Lidl Cod?? Crispy Salt Cod Fritters (Bacalhau) Recipe!

🇵🇹 Crispy Portuguese Salt Cod (Bacalhau) Fritters | Lidl Salt Cod Recipe | Easy Appetiser Snack 🐟✨

These Golden Crunch Bacalhau Fritters are a Portuguese classic — light and fluffy on the inside, beautifully crisp on the outside, and absolutely packed with flavour. If you’ve ever wanted to make authentic Portuguese salt cod fritters (also known as Bolinhos de Bacalhau or Pasteis de Bacalhau) at home, this is the perfect easy recipe. And the best bit? I’ve made this using Lidl salt cod, which makes it accessible and affordable!

Perfect as a starter, party snack, appetizer, or part of a Portuguese-inspired feast, these homemade cod fritters are an absolute crowd-pleaser. Best little fish cakes ever🥔🐟🍋

📝 FULL RECIPE METHOD

I start by placing cut and peeled potatoes (500g) into a pan of water on a rolling boil — no need to salt the water here. Boil for around 8 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through but not falling apart. Remove and set aside.

To the same pan, turn down the heat and add your salt cod (bacalhau). I used the Lidl salt cod, which comes with skin on and bones in (550g with bones gives just over 500g once cleaned — the same weight as the potatoes for perfect balance). Lidl sometimes also sells it skinless and boneless during Spanish Week in the freezer aisle 🇪🇸.

Simmer the salt cod gently for 8–10 minutes, then remove and allow it to cool. Once cooled, remove the skin and bones, leaving behind beautiful flakes of fish.

In a food processor, combine the salt cod flakes with:
2 small diced shallots (or ½ onion)
2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
½ tbsp olive oil

Pulse until it forms a paste, adding a touch more olive oil if needed.

Mash your potatoes with a fork (a few small chunks are fine — it adds texture), then add:
1 beaten egg 🥚
½ a handful of chopped parsley 🌿
The salt cod paste
Mix until fully combined.

Shape the fritters however you like — I demonstrated how to make a quenelle, but you can also shape them into balls, patties, or rustic fritters. This mix makes around 25 fritters, depending on size.

Fry in a deep fat fryer at 180°C / 356°F for 2–3 minutes or until beautifully golden brown. I used vegetable oil, but you can use any neutral oil. If you don’t have a deep fat fryer, a heavy-bottomed pan works just fine.

Serve them piled high on a platter with garlic mayo, lemon wedges, and a sprinkle of parsley. These crispy salt cod fritters are light, airy, and unbelievably moreish 😍.

🇵🇹 A Little About Bacalhau

Bacalhau is salted and dried cod, a staple in Portuguese cuisine with hundreds of traditional recipes built around it. These fritters are one of the most popular ways to serve it — they’re found in homes, restaurants, and bakeries all over Portugal. The flavour is deeply savoury (or should I say salty 😉), with a delicate flaky texture that works perfectly with fluffy potato.

🧊 Make Ahead Tips

You can make the fritter mix ahead of time, either as a mixture or already shaped, and keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to fry. It’s a brilliant get-ahead recipe for entertaining, parties, or family gatherings.

For an even saltier, more traditional flavour, try poaching the salt cod first, then cooking the potatoes in the same water afterwards — the opposite of my method. This infuses the potatoes with extra bacalhau flavour for those who love that salty hit.

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👉 For more starters, sides, and snacks, check out my playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLquZjM-v5nyBTFInSTVW3oQpQkHPfMAi4

#SaltCod #Bacalhau #lidl #PortugueseRecipes #CodFritters #SaltCodFritters #PortugueseFood #Appetisers #SnackIdeas #PartyFood #EasyRecipes #easyrecipes

