Cat Food

Octopus Salad @ Tia Pol

Stopped for a snack on my way home the other night. Tia Pol has the best tapas and they didn't disappoint. Octopus medallions, fingerling potatoes and shaved baby beets in a light onion vinaigrette. Yum.

Cullen Skink Revisited!

Well, it's been a few days of nasty cold damp weather and I thought I'd make a big pot of soup! Oh yeah ... I still don't really have a proper working stove. DAMN!

For those of you out there who are thinking it's soup weather too why don't you try a nice hearty recipe for a Scottish favorite and let me know how it turns out. I have to cook vicariously through you till the new stove comes in!

Cullen Skink ... or Haddock Chowder

This Just In ...

"At the thought of a kedgeree made with smoked haddock and plenty of hard-boiled eggs, English eyes grow dreamy and the smell of an English country house dining room at breakfast time...comes back to tease and tantalize."

Thus wrote Elizabeth David in Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen. Our Wandering Scotsman has sent us the recipe he uses for this great UK favorite. It's traditionally eaten for breakfast but here in the states we'd probably be more interested in it come supper time.

Buttery Kedgeree
Serves 4

Ingredients
8 oz. Long-grain white rice
16 oz. hot liquid from cooking fish (see below)
1½ lb. thick smoked haddock fillets*
4 oz. Butter
1 onion, chopped
¾ tsp. hot curry powder (Madras)
3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled & chopped
3 heaping Tbs. chopped fresh parsley
1 Tbs. lemon juice
Salt & pepper to taste

Method
1) Place haddock in a sauté pan and cover with 1 pint of water. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 8 - 10 minutes. Drain the fish, saving the cooking liquid and keep fish warm while preparing the rice.
2) Take the same pan and sauté the onion in half the butter until softened and then add the curry powder and lightly toast.
3) Add the rice and 16 oz of the cooking liquid from the haddock to above and give it a little stir. Cover and allow it to come to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for about 15 minutes till rice is tender.
4) While rice is cooking flake the reserved haddock with a fork.
5) When rice is done add the flaked fish, eggs, parsley, lemon juice and the remaining butter.
6) Toss it all to combine and warm and tip out onto a warmed platter.

*I myself have made this dish on a number of occasions and I've been using some fantastic smoked trout that I find at Whole Foods Market instead of the haddock. It's also nice if you add a tablespoon or two of cream at the very end to give it a more luxurious sauce.