Bacalhau com Grão (Cod and Chickpea Salad)

Ingredients

• 400 g salt cod, soaked for 24 hours and drained
• 3 egg
• 480 g chickpeas, cooked and drained
• 1 red onion, halved and very thinly sliced
• 3 garlic, minced
• 6 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 80 g black olives
• 3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
• ½ tsp black pepper
• salt to taste

Method

1. 1.

   Desalt and poach the cod — Soak the salt cod in cold water in the fridge for 24 hours, changing the water three times. Bring a pan of unsalted water to a bare simmer, slide the cod in, take the pan off the heat and leave it for 8 minutes, until the flesh flakes at a fork but is still juicy.

2. 2.

   Hard-boil the eggs — Meanwhile lower the eggs into boiling water and cook for 9 minutes, then cool them under cold running water, peel and cut into quarters.

3. 3.

   Flake the cod over chickpeas — Lift the cod out while it is still warm and flake it into a wide bowl with your fingers, pulling out the skin and every bone as you go. Add the drained chickpeas.

4. 4.

   Dress it while warm — Whisk the olive oil, vinegar, garlic and black pepper together and pour it over the warm cod and chickpeas. Toss gently and thoroughly — warm cod drinks the dressing in a way cold cod never will, which is the whole point of doing it now.

5. 5.

   Add the onion and rest — Fold in the sliced red onion, the olives and two thirds of the parsley, then leave the salad to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes so the onion softens into it. Taste and add salt only now — salt cod carries plenty of its own.

6. 6.

   Box it up for later — Pack the salad into lunch boxes with the egg quarters on top and the last of the parsley scattered over. It keeps three days in the fridge and tastes better on the second, eaten cold or at room temperature.