Basque Codfish: Bacalao a la Vizcaina

"Bacalao a la Vizcaina" is a dish from the northern Basque region of Spain, especially the area bordering on the Bay of Biscay, known as Vizcaya, with Balboa being the provincial capital and the major city. The Basques are a people "thought" to have inhabited parts of western Europe prior to the arrival of Indo European speakers. Their language is not Indo European, and attempts to connect it to other non Indo European languages have left many questions, although it "appears" to be a part of "Vasconic," an ancient language family that was eventually replaced, with a few exceptions, by Indo European speakers. The origin of the Basques and their language is a highly controversial subject, but "apparently" the Basques are a pretty unique people among the modern peoples of the world, and they can "bask" in their uniqueness ... hm, okay, so that wasn't such a good one. The Basques inhabit part of northern Spain and part of southern France, both in the general area of the Pyrenees Mountains. Quite a number of Basques emigrated to America, primarily in the mid 1800s.

While "Bacalao a la Vizcaina" is from the Basque region of Spain, it is known and served in many other parts of Spain. Traditionally in much of Spain, and certainly in the Basque region, the red peppers used are "choricero peppers" (Spainish: "Pimiento choricero"), which are mild. I like the peppers roasted, and you can certainly buy roasted red peppers in a jar. Further, salt cod (bacalao) is used in Spain, and it has to be soaked for a day or two in advance, with several changes of water, but you can use fresh or thawed cod fillets. As with just about all popular recipes, there are variations in recipes for "Bacalao a la Vizcaina," including in how the cod should be cut and cooked. Some people fix the fish in oil, as I have done here, but others simmer the fish in water, with some also then using some of the cooking liquid to prepare the recipe. Some cut the fish into small pieces, some flake the fish, some cut larger pieces of cod, as I have done. There are a number of other variations too, and some of Spain's former colonies have recipes for this dish with their own variations.    

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds cod
1 1/2 cups of sliced onion
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2/3 cup roasted sweet red pepper, chopped
3/4 cup chopped tomatoes (I use grape tomatoes, halved) 
5 tablespoons (3 regular olive oil & 2 extra virgin olive oil, use more oil if needed)
1/4 cup halved pimento stuffed olives
parsley for garnish
a pinch to 1/2 teaspoon salt, to taste

Heat the oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add the cod pieces and cook for about 3 minutes per side, then carefully remove the fish to a separate plate (it will cook more in a little while). Add the onion to the same skillet and saute for 3 to 4 minutes, then add the garlic and saute for a further two minutes. Add the red pepper and the tomatoes, stirring well to mix (if you feel you need more olive oil, add it now). Stir in the olive halves and then add the cod back to the skillet (with any juices that may have accumulated on the plate) and sprinkle some salt over the top. Its good if you cover the skillet with a lid or foil to reheat and finish cooking the fish (you'll want to check thick pieces of cod to be sure they are cooked through). Add some chopped parsley to each serving for a garnish.

WORD HISTORY:
Skipper-While English has more than one word of this spelling, this is the most common of those words, with the noun meaning, "a ship's master." "Skipper" is closely related to "ship," as it is actually derived from that word. The ultimate origin of "ship" is unknown, although some tie it to an Indo European source, "skei(b)," that meant "cut, rip," and then Old Germanic used it with the idea being of a ship "cutting through the water, ripping up the water," or of, "cutting or ripping out logs to make floating vessels." The idea of a "water going vessel" does seem to come from Old Germanic, which had "skipam" or "skipan," with that meaning, "water going vessel." This then helped produce Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "scip," with the same meaning. This then became "ship," and was expanded to "shipper" (1300s?), but in the sense, "a ship's master," but also, "a sailor." About 1400 English took on "skipper" from its Dutch relative, which had "scipper," with that same "ship's master" meaning. Interestingly, the harder sounding "skipper" won out over "shipper," although "shipper" redeveloped in a different sense. The verb form of "skipper," meaning, "to command a ship," simply came from the noun. In the 1300s German too developed a form of the word as "Schiffer" (owner of a ship," then broadened to "ship's commander") and Low German in that same era had "schipper" ("master of a ship") and Dutch has the modern form "schipper" (ship's master, sailor). It's important to remember, the form "shipper" in English and its cousins in the other Germanic languages are a natural progression of the noun forms and the verb forms, with the addition of "er," a common Germanic ending which shows, "one who does a particular action;" thus, "shipper," "one who operates a ship," but also, "a person or company that sends goods by ship" (initially by ship, but later broadened to include any kind of transport).