Today, even though we are in England, we kept up a tradition from Big Man’s family in Andalucia and made Parpuchas. Light, fluffy fritters of salt cod, parsley and garlic. Traditionally served (as we did) with a drizzle or a dunk of Miel de Caña (Molasses). It sounds odd but I promise you, the combination of sweet and salty really does work. If you don’t have access to salt cod (which you’ll have to desalt) this works well with any other firm raw fish.
I will post the recipe below, but if you’d like to read the original post from a couple of years back and to see some of the traditions of Holy Week in Spain, do check out the original.
Ingredients
- 200g (desalted) salt cod, shredded into small flakes
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 cup of milk
- 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
- 1 cup of flour (approx)
- 2 large tablespoons of finely chopped parsley
- 1 finely chopped or crushed clove of garlic
- Salt to taste if you are not using salt cod
- Oil for deep frying
Add the milk, bicarbonate, parsley, garlic and fish to the beaten eggs and then gradually add the flour until you have a thick batter. It needs to be about the texture of thick lumpy custard (not that any of you, I am sure, have ever made lumpy custard!).
Heat the oil until a cube of stale bread turns brown quickly when dropped in and then drop spoonfuls of batter into the oil. I used a tablespoon and it gave me rather large parpuchas – I´d recommend using about half a tablespoon full as they will puff up slightly. When they are brown on the bottom (and they will float to the top), flip them over and cook on the other side. They will not be in the oil for long.
Remove with a slotted spoon, drain and sit them on kitchen paper for a few moments and serve hot, drizzled with Miel de Caña (to be typical) but also good with lemon, alioli or tartare sauce. If you make too many, they are still very tasty cold as they retain their texture.
All that remains for me to say before we move into the rest of the Easter weekend is a very Happy and Peaceful Easter, or Happy Passover if that is what you celebrate, or a Happy Few Days with your loved ones. Watch out for those chocolate bunnies…..
Chica Andaluza 
They look just as good the second time around. I love the little branches poking out from the parpuchas. I could eat a lot of those with allioli. Happy Easter 🙂
I think they got branches because we were hungry and I was slinging them in quickly to very hot oil and the drips cooked as soon as they hit the pan! The ones that snapped off when they were done were gobbled up by us and the dogs got a few as a treat 😉 Happy Easter!
I can’t help thinking that they might be cousins to tempura…
Well, the Japanese do love Spanish food (they send chefs to learn to cut Jamon) so there may well be 😉
Portuguese and maybe Spanish missionaries/traders took tempura to Japan and the Japanese adopted it, using it for vegetables as well as fish. Tempura comes from the Latin tempora – time period, used to refer to Lenten days, where meat wasn’t eaten. 😉
I love that you know all this stuff – will have to tell my mum this, she loves a good bit of food info!
Thanks Tanya. i think cod in batter probably has the same origin too. It was supposed to have been brought to Britain by Jews fleeing persecution in Spain and Portugal.
So we have more to thank Spain and Portugal for than Sunny Beaches and Sangria!
Yes, our very own food culture!
A lovely share for Easter Ms Chica. It’s Saturday here and Stevie-boy ended up having vegetable soup in lieu of fish but damned good soup it was. Have a lovely easter with your gorgeous big man and here’s to tradition 🙂
Of course, you’re ahead of us! Veggies tonight for us I think….although no longer quite such a good Catholic girl, old habits die hard J Have a great weekend Ms Narf x
I am not Catholic at all but by default, I didn’t eat meat on Good Friday 😉
That was lucky!
Yeah, I didn’t have to self-flagellate or anything! 😉
That sounds wonderful…I love salt cod. I remember, back in the 80’s, we used to go to a Portuguese restaurant in a basement just off the Kings Rd…in Markham Sq I think. Nice memories…I must try this recipe.
The Portuguese are the experts with Salt Cod J
Oooh, these look tasty! Happy Easter, Tanya 🙂
Same to you Jo!
Delicious! We had fish and chips today and ate them on the beach – our nod to the Good Friday fish tradition! 🙂
I like your style!
They look scrummy! Xxx
They were – and a lovely reminder of Spain!
That looks very good. The Management and I compromised by buying fish and chips in Bewdley today. They excelled at Merchants but I am sure that your code as better.
Damon auto correct. That should read that your Cod was better.
I liked code – sounded like we were in a secret gang!
Fish & chips – love it, and Big Man thinks it’s a great British Institution!
It is!😀👏
You sure know how make fish interesting:) Love the flavors with cod – and the cool trick to check oil temperature by dropping in a piece of bread!
Thanks Peri – these cook so quickly, it’s good to get the oil good and hot!
What fun learning Mad!! Had no idea the journey Portuguese cooking had taken to be my favourite Japanese tempura!! Well, I do shy away from anything deepfried, but this looks jumbunctious 🙂 !! Happy Easter break to all!!
Jumbunctious – what a marvellous word! Deep frying is only an occasional treat here, but we’re lucky to be able to fry in olive oil, so it takes a teeny tiny bit of the guilt away. I also always make sure to have a fire extinguisher in my house just in case….
We get a local salted fish so next time I see it I will try your recipe. Happy Easter 🙂
Hope you enjoy it!
I like cod fritters but have never had them with molasses…I love learning about traditions from other countries.
We’ve all got similar but different ways of cooking and eating!
Ooo, lovely! Happy Easter Tanya.
🙂 Mandy xo
To you too Mandy – hope you and Pete are together!
look so nice,….
Thank you so much!
I favour the fish finger sandwich, on white bread with tartare sauce – yum, yum
Highly recommended!!!
I love salt cod croquetas but your recipe is easier than the Moro one I usually use for those, fritters being a bit more straightforward than croquettes! In Andalucía I used to have some very tasty berejena con miel de caña, which I agree is really delicious drizzled on a deep-fried fritter, salt cod or aubergine.
I’ve got the Moro one too! I agree that the croquets made with béchamel are a bit more complicated…you have to get the texture of the sauce just right or they won’t hold together L I do love them though and now you’ve reminded me to make some!
Your site is so yummy! I often check into your site for ideas when I don’t know what to make to eat. So today we are going to make fritters. I’ve made them before, I like them with corn and peas and garlic and onions. I’ve never tried them with miel de caña, going to today!
Ah this was a lovely message to receive – it’s lovely to think of folk like you sharing a little bit of what we love here!
Reblogged this on Foodfhonebook.
a great recipe to try
The recipes were delicious. hopefully it feels the same as in the recipe .