Piquillo Peppers Stuffed with Brandade/bacalao

Soak the cod pieces in cold water allowing about 48 hours; changing the water at least four times. At least as often as you would change your codpiece.

Poach the desalinated cod in water until it breaks apart easily with a fork. Meanwhile quarter the potatoes and simmer in a separate pan of water until they are fork tender. To assist the smoothness you can put them through a ricer. That earns you a merit badge.

On a back burner scald the milk or half and half, but don’t boil it.Get your food processor ready. Peel the garlic and give it a quick chop and put it in the processor.

When the cod is tender and flakey remove it from the poaching liquid and break it into smaller pieces. Put that in the food processor along with the garlic. Give that a quick pulse on a low setting. Add the potatoes and repeat. Add the olive oil and piment and repeat. You want the brandade to be a bit chunky not Gerbered. Finally, through the tube carefully add the hot milk and pulse several times. CAUTION! Adding hot liquids to food processors or blenders can be explosive if you don’t keep the lid tightly closed. If necessary wrap a towel around your hand and hold the lid in place.

From here it’s easy. While the soaking process should have taken most of the residual saltiness from the cod you may still have to adjust the seasoning by adding salt or pepper.

Roasting peppers is pretty damn easy. Using tongs place them directly on gas burners over a high flame or outside on a wood fired grill (the preferred method). Drop them into individual paper sacks and close or into a large bowl and cover with cling wrap. Peel by hand, any lingering black bits are fine. It gives them character and makes you strong.

Now assemble your peppers. These should be at room temperature, not chilled. Into each spoon some of the brandade, just enough to fill them up but be careful not to break the peppers. Drizzle them with just a little olive oil and serve with crusty bread.

Note to cook: *This is a rough estimate in weight because the portion size of the cod you can buy will vary to an extent, because you can’t buy exactly one pound. Don’t sweat it. Often you can find salt cod boxed in uniform pieces, packed in Canada.

Another note: Mark Kurlansky, author of COD and SALT and A BASQUE HISTORY OF THE WORLD advanced the theory, which I find credible, that Basque navigators actually discovered the New World. They just didn't tell anyone because they first discovered the motherlode of cod.

Left over Brandade? Refrigerate it and the next day you can make some delicious battered fritters from it. Fry them in olive oil.