Lindsay Bareham’s Kedgeree Recipe
Kedgeree is a traditional British dish that makes for a delicious breakfast, brunch or supper option. Rice, smoked haddock, curry powder, turmeric topped with hard boiled eggs make this a hearty meal.
Cooking on a shoestring budget is actually not so bad. It forces you to assess the ingredients of your freezers and cupboards and to utilise them in the tastiest possible way. With just a few choice spices and some dried produce stored in dusty old jars, you can make a really a substantial meal that doesn’t taste meagre.
Kedgeree is one of my favourite rice dishes that uses very few ingredients. The name is derived from an Indian dish called khichri which is thought to be over 1000 years old. Khichri was traditionally served with rice and lentils, sometimes sultanas, chopped mint and minced lamb, but, cooked for the British colonials in India during the late 19th Century, it evolved into something quite different. Kedgeree later become a breakfast staple for the wealthy British household for whom the first meal of the day was the most important.
At first glance, if you take a look at some of the ingredients, hard boiled eggs and smoked fish, it does seem like a traditional breakfast. Then look again: curry powder? basmati rice? When was the last time I had curry and rice for breakfast (oh, now I remember…our last Indian takeaway leftovers slapped between two slices of bread)?
Those hardy (and wealthy) Edwardians also ate devilled kidneys for breakfast. The lower classes, of course, had to make do with oatmeal. Todays breakfast palate is a little more (or is that less?) refined. Cereal and toast keep the vast majority of us satisfied until lunch, and so kedgeree was relegated to a supper dish instead.
This is no bad thing. A well made, well flavoured kedgeree made with undyed smoked haddock, heavily scented with a hot curry powder, enveloped with cream and parsley is a wonderful thing and is perfect for lunch or supper.
I have long tinkered with this dish, using various different recipes. The first one I tried was from Nigella Bites. She substituted the smoked fish for a more delicate salmon (and Eliza Acton suggested plain boiled fish herself in Modern Cookery for Private Families), exchanged risotto rice instead for basmati and toned down the spices, spritzing the finished dish liberally with lime juice. I found myself adding more and more salt to try and extract some flavour from her recipe but it wasn’t giving it up without a fight. A good tablespoon of curry powder later and I was satisfied although I knew there was more to kedgeree than this bland rendition.
Another, more traditional version was Tamasin Day-Lewis’ although I still found myself adding more seasoning. I loved the addition of hard-boiled quail eggs though and the chopped parsley is essential. Some cream adds a luxurious touch.
I was beginning to think it was me. Perhaps I was demanding more flavour than this dish was capable of. But, logically thinking, this was a dish coming from the days of Raj, when formerly lily-livered Brits were experimenting with hot curries and unusual spices. Surely the bland rice, hardboiled eggs and cream sauce could more than adequately cope with more curry? My culinary prayers were answered by Lindsay Bareham and her wonderful book, the Fish Store.
Lindsay Barehams’ version is, in my opinion, the definitive recipe. It does involve utilising at least three of your hotplates at any one time (one to boil eggs, one to boil rice and one to simmer the fish, and that’s before you need a final hotplate to make the sauce) but, if you break down all the elements of the dish one by one, it is quite simple but very, very special.
What makes Barehams’ recipe so different is that it uses a tablespoon of curry powder which is stirred into butter and onions with some flour to form a roux. This is then turned into a rich, creamy sauce with the addition of the poaching liquor, thus infusing the whole dish with its bold flavours.
I had a slight case of the heretics myself and added a handful of frozen peas to the sauce, primarily for the reason that I was out of parsley. Not the same taste I realise, but it did give a much needed ‘green’ element to the dish.
It seems a shame that kedgeree is not as well loved as it was in the early 20th century. It is a nutritious dish, filling and tasty. It is also, because of its Indian roots, a delightfully British dish that deserves to be rediscovered.
Customise your Kedgeree
Whilst smoked haddock is a unique flavour all of its own, it is not always easy to find outside of the UK and Europe. As Nigella Lawson suggests, you can use salmon which is a much different flavour, but similar(ish) texture, but without the smoked flavour.
- You can omit the eggs if you can’t be bothered or don’t/can’t eat them.
- You could use risotto rice instead of basmati, but you may need to adjust the cooking times.
- Make it vegan by omitting the fish and egg, and replacing the milk with dairy-free. Try adding jackfruit for a fish-substitute and adding some liquid smoke to oomph up the flavour.
KEDGEREE
INGREDIENTS
- 300 g Basmati rice
- 2 Eggs Hard boiled
- 300 g Smoked haddock preferably undyed if you can get it
- 300 ml Milk
- 1 Bay leaf
- 5 Peppercorns
- 50 g Butter
- 1 Onion medium, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon Curry powder
- ½ cup Frozen peas
- 1 tbsp Parsley Chopped
- 100 ml Double cream
- 1 Lemon juice
- Salt and Pepper to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
- Hard boil your eggs to the level of doneness that you like. I prefer my yolks to be barely set and a bit jammy.
- These can be boiled in advance and kept unpeeled in the fridge until you are ready for them.
- Place the rice into a large pan and cover with 450ml of cold water. Bring up to the boil then turn down to the lowest setting and cover.
- Leave for ten minutes then remove from the heat but leave covered for another 10 minutes whilst you prep the haddock.
- Place the haddock in a saucepan and cover with the milk.
- Throw in the bay leaf and peppercorns and simmer for five minutes or until the fish flakes easily.
- Once the fish is cooked, reserve the poaching milk.
- Flake the fish into a separate bowl, discarding any bone and the skin (my dogs ate the skin).
- In the same saucepan, melt the butter over a medium-low heat and sweat down the onions until they are completely soft and golden.
- Throw in the curry powder and flour and cook for a minute or two to get rid of the powdery taste.
- Pour in the strained poaching milk and bring to the boil.
- Add the frozen peas if using.
- Turn down to a gentle simmer, stirring until it thickens, then leave to cook gently for five minutes.
- Meanwhile, tip the rice into a large warm serving dish, breaking up any clumps with a fork.
- After five minutes, add the cream and flaked haddock to the sauce. Combine gently and taste for seasoning. Add lemon juice to taste. You may find you need some salt and pepper.
- Pour the sauce over the rice and mix carefully to avoid breaking up the flakes of fish.
- Sprinkle over the parsley and decorate with the hard boiled egg which you will have cut into quarters.
