Kedgeree fit for a memsahib

Kedgeree

ked·ger·ee/ˈkejəˌrē/Noun

1. An Indian dish consisting chiefly of rice, lentils, onions, and eggs.

2. A European dish consisting chiefly of fish, rice, and hard-boiled eggs

If this google definition is to be believed, this here is the European version of kedgeree.

You can just imagine the Colonial residents in the age of the Raj tucking into kedgeree for breakfast, their cook having modified the traditional recipe with the addition of fish and boiled eggs to suit their Western tastes. When the recipe was transported back to Victorian England, smoked haddock was added to give it a more distinctive flavour.

I often cook simple rice dishes - fried rice, chorizo rice ('paella'), kedgeree - as a quick dinner. They are fantastic because when you throw in leftover bits and pieces, the dish comes together very easily. This is a prime example.

Kedgeree

serves 2

Ingredients

2 eggs

25g butter

1 onion, finely chopped

1 cup long grain rice

1 red capsicum, deseeded, cut into 1cm pieces

1 tbs mild curry paste or curry powder

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

Salt and freshly ground pepper

500ml vegetable stock

100g smoked trout or smoked salmon, flaked into pieces

Method

1. Cook the eggs in a saucepan of boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain, cool slightly, then peel and quarter.

2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until soft. Stir in the rice, capsicum, curry powder or paste and turmeric. Pour in the stock and a pinch of salt. Bring to the boil, cover and cook over a low heat for 15 minutes.

3. Remove the fish skin and discard. Flake the fish and stir through the rice. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and set aside for a further 5 minutes. Serve with the eggs.

recipe adapted from taste.com.au

Ingredients. Fish is not shown, but for this, I used smoked salmon

Wonderfully colourful kedgeree, with quartered soft-boiled eggs.