Brandade

Salt cod soaked for thirty-six hours with the water changed six times, then beaten with oil and milk into a warm emulsion.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

• 600 g salt cod, thick pieces
• 400 g floury potatoes
• 4 cloves garlic
• 300 ml milk
• 1 bay leaf
• 200 ml olive oil
• juice of half a lemon
• white pepper
• a grating of nutmeg

Method

1. THE SALT COD IS SOAKED FOR THIRTY-SIX HOURS WITH THE WATER CHANGED SIX TIMES. This is not a step to shorten and it is the only part of the dish that cannot be rescued later. Under-soaked cod makes something no amount of potato or oil can make edible, and you do not find out until the end. Thick pieces need the full time; thin ones can come out at twenty-four hours. Taste a flake raw at the end -- it should be pleasantly salty, not aggressive.
2. AND THE WATER MUST ACTUALLY BE CHANGED, not just topped up. Salt comes out until the water is as salty as the fish, and then nothing more happens. Six changes in thirty-six hours, in the fridge, in a lot of water.
3. IT IS POACHED IN MILK AND NEVER BOILED. A bare shiver, ten minutes, and the fish is done. Boiled, it goes stringy and the emulsion will not hold.
4. EVERYTHING IS WARM WHEN IT IS BEATEN TOGETHER. Warm fish, warm potato, warm oil, warm milk. This is an emulsion like a mayonnaise and cold ingredients make it break into oily fibres. Work in a warm bowl over the pan if your kitchen is cold.
5. THE OIL GOES IN A THREAD, as for a mayonnaise. Poured in, it sits on top and then splits.
6. Cod cut into pieces and covered generously with cold water in the fridge. Water changed after 2, 6, 12, 20, 28 and 34 hours. 36 HOURS in all.
7. Drained, and a flake tasted raw. If it is still aggressively salty, another 6 hours.
8. Potatoes boiled whole in their skins until tender, then peeled and riced while hot. Kept warm.
9. Milk, garlic and bay warmed in a pan. The cod added and poached at a BARE shiver 10 minutes until it flakes.
10. The cod lifted out, and every bone and scrap of skin picked out with the fingers while it is warm. The milk kept, the bay discarded, the garlic kept.
11. The cod and garlic pounded or beaten to a coarse paste.
12. The riced potato beaten in.
13. The warm oil added in a THREAD while beating hard, then the warm poaching milk a spoonful at a time, until it is a smooth thick cream that holds its shape.
14. Lemon, white pepper and nutmeg. Tasted for salt, which it will not need. Served warm with toast, or spread in a dish and browned under a grill.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes