Hi, I'm Rich Harris, and welcome back to my brunch series.
In this episode, I'm showing you my classic British brunch dish.
It's my Kedgeree with a soft duck egg.
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I've got some Basmati rice, really fragrant, really light, and has a great texture.
It's going to go into the pan.
You'll notice that it's in a sieve, because it's been washed really thoroughly.
You want to wash your rice two or three times and keep washing until the water runs clear.
That's going to get rid of any excess starch from the bag and make the rice really fluffy
and light.
My tip for the perfect rice is two parts rice to three parts water.
So, you pour the water in, the pan nice and hot, and you'll notice the water's just covering
it.
This is what as known as the absorption method.
You're not going to be left with any water, you're not going to have to drain the rice,
it's just going to steam perfectly and be perfectly cooked.
A good pinch of salt, for flavor, is going to help to season the rice.
As soon as the rice comes to a boil, put the lid on, turn it down to the lowest temperature
possible for ten minutes, and then leave it for ten minutes.
That's it.
Really, really simple.
Set the rice to the side on a low heat, and then start with the fish.
I've got some milk in pan here and some smoked haddock.
I'm using undyed natural smoked haddock, not that stuff that's been painted with that horrible
yellow dye, so it has a really lovely natural flavor.
All I've done is I've taken a sharp knife and just cut a little pocket in between the
flesh and the skin.
That's going to help to remove the skin once it's cooked.
It makes it a lot easier.
So just lay that in.
It only needs to be barely covered.
Then some black peppercorns, just going to infuse the milk and give it some flavor, and
then just a bay leaf for an extra bit of flavor.
For a full list of ingredients check out the description box.
Now leave that to poach slowly for about five minutes until the fish is just cooked.
What we need to do now is to melt some butter.
When the butter is foaming, add one chopped onion and one green chili that's been de seeded
and finely chopped.
Cook this really, really gently.
We don't want to fry this hard and get loads of color on it, just nice and soft and gentle.
The whole dish needs to be a really beautiful kind of soft amalgamation of this lovely chili,
the spices, and the smoked fish.
So just keep cooking those for about three to four minutes until it gets really lovely
and soft.
Just a little tip at this stage: you want to cook these onions and chili with no cover.
You'll often see a lot of recipes that say to sweat the garlic, onions, and chilies with
no cover.
A really good way to ensure you do that is just to add a pinch of salt about a minute
into cooking.
What that salt will do is draw out all the natural liquid within the chilies, garlic,
onions, whatever you're frying, and kind of help to steam them in the pan.
It stops them from coloring.
The onions and chili are now really lovely and soft, so I'm going to add a curry powder
into this.
You don't have to use a really hot curry powder, just something really nice and fragrant.
It's really important that you toast off your spices.
That's going to release all of the natural flavors and all of the oils within the spices
and really enhance the flavor.
A couple of cardamom pods; just take the flat blade of a knife and squash them slightly.
That's just going to help release the flavor.
Now fry for another minute, just to infuse the butter.
It can just come off the heat for a second while we take care of the fish.
Now the fish, if we just get a fish slice underneath, a great way of telling if its
cooked is just to try and puts some pressure underneath it and it should just start to
fall apart.
See where it's flaking, so we know that it's cooked.
Transfer it to a plate and then flip it over so we can remove the skin.
Now, if you haven't got asbestos hands like me, just leave it to cool for a bit longer.
I'm just going to go straight in.
That pocket that we made earlier makes it really easy to pull the skin away.
So these duck eggs have been cooked for 6 minutes and then just run under cold water
which will stop them from cooking.
Just give them a tap all over, just to break the shells.
Remember that duck egg shells are quite tough as well, so you need to work quite hard with
them, and then give them a bit of a roll.
That's going to help them to break quite evenly.
Take your bowl of water, drop the egg in, and then peel it under water.
What you'll find is that the water gets in between the membrane and the shell and makes
it much easier to peel.
I can tell that's it's going to be runny inside, because if you give it a bit of a squish it's
quite bouncy.
You can feel it has liquid inside and that's exactly what you're looking for.
This might seem a bit of a labor intensive thing to do but it really is worth it.
You can actually even do this a day before and just cling form them and put them in the
fridge.
So, the rice is ready, it's just been sitting for 10 minutes steaming, and it's really important
you don't lift the lid at any point because there's still steam just working its magic
in there.
There we are.
Take a fork and run it through the grains to fluff it up.
If your rice is cooked perfectly there should be no water in the bottom of the pan.
Add the rice to our spicy base and stir through, so the rice gets a really lovely even coating
of all those nice spices.
Now at this stage, add a couple more cubes of butter.
That's going to give everything a nice gloss and shine and just enrich the flavor of the
rice.
Keep stirring until all the grains of rice are coated in that lovely fragrant spice mixture.
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Alright, there we are.
A good pinch of salt, and this point, take it off the heat because everything is now
cooked.
Take the fish and flake the fish straight into the rice.
This does work really well with other smoked fish as well, some nice smoked mackerel, some
smoked salmon, or even cod.
Finally, finish it with some chopped parsley.
I think kedgeree is one of those really lovely comforting brunch dishes, and you can serve
it to the table in one big pan and just let everyone get stuck in.
In with the parsley, then just stir everything together, but be quite gentle so you don't
break up the fish.
Alright!
Ready to serve up, just take a serving plate and give a nice generous person.
After all, you're combining lunch and breakfast here.
Take one of your duck eggs and cut it through the middle with all that lovely runny yolk
inside.
A little sprinkle of salt, and then a wedge of lemon.
So there we have it, my Kedgeree with a soft duck egg.
Absolutely delicious.
But don't just take my word for it; come in, Yvonne, come have a little taste.
Grab a fork
and dig in.
We'll get a verdict now.
Pretty damn good.
That's okay, yeah?
Alright, so we've got the seal of approval, and if you've enjoyed this recipe, I look
forward to seeing you back in the kitchen again soon for another one of my brunch series.
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