by Colin Morley

Created on: August 21, 2008

Here is one of my favourite recipes using fresh smoked haddock. If you can't find smoked haddock, use smoked coley or (if you must and it's sustainable) smoked cod.

The recipe is for a kedgeree, and if you'r not familiar with that name it is an Anglo/Indian dish from the dark days of colonisation. Days of the British Empire bring back some nasty tastes, but happily kedgeree is one of its few good legacies.

To feed two people you will need:

Two smoked haddock (or other fish) fillets - good sized fillet for each person
Two large eggs
A small onion
About a quarter of a shop-bought chorizo (use another spicy sausage if you can't find it)
About half a desert spoon of curry powder (use a mild one if you're not mad on chilli)
One fresh red chilli (de-seeded) (optional)
Four good sized fresh tomatoes
Dash of Olive oil (use Sunflower oil if you're on a health kick)
Two cupsful of rice (easy cook basmati is best)
About two cupsful of water
One fish stock cube (use a vegetable stock cube if you can't find fish - or you could try oriental (Thai) fish sauce, but be sparing because it is VERY salty to the taste)

Utensils: large deep frying pan or paella pan; small pan to boil eggs.

Preparation time: About 15 minutes

Cooking time: About 30-45 minutes
Method:
Put the eggs in a pan and boil for ten minutes until hard. Then take them out of the water. You can peel them while the rest of the dish is cooking to save time.

Peel and chop the onion into small pieces
Slice the Chorizo thinly
De-seed the chilli (unless you like your food really hot) and chop it finely
Wash and chop the tomatoes
cut the smoked fish fillets into bite-sized cubes.
Boil some water in the kettle and pour over the stock cube in a cup.

Heat a little Olive oil in the pan, and throw in the onions. Once they have softened, throw in the rice and stir round. Keep stirring, while slowly sprinkling in the curry powder, so the rice doesn't burn. After a couple of minutes (or if it starts to appear too sticky) take the pan off the heat briefly and slowly pour in the stock water (if you're using fish sauce just pour in a cup full of cold water and a tiny amount of fish sauce). Be careful because the pan is very hot and it will sizzle and steam like crazy - don't burn yourself!

Once all is settled, throw in the fish, the chorizo, the chilli and the tomatoes.

Now you need to stir slowly but fairly constantly, adding a little water any time the dish looks like it might dry out too much. Keep checking the rice, and once it is nearly cooked, quarter the hard-boiled eggs and add carefully.

Once the rice is tender, the dish is ready to serve. Enjoy.

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