Kedgeree

This amazing long hot summer continues, and I am enjoying myself cooking in the garden.

I got a load of bargain smoked haddock from Paul the fish on Saturday, and with a houseful, decided on this delicious kedgeree.  It was well received by all;  most of us had seconds, one person had thirds.

Basmati rice
Eggs
Smoked haddock
Coconut oil
Onion
Garlic
Curry powder
red pepper
carrots
frozen peas
Baby spinach

1.  Prepare the main bits - cook rice, boil and peel eggs and poach the fish.
2.  Pull the dish together.  Fry chopped onions, garlic in spices until onions are nearly translucent.  Add vegetables and a little water, cook until the veg are done.
3.  Add cooked rice, flake in cooked fish and stir around gently.  Cook for about 4 minutes.
4.  Add frozen peas and baby spinach - stir them in until spinach is wilted - again about 5 minutes.
5.  Top with boiled eggs.
6.  Serve, scoff.....

Smoked haddock and spinach hotpot

 Week 11 of kitchen renovations... dinners have not been exciting, and have been aesthetically challenged in the main (scampi and oven chips is hardly inspiring!) ... but I am managing a win with most Friday dinners.  Paul's excellent fish helps big style.

The chickens have decided it's spring, and have been laying despite the recent snow - so the classic combination of smoked haddock and poached egg led to this.

Red onion

Olive oil

Potatoes

White wine stock pot

Water

Grainy mustard

Garlic

Green beans

Spinach

Smoked haddock

Eggs

1.  Sautee chopped red onion in olive oil, add crushed garlic.

2.  When a bit soft add slices of peeled potatoes, ad a handful of chopped green beans.

3.  Pour on stock made with a white wine stock pot and a spoonful of wholegrain mustard.

4.  Put the lid on a stew until the potatoes are nearly soft.

5.  Add a couple of big handfuls of baby spinach and the fish.  Lid back on a steam until fish is nearly done - about 10 minutes.

6.  Break in eggs, put the lid back on and steam for another 5 minutes.

7.  Serve, scoff ... a triumph.

Smoked haddock and cavolo nero risotto

Well, it makes a change from fish and chips, but still fish on a Friday.  Again, all sourced from Todmorden Market - olive oil, herbs and rice from me at The Mediterranean Pantry, fish from Paul, vegetables from Garry or Traynors and eggs from one of the butchers .... jobs a good'un. Also - basket to bowl in 25 minutes.

Onion
Olive oil
risotto rice
White wine (optional)
italian seasoning
Stock/water
cavolo nero
mushrooms
smoked haddock
eggs
frozen peas

1.  Soften chopped onion in olive oil.
2.  After a couple of minutes add risotto rice, stir into the oil until every grain is lightly coated.  Pour in a glass of white wine, add a sprinkle of herbs, and stir.  Add a cup of water/stock and simmer.
3.  After about 6 minutes add shredded cavolo nero and chopped mushrooms, stir again.  Add more liquid as it absorbed by the rice.
4.  Put eggs on to boil.
5.  After another 5 minutes put the fish on top of the rice to steam.
6.  Keep an eye on the risotto, making sure it doesn't get too dry, add a little stock if necessary, but be gentle with the fish - after 10 minutes it will be nearly cooked so fold it gently through the rest of the mixture, with a handful of frozen peas.
7.  Leave the risotto to stand for a few minutes off the heat so that it can suck up the remaining liquid.
8.  Take the eggs out of the hot water, run under a cold tap, peel off the shells - and, there you go ...
9.  Serve, scoff

Smoked haddock risotto

Sometimes we have fish when it's not Friday!  This was Sunday's dinner, and very nice it was too.

