Cod Ranero Club

Today Virginia, author of Sweet&Sour , brings us a classic and totally Bilbao recipe. Club Ranero cod, along with Vizcaína-style cod and of course pil-pil cod, are one of the best-known dishes of Bilbao cuisine.

Cod Club Ranero is nothing more than cod pil-pil to which a fried mixture of pepper, onion and tomato with choricero pepper has been added.

Its origin dates back to the beginning of the 20th century on a summer morning in 1910. According to the Marchioness of Parabere, it was in the traditional Sociedad Bilbaína, and according to others, it was in the Txakoli Tablas de Indautuxu, also known as the headquarters of the Ranero Club due to its members' fondness for the game of frogs.

In any case, the creator of the Club Ranero codfish is clearly on both sides, the chef of the Sociedad Bilbaína Alejandro Caveriviere , of French origin, but a Bilbao native at heart (you know that people from Bilbao are born wherever they want). And the occasion, some friends around a table.

The story goes that, while some partners were playing frog and had prepared a good cod pil-pil to eat, other partners showed up. Their cook Alejandro Caveriviere had nothing else prepared, so he had to stretch the food . And he had no other idea than to stretch the pil-pil with the products he had available, adding a kind of fried peppers, tomatoes and onions, finally bound with choricero pepper meat.

The result was so popular that it was apparently given the name Club Ranero codfish at that time . Some say that it was simply Alejandro Caveriviere's imagination that created this exquisite recipe.

Fleur de Ligne salad bowl , Le Crueset Damascus steel knife , Bérard wooden board and Le Creuset low saucepan-style cocotte

Its secret is none other than a good cod and a good extra virgin olive oil, combined with a good technique to bind the gelatin that the cod gives off. Below I will tell you how to do it so that it turns out great.

Let's go with the recipe!

INGREDIENTS

(for 4 people)

• 4 desalted cod loins, approximately 200g each
• Extra virgin olive oil (I like it intense, but nowadays a fruitier Arbequina is preferred)
• 3 heads of garlic, sliced ​​and germ removed/litre (approx.)
• 2 chillies

For the Ranero Club fritada

• 3 onions
• 2 green peppers
• 3 tomatoes, peeled and seeded, without their vegetal water
• 5 chorizo ​​peppers (their meat)
• Extra virgin olive oil

PREPARATION

1. We start by desalting the cod if we have not bought it desalted. To do this, we wash the cod slices well to remove excess salt and put them to desalt in cold water in the refrigerator . It should be left for 24-48 hours, changing the water every 6 hours. To know if it is at its best, neither too salty nor too bland, just keep tasting.
2. Once our cod is ready, we remove the bones with the help of fish tweezers , dry it well and set aside.
3. We prepare the Club Ranero fritada : We put the choricero peppers in hot water for about 20 minutes so that they soften. After this time, we take them out and remove the meat. We set them aside. (This step will not be necessary if you use the meat of the choricero pepper directly).
4. Peel the tomatoes, remove the seeds and drain the cooking water. Cut them into small squares. Dice the onion and peppers.
5. Place a large frying pan with two tablespoons of olive oil and sauté the vegetables over a medium-low heat . First add the onion, then the pepper and finally the tomato, in order of hardness. Once the vegetables are sautéed, add the meat of the choricero pepper and mix well. Set aside.
6. Let's prepare the pil-pil. We flavour the oil: we put a low, wide saucepan (in my case, the Le Creuset cocotte ), with the oil that we are going to use and we confit the garlic and the chilli over a medium-low heat , without boiling. They will be done when they come to the surface. We remove the garlic and the chilli and set aside. We now have our flavoured oil.
7. From here, we can cook the cod and prepare the pil-pil at the same time or cook the cod and then bind the pil-pil.
8. If we bind the pil pil at the same time as we cook the cod, we only have to place the cod fillets with the skin facing up and gradually add this oil, moving the pan in a rotating motion, so that the cod releases its gelatin and this gradually binds. The cod will release a kind of white pearls. These pearls are the gelatin that will emulsify with the oil and give it that mayonnaise-like texture.
9. Very important, THE OIL SHOULD NOT BE VERY HOT, BUT RATHER TENDING TO LUKE, AND IT SHOULD NEVER BOIL. To prevent the oil from boiling during this process, add the oil to the cocotte at the appropriate temperature and begin to mix it over medium heat. When you see that the oil is heating up, remove the cocotte from the heat and continue mixing away from the heat .
10. We keep repeating the process of adding and mixing oil until we have used up all the oil and have obtained that yellow mayonnaise-like cream.

Green Cosmos plates by Tokyo Design Studio

1. If we choose to cook the cod first and then bind the pil-pil: Place the dry cod fillets inside our low "Le Creuset" cocotte , skin side up. Cover with the flavoured oil and allow the cod fillets to confit without letting the oil boil (about 80ºC). They will be cooked when you can almost penetrate the skin when you press your finger on it.
2. Be careful that the cod will continue to cook with the residual heat . Transfer the cod fillets to a bowl to release their water, oil and gelatin.
3. We then put our cocotte with the liquid released by the confit cod and a little flavoured oil and we mix the pil-pil, either with circular movements or by introducing the mesh of a strainer and moving it with rotary movements. We gradually add hot oil at medium temperature and continue mixing until we obtain a mayonnaise-like cream. Once ready, we set aside.
4. We put the cod fillets in the cocotte and cover the slices with the pil-pi l so that the sauce penetrates between the slices and makes it juicy. We leave it for a few minutes on a medium-low heat so that the core of the fillets cools down.
5. To assemble the Club Ranero cod: Place a slice of cod on a hot plate, cover with the pil-pil sauce and add a few spoonfuls of the hot fried fish previously drained of oil. I prefer to serve it this way and let the diner mix the pil-pil sauce with the fried fish.
6. But you can also mix part of the pil-pil with the oil-drained fritada in a frying pan beforehand and serve with the mixture already combined. However you like it.

A good txakoli and good sourdough bread and enjoy this delicious unique Club Ranero cod dish !

Tips

- Always cook the cod fillets with the skin facing up, so that the cod does not shrink or become deformed.

- If the pil-pil curdles while we are mixing it, we add a few drops of water.

Virginia