” “It has to be juicy, like dipping bread,” describes Perelló, who also prefers it grated. “You can make the esqueixada even with the small cherry blossoms and it turns out very pretty. Even pickling green tomatoes,” explains the cod expert.
Joan Roca likes fleshy, sweet, pear tomatoes (she cuts them into small pieces) and young shallot-type onions. “The diversity of nuances in the ingredients and seasonings means that there are many different esqueixadas made with the same products,” says the chef from Girona. In his recipe, 2 onions, 2 very ripe tomatoes, black olives, salt and olive oil are added to half a kilo of cod.
“Since the esqueixada has cod as the protagonist, you just have to add a little point at the end,” says Ricard Perelló. Joan Roca also dresses the salad with a pinch of salt, which can be “coarse salt, if you feel like it.”
It is important to choose well the oil that we are going to add (you add a good splash) as our experts prefer extra virgin olive oil. Arbequina or Picual, for example. “A few drops of good white wine or cava vinegar do not detract from the dish at all, but just a few drops,” points out the chef at Celler de Can Roca.
Perelló and Rodríguez finish it with a touch of pepper to enhance the aromas of a most refreshing and tasty dish for summer time. “In addition, visually it is beautiful,” says Perelló. We must not forget the main advice so that it remains perfect: “Quality will always be determined by the quality of the products we use,” concludes Joan Roca.
If we add beans to the crumbled and desalted cod we will have an empedrat, not an esqueixada. According to Corpus Christi, it also has hard-boiled egg, tomato, onion and pitted black olives, although you can also add tuna and pepper.
And if we add escarole, anchovy and tuna fillets with olive oil (or soaked salted tuna) and a handful of various olives to that same cod, a xató.
On Perelló's website you can find various appetizing recipes. I highlight one from Juan Tort (La Deliciosa restaurant) that turns the esqueixada into a succulent snack with which to surprise your guests: They make a tomato stock with blanched tomatoes for two minutes, which are placed in a container with water and ice to break the cooking. They are crushed and oil, sherry vinegar, pepper powder, parsley, salt and sugar are added to remove the acidity. The result is placed as a base of cod cut into cubes, which we will drizzle with olive oil.
Finally, David Rodríguez, from Windsor, gives us a good idea to avoid wasting the remains of an esqueixada: “Make an omelet with everything left over, it is delicious.”
