I wrote about kedgeree a while ago, and now I have shortcut, and it comes from Simon Hopkinson. Gasp.
I would never have expected it from him, but there you go. His books are full of things I'd love to eat but would never cook. Buckets of cream, stern instructions, a general expectation of ingredients individually wrapped in crisp paper packages by knowing artisan sellers...And above all, the assumption that if you want good food, you must cook it carefully, slowly and well, and behave as if you have no children, deadlines, or arteries.
Which makes for great reading, but, you know.
The man is also on TV. Where he is a calm, ever so slightly dull voice amidst the hysterical babble. No flirting with the camera, no licking of fingers, no jumping madly from hob to oven while chucking harissa, herbs, miso and vanilla at some poor unsuspecting piece of fish.
So behold my amazement when he starts to make kedgeree (min. 16)and instead of poaching the smoked haddock first and using the stock to make the rice, he put the whole piece of fish directly into the pot. Marvelous. No wonder he is often referred to as Saint Simon of Hopkinson.
You can see my recipe here, like I used to make it. Simply ignore the first bit and jump into cooking the rice. If you want to make it the normal way, and not as a risotto, simply use the same amount of water as you would of rice, and let the rice steam a few minutes, off the hob, so it's fluffier.
Spanish readers: please someone try this with salt cod and let me know how it goes.
