Cullen Skink, Old Pulteney

 

Cullen Skink. Quite possibly the most intriguingly named soup on our fair planet.

This smoked haddock chowder is also fantastically delicious, creamy and indulgent despite it's lack of cream and is a breeze to make.

I made a batch on Sunday while simultaneously baking J a birthday cake, cleaning the kitchen, making potato scones, hearing J's recent tales of London and looking at the accompanying pictures. I was also listening to the radio and worrying about our broken boiler and performing some light scheming and negotiating quite a hangover from a girls' night that involved martinis so dirty they were actually obscene. Basically this recipe is difficult to screw up and tastes far more involved than you ever have to be in putting it together. Serve it at the start of your Burns Supper.

The best bowls of cullen skink I've had have come from Cafe Gandolfi's and it's their version I aspire to. Unlike a lot of recipes, they add a tiny bit of tomato to their soup. I think this is essential. You want a bit of acidity in there to cut the creamy, smoke flavours. It makes you love the creamy, smoky flavours even more. Likewise, lemon is mandatory. As is the bright parsley. There aren't a lot of ingredients to this soup, but if one were removed its character would suffer.

You'll also find some recipes that call for cream and diced potatoes instead of milk and mashed potato. I would stick to this version. The texture is far more interesting and the milk allows the smoked haddock to come through without being choked by dense cream.

I've adapted my recipe from this source since I think it's the simplest way to get the best result and it's not a bad approximation of Gandolfi's.

Ingredients

• A little less than one liter of whole milk

• 400g/1 lb of smoked haddock (not the dyed kind)

• 1-2 bay leaves

• one diced onion

• 1-1 1/2 cups of mashed potato (made according to taste)

• parsley (save the stems)

• 1/2 a seeded tomato, cut into small and delicate chunks

 

Method

1. Gently bring your milk to a simmer, add the bay leaves, the parsley stems and the fish. Poach the fish for approximately 5-10 minutes. Remove from the heat and let the fish further infuse the milk for about 5 or 10 more minutes.

2. Fry up your onions until they are just soft while all of this fish action is happening.

3. Fish out the fish from your milk. You can strain the fish/leaves/stems if that's easier, but I keep the milk in the pot and just use a slotted spoon to remove the chunks. Throw away the stems/leaves and then break the fish into small chunks discarding any unappetizing skin and bones. If you took the  milk out of the pot, put it back in now.

4. Put the deliciously fishy milk back on the heat and add your mashed potatoes. Also those onions. At this point I would cook it for a few minutes, maybe 15, to further thicken and reduce the liquid.

5. Reinsert your fish and the chopped tomato. Let them get nice and hot. Add some chopped parsley.

6. Serve it up with loads of pepper and some lemon wedges.

Do you know what whisky might be nice with this soup? Old Pulteney, a new favourite of mine that comes from Wick in the far north of Scotland. In the olden days you could sometimes only get there by boat! Even though it's on the mainland! Remote! While this whisky does not have the same smoky, peaty character as the Islay whiskies I love, it is quite mellow and smooth, being matured in old bourbon casks. Sometimes you need mellow and smooth. But because it's also matured right by the blustery shore, it has