BACALHAU – CUISINE OF NAVIGATION
Cyro Baptista // Bacalhau
Recipe
Ingredients (serves 20 people):
Dry salt cod — 8 lb (bone-in and remove later)
Potatoes —12 -14 medium potatoes (about 6 lb)
Onion — 7 large onions (about 4 lb)
Garlic — 10 cloves
Olive oil — 3-4 cups (very generous use)
Use good Portuguese olive oil generously - it is what carries everything together.
Parsley — 2 bunches
Black pepper to taste
Olives - 2-3 cups (black or green, preferably good quality)
Boiled Eggs - 24 eggs (2 dozen)
Parsley - 2 large bunches (chopped for finishing)
Bacalhau is a Portuguese dish made with salted cod. Its history traces back to long sea journeys - cod caught in Norway, preserved in salt so it could travel across oceans to Portugal. Cyro’s version comes from Nana Vasconcelos - his teacher, his friend, his mentor - who would cook it during tours, or at home. This time, it is prepared by Cyro’s wife, Eleonora, carrying that lineage forward.
Cyro and Eleonora on their wedding day, pictured here alongside Nana Vasconcelos (right) and Sergio Brandão (left).
The process begins the night before. Salted cod is soaked in water, slowly releasing its salt. The next day, onions are sliced into thick rounds, cutting across the grain. Boiled eggs are sliced to match. Potatoes, cooked in the soaking liquid of the cod, are cut to the same thickness. The cod itself is briefly poached, flaked, and carefully deboned. Then, everything is layered in a pot: onions, potatoes, cod, eggs, olives - each layer finished with generous amounts of Portuguese olive oil. Layer upon layer, until the pot is full. It is then placed over low heat, and left to cook - slowly - for two to three hours.
As it cooks, the salt of the cod seeps into the potatoes, the eggs, the onions. The dish becomes one. What matters most is the quality of the olive oil - and the olives themselves.It is served with white garlic rice.
Cyro remembers sharing this meal with Nana - drinking, laughing, complaining, talking shit, telling stories both foolish and profound. Conversations drifting from gossip to life, to music.
As it cooked, the kitchen filled with the scent of the Brazilian sea. A smell that, somehow, reminded me of the fishing village near the beach house where I grew up in Japan.
And when it was ready - the stew revealed itself: eggs and potatoes wrapped in the silky collagen of cod - a dish of quiet, profound richness. A glass is raised, gently - to Nana.
And then, something more reveals itself.
The next day, it is even better. Reheated, the flavors deepen. Or served cold as a salad - it is just as beautiful.
Cyro carries light - a brightness, a playfulness, laughter, music that every musician dreams to play with.
And beside him, holding all of it - is Eleonora. Add to his light her gravity, her force, her presence - and you begin to see the whole. She is his navigator, his anchor - the force that holds it all together.
In the kitchen, she did not only teach me how to make bacalhau. She showed me something else - what it means to be an artist who supports artists, with confidence, with individuality, with independence. It is something I will carry with me, always.
-Yurie Ito
Left: Cyro Baptista and Fay Victor discussing the Bacalhau recipe. Right: The Bloodlines Interwoven artists at Loghaven.
Eleonora going deeper into the bacalhau, in conversation with Marika Hughes and Sunny Jain.