Olive oil
Leek
Celery
Garlic
Risotto rice
White wine
Stock
Smoked haddock
Spinach
Frozen peas

1.  Sautee leek in olive oil, add celery and garlic and cook for a few minutes.
2.  Add rice, stir in until every grain is lightly coated in oil.
3.  Add a glass of white wine, and some stock.  Simmer.  Add  more stock and stir in as it starts to get dry.
4.  When the rice is just about al dente  add the smoked salmon on top.  At this point I added a little more stock, and then covered to steam the fish on top of the risotto.
5.  Five minutes later add a handful of frozen peas and big handfuls of spinach, cover again.
6.  3 minutes later stir the wilted spinach and fish, gently, into the risotto.  The fish will naturally fall into big flakes if you are gentle enough.
7.  Turn the heat off, cover again and leave for 5 minutes.  All the juices will then soak into the risotto.
8.  Serve, scoff

Smoked haddock, colcannon with a poached egg

Friday night is fish night at our house ... and today it was smoked haddock.  This always reminds me of my Mum as, when I was growing up, if ever we were home alone we would have spinach with cheese melted into it, smoked haddock and a poached egg .. nobody else liked it, the fools!  However, today we had kale to use up, so I made colcannon with lots of leek and chopped kale mashed into the potato ... ha!  that was two extra vegetables into the veg dodger with no argument whatsoever.  On the table in 40 minutes easily - and that was giving time for the mash to crisp up on top - could've been done in 20.  All ingredients can be found on Todmorden Market, particularly the fish as Paul has the best fish for miles around.

About £3.50 per greedy portion

Potatoes
Carrots
Kale
Leeks
Butter
Smoked haddock
Olive oil
Eggs
vinegar
Black pepper

1.  Peel potatoes and cut into pieces.., boil for the mash.
2.  Peel carrots and steam above the potatoes,  chop leeks into rings and shred the kale, steam them together above the carrots.
3.  When the potatoes are cooked drain them and mash them with butter.  Beat in the steamed green veg.
4.  Transfer the colcannon to an oven dish and put into the oven for the top to crisp.  Put the carrots in the bottom of the oven to keep hot.
5.  At the same time drizzle the fish with a little olive oil and bake that for 15 minutes.
6.  Poach egg for 2 minutes in water at a rolling boil, with a dash of vinegar - which helps the egg hold its shape.
7.  Serve, scoff - watch veg dodger have seconds of green veg.

Smoked haddock fishcakes

This tasted MUCH better than it looks - lovely fresh naturally smoked haddock from Paul the fish, and loads of vegetables - jobs a good 'un.  Leek and spinach in the fishcake and even the veg dodger gets 4 of the 5 a day in 1 meal!  Result!

Olive oil
Leeks
Soya milk
Bay leaves
Potatoes
Spinach
Bread crumbs (polenta to be GF)
Green beans
Peas

1.  Put potatoes on for mash.
2.  Chop leeks and put into a deep frying pan with soya milk. Add a couple of bay leaves and the smoked haddock.  Poach the fish for a few minutes - about 5-7ish depending on the thickness of the pieces.
3.  Turn the heat off under the fish and add handfuls of baby spinach.
4.  Mash the potatoes - don't add any fat as the soya milk will add enough liquid.
5.  Remove the bay leaves from the fish, and then mix into the potato - try to mix gently enough to keep some identifiable fish pieces, but well enough to distribute ingredients through the mixture.  Season.  If the mixture is too sloppy add some breadcrumbs/polenta to soak up the liquid.
6.  Shape into cakes, coat in breadcrumbs and fry for a couple of minutes on each side.
7.  Steam beans, cook peas.
8.  Serve, scoff ...

These were big fishcakes - but we're very greedy so we polished off 10 between 3 of us.

Todmorden tapas

What kind of an idiot sets out to do a whole tapas tea mid-week?  Well, it appears I'm that kind of an idiot.  To be fair, I did pull it together in 30 minutes, but it was quite a busy 30 minutes.

Figs - stuffed with blue cheese - Montagnola, from The Crumbly Cheese is perfect - wrapped in parma ham, with almonds and honey.

Smoked haddock - from Paul the Fish, of course, with chickpeas, red pepper and spinach.

