Brandade

Probably the last recipe of this potatoes week. I could have talked about gnocchi (but I have so many times done already), about hachis parmentier, or oven grilled potatoes, and I may some other times. But it’s true that with new potatoes I love simple recipes when they are steam or pan fried. Yet there was one recipe I had never tried before and I wanted to for quite a bit now: brandade. It’s a traditional recipe from Provence and Occitanie and I grew up eating some quite often. Like many traditional dishes it is rather simple to prepare, and it requires very few ingredients: salted cod, potatoes, milk, olive oil. It just requires to prepare in advance the salted cod that needs to bath in water for 12-24h or so. I made a very light version on brandade, and we ate it as a dip for steam vegetables. It can be used further in a few recipes too: with bread toasts, potatoes, tomatoes… But without further delay here is the recipe. I hope you’ll enjoy it!!

Brandade

– a piece of salted cod

– one mid size potato

– olive oil

– milk

– pepper

12 to 24h before eating bath the cod in water. Change the water once in a while. If you use Japanese salted cod, the quantity of salt is much less than in Europe so I only had mine bathing for 6h.

Now that the cod is soft and almost unsalted, boil it in a large pan and boil the potato to without peeling it. When cooked, remove the bones of the cod and peel the potato.

I used my blender but you can do it in a bowl too and do it manually. Put the cod and the potato and purée the mixture, add a tablespoon of milk and one of olive oil each time it’s needed to smoothen the mixture. Repeat until you have a creamy dry texture. It should not be liquid so be careful when adding the liquid, not to add to many. Add pepper and your brandade is ready!!

Bacalau – すきみ鱈

Bacalau, salted cod, is something I have been eating for ever. It is part of the traditional aïoli from Provence and also from the French Caribbean islands the Antilles, acra and in féroce d’avocat, a delicious avocado base recipe. Seeing how much cod is a popular fish in Japan, and sun-dried fishes himono-干物, are also very popular, I wasn’t surprised that they also have bacalau. In Japan it is called sukimitara すきみ鱈, and though it is also salted cod, fishes used for that preparation are much smaller than in France, but it is all the same delicious. The best place usually to find some from Hokkaido is Yoshihike-吉池 in Ueno. I wonder how Japanese eat it as so far I have seen no recipe using some and a rapid browsing was rather common ways: grilled, meunière… nothing that had a Japanese flair, but I myself have a few recipes I like to prepare in addition to the above mentioned ones, these recipes are largely inspired by my mother’s cooking and re-crafted a bit. The only “issue” with salted cod is that except is some rare cases like in feroce where the cod is used as it, you need a few hours or more to remove the salt thus recipes cannot be improvised.

Today I made a simple potatoes ragout with fresh tomatoes, the last of the leeks from my neighbor’s garden, new carrots (or not), slightly desalinated cod and plenty of anis seeds. I peeled and cut all the vegetables, in a bit of olive I first reduce the leek, add the potatoes. Stir at high heat a bit, then add the tomato (a large one is enough for two), cover with water, add the cod chopped, some black pepper, and a table spoon full of anis seeds. I cook until the water has reduced and it’s ready to serve!

I love the balance of flavor and texture. The creamy vegetables, the chewy cod, and the crunchy seeds.

You can change the leeks for a new onion, all the same creamy and soft.

Have a good end of the week!

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