As usual I left my packing for our holiday to the last minute (despite a staggering amount of list making the week prior), so supper this Friday needed to be quick, tasty & use up the vacuum pack of hot smoked salmon I brought for my sister’s birthday party & didn’t use. The solution proved delicious, a version of Kedgeree that was as good to eat as it was easy to prepare. It is also a fantastic way to make not very much salmon go a long way....
Kedgeree was created by the English in India during the Raj. It is a mildly spiced mixture of rice, eggs & poached smoked fish, usually smoked haddock. Generally served as a breakfast dish, it would have been prepared & served by servants into a lovely silver chafing dish, sitting on a Victorian sideboard already groaning with food, just the ticket to sustain a thrusting young East India Company man before he trekked off to an exhausting couple of hours at the office.
I have a distinct lack of servants, sideboards or chafing dishes, so my not terribly authentic recipe ( I was making it up as I went along, never having actually eaten Kedgeree before!) was instead served up to my husband & sister for supper. Hot smoked salmon is my favourite smoked fish, and eliminates the poaching, making this a very quick supper, even if your kitchen staff are on their hols & you have to cook yourself.....
Kedgeree Serves 3-4
1 onion
Splash oil
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp turmeric
Pinch cayenne pepper or chilli powder
Good grind of black pepper
200 grams basmati rice
500 ml chicken or vegetable stock, heated ( I just bung a jug in the microwave)
3 eggs
4 chopped spring onions
1 cup frozen peas
250 gram hot smoked salmon (or used any smoked fish you like
Handful chopped coriander or parsley
In a large frying pan melt the butter and oil together over a medium-low heat. Peel & finely chop the onion, and add to the pan with the salt. Stir and cook for 5 minutes until the onion is soft. Add the cumin, coriander, turmeric and chilli, stir and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the rice, stirring to coat with the onion oil spice mixture, then pour in your stock, stirring to combine. Cover with a lid (or foil if your frying pan has no lid) and leave to cook on low for 10 minutes
Meanwhile put your eggs into a saucepan of water & bring to the boil. Boil for 7 minutes then drain & pour over cold water. Peel the eggs and slice into quarters.
After your rice has been cooking for 10 minutes, add the chopped spring onions, peas and half the coriander, stir through the rice, which will still be quite wet, cover again & cook another 10-15 minutes. When the rice is tender but not mushy, add the eggs & smoked salmon, gently folding through the rice mixture with two forks. Cover with a teatowel, then a lid (or foil) & leave to sit for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with the remaining coriander and serve
It is actually quite a light meal, but sustaining at the same time, with a lovely smoky gentle spice. Very elegant with a glass of bubbly for brunch, and a whole lot easier to prepare then eggs Benedict!
I am writing this from our hotel in Fiji. We arrived to gray skies and pouring rain, which thankfully have stopped, I have already finished one book, and am about to start number two. This is the view from the patio, I can hear palm trees swaying in the breeze and behind me, the insistant, profoundly irritaing twang of a games machine .......
But the best bit of the trip so far? Besides the in room Playstation? Mr PK just discovered the Sky channel in our room is playing Chelsea v Liverpool at 5am tomorrow morning. We can watch football on holiday without even getting out of bed. Wish you were here??