Patatas bravas
Kalamata olives

Olive oil
Onions
Garlic
Paprika
Chili flakes
Bouillon powder (or other stock)
Potatoes
Red pepper
Chickpeas
Figs
Blue cheese - montagnola
Parma ham
Almonds
Honey
Chopped tomatoes
Smoked haddock
Spinach

To do it in 30 minutes:-  turn on your oven, and get 3 biggish frying pans at the ready.

1.  Start with gently frying onion and garlic in olive oil in 2 frying pans.
2.  Chop potatoes into bite sized pieces, and fry in olive oil in another pan.  Let them brown a little, then put a lid on to help them cook through a bit more quickly.  Shake every now and again.
3.  Into one of the pans of onion add red pepper, about 1/2 a cup of stock and a little paprika.  When the red pepper has had a couple of minutes, tin in a drained tin of chickpeas, keep on a low heat.
4.  In the other pan add a pinch of chili flakes and a tin of chopped tomatoes, stir and let simmer very gently while everything else cooks.
5.  Cut a cross in the figs to about a cm from the bottom, and stuff with blue cheese, wrap with parma ham and place in an oven dish.  (In our case it was 2 x stuffed with cheese and wrapped, 2 x stuffed with cheese, no ham, for the veggie, and 2 x wrapped in ham but no cheese for the lactose intolerant!).  Add a few almonds and a teaspoon or so of honey.  Bake in a medium oven for 20 minutes.
6.  Place the haddock onto the chickpea mixture, put a lid on top and let it steam for 8-10 minutes.
7.  Add spinach leaves to the chickpeas and fish, put the lid back on for 2 minutes as it wilts.  Stir the mixture together, breaking the fish up slightly.
8.  Serve the potatoes with the spicy tomato sauce, add a dish of olives and some crusty bread... and tah dah!  Tod tapas.

All sourced from Todmorden market.

Sauteed potatoes, smoked haddock, steamed purple-stemmed broccoli - and a poached bantam egg.

This is not really a recipe, as the title is the basic instruction!  It takes about 30 minutes, start to finish...

Chop potatoes into 1cm cubes - sautee in olive oil - cover if you need them to speed up on cooking through - take the lid off to crisp them up.
10 minutes later put the water on to steam the broccoli, and the broccoli in the steamer.
10 minutes later, pan fry the fish - quite gently.
6 minutes later break eggs into the water under the broccoli, and turn the heat off.
3 minutes later - serve.

Smoked haddock, spinach and a poached egg

You can't beat poached egg and smoked haddock!  Except by adding tiny roasted potatoes and some lightly steamed spinach with spring onions.  ... yum!

The potatoes are started way ahead of anything else - chop, par boil, and then put into hot oven dish in olive oil - for 40 minutes.  Everything else starts 25 minutes later ....

Then, put the water for poaching the eggs on to boil, add a splash of cider vinegar.

Now, get 2 pans ready 1 medium frying pan for the fish, and a second wok or large frying pan for the spinach.

Next, coat the fish, lightly, with olive oil.

Put the pans on to heat.

When they are hot - put the fish, skin side down into frying pan.  Break eggs into water, count to 10 and turn off.  Splash cold water into hot wok - follow by spinach leaves and shredded spring onion - toss about.

Turn the fish over.  Turn the other pans off ..... wait for 2 minutes.

Serve... the potatoes should be crispy, the fish should be just done, the spinach wilted - and the egg yolk oozy.

Fish pie with steamed vegetables

onion
bay leaf
soya milk
mixed fish (cod, salmon, smoked haddock)
cornflour
potatoes
olive oil spread
parsley
salt and pepper

green beans
carrots

Fish pie

Poach the fish, in bite sized pieces, in the soya milk flavoured with the onion and bay leaf, for about 7 minutes.
Peel, boil and mash potatoes.  Season well, add butter/olive oil spread and soya milk to taste.
Pull fish from soya milk with a slotted spoon, put into oven dish.  Discard onion and bayleaf.  Thicken sauce with slaked cornflour in soya milk/water, over a lowish heat.  Add loads of chopped parsley and freshly ground black pepper.
Add sauce to fish (shake oven dish to distribute evenly).  Top with mashed potatoes.  Keep any spare sauce to have with the veg for extra luxury.
Bake at 180 for about 25 minutes until golden.

