Stewed bell peppers and baked apples under a bacalao cover

Ingredients

For 4 persons

For the bacalao you will need:

  • 2 loins of best-quality bacalao, 250 grs each
  • mixed ground peppers: black, white,
    dry green, rose and Jamaica

For the stewed bell peppers and onion you will need:

  • 2 red bell peppers
  • 2 green bell peppers
  • 2 small red onions
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • cider vinegar

For the baked apples you will need:

  • 2 apples (Golden Rose)
  • sugar
  • salt
  • butter

For the garlic and red chili sauce you will need:

  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 3 rounds dried red chili
  • 50 ml olive oil
  • 50 grs green bell peppers, minced
  • 100 grs potato, roughly chopped
  • 300 ml fish stock
  • 5 drops tabasco sauce
  • salt and pepper

In addition you will need:

  • strips of crispy bacalao skin
  • rucula leaves

Preparation

The bacalao:

Pat the loins of bacalao dry with kitchen paper and wrap them up tightly in cling film. Freeze for at least 2 hours.
Slightly defrost the loins before use, just so that they do not fall apart when cut, then slice thinly with the cold meat cutter.
Arrange the slices, slightly overlapping, on two vegetable parchment sheets, 6 to 7 on each. Set aside in the cold storage room/refrigerator.

The escalibada of peppers and onion:

Brush the peppers with a little olive oil, add some salt and wrap each in aluminium foil. Treat the onions in the same way, having previously peeled them. Put the packages on a baking sheet and in the oven for an hour and a half  (1 1/2 hours) at 180°C, turning them once, half-way through the cooking time. Remove from the oven and let cool. Remove the skins and seeds from the peppers and cut them into strips, approximately 1 to 2 cm wide. Pluck the onions apart using your fingers. Put both vegetables in a bowl and dress them with the cider vinegar, olive oil and salt. Set aside.

The baked apples:

Cut each apple into  8 segments and arrange them on vegetable parchment paper. Dust with some sugar and a little salt, dot with butter and bake in the oven for 10 minutes at 180°C. Remove and set aside.

The garlic and red chili sauce:

Sauté the peppers in a tablespoonful of olive oil without letting them take colour. Add the peeled, diced potato, stir a few times so that it becomes saturated with the oil and moisten with the fish stock. Heat to boiling point and add the thinly sliced garlic and the red chili rounds sautéed in the  50 ml olive oil, drained prior to adding to the preparation. Cook over a low fire until the potato is soft. Mash in the blender and whisk for a smooth sauce. Salt to taste, add the Tabasco sauce and set aside.

Finishing touches and presentation

Place 4 dressed apple segments on a serving dish, put a few spoonfuls of the stew on top and cover with the slices of bacalao. Heat the slices of bacalao and cook them lightly with the help of a kitchen blowtorch. Dust with the mixed peppers from the mill, the salt flakes and drizzle over a few drops of extra virgin olive oil. Put the sauce on top or to one side and finish with rucola leaves and the bacalao skin crisps.