Today we’re diving into a classic Portuguese treat, salt cod fritters or balau. These little golden bites are crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, and packed full of flavor. Perfect as a snack, starter, and even better with a little cheeky glass of wine. I hope you’re all well. I’m Shane. Welcome back to It’s Cooking Good. So, some of you will have no doubt been to Portugal, and you can get this everywhere in Portugal, and is absolutely delicious. I think I’ve also had it in Spain, maybe a different variation of it. And I tend to always make this when Little have their salt cod in stock. You’ll find this in the freezer aisle. And when they do have it in, I tend to buy quite a bit of it, chuck it in the freezer for when I want to make this dish or actually the Portuguese stew, which is on the channel. It’s quite a way back, but if you look it up, it is on there. And it’s great value and tastes absolutely delicious. And the good thing about this stuff, it’s not the dried balau or dried salt cod. So you don’t have to rehydrate it. You don’t have to rinse it loads of times. It’s ready to work with. And it looks just like this. They do a couple of versions. This one’s got the skin and bone on it, which actually for this recipe I prefer, but you can also buy it just as salt cod fillet. So deboned and deskinned. Anyway, let’s get started. And we’re going to start with some potatoes. And I’m using equal quantities. The balau weighs at 550 gram. That’s with the bone in. So, you’re probably looking just a tad over 500 gram in weight. So, I’m going in with 500 g of potatoes. So, I’ve got a pan here on a rolling boil. I’m just going to gently add those in. And you want to cook these really just until they’re tender enough that we’re going to be able to mash them with a fork. So, I anticipate they’re probably going to take between 8 and 10 minutes. Once your potatoes are cooked, you just want to fish them out and get them into a bowl. We’re just going to let them cool down a little bit before we mash them up. We’re just going to mash them up with a fork. Try and drain off as much of that water as you can. You want them really to try and be as whole as they are. You don’t want too many of them crumbling up cuz it won’t do our mix any good at all. So, we put those to one side. We’re going to use that same water and we’re now going to add in our lovely cod. And we’re more or less going to poach this. So, this is just going to simmer, not on a hard boil or anything, for about again 8 to 10 minutes. Once your fish is cooked, we need to remove that from the pan and let this also cool down. What you’ll find with this fish is it’s pretty firm because it has been salted. So, it tends to hold its own shape and stick together, which is great. As a side note, naturally, the salt cod is very salty. That’s where it gets its name from. I haven’t salted this water at all, but if you wanted to reverse the the way round that I’ve actually cooked the potatoes and the fish, you could do. If you want this more salty, cook your fish first and then cook your potatoes in the same water after and then you’ll have an even more salty fritter at the end of this. But I’m happy with how salty this comes out. So, we’re going to leave that to one side. Let it cool down. Once your cod’s cooled down and you’re happy that it’s not too hot to handle, basically get your hands in there. And you want to take a little bit of time over this because there are some fiddly little bones in here. And there’s also some really big ones. So you’ve got these little sort of fellas here. You just want to make sure obviously there’s none left in there. We don’t want anyone getting a surprise and that’s stuck in their throat. But you get these lovely shards of cod and there’s some bigger bones here in the middle. So you just want to go through it all. Make sure they are all out. You obviously don’t want that skin either. So just get rid of all of that. And just carry on and do that with both of your cod fillets. And that’s it. That’s the last of it. Actually got loads off there. And ended up with just some skin and bones left. If you do when you if you when you do this, you end up with a little bit of water at the bottom of this uh bowl. Just drain it off. You don’t really want any excess water going into your mix. So, let’s just wipe our hands up. I’m going to go straight into a food processor now with our cod. To that, I’m using shellot. I’ve got two small shelots here which I’ve just diced. You could use an onion. You probably only need half an onion. And again, doesn’t really matter if it’s white or red. And that goes in. And then two garlic cloves, which I’ve just crushed. Never comes out when I want it to. There we go. And lastly to that, we’re going to add some olive oil. And I like to go in probably don’t know about half a tablespoon. We’ll check it. If we need to add some more, we can always add a little bit more. And get that onto a pulse. What you’re looking for is this to form really like a paste that’s going to mix in beautifully with our potatoes. Okay, I think we are done. So, let’s get rid of that. Let’s get rid of that. Let’s bring our potatoes in. And what you want to do with your potatoes is just to