Casa do Bacalhau

From Norway’s lye-cured lutefisk to the accras de morue served with a bitingly spicy ‘dog’s sauce’ in the French Antilles, salt cod is a vital ingredient for cuisines around the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Only in Portugal, however, has this briny delight been elevated to the level of national treasure. According to Lisbon lore, the Portuguese have a different bacalhau recipe for all 365 days of the year. In reality, there are hundreds more, from the austere boiled cod with cabbage eaten on Christmas Eve to sumptuous preparations like Bacalhau à João do Buraco, baked with shrimp, clams and a buttery potato puree.

Such wonders can now be found in Brussels thanks to Casa do Bacalhau. Recently opened in Ixelles, this bright corner restaurant is a step upmarket from the mass of Portuguese snack bars off Place Flagey. As the name suggests, it specialises in salt cod, offering a score of regional dishes like bacalhau à lagareiro, a char-grilled cod steak drizzled with olive oil; bacalhau with pine nuts from the Algarve; or a rice-and-codfish stew from the northern Minho region.

Bacalhau à Brás is a Lisbon favourite – flakes of fish combined with slivers of onion and potato, fried up with scrambled eggs and sprinkled with black olives and parsley. The excellent version here was fortified with matchstick slices of smoked ham and a side dish of rapini greens. Even better was the migas de bacalhau, a mash made of cod, olive oil and old bread infused with garlic and fresh coriander.

There are plenty of non-cod dishes on the menu – fresh fish like bream or monkfish and a range of meaty mains, as well as starters like garlic-fried shrimp or alheira sausages, originally a Jewish dish from north-eastern Portugal. The extensive list of Portuguese wines is rich in muscular reds from the Douro and Alentejo – the Portuguese drink red with their bacalhau.

Casa do Bacalhau largely succeeds in its goal of providing fine Portuguese cuisine at a reasonable price. Three courses with wine came in at less than €30 a head. Finish up with a shot of thick black espresso, or maybe a glass of Adega Velha brandy, and you can almost imagine that the tram rumbling past outside is a yellow-painted eléctrico winding its way through the narrow streets of Alfama or the Bairro Alto.

55 Rue Lesbroussart (Ixelles), tel 02.648.04.42, web.resto.com/casadobacalhau