The new year brought a rush of activity that had made it hard to keep up with my blogging 'duties', but here is quick note on a nice idea for 'recycling' leftover brandade: just mix it up with an egg or two, give it a grind or two of black pepper and perhaps a bit of chopped parsley. (There should be no need for salt, as brandade is salty by nature, but taste it and see.) Fry the resulting batter in a bit of olive oil, browning it nicely on both sides.
Served with a green salad and washed down with a crisp white wine, this brandade pancake makes for a quick and tasty lunch or light weekend supper!
NB: A traditional brandade is made with soaked and poached baccalà, but you can make an easy version with smoked whitefish, as illustrated in one of my earlier posts. The taste is different from the traditional version, of course, but for me, at least, equally delicious.
Post scriptum: I recently broke down and bought a slow cooker. Never imagined that I would own one—the awful crock pot cookery of the 70's is still etched in my memory—but after reading some excellent chefs recommend it for, among other things, beans, broth and polenta, I decided to give it a go. Will be experimenting with various recipes and reporting back to you, dear readers, shortly.
