On page 50 of Irish Country Cooking by Malachi McCormick  is Kedgeree, the ingredients for which are basically long-grain white rice, turmeric, smoked fish, and hardboiled eggs.   On page 49 is Poached Finnan Haddie.  On page 51 is Fried Brown Trout.

 

 

 

How can a culture that makes Beef Tea and Mutton Pie simultaneously invite rice and turmeric into its pantry?  - And make it an Irish menu standard, right there between the recipes for milk-poached smoked fish and fish fried in butter?

Kedgeree is delicious, not unlike Rijstaffel without all the trappings.  The English went to India, tasted a rice and lentil dish called Kchichri,  and brought it back as Kedgeree, which the Irish then borrowed; the Dutch went to Indonesia and brought back Rijstaffel.  (Apparently, Indonesians wiped the Rijstaffel slate clean when the Dutch left; it was too obvious a reminder of the colonization.) Plunked down in the middle of this cookbook, Kedgeree is clearly a cultural detour, another good example of how foods can be footprints, sometimes the only ones left, of a culture’s voyages (if not colonizing).

The recipe called for smoked haddock, but I used hot-smoked salmon - the chunky kind as opposed to the sleek “lox” kind.  The salmon is poached in milk, which makes it softer and less salty.  This unites the dish, adding a richness and heft to the rice that doesn’t scream of smoked fish.  The pink color is also beautiful with the yellows of the rice and eggs.

It would be beautiful in an Easter brunch.

 

Kedgeree

Ingredients

1 cup long-grain white rice

1 1/2 cups cold water

1 teaspoon turmeric

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon white pepper

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 pound poached smoked salmon or haddock

2 cups of milk or enough to cover the fish

1/2 onion, sliced

4 hard-boiled eggs

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

 

Instructions

Begin with the fish.  Rinse it under cold water, and then place it in a shallow pan.  Cover with milk and some onion slices, and simmer very gently for fifteen minutes, or until softened.  Drain, reserving a half-cup of milk.

Put the rice, water and turmeric into a saucepan that has a tight-fitting lid.  Bring the water to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer the rice for 17 minutes.

When the rice is done, take it off the heat.  In a separate saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.  When melted, add the cooked rice, the peppers and mix.

Flake the salmon or haddock.  Add this to the rice mixture and still in well.

Shell the hard-boiled eggs and cut them in eighths lengthwise.  Remove the yolks, crumble them, and set them aside.  Add the chopped whites of the eggs to the rice, and stir gently.

Put the saucepan back on the stove and heat until the mixture is very hot.  If it all seems too dry, you may add some of the milk left from the fish poaching to moisten it.

Serve hot in bowls with crumbled egg yolks and parsley over the top.