Kedgeree

By Elaine Corbett

The story of this recipe varies a lot. Was it brought back by soldiers who served in India in the days of the Raj? Did Queen Victoria ask her cook to make it in honour of her Indian subjects?

There are a lot of different recipes for this. Some use curry powder, add some cheese or double cream, but we liked it mildly spiced and fairly plain. 

Who knows where the original recipe comes from, but it is sometimes seen on a hotel breakfast menu, or was often a lunch at our house! My sister was in Bradford for her teacher training course and brought back some whole spices from an Asian shop. We were puzzled to find some little beetles in the larder…..until we discovered that the coriander seed had ‘hatched’. We had been happily using it and praising the flavour!Nowadays THAT doesn’t happen!

Please make this and send a picture as I can only dream of it’s lovely flavours until hubby loses his sense of smell!

Ingredients

1 undyed smoked haddock fillet

350 ml cold water

1 bay leaf

1 finely chopped onion

1 knob of butter

150 g long grain rice

2 soft boiled eggs

Spice mix

2 tsp cumin seeds

2 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

Crispy fried onion to sprinkle, along with some fresh parsley or coriander.

Method

1 Grind the cumin and coriander seeds and stir in the ground chilli and turmeric. 

2 Poach the smoked haddock in the water for 5 minutes, lift it out and set aside to cool. Don’t discard the poaching water, put it in a jug.

3 Add the butter to the poaching pan and saute the onion until soft.

4 Add 2 1/2 tsp of the spice mix and fry for a minute or so to bring out the flavours, stir in the rice and cooking water from the haddock, cover and simmer for 10 minutes, checking the pan to make sure it’s not too dry.

5 Flake the poached haddock and stir through.

Serve on warmed plates topped with halved boiled eggs, fried onions and herbs.