Week 11: Cullen skink

There are times when you’ll be in a fancy restaurant and you’ll see the name of a dish that you don’t recognise, something along the lines of assiette of chocolate or squash velouté and you’ll wonder why they didn’t just call it a plate of chocolate or just a thick squash soup, respectively. This kind of thing I can kind of understand, however, because the former does sound a bit nicer than the latter. But sometimes, when travelling about this sceptred isle, I’ll go into a country pub for a lunch and be confronted with something on the chalkboard menu I’ve not heard of before, something ill-sounding and straight from the pages of Lord of the Rings, and this is the case with cullen skink.

I mean, the name cullen skink gives absolutely no clues at all about what it is; what’s more, rather than commending it as a dish worth ordering, the name cullen skink makes it sound distinctly unappetising and something more like a poisonous mushroom or a disease that afflicts badgers than the kind of thing you’d have while in a pub on the Scottish coast.

So, it’s with an adventurous spirit of discovery and curiosity that I embark upon this smoked haddock soup (sounds better already, no?), not too  dissimilar from a North American chowder, something we all know about and easy to find on the menu boards of Britain. A bit of rebranding required, perhaps?

Ingredients:

400g smoked haddock	700g floury potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
1 small onion, sliced	100ml single cream
1 bay leaf	Salt
A few peppercorns	2 spring onions, very finely sliced

Put the smoked haddock, sliced onion, bay leaf and peppercorns in a pan and cover with water. Heat and leave to simmer for about 10 minutes or until the fish is cooked. Remove it from the pan (keep the cooking liquid).

When the fish has cooled enough to handle, remove all the skins and bones (if not already done).  Flake and flesh and set on one side. Return the bones to the pan, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes longer to make stock; strain and measure it – you’ll need about 600-700ml. If you got your fish without the skin (which I reckon you probably did), pop a little fish stock into the mixture or, failing that, some veg stock. Top up with extra water if necessary when getting the liquid up to 600-700ml.

Put the stock and the potatoes into a clean pan and bring to the boil. Let them simmer until the potatoes are well cooked and just starting to break up a little, giving body to the liquid. Stir in the fish and head through. Taste and add more salt if desired; remember, the smoked fish may be quite salty already! Now, stir in the cream.

Divide between four bowls and scatter with the sliced spring onion and serve with some hot bread. A very tasty lunch or light dinner dish and perfect for seaside boozers.

Today’s learning:

What’s in a name? Cullen skink still tastes as good though called by any other name. And it is good.

Recipe taken from: Mason, L. & Paston-Williams, S. (2013) Grandma’s Cookbook: Recipes inspired by the National Trust. London: National Trust Books

Week 6: Smoked haddock and pancetta soufflé

Although there’s been a little gap since the last post, I think I’m just in time for my weekly challenge. On Sunday last I cooked a smoked haddock and pancetta soufflé – yes, a soufflé! But why the delay? Well, there was a slight issue of having a new kitchen fitted which caused the upheaval you see on the left and the reincarnation you also see (lower left) and which was the setting for this latest gastronomic experiment.

This recipe comes from MasterChef Everyday, a collection of tasty dishes which have been placed in a realm ranging from relatively easy (baked apples) to particularly tricky (rabbit ballotine and offal sausage, offal toasts, parsnip puree, radishes, and mustard cream sauce). So, opting for something never cooked before but possible to cook up in a new kitchen yet to be tried and tested, I opted for the soufflé. I couldn’t get any pancetta (only the local shop was open), so I used bacon instead. All-in-all a touch tricky but very good – fine starter dish. I had mixture left over so popped it in the fridge and ate it on the next day. It didn’t rise quite so well on the second day, but rise it still did and just as tasty it was too! This recipe makes 6.

Softened unsalted butter for greasing	1 small white onion, finely chopped
75g fine white breadcrumbs	225g undyed smoked haddock
75g parmesan cheese, finely grated	50g pancetta (or bacon!)
300ml whole milk (semi-skimmed also fine)	2 tsp chopped chervil (I couldn’t get his)
2 sprigs of parsley	2 tsp chopped dill (or this, either)
1 bay leaf	Knob of unsalted butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper	40g plain flour
½ teaspoon of grated nutmeg	40g butter
Zest of ½ a lemon	4 large eggs, separated

Pre-heat the oven to 190ᵒc, pour water into a roasting tin to 2cm depth and butter the inside of 6 ramekins. Combine the breadcrumbs and parmesan and coat the insides of the ramekins – there’s plenty of mixture so you can have about 5mm or more of breadcrumbs and parmesan at the bottom of the ramekin. Pop in the fridge until needed.

Put the milk, parsley, bay leaf, pepper, nutmeg, lemon zest and onion into a wide pan. Bring to a gentle simmer and then lay the haddock in the milk. Cover with a lid and poach for 5-10 minutes. When the fish is ready, it’ll break apart easily. Set aside to cool a bit and then, removing skin and any bones, flake the fish apart with a fork.

Meanwhile, sauté the pancetta/bacon in butter for 5 minutes and then drain on kitchen paper.
Strain the milk for the poached fish through a sieve, discarding parsley and bay leaf but keeping the rest. Mix the fish, onion mix, pancetta, etc. and the chopped herbs (if used) together.

Make a roux with the butter and flour and then slowly add the milk, stirring as you go. Heat gently for 10 minutes to thicken up. Whisk in the egg yolks and then add the fish mixture, stirring it in. Season to taste.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks. Put a spoonful of the whites into the fish mix to loosen it, then fold in the remainder. Divide the mixture between the ramekins and smooth over the top. Place in the prepared roasting tin and cook for 15-20 minutes / until they’re golden on top. Serve immediately!

Today’s learning:
The soufflé business itself is fairly straight forward – just whipping up of eggs and folding in some tasty ingredients and popping into a buttered ramekin.  Try it with different mixes although the haddock infused milk is particularly good.

Recipe taken from: BBC Masterchef (2012) MasterChef Everyday. London: Dorling Kindersley Limited