Over a glass of nice red wine on Christmas day evening, I mentioned to my next door neighbour, that I’d made some Kedgeree for our Christmas lunch. I was surprised when he responded that Kedgeree is a Christmas dish. Not something that I had heard of before, in my mind I noted to find out more about the origins of Kedgeree.
I have always thought that it was an Anglo-Indian creation. Looking into it’s roots, it was originally a rice and legume dish called khichri often made of rice and lentils. The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb was fond of the Alamgiri Khichdi, a variety featuring fish and boiled eggs. The dish was brought to the United Kingdom by British colonial offices. The lentils ditched, served as a breakfast dish in Victorian times, that was part of the fashionable Anglo-Indian cuisine.
While I couldn’t find any evidence that it was specifically a Christmas dish, it seems to often feature in high status breakfast meals.
Here’s my take on the recipe. Depending on my mood sometime’s I substitute smoked haddock for hot smoked salmon. It’s makes the Kedgeree more smoky and the fish stays together. Given it was Christmas I thought that I would make a Wellington out of the dish. And on a whim at the end I added a good dollop of hot horse radish.
Here’s the recipe
For the fish
I smoked a side of Salmon that had been boned. You could use the more traditional Haddock. In which case poach in milk with a bay leaf and some pepper corns. Keep the cooking liquid and use to cook the rice later.
First take a container and in it, mix a large mug of salt with a large mug of dark molasses. The container needs to be big enough to take the salmon with plenty of water. Fill the container with very cold water and ensure the sugar and salt has dissolved before popping in an uncooked egg in it’s shell into the brine mixture. The egg should float and bob on the surface. If it does not then you need to add more salt and sugar and mix again. Remove the egg and slide your salmon into the brine and leave aside for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Remove the salmon and rinse under a cold tap. Do not pat dry, but place on a wire rack in the fridge for at least 12 hours before you smoke. When you remove from the fridge the salmon will have a lovely translucent sheen and you will know that the sugar and salt has done it’s job curing the fish.
My smoker is a square stainless steel box that I inherited when Pat, the father of a friend of mine died back in 2001. It’s nothing fancy. I place the salmon on a wire rack below which sits a steel tray that I heap oak shavings from wood working.
It all goes on the floor of the green house. To heat I use two baked bean cans that I have removed the top half of so that I have two cans into which I pour methylated spirit. Once the meths is lit the smoker sits on top.
I generally check after 5 or 10 minutes to make sure it’s working before leaving for an hour after which time I find beautiful aromas wafting out of my green house and when I open the box salmon glistening, dark brown and wonderful.
Ingredients
For the Kedgeree – makes a decent sized wellington
1 Onion sliced
170g rice – I use whole grain basmati
Fresh Ginger grated
1 Fat Clove Garlic
1 Red Chilli finely chopped
8 Cardamon pods, seeds removed
2 cloves
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp ground turmeric
Crushed Chilli flakes – to suit taste
Vegetable stock – if using haddock use the poaching liquid.
4 Boiled Eggs – Sliced
Unsalted butter
Hot horse raddish
Lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper
Puff Pastry – I used a Paul Hollywood recipe – no eggs
An Egg Beaten
Method
Heat some butter in a pan and fry the onions until browned and caramelised.
Crush the cardamon, cumin seeds and cloves in a pestle and mortar. Add to a pan on medium to low heat some butter, the crushed spices and fry for a few minutes to release the oils. Add the rice, ginger, garlic, turmeric, cinnamon, chilli flakes and chilli to the pan and continue to fry coating the rice in the mixture. After a few minutes add the stock to the pan and cover on a low heat. How much stock you use will depend on the amount of rice – as a general rule of thumb I use about 25% more than the volume of rice. Cover and allow the rice to cook on a very low heat. Once cooked I added some butter, horse radish, black pepper and lemon juice to balance the flavours. I did this last bit by taste. You could add some chopped parsley.
Once cooked leave everything to cool.
Heat your oven to 180C
Roll the pastry into a rectangle. Cover in the cooled rice. Add a line of smoked Salmon, the sliced eggs and onions. top with some more rice. Fold up and seal. Decorate and wash with the beaten egg.
Cook in the oven for 25/30 minutes until golden – I turned mine round in my fan oven half way through the cooking.
Leave for 5 minutes before serving.
I made a gravy from some dry sherry, some firery ginger beer, soy sauce and lemon juice with some flour to thicken.
We served ours with traditional vegetables and I was very pleased with the meal. This was one of those times when the level of effort was rewarded with an outcome that surpassed expectation, especially as it was mostly made up as I went along.
With the meal we drank some tart cider freshly made with apples from our orchard.