Steam vegetables.

Scoff

Very lazy kedgeree

If you have read this blog before you will know that I have the privilege of living with an Aga.  I say "living with" rather than owning, because an Aga really does become a member of the family, as it greets you with warmth every time you come into the kitchen, but it has some idiosyncracies which you have to learn to live with.  If, like me, you are spoilt and have an aga ... this is proper, proper easy - you bring it to the boil on the fast plate, and then stick it in the simmering oven for how ever long... 20 minutes to 2+ hours.  In a kitchen with a hob and oven - put the oven on to quite low - about 140 I would think, as soon as you come in - faff with ingredients briefly - on the hob for less than 10 mins and in the oven for half an hour or longer ... ie. put your dinner on, go swimming, gym class, parent teachers evening etc ... and dinner will be ready when you step back through the front door.

You need a cast iron casserole - or other heavy saucepan with lid - basically it has to go from hob to oven, and be covered without any harm coming to it.

rice (I used basmati)
curry powder of your choice (I used organic balti mix)
spring onions
veg - I used spring onions, endame beans and mushrooms - was going to include spinach before the end, but forgot
smoked haddock


1.  Put rice in casserole, mix in curry powder/paste and cover with enough cold water to cover + about 1.5 cms above.
2.  When it comes to the boil add chopped veg over the rice.
3.  Place fish on the top.  The water/stock should still be slopping about at least half way up the fish fillets (unless you have really stuck shed loads of veg in, in which case perhaps just below the fish).  Cover, transfer to oven.  Leave in oven for 20 minutes at least.
4.  If adding soft greens (eg. spinach or frozen peas) add them 10ish minutes before serving)

Measurements are vague - timings are vague - as long as you get it to boiling before putting in warm oven, and as long as you leave it long enough this really is a very very easy, forgiving dinner.  Obv, if you want proper kedgeree you use cooked rice, a more complex spicing mixture and cooking processes .. oh, and some boiled eggs.  But - I was busy, and I loved it.

Kedgeree

Cook rice, steam smoked haddock, hardboil a couple of eggs.  Sautee onion, red pepper, celery and mushroom in olive oil.  Stir curry powder/paste (balti in this case) into vegetables with a few spoonfuls of water.  Cook vegetables until soft, rice until cooked.  Add frozen peas to steaming fish for the last 5 minutes. Shell eggs.  Mix veg, rice, skinned flaked fish and eggs together.  Scoff.  Yum.  Victim still on adventures, so there's only my opinion to go on, but I'm just about to have seconds.

Smoked haddock with spinach and mushrooms

As easy as it sounds - steam smoked haddock (in foil in oven, in a pan on low heat the hob with some water and a lid, steam in bamboo steamer - could add squirt of lemon juice...) sautee onion and sliced mushroom in olive oil.  When fish nearly done (15 minutes), wilt spinach with onions, mushrooms and a tablespoon of water.  Grind of black pepper.  Scoff. Simple, delicious.  (Can you tell that fish hating victim is off on their adventures?)

Smoked haddock chowder

Back to souper December on Boxing Day with smoked haddock chowder.  Fry chopped onion, celery and red pepper in olive oil.  Poach smoked haddock in milk. Add chopped potato to vegetables.  Add vegetable stock and simmer.  Add sweetcorn, and milk from haddock.  Take some of the bits out of the soup and reserve.  Zizz the remainder.  Add the bits back into the soup and add a flaked fish and a dollop of cream.  Victims had seconds, then some additional victims dropped by and enjoyed it too.