Review Food and Drink: Cullen Skink | Smoked Haddock | Queen of Puddings

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The Review - FOOD AND DRINK - Cooking with CLARE
Published: 15 January 2009

Queen of Puddings

Comfort food for the healthy soul

Clare Latimer fights off hard times, chilly weather and the general misery of the year facing us all with some good old-fashioned food

IN my lifetime I have never seen such a demand for comfort food.
I think that the cold weather, pinch on money and jobs and the feel-bad factor have all tumbled at our feet at the same time and we therefore just want to be cosseted by homely ingredients cooked in traditional ways.
For good measure I have reduced my own Comfort Food Cook- book to £5 from £15 to help offer a good range of recipes. The book is available in my shop.

Cullen Skink
(Smoked Haddock Soup)
On my way back from my cottage in Cornwall the other day I stopped for a refreshing cup of tea with my cousin near Taunton and he reminded me of this delicious and nutritious main course soup – perfect for a very cold winter’s lunch or evening meal.
I came straight back and cooked myself up a pot and have been eating it every day since.
It can be frozen in portions if you wish.
This is a good way to use up left over mashed potatoes.
Serve with some warmed chunks of bread and butter.

Ingredients Serves 2-4
450g smoked haddock
1 onion, peeled and cut in half through the root to hold it together
6 whole cloves
225g mashed potato
20fl oz full fat milk
Freshly ground black pepper
Freshly ground nutmeg
Handful parsley, finely chopped.

Method
Put the smoked haddock into a wide-bottomed saucepan. Push the whole cloves into the onion halves and then place them into the saucepan with the fish.
Pour in the milk to cover the haddock and then put over a low heat and bring to a simmer.
Poach for about 15 minutes or until the fish is cooked.
The flesh will flake easily when cooked.
Remove the fish from the milk with a slotted spoon and leave to cool.
When the fish is cool, remove the skin, flake and remove the bones carefully.
Remove the onion halves, discard the cloves and then chop up the onion flesh.
Add the flaked haddock, onions and mashed potato to the milk and heat up again, but don’t allow to boil.
Stir in some freshly ground pepper and nutmeg.
Do not add salt as the haddock will give enough salt to the dish.
Just before serving add the fresh parsley and then serve piping hot.

Queen of Puddings
It may remind one of school dinners, but cooked in a homely way there is nothing better. It is cheap, comforting and good old-fashioned winter nosh.
Serve with lashings of cream and sit down to a good book.
What could be better!

Ingredients. Serves 4
20 fl oz full fat milk
15g unsalted butter
Few drops vanilla essence
135g fresh white breadcrumbs
2 tbsp golden caster sugar
Grated rind of 1 lemon
2 eggs, separated
3 tbsps good raspberry jam.

Method
Preheat the oven 180C/ 350F/gas 4.
Pour the milk into a saucepan and bring to the boil and then remove from the heat.
Add the butter, vanilla essence, breadcrumbs, half the sugar and the grated lemon rind. Stir well and then leave for about ten minutes to swell breadcrumbs.
Add the egg yolks and stir well.
Pour into a buttered one-and-a-half pint pie dish and spread evenly with the back of a spoon.
Bake in the oven for half an hour or until set.
Meanwhile, put the jam into a small saucepan and melt over a low heat.
Spread carefully over the top of the cooked bread mix.
Beat the egg whites in a dry bowl until stiff and then whisk in almost all the remaining sugar.
Spoon the meringue mix on top of the pudding, sprinkle over the remaining caster sugar and bake for 15 minutes or until the top is light golden brown.
Serve warm with whipped or clotted cream.

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