Expert: Leo Salazar - 4/18/2003

Question
Hi!
    A friend of mine recently showed me how to make my first caribbean dish. Wow ! Real food ! It was boiled green banana, sweet potato, and cassava, topped with a mix of salt cod, green and red pepper, onion, ginger and garlic.
    I have a new friend : ) who's Jamaican. I would love to cook this for him.
    Here's my questions:
    1) I'd love to know whatever first comes to mind to you about what is important in this dish.
    2) Is it important which method you use to get the salt out of the cod? My friend boiled and rinsed it twice, but soaking seems to be the recommended method.
    3) The way I would normally cook onions and bell peppers would be to saute the onions first then add the peppers.  He just put it all in a pot together. Do you think this makes any difference? What is the traditional way to cook a dish like this?
    4) Does this stuff have a name?
Thanks so much - peace - Allegra  

Answer
Hello Allegra,

The "Arenque guisado" or literally translated "Stewed Cod" is great, I enjoy it everytime as much as you did !

It's typically offered as supper and perhaps 15 to 20 years ago labeled a poor mans dish due to how cheap it was to buy norwegian salt cod back then, possibly 10 or 15 cents a pound.

Times certainly have changed !

I will answer your questions in the same order you made them:

1) Most important: De-salt the cod thouroughly.
2) The way your friend did it is the same way as I do and is also the typical way. The spin is you soak it in fresh water ovenight and then do the boil and rinse routine.
3) Cooking the onions first and then the peppers is just fine, do it your way. What varies if you do it all at once is that you loose the consistency of the ingreadients. Saute each one to obtain the consistency you like.
4) As mentioned as my greeting to you, the dish's name is "Arenque guisado", arenque meaning cod and guisado stewed.

Phonics:
Arenque = arenke

By the way, you can use the same recipie for salt bacala too just add some potatoes to it.

Enjoy and peace to you too !

Regards

Leo