Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups of desalted and shredded codfish
2 cups of water and maybe some more for batter thickness adjustment
3 minced garlic cloves
2 tablespoons of diced red bell peppers
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/8 teaspoon of white ground pepper
1 teaspoon of onion powder (optional)
Salt to taste
Desalting the codfish:
If you purchase salted codfish in a bag there will usually be instructions on how to proceed to desalt the fish. I recommend following the bag instructions, however I will give you my way of doing it too. I put the fish under fresh running water while rubbing it and massaging it for a few minutes to release some salt. I then place it in a saucepan with enough water to cover it and have about an inch of water over the fish. I heat and let it boil for about five minutes and then change the water and repeat the process. I do save the water to possibly be used in the recipe preparation, however the water resulting from the first boil will be very salty. I usually combine the water resulting from the first boil with the water from the second boil and/or fresh water at different rates in order to achieve the desired saltiness level. Usually the codfish will be properly desalted after the second boil but in some cases a third boil may be needed.
Here a leave you a few photos of how our bacalaitos turned out after we adjusted the batter with some more water as I said in the video. Our bacalaitos came out of about 4 inches diameter and we did about 15 of them with the batter shown in the video.
