Creamed Salt Cod

Serves 6

• 2 lb (kg) plump salt cod

• 1¾ pints (1 litre) best olive oil

• ¼ pint (1 50 ml) double cream

• 3 cloves garlic, crushed

• Juice of 1 lemon

• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley

Method

Soak the cod overnight and rinse thoroughly in fresh water to eliminate the salt. Poach the fish gently in water until cooked. Remove all the skin and bones, and, while still warm, mince it very finely - a blender may make it a little stringy.

Put the minced cod into a saucepan over a low heat and have ready another pan with the olive oil in, slightly warm, and the cream close at hand. Ideally you need three hands for this operation, one to stir the cod constantly with a wooden spoon, a second to be slowly dripping in the oil and a third to be dripping in the cream. Ignore everyone else and keep stirring vigorously. You must stir and stir until you achieve the consistency of creamed mashed potato. Only then can you take a slurp from the glass on the work top.

Add the lemon juice, garlic and parsley, stirring the while, then tip into a prewarmed dish and eat immediately with triangles of fried bread and gallons of Provençal rose.