Wednesday 30 September 2009

Heirloom recipe 2: kedgeree

The smoked haddock came out fighting last night, ready to be turned into my mum's kedgeree: a favourite supper dish. Almost all the recipes for kedgeree I've ever read are much more curry-ish than my mum's - my guess is that her recipe came from her trusty Good Housekeeping, circa 1960 and therefore probably written in a relatively spice-free era. Certainly she never put even a pinch of curry powder in it. So it's not your normal kedgeree - but I love it.
First, poach the haddock in milk, with a knob of butter, a sliced onion, a couple of bay leaves and a handful of black peppercorns. Once the fish is done, haul it out and strain the milk.
Put the rice on to boil with the milk, and top up with water. While that's simmering, flake the fish, chop up several spring onions and hard boil a couple of eggs. Once the rice is done, gently fry the spring onions in a generous knob of butter, then combine with the rice, flaked fish, and chopped hard boiled eggs. My mum's spicing is simply a very generous pinch of cayenne and the magic ingredient: lashings of chopped parsley.
Gently heat through, then turn into a pot and bung in an oven, gas mark 4, for around half an hour. Serve with salad.

I suspect my mother didn't like cooking very much but she was a very good 'plain cook', in the best sense of that phrase. I guess cooking twice a day, every day, for a family with three children when what you really want to do is teach music is an utter bummer.

2 comments:

Lickedspoon said...

Oh, I love kedgeree - comfort food par excellence. I like to add peas to mine, but then I love peas! Thank you so much for your kind message on my blog.

franmouse39 said...

Peas! Now there's an idea...