This dish is full of strong tastes and big chunks, which makes it much more interesting than the standard recipe, where every mouthful tastes much the same. Smoked dyed haddock is the traditional fish ingredient but in the past I have successfully mixed together white fish, salmon and mackerel. Thin fillets don’t really work. Nor do kippers. Serve with crunchy garlic bread. NB remember to take photographs next time we cook it, and add them here
We cook in two pans and serve from one of them. You will also need a baking tray and grill for the garlic bread.
Cooking time = 5+15 minutes (or the time it takes for your favourite rice to cook). The secret of good timing is to decide when you want to eat then count backwards, starting each ingredient at its individual cooking time. Then everything is ready at once, which is as it should be. In our house the rice takes longest so is started first.
These quantities feed two people. If you are feeding a houseful, double up, and up again, and use bigger pans.
- 3 heaped palmfuls of rice – I use a mixture of Basmati and Camargue red, for colour and texture
- 12 oz smoked haddock (the yellow dye makes the finished dish colourful)
- butter and olive oil
- the bottom half of a red onion
- 5 or 6 small shallots
- 5 or 6 chestnut mushrooms
- two eggs
- fresh parsley, salt and black pepper, 2 teasp lemon juice
- garlic pickle
- two soft long white rolls or a stale baguette
Optional variations:
- a level teaspoon of garam masala fried with the shallots (enough to not quite taste it) OR
- a dessertspoon of chopped capers or cornichons stirred in at the end OR
- a spoonful (start small) of garlic pickle, for dipping or – once you know you will like it – stirred in at the end