My sister is deathly allergic to potatoes so has never enjoyed a good Brandade de Morue, something of which I am a big fan. With half a package of salt cod lingering in the fridge, it occurred to me that there might be a potato-less version of this in another culture that I could adapt to my needs. And there was.
Bear with me on this. Salt cod seems to get a bad rap and people always curl their nose when I say I like it. For what it is worth, we fell on this dip like people who had not seen food in weeks. It was that good.
I am sure that the inspiration recipe is delicious but, since I was thinking Brandade, I went my own way and garlic heavy.
1/2 lb salt cod
5 cloves of garlic + 1
2 cups milk
1 hot pepper (I used Fresno but what ever you prefer is fine)
2 slices baguette (about 1 inch thick each)
1 bay leaf
1/3 cup olive oil
The day before, place the salt cod in a bowl of water in the fridge. Every time you think of it, pour out the water and replenish it in order to remove some of the saltiness. I did this 4 times total.
Preheat your oven to 350. Wrap the pepper in an aluminum foil and 5 of the garlic cloves in another one. Just before you close the aluminum foil up, add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil to the garlic. You do not need to peel the garlic before doing this. Bake for 25 minutes and then turn off the heat and let the items finish cooking in the residual heat until you need them.
Bring the salt cod to boil in a pan of water. Boil for 10 minutes and then drain.
Add back into the pan with the milk and bay leaf, bring to a boil, lower the heat and cook for an additional 10 minutes.
Remove the bay leaf. Pour the cod and the milk in a blender and blitz until smooth.
Remove the garlic and pepper from the foil. Squeeze the garlic cloves straight out of their peel into the cod mixture. Pour in the oil from the foil packet as well. Peel the pepper and taste to see how hot it is. Start sparingly and add some to the cod. Blitz again. Taste and add more pepper until you have the spiciness that you like.
The mixture will be quite liquid. Add the bread and the remaining garlic clove and blitz again.
Then, little by little add the olive oil so that it emulsifies with the cod mixture.
Serve warm with crackers or on toasted baguette slices.
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