Tuesday 30 June 2015

Kedgeree For Sunday Brunch

This week I experienced my first ever work appraisal. Having been in catering for 30 years it's not something any establishment I've worked in has done, but I found the experience to be a good one and, from it, I took new enthusiasm.
One of the questions was what I liked or disliked about my job. My main like was menu planning, and the fact that I have freedom to change our lunchtime menu weekly. It keeps me motivated, stops the boredom and increases my knowledge of new foods.
One of my dislikes was cooking breakfasts! Bit of a hard one that considering the amount of breakfasts I cook weekly. But the challenge of cooking, watching for burnt toast, overdone eggs, then putting several different elements on a plate at one time can be an extremely hard, tedious and boring daily job.
After discussing my dislike with Kate she suggested looking into breakfast specials to keep my motivation going, especially on a Sunday when we serve brunch all day long.
With this in mind I took to Pinterest, my trusted idea search website to look for inspiration.
So I typed in 'Breakfast' and amongst many ideas that appeared was the dish Kedgeree.
I loved the sound of it so looked further for some good recipes.  

Smoked Haddock Kedgeree
Brunch at The Nook On The Square

I don't have many memories of school, especially not good ones, but I have a distant memory of making Kedgeree once and remembered it contained rice, fish and eggs. Oh yes and the rice was yellow!!!
Looking now into the origin of Kedgeree I was interested to learn that it is of Indian origin, so contains spices, and, it seems, the addition of smoked haddock and boiled eggs appeared when the dish came to England. It is a dish enjoyed hot or cold.
I took a little of each recipe I looked at and here is my version of the mixed rice dish.
All components were cooked first then put together in a pan as and when a customer ordered it.
Below I have fragrant basmati rice, cooked with a couple of teaspoons of turmeric in the water to change the colour from white to yellow, cooked and flaked smoked haddock, boiled eggs, finely chopped red onion and fresh tomato and a pot of blended spices and herbs.

Ingredients for Kedgeree
 
With all ingredients prepared I melted a knob of butter in my pan with a handful of red onion, tomato and a teaspoon of my blended herbs and spices.
After cooking for a few minutes I added a portion of rice. The rice seemed to stick to the pan so  I added more butter and a little water although, after more research into the dish, next time I would add a little cream at this point.
 
 
Fry the onion and tomato on butter.
 
 
With the rice sizzling nicely I added the haddock and boiled eggs. 
 
 
Kedgeree cooking in the pan
 
As soon as all the ingredients were hot to touch, over 75° if you have a thermometer I served into a warm bowl with a small dish of natural yoghurt.   
 
 
 
 
Smoked Haddock Kedgeree
Brunch at The Nook On The Square


Decorated with chopped coriander, wedge of lemon and a sprinkling of cumin on the yoghurt this was a welcome addition to the Sunday Brunch menu last week at The Nook.
Looking now for more breakfast ideas, what's your favourite?


Brunch at The Nook On The Square
Smoked Haddock Kedgeree

Ingredients for this lovely dish for 2 people are:

1lb Cooked and flaked Smoked Haddock
8oz Fragrant Basmati Rice, cooked in couple teaspoons of turmeric to turn yellow
3 Hard Boiled Eggs
Knob butter
1/4 Pint Cream
Salt & Pepper to Taste.

Herbs and Spices Blended In Processor:
Small Red Chilli
Clove Garlic
1ins  Ginger
Handful Coriander
1 Tbsp Curry Powder
1/2 Squeezed Lemon Juice


LINKING UP THIS WEEK WITH:
Tasty Tuesdays
Foodie Friday and Everything Else

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