Pataniscas de Bacalhau com Arroz de Feijão

Ingredients

• 400 g salt cod (bacalhau)
• 2 eggs
• 120 g plain flour
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 150 ml milk
• 1 small onion
• 3 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 500 ml sunflower oil, for frying
• 200 g carolino or other short-grain rice
• 1 x 400 g tin red kidney or butter beans, with their liquid
• 1 onion, for the rice
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 2 ripe tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 800 ml hot water
• Salt and black pepper, to taste

Before you cook

• Soak the salt cod in cold water in the fridge for twenty-four hours, changing the water four times.
• Drain the cod, pull off the skin, pick out the bones, and shred the flesh into small flakes.
• Separate the eggs into two clean bowls.
• Chop the small onion very finely, and chop the larger onion, the garlic and the parsley.
• Grate the tomatoes on the coarse side of a box grater and throw away the skins left in your hand.

Steps

1. Warm the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add the chopped onion and garlic for the rice and cook them for five minutes, until soft and translucent but not coloured.
3. Stir in the bay leaf, the tomato purée and the grated tomato, and cook for three minutes until the mixture darkens.
4. Add the rice and stir for one minute so every grain is coated.
5. Pour in the hot water, season with salt, and bring it to a boil.
6. Turn the heat down and simmer, uncovered, for twelve minutes.
7. Tip in the beans along with their liquid and stir them through gently.
8. Cook for five minutes more, until the rice is tender and the pot is loose and soupy rather than dry.
9. Take the rice off the heat and cover it while you fry the pataniscas.
10. Whisk the egg yolks with the milk in a large bowl.
11. Sift in the flour and cornflour and whisk to a thick, smooth batter.
12. Stir the flaked cod, the finely chopped onion and the parsley into the batter, and grind in plenty of black pepper.
13. Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks in a clean bowl.
14. Fold the whites into the cod batter in two additions, keeping as much air in as you can.
15. Heat the sunflower oil in a deep frying pan to 180C.
16. Drop in a spoonful of batter and spread it out with the back of the spoon into a ragged disc about 10 cm across.
17. Fry two or three pataniscas at a time for two minutes, until the underside is golden and lacy.
18. Turn them over and fry the second side for another ninety seconds.
19. Drain them on kitchen paper and season them with a pinch of salt.
20. Serve the pataniscas straight away with a ladleful of the soupy bean rice beside them.