lightly mash them with a fork. just to make sure that they’re nicely sort of crumbled down really. Once you’re happy with the texture, which I almost am, just go through it one last time. Just make sure there’s no massive chunks. Doesn’t matter if there are little chunks in there at all. You don’t want massive pieces of potato. That’s it. That looks good. To that, one beaten egg. I’m going to add a good load of parsley. probably like half a handful. And then to that obviously our cod mix. And hopefully you can see the consistency of that. That’s how it should look. Sort of holding itself together. So let’s get all of that in there. That’s it. Make sure you get all of that goodness out. We don’t want to waste any, do we? Little. Don’t have it on that often. Okay. And then I like to add just a little bit of crack pepper. No salt obviously. This is going to be salty enough. And as you know, I like plenty of pepper in mine. And just give this all a good mix in. You want it to combine nicely. And it should be quite a stiff mix when you finish up. That’s what you’re looking for. It’s all nicely combined. Okay. And that is now ready to go. Now, you can make these into whatever shape you like. Balls or little rugby balls or croquette shapes, whatever. If you’re feeling really confident, grab yourself a couple of spoons and you can attempt to do quels like I’m going to attempt to do. And I’m no professional, that’s for sure. But if you don’t want to get your hands dirty, it’s quite a good way to do it. And you just do something like that and you end up with little rugby ball shapes. Alternatively, as I say, just go in with your hands. Depending on the size you make these, you’re probably going to get a good, I don’t know, 20, maybe 20 fritters from these. You could make it into just little sort of balls. Whatever shape you like, it doesn’t matter. So, I’m going to make up a load of these. The oil’s heating up. I’m using the deep fat fryer today. I’ve got vegetable oil in there. If you want to do it on the hob, you just need a pan with a good inch of oil in the bottom. Okay. So, I’ve actually just made 12 up for the time being. Great thing is this mix will keep in the fridge. You could actually make that a day in advance easily. So if you want to get ahead of time before guests come around or whatever you’re however you’re serving it or whatever you’re serving it for, then happy days. And I’ve only used half of that mix. So definitely 20 and they’re a pretty good size. So you probably get maybe 25. So you want to make sure if you’re using a deep fat fryer, make sure your basket is in. And then just be careful of your fingers. I’ve got this on 180 and I’m just going to lower those in. Should I put our little football one in? Yeah, why not? Let’s get that in there as well. Let’s see how that comes out that shape. Don’t overcrowd it. I’ll probably put maybe six in for the time being. I can always add more afterwards. Okay, we’re just over a minute in. Let’s have a little look at them. Look at the lovely color they are going. Oh yeah. Remember, everything’s cooked in there apart from the egg, the onions, and garlic. So, you know, these don’t take too long, but you want to cook them probably for a good 2 to 3 minutes or till they’re at a color that you’re happy with. Okay, we’re just over 2 minutes in. And I’m happy with those. I’m taking those bad boys out. Just give them a little shake around here. That russle, nice and crispy. And we’re just going to put them onto some kitchen roll just to drain them off. Get any of that excess oil off there. And there we go. I did up the remaining few as well. So, they’re all cooked up and our mix that’s left. I’ve just got here a little bit of garlic mayonnaise. Nice little bit of lemon. I like a squeeze of lemon on mine. Just plate these up however you want. Nice and willy-nilly. Get them all stacked up on there. Oh, that little fella will go on there beautifully. And there we go. That is my little salt cod or balau fritters. Let’s give one a try. Do you know what? I’m going to give the odd one out the try today. I’m going to dip it in a little bit of that garlic mayo. They are little puffs of joy. So light and airy on the inside. You’ve got that lovely crispiness on the outside. I’m not just saying this cuz I seasoned them, but they are seasoned to perfection. It didn’t need anything else. That parsley is working. I can taste a hint of garlic. The lovely sweetness of those shelots. And of course, our lovely salt cod. They are delightful. As I said before, perfect as a starter. Perfect for nibbles if you’ve got people coming over. And as I said, can be made a day in advance. So all you’ve got to do is literally cook them up at the end and that’s done in a couple of minutes. Guys, that’s it from me for today. I really appreciate you watching. If you like the content, you’re new to the channel, don’t forget to hit the subscribe button. Please also like, share, and comment. Got a variation on this, please do let me know. Got something you’d like to see me cook, please let me know. I’ll put all of the details of today’s little salt cod fritters down below in the description as always. And all that’s left for me to say is until next time, it’s cooking