Sluttishly Savoury: Thai Style Kedgeree

Now I know Kedgeree is traditionally eaten for breakfast/brunch (and hailed as a great cure for hangovers) but for me it's always been a supper dish. I really love this take on it, the fresh Thai flavours of coriander, chilli and ginger work so beautifully with the smoky fish. It's cheap, easy to make and perfect for piling onto a big serving platter and letting everyone dive in.

Ingredients: (serves 6)

• 3 smoked haddock fillets (undyed is much nicer)
• 1 thumb sized piece of ginger, sliced
• 500g Basmati rice
• 80g butter
• 1 onion - chopped
• 5 chopped spring onions (keep the white separate from the green)
• 1 tablespoon mild curry powder
• 6 eggs
• 1 tomato 
• bunch of fresh coriander
• handful of fresh chives
• 2 finely sliced fresh chillies
• ground pepper
• fresh limes

Make it!

1. Put your fish in a sauté pan with the ginger and cover with water. Bring to a simmer for about 4 minutes then turn off the heat and let the fish sit in the hot water to cook.
2. Put your rice into a big bowl or saucepan and cover with cold water. Put you hand in and scrunch the rice for about 30 seconds then drain and repeat a couple of times. Leave the rice sitting in clean water.
3. Gently fry the onion, ginger and the white bit of the spring onions in half the butter in a large heavy based saucepan for a few minutes to soften then add the curry powder and cook for 1 minute. Drain your rice then add it to the onion and give it a good mix.
4. Remove the cooked fish from the hot water and pour 1 litre of the strained poaching water into the rice. Stir then put a very tight fitting lid on and turn the heat to maximum. It's really important that you do not remove the lid (until stage 6 ). Once the rice water is boiling turn it immediately to its lowest heat setting possible and leave for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes turn the heat off completely and leave it to sit there and carry on cooking in its own heat.
5. Meanwhile boil your eggs, chop your herbs, tomato and chilli and remove the skin from the fish and flake into bite size chunks. Put half your herbs and chilli and all the fish and tomato onto a plate with the remaining butter..
6. Remove the rice lid and quickly tip your plate of fish, herbs, tomato, chilli and butter into the saucepan and replace lid quickly. Let it sit on top of the rice for 3 minutes before removing the lid adding a few grinds of pepper (and salt if needed) and gently stirring together with a fork.
7. Serve on a large platter sprinkled with the remaining herbs, chillies, a few squeezes of lime and sliced boiled eggs.

Tips:

You could swap haddock for smoked pollack or coley or use unsmoked salmon instead. If I can't get any good smoked fish I put some really smoky Lapsang Souchong tea leaves in with the rice and it works a charm. Thai sweet chilli sauce is also really good drizzled over the top with the lime and a sprinkling of crispy fried onions are a really nice touch too.