Holly’s mum, Sally makes an awesome Boxing Day Kedgeree. It’s seems the perfect antidote to all that Christmas Day Stodge, the smell of it wafting up through the house is a great way to wake up and it’s a welcome relief to let someone else do the cooking.
It is said that the dish was brought back from India during colonial times and it has since become the must have breakfast for boxing day, if you don’t believe me try going into your fishmonger on christmas eve and asking for smoked haddock, as my chap said” You’re lucky, the middle classes have nearly bought it all for their Kedgeree”.
Here’s Sally’s story….
Delia was really the first ‘celebrity’ chef that I tapped into (maybe the only one) and when her books came out, Part One in 1978 / Two in ’79 and Three in ’81 they became my Bible.
It is because you could TRUST her, and as a ‘non instinctive’ cook, I needed that guiding hand post ‘Christmas’ which was often seventeen people for lunch. So come Boxing Day, with those that stayed over, including my hangover, a recipe that was not going to fail was exactly what I needed.
In those days there was none of this ‘undyed haddock’ nonsense…..I like mine bright yellow, so everyone knows they are eating smoked haddock! And of course there is the butter, and my love of the stuff, this is called Buttery Kedgeree and you can never have too much butter!
The Buttery Kedgeree
- 700g smoked haddock fillets
- 75g salted butter
- 1 white onion, chopped
- 8fl oz long grain white rice on a measuring jug
- ½ tsp curry powder, hot or mild, it’s up to you
- 3 hard boiled eggs, left to cool
- 3 heaped tsps finely chopped parsley
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- Salt and freshly milled black pepper
The Method
Serve hot or cold with crusty bread and lemon on the side
