With brandade, you can prepare really amazing recipes
– brandade donuts, to be served for example with a rouille sauce,
– quenelles of brandade au gratin in the oven,
– a brandade tart, garnished or not with black olives,
Here is the recipe for pimientos del Piquillo stuffed with brandade (Spanish Basque Country).
More simply nicknamed "piquillos", these are small sweet red peppers, triangular in shape, which are grilled and peeled before use. They have a very fruity taste. They can be found in ready-to-use jars, preserved in oil with garlic confit, or in tins. It is necessary to choose them of the quality “enteros primera” (whole, first choice).
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 1 hour
For 4 people: 400 to 500 g of cod brandade
– 1 jar of piquillos (pimientos del Piquillo asados) of about 300 g
– 8 garlic cloves
– 1/2 bunch of flat-leaf parsley
– 125 g of black olives (optional)
The day before or a few hours in advance, prepare the brandade as usual. Let it firm up in the refrigerator until use. Also, carefully drain the peppers, collecting the dripping oil. Peel the garlic cloves. Reserve 4 sprigs of parsley and finely chop the rest. Add the chopped parsley to the brandade and mix. Take a baking dish, preferably clay, and arrange the 4 sprigs of parsley in a bed. Take the peppers one by one and fill them with one or two spoonfuls of brandade, depending on their size (a jar contains 12 to 20 peppers). Arrange them in the dish as you go, head to tail or in a rosette if the dish is round. Arrange the garlic cloves in the interstices and drizzle the chilies with the dripping oil from the jar of chilies. Bake halfway up, in the cold oven, and cook for 1 hour at 180°C (thermostat 6). You can add a handful of black olives halfway through cooking.
Serve hot or cold, both are delicious.
The gourmet extra: To serve, sprinkle with small ribbons of “noir de Bigorre” or Iberian ham just seared in the pan to make them crispy.
