Thanks Joelle! We’ll Always Love Your Brandade de Morue

Last April we posted an article about salt cod (bacalao). The holidays are approaching and salt cod is one of our many important ethnic offerings. The Italian feast of the seven fishes often includes “baccala” and a good percentage of our December salt cod sales will be for this tradition.

Frank Carollo, Joelle Florian, Mike Monahan + Paul Saginaw

I’ve loved every salt cod dish that I’ve ever tasted; Portuguese casseroles with potatoes and garlic, Spanish tapa of bacalao stuffed peppers, fried and served over a spicy tomato sauce, Caribbean fritters, Italian style with roasted red peppers, garlic and olives. There are so many fantastic salt cod recipes. One of my all time favorite holiday treats is Brandade de Morue.

In the early days at our market we were fortunate enough to have a genuine, authentic French fishmonger, Joelle McFarland. Besides her being charming and knowledgeable she was known for her killer paté en croute! Her Coquille St. Jacques was delicious too, but the best thing Joelle left us with was turning us on to Brandade de Morue! I’ll never forget that cold day in the winter of 1981 when I first dipped a crispy crouton into Joelle’s amazing creamy, garlicky, salt cod flavored creation.

It was an incredible recipe and since I’m in the holiday spirit, I’ll share it with you here.