Salt cod stuffed piquillo peppers

5 from 5 votes

A comforting, flavorful mix makes for some tasty tapas!

Prep Time15

Cook Time15

Total Time30

Course: Tapas/Mezze

Cuisine: Spanish

Servings: +

Calories: 252kcal

Author: Caroline's Cooking

Place the salt cod in a container with water, refrigerate and leave to soak for at least 24 hours (48 better), changing the water 3 times a day.

Preheat oven to 400F/200C.
Roughly chop the potatoes and put in a pan with enough water to cover plus a bit more. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to gentle boil. Boil until tender (5-10 minutes depending on size of pieces and type of potatoes), then drain, peel and mash the potatoes (You can peel before cooking but I find they come off pretty easily after).
Put the milk in a small pan with the bay leaf. Warm through without boiling. Remove the salt cod from the soaking water and add to the milk. Cook for around 5 minutes until the fish is tender and will flake easily.
Remove the fish from the milk and remove any skin/sinew and bones. Flake the fish into small pieces (do while still warm to work best). Then add to the mashed potatoes along with the garlic, olive oil and a little salt and pepper. Mix all together well. Add a little of the poaching milk if it's a bit too firm.
Using a small-medium spoon or just your fingers, carefully fill the peppers and put in a roasting dish. Drizzle over a little more oil.
Bake for approx 10 minutes until warmed through and the filling is just starting to brown.

Note - nutritional data skewed as does not account for amount of salt removed through soaking which is difficult to calculate.

If you need piquillo peppers you can try these: Delallo Grilled Piquillo Pepper or these Spanish ones: Matiz Navarro Organic Piquillo Peppers. You can also buy salt cod via Amazon (I can't vouch for the quality of this since I get at my local fishmonger, but it appears to have good reviews): Bacalao Salted Cod, without Bone.