Brandade de Morue – the result

Well, Sunday’s ‘brandade, Belgian style’ was as good as it sounded and even better. The soft-boiled eggs gave the brandade a smooth texture. And the sour cream was a very pleasant surprise. I‘d never used sour cream before as I always associate it was the awful tasting and foul smelling cabbage soup I ate in Russia in 1979.

This cream was not sour tasting at all. It had a freshness to it that you don’t find in regular cream.

Lunch's over: this is what was left ...
without the cauliflower! I'll warm it up and have it for supper tonight.

Although I carefully followed the recipe, I added some personal touches:

- According to recipe 200 gr. of cod serves 4 … I used all 400 gr. (the complete content of the box in which it came). And although my mother and I have rather small appetites, I have only one portion left! Maybe the actual recipe is meant as a starter.

- I poached the fish in water to which I had added freshly ground white pepper (as the recipe said), but I also put in 2 bay leaves … the aroma was amazing!

- In spite of using 400 gr. of cod, I respected all the other quantities, except for the lemon juice. I used the juice of half a lime instead.

- Instead of pan-frying the coppa (bacon), I slow-roasted is for 20 minutes in an oven at 100°C.

- Finally, 1 small cauliflower is definitely too much. I used 1/4th of a normal-sized specimen.

One last tip! Don’t use pink prawns if you can’t get grey North Sea Shrimps. They are to large, and their texture and taste won’t do this dish justice. Instead, cut some smoked salmon in 1 by 3 cm strips to replace the shrimps. The delicate salty and smoky flavour of the salmon will blend in beautifully! Bon Appétit. You really should try this. It's fab!

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