BRANDADE LOVE.

Whip up an easy brandade to pile onto toast, and have a good Friday.

I seem to have loved brandade for a very long time, in all its forms.

I love the traditional brandade de morue that originated in Nimes in southern France, built on salt cod with olive oil and milk and served warm with local bread or little toasts. And the northern Italian baccala mantecato, too, the baccala (salt cod) ‘mounted’ by beating it with olive oil until almost fluffy.

And all the delicious ways that Spain and other Mediterranean-facing countries have found, over centuries, to use one of the most intriguing preserved products in the world. The Catalan markets have entire stalls of salt cod at every stage of preservation, from stiff, salt-crusted boards of dried fish to soft, cleaving cushions of desalinated fish, ready to cook.

This very delicious, garlic-scented puree is traditionally made with salt cod, which needs to be soaked in cold water. It’s not an everyday supermarket item, so I have a great shortcut, inspired by the late Jeremy Strode’s beautiful brandade from Donlevy Fitzpatrick’s The George pub in St Kilda, back in the day.

Jeremy was an inspired cook, using all the rigour of his British/French training but constantly making huge leaps of faith towards freshness and lightness.

He made brandade by starting with fresh fish, salting it overnight, and then poaching it in milk with garlic, herbs and peppercorns, before flaking it and whizzing it into a soft puree to spread on toast.

I can’t recall if he added potato, but I certainly do, as it gives such a velvety texture, makes it go further, and softens any saltiness.

Few people still adhere to the “fish on Friday” maxim and go meat-free for the day, as Catholicism decrees. But the thought is still there, isn’t it, floating in the nether regions of our brain cells. Best to have a bet each way, then, and cover off Good Friday with a beautiful brandade.

BRANDADE

Not the traditional recipe, but a lighter, easier take, made with freshly salted fish.

• 200g to 300g white fish fillet, eg snapper, ling, blue eye trevalla

• 2 tbsp sea salt or table salt

• 150g potato

• 250ml full-fat milk

• 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced

• 1 tsp peppercorns

• 3 sprigs thyme

• 1 bay leaf

• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• good grind of pepper

To coat the fish in salt, place a piece of cling film on the counter, add some salt, place the fish on top, and coat the fish with remaining salt.

Wrap tightly, place in a bowl and refrigerate for four or five hours.

Rinse the fish, then soak in a bowl of cold water for 30 minutes.

Peel the potato, cut in half or quarters and cook in simmering salted water until done, around 15 to 20 minutes.

Drain and return the potatoes to the hot dry pan to dry out a bit, then mash.

Drain the fish, cut in half, and place in a saucepan with the milk, garlic, peppercorns, thyme and bay leaf.

Bring just to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and gently poach for 5 minutes, turning fish once halfway through.

Turn off the heat and leave to steep until the fish is cool enough to handle.

Remove the fish and strain the milk into a bowl, discarding the aromatics.

Break up the fish with two forks, then place the pieces in a food processor and pulse to break it down (don’t whiz).

Add 2 tbsp of the poaching milk with the olive oil, mashed potato and a good grind of pepper, and pulse until it just comes together.

Add further milk by the spoonful until you have the texture of soft mashed potato.

Serve warm or at room temperature, with hot toast or rye crackers.

SOME TIPS

• You could infuse the sea salt with dry-roasted fennel or coriander seeds.

• Some recipes discard the poaching milk and add crème fraiche or full cream to the puree; that would be amazing, but I quite like the modest housewifeliness of using all the flavours in the milk.

• Beat in some fresh thyme, chives or parsley (finely chopped) if you like.

• Serve for brunch on hot buttered toast with a fried egg!

An even easier method is to start with a whole smoked trout, which doesn’t need any pre-salting. Nor does it need the mashed potato for texture, although if you have a few people coming over, it would help bulk it up.

Tip: The best way to strip a whole smoked trout of meat is to gently warm it in an oven for 5 minutes, then just peel off the skin and pull off the meat, discarding skin and bones. Do a quick check of the flesh for any tiny bones before proceeding. You’ll get more off it this way than doing it cold from the fridge.

SMOKED TROUT BRANDADE

• 250 g smoked trout flesh, freed of bones or skin

• 200 ml milk

• 2 garlic cloves, smashed

• 3 thyme sprigs

• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• 1 tbsp finely snipped chives or dill

• grind of black pepper

Finely shred the smoked trout with a fork and place in a bowl.

Heat the milk gently with the garlic and thyme until just under the boil.

Leave to cool for 5 mins, and strain.

Gradually add warm milk to the trout by the spoonful, beating with a fork, until the consistency of thick mashed potato.

Beat in the olive oil, until almost fluffy.

Add the chives or dill, and a grind of black pepper.

Serve warm or at room temperature, with hot toast.

MORE IDEAS

Anthony Bourdain had a recipe for brandade de morue in his Les Halles cookbook, in which he cooks it in cream, rather than milk, then piles it into a gratin dish, tops with breadcrumbs and cooks it under a grill until golden-brown and crusty. Nice idea as part of an Easter Sunday brunch.

The Provencal-loving cookbook author Robert Carrier calls brandade one of the truly great classics of Provencal cuisine, and suggests it makes “a savoury topping for party canapes of great distinction.” He serves it as a puree with black olives and little garlicky toasts, stuffs it into red peppers, and – oh my heaven, this is the BEST – does brandade aux pommes de terre.

Robert Carrier’s brandade aux pommes de terre (Pic: Michelle Garret)

To do this, make the normal brandade without potato, and bake a few whole potatoes in their jackets until tender. Cut in half lengthwise, scoop out the flesh and blend with the brandade, adding a little cream if necessary then pile the mixture back into the potato halves, brush with olive oil, and bake in a fairly hot oven (190C) until hot.

Thanks for dropping by! And thanks for your comments and suggestions. Special thanks to Robert Carrier ( who I adore), and to Terry for the fish shopping, and for turning two left-over, freshly salted fillets of fish into a very charming dinner with an old-school parsley sauce and heap of carrots, peas and spuds. If you want to do the same, just salt a couple of extra fillets, then poach them in the milk as above, and make yourself a white sauce (add Dijon and a shitload of parsley) and serve with carrots.

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I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. Thank you for sharing your culture, traditions, knowledge, spirit, art, music, humour and food traditions, allowing us all to experience a greater sense of belonging in this ancient land.