The Best of Two Worlds

A traditional twice-baked potato is normally filled with butter, cream, cheese and sometimes sour cream--a high-fat spud. A true brandade, most often served as a spread for French bread, is usually a puree made with salt cod, olive oil and milk, and sometimes garlic and potato.

I’ve taken both ideas to come up with a new low-fat way to serve potatoes: twice-baked potatoes brandade. Each serving has 5 grams of fat. For comparison, consider that a traditional twice-baked potato with 1/4 cup of butter, 1/2 cup of light cream and 1/2 cup of Cheddar cheese contains 22 grams of fat.

To reduce the fat, no olive oil is used and chicken broth rather than cream is stirred into the potatoes. The finished puree is piped into potato shells, then brushed with just a little butter for flavor, sprinkled with paprika and glazed with egg substitute for that beautiful golden glow potatoes can get while baking.

I like to serve the potatoes with an arugula and kumquat salad. But if you’d rather not bother filling the potatoes, serve the puree as an appetizer spread with a good loaf of French bread.

Keep the salt cod in the refrigerator as it soaks to prevent spoilage.

The potatoes may be prepared up to the baking stage a day ahead of time. Cover the prepped potatoes tightly and refrigerate. The baking time will increase to 45 to 60 minutes.

TWICE-BAKED POTATOES BRANDADE

1 pound boned salt codfish

4 large boiling potatoes, about 10 ounces each

6 cloves garlic, minced

Nonstick canola oil spray

1 to 1 1/4 cups nonfat chicken broth

Salt

Cracked black pepper

2 teaspoons butter, melted

Paprika

1 tablespoon nonfat egg substitute

Put salt cod in large glass bowl, add water to cover, then cover and refrigerate 1 to 2 days, depending on saltiness of cod. Drain and replace water twice.

Drain, then cover with fresh water in large saucepan. Bring to boil. Remove from heat, let stand 10 minutes, drain, then flake fish.

Bake potatoes at 425 degrees until fork tender, about 1 hour. Cut top 1/4 off each potato. Scoop hot potato insides out of shells and into potato ricer. Press potatoes through ricer into large bowl. Reserve potato shells.

Lightly saute garlic in skillet sprayed with nonstick canola oil spray. Add garlic to potatoes. Stir in flaked fish. Add enough chicken broth to get mashed potato consistency, then season with salt and pepper to taste. Process mixture in food processor until light and fluffy. Fill pastry bag with mixture and pipe into hollowed-out shells. Brush tops with butter. Sprinkle with paprika to taste. Brush top with egg substitute. Bake at 400 degrees until potatoes are hot through and golden brown on top, 30 to 45 minutes.

Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:

Each serving contains about:

517 calories; 6,637 mg sodium; 143 mg cholesterol; 5 grams fat; 53 grams carbohydrates; 64 grams protein; 1.29 gram fiber.

* “Macarade” dinner plate from Cassis & Co. at Cinzia in Santa Monica.