Brandade is a traditional dish from southern France: a satisfying thick purée of salt cod, garlic and mashed potato. Salt cod needs to be soaked for about two days, but you can make a lovely, easy version of the dish using a smoked fish such as pollack or haddock. Serve it with some intense roasted tomatoes and a slab of garlicky toast, and you have a punchy bunch of flavours. It’s perfect party food – pass it around with some rosé wine or cold beers.
Serves 4–6
For the oven-dried tomatoes
About 400g smallish, ripe tomatoes
Extra virgin olive oil to trickle
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the brandade
250g floury potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
25g butter
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
300g natural (undyed) smoked pollack or haddock fillets
100ml milk
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
For the garlic toast
6–8 slices of coarse-textured bread, such as sourdough
1 garlic clove, halved
Extra virgin olive oil to trickle
For the oven-dried tomatoes, at least 3 hours before serving (or the day before), preheat the oven to 75–100oC/Gas low. Halve the tomatoes and lay, cut side up, in a roasting tin. Trickle with a little extra virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place in the oven for at least 3 hours until wrinkly, but still juicy in the middle.
For the brandade, put the potatoes into a pan of lightly salted water, bring to the boil and simmer for 15–20 minutes until tender. Tip into a colander to drain and dry for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a wide pan over a low heat, add the garlic and sweat for a minute or two. Add the smoked fish, cutting it into pieces as necessary to fit in a single layer. Pour over the milk (don’t worry if it doesn’t quite cover the fish) and bring just to a simmer. Partially cover with a lid and simmer very gently for 3–4 minutes, or until the fish is cooked through.
Drain the fish, reserving the liquid. Return this liquid to the pan and add the olive oil and a few twists of black pepper. Either push the cooked potatoes through a ricer into the hot liquid or just add them to the pan and mash thoroughly to create a nice loose mash – it will be highly aromatic with the fishy milk and olive oil.
As soon as the fish is cool enough to handle, discard the skin and any bones, and break the flesh into flakes. Mash as well as you can (or blitz in a food processor), then beat the fish thoroughly into the mash. Do this by hand – a processor will make the mash go horribly gluey. Taste and add more pepper if you like.
Toast the bread on both sides. Rub with the cut surface of the garlic and trickle with a little extra virgin olive oil. Pile the warm brandade and oven-dried tomatoes on to the toasts and top with a final trickle of olive oil and a grinding of black pepper.