For the bacalitos I opened the package of dried salt cod or pollak which is cheeper then cod and tastes very similar and soak them in the fridge overnight in a large bowl with 2 liters or 1/2 gallon of water and I add a tbs of nido to it. Nido is powder milk it is sold in many Indian and Pakistani grocery stores.
The next day I take the fish and I tear it in to tiny pieces while checking for tiny bones. I do this until all of the bacalao is in tiny pieces. Bacalao means salt cod in Spanish and it is an awesome Puerto Rican dish.
I also have surillitos in this pot along with bacalitos and in the other stewed pink beans that you see in the picture. For surillitos recipe check the link below.
Hot Water Cornbread/ Sorullitos
Instead of making patties you make them in to a long shape as shown in the picture and it is the same hot water cornbread recipe link is above for detail. Now your with surillitos out of the way you can make the sofrito , check link below on pasteles and arroz gandulez on how to make the sofrito below.
Halal Pasteles With Arroz Gandoules
After the bacalitos are washed and well drained start making the sofrito recipie on the link above. After making sofrito combine it with the bacalitos. Add 1 pinch of black pepper corns in a mortar and pestle and grind it to a coarse powder then add it to the fish. Add 1 big pinch of oregano, 3 shakes of adobo , 1 pinch of sazon because you do not want your bacalitos to be too salty it is salty enough anyway so be careful. Give a good mix and add 1 egg, 4 handfuls of all purpose unbleached flour, 1 pinch of baking powder, 2 cloves of garlic ground in mortar and pestle, 1/2 cup of water or enough to make a batter and give it a good stir to combine until a batter is formed and let it sit for 5 minutes.
Make sure you have enough oil in the cast iron skillet or whatever kind of skillet you have from making the surillitos previously, if not then add 3 cooking spoons of vegetable or canola oil. Let the oil heat up and add the batter by tablespoonfuls and let them cook till they are nice brown. Repeat until they are all done and drain them on paper towel.
For the pink beans, I washed and soaked 5 handfuls of pink beans for 12 hours to over night drained and added them to the pressure cooker. I made the sofrito, look at the halal pasteles link for more info. Add 4 shakes of adobo 1 pinch each of cumin seeds, black peppercorns crushed in mortar, and pestle, oregano and half of a packet of sazon. I added 1 quart or 1 liter of water. Put the lid on my pressure cooker and waited for safety valve to pop up and turned the timer on for 20 minutes then let the pressure escape and wait for the safety valve to fall down. I opened it after the pressure was gone and checked the beans if they are nice and soft I would not have to turn on the pot and wait for another 10 minutes and again wait for pressure to release. Only repeat this step only if you have to like if your bean is a little harder then it should be, if soft like it is supposed to be, relax and enjoy what you have made.
Turn around and give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done because you deserve it.
Hug yourself because you can. If you want it like stewed beans then have white rice which is optional or if you want to cook the rice in the beans to make a rice and bean dish that is ok too.
Oh also refer to the arroz gandulez page on how to cook rice too, my bad lol how silly of me and I posted more then one place in this blog on how to cook rice and try this link below too and I hope it helps. This is only if you want the beans and rice option instead of stew beans.
Chickpeas With Halal Lunch Meat And Rice
P.S. you can add some sofrito also to the bacalitos batter which is optional.
