Romeu's Codfish
This codfish recipe dates back to 1874, when Clemente Menéres – a great 19th-century entrepreneur – visited Romeu, in Mirandela, looking to create a farm house there, which is now a house museum.
In his 1915 book ‘40 anos de Trás-os-Montes’, Clemente Menéres recounts arriving in Romeu on May 19th, 1874 at around 4pm. Right then, he looked for an inn and found the probably only one in the area. Ms Maria Rita’s inn had nothing ready to be eaten, so Clemente Menéres asked to roast some cod served with brown bread for the very first time.
Cut the codfish loin into 100g (3oz) fillets and soak them in many bowls of water for 24 hours. Cook the potatoes cut into quarters.
Heat a pot with 1dl (0.1pt) of olive oil and a finely ground onion. Let it sear and season with paprika, salt, and pepper.
Roll the codfish fillets in flour and eggs, fry them in olive oil, and place them in the pot with the lid on and let it simmer. Then, add the potatoes after also rolling them in the egg and frying them.
Serve the potatoes around the codfish on a deep platter and pour the sauce left in the pot over it.
Reader’s Digest. (1984). Tesouros da Cozinha Tradicional Portuguesa. Oporto, p.96
Neves, J. de O. (2005). Quem foi Clemente Meneres? Accessed on March 17th, 2020 at Artigos do jornal João Semana