Cod Pavia’s, also known as soldados te pavía or pavía soldiers, are one of the most popular tapas in Andalusia and Madrid, as they are a classic of both cuisines. These fish bites are made using a very crunchy and tasty batter, which allows you to enjoy this food in a different way and get the little ones to eat it too. In short, it is a simple fish recipe that can also be prepared with hake, which is excellent as an appetizer but can also be served as a second course.
In Madrid it is a tradition to see the soldaditos de pavía accompanied by roasted red pepper, while in Andalusia it is usually served with tartar sauce or mayonnaise. In any case, keep reading to discover how to make cod pavias.
Ingredients to make Cod Pavías:
- 500 grams of salted cod
- 2 eggs
- 125 milliliters of beer
- 1 tablespoon yeast dessert
- 125 grams of flour
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 handful of parsley
- 1 glass of olive oil
How to make Cod Pavias:
- In a bowl we put the eggs, the chopped garlic and the parsley. We beat it well to start preparing the batter for the cod pavias.
- Add part of the flour and yeast, stir and add the beer, the rest of the flour and a little salt. It should be a creamy mass, neither too thick nor too light.
- Trick: To make gluten-free cod Pavia’s, we simply have to replace the wheat flour with cornstarch or chickpea flour.
- We put a frying pan with plenty of oil on the fire, which must be at a medium temperature. While it is heating up, cut the desalted cod into strips and pass it through the dough that we have prepared. To desalt the cod, you just have to clean it well, put it in a colander with the skin up, leave it in cold water and store it in the fridge for about 48 hours, changing the water every 6 hours.
- When the oil is hot, fry the cod pavias on both sides. We recommend cooking the battered cod in small batches, since if we introduce many pieces they can stick together.
- As the little soldiers of Pavia’s are fried, we are taking them out and putting them on a plate with absorbent paper to remove the excess oil.
- Clever! We can now serve the homemade cod pavias with roasted red pepper, tartar sauce or homemade mayonnaise.
Gluten-free cod pies
This is a crispy cod Pavia’s recipe, but with wheat flour and beer, so it is not suitable for celiacs. For this reason, we are going to explain how to make gluten-free cod pavías below:
- Use chickpea flourinstead of wheat flour and prepare the batter for the batter with it.
- Use gluten-free beeror, failing that, increase the amount of water.
- Follow the steps of the previous recipe and enjoy your gluten-free pavias.