Thank you, Uncle Frank : much appreciated !
** Phil.
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Incidentally, I thought I'd check the recipes in the books I have available, and try to identify the recurring themes. These seem to be (on the basis of three samples) very limited. although the first two clearly have more in common with each other than with the third ... All of those analysed in the table are from authentic Indian sources, and none make any mention of fish, egg or parsley : Constance Spry, on the other hand, clearly describes what most English people would think of as "kedgeree", but also gives useful tips on how the dish is served in India : "[C]oloured a delicate yellow with turmeric, and has thin strips of chilli pepper and green ginger in the rice, the whole garnished with crisply fried onions and hard-boiled eggs. The cream is left out."
| Rice | Rice | Rice |
| Lentils | Lentils | Lentils |
| Ghee | Ghee | Ghee |
| Salt | Salt | Salt |
| Onion | Onion | --- |
| Garlic | Garlic | --- |
| Ginger | Ginger | --- |
| Cloves | Cloves | --- |
| Cardamom | Cardamom | --- |
| Allspice | --- | --- |
| Turmeric | --- | --- |
| --- | Cumin | Cumin |
| --- | --- | Garam Masala |
| --- | --- | Fresh Coriander |
... and now I've splashed my (previously unsullied) Constance Spry, with turmeric and ghee of all things. D@mn
[Later] OK, so it's cooked, eaten, and the remainder put away for lunch tomorrow. Verdict : "not bad". I was very light-handed with my spicing, and had to augment it virtually at the last minute, and would probably use maybe 1 1/2 times as much in the future. Recipe, for what it's worth, as follows :
- 1 cup basmati rice, thoroughly washed and then cooked in a small excess of water in the microwave oven for 12 minutes, then allowed to stand with the lid on for about an hour.
- 1 piece of pre-cooked un-dyed smoked haddock.
- 2 hard-boiled free-range eggs
- 1 large shallot
- A little julienne of ginger, and one Chinese dried red chilli cut into thin strips
- Some ghee
- A little kala jeera
- A little turmeric
- A little CA curry masala
- About eight elachi seeds (inner, not pods)
- A few small fragments of Indian bay
- A few grinds of rock salt
- A sprinkling of frozen parsley, rubbed between the fingers.
I melted the ghee on a low heat (20%), added the shallot (cut into very small pieces), added the turmeric, gave it all a good stir, added the cardamom seeds, the chilli strips, the Indian bay, the julienne of ginger, the curry masala, gave it all another good stir and left it to gently bhoon for a few minutes; the smell was very pleasant, due (I think) mainly to the kala jeera. I then added one desert-bowl of the cooked rice, gave it another good stir, added the pre-flaked and skinned haddock, further good stir, half the egg (pre-sliced), and most of the parley, a final stir and then put the lid on. When it had had time to warm through, I tasted it and found it definitely needed salt, so gave it a half-a-dozen grinds of rock salt. That was much better, but still lacking, so in a separate small saucepan I melted some further ghee and then gently bhooned a flat teaspoon of g/g paste and a flat teaspoon of Rajah hot Madras curry powder. Kept stirring until the bubbles started to appear, added a little ground rock salt, then added the spice-laden ghee to the kedgeree that was still in the wok. Gently worked the ghee and spices into the kedgeree, garnished with the remaining hard-boiled egg slices and served. Forgot to garnish with the remaining parsley !
Improvements for next time : grind the elachi (no liquid, so seeds don't soften), increase the Chinese chilli content (very mild), increase spicing by a factor of about 1.5
Topic: Kedgeree, anyone ? (Read 5244 times)
