On Friday night, while doing some shopping for my mother at Tesco, I decided I’d like to buy some diced lamb to make a curry over the weekend. Alas, I could not see or find any evidence of such lamb available neither in the fresh meat or frozen food section. I was a bit surprised and disappointed but wondered if it I was just not being attentive enough or perhaps the universe was telling me that I needed to eat more less meat. And more fish…because I ended up buying three bags of frozen fish – haddock, cod and basa fillets. Then having bought some wildly overpriced eggs, I decided that I would make kedgeree over the weekend.

Saturday afternoon, after a lie-in and a shower, I made my way down to the kitchen, listened to my latest audiobook (Jojo Moyes – Somebody Else’s Shoes 👠) and put together this dish, which turned out very nice. Smooth, creamy, a little kick of pepper to liven things up, and luscious chunks of fish and egg.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 3 onions (2 halved and thinly sliced, 1 finely chopped)
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 350g (12oz) smoked haddock fillets
• 280g cod fillets
• 250g (9oz) basmati rice
• 3 cardamon pods, split
• 1/2 cinnamon stick, about 3cm (1 1/4 in) long
• 1/2 tsp tumeric
• 2 large eggs
• 30g (1oz) butter
• 100 ml creme fraiche
• 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh coriander
• cayenne pepper, to taste
• juice of 1/2 lemon

Instructions

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil and fry the sliced onions. Season with salt and pepper, drain on kitchen paper, and set aside in a warm place. Put the haddock and cod, skin side down, in a large frying pan and pour over enough water to just cover. Simmer, covered, over a low heat for 5 – 8 minutes until opaque and cooked through. Remover from the heat. Drain the fish and discard any skin and bones. Set aside.
2. Prepare the rice. Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a large, non-stick, deep-sided frying pan or sauté pan. Add the chopped onion, cardamom pods, and cinnamon and fry over a medium-high heat until the onion is golden, about 5 minutes. Stir the drained rice into the onion pan. Pour in 450 ml (15 floz) cold water and stir in the turmeric. Bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low, stir, cover, and cook for 12 – 15 minutes or until the water is absorbed. Take the rice off the heat and let it stand, covered, for 5 minutes before fluffing up the grains with a fork. Boil, peel, and quarter the eggs.
3. Flake the fish into large pieces. Remove the cinnamon stick from the rice and carefully stir in the butter, creme fraiche, coriander, fish, and eggs. Season with salt and cayenne pepper, and add the lemon juice. Heat through over a low heat, stirring gently once or twice only so you don’t break up the fish. Serve the kedgeree with the warm crispy onion on top.

I’ve made this dish plenty of times before, but never with crispy onions on the top. Turns out they were quite the perfect addition. Also I think I might add that to my culinary repertoire, just so nice! In the evening when Ignacio came home I warmed up his portion for him and I made myself a cheese, roasted pepper bagel with added crispy onions, yup, bagel 🥯 heaven. There are two more containers of this kedgeree left in the fridge, which will make for some easy meals over then next 24 hours.

The other thing that was great about this dish was that I overcame my fear of cooking rice, a little. My new found fear of cooking rice is quite silly and unnatural, given I grew up in a Nigerian household and was cooking it perfectly fine before I left my parents home. But somehow I lost the skill and sometimes my rice is good and sometimes most definitely not! I did indulge myself and buy a rice cooker at the end of last year and I was able then to create perfect little bowls of white rice 🍚 that I could only dream of before. With recipe, I followed the instructions and the rice came out perfect, soft and fluffy.

Reference: Mary Berry Cooks the Perfect page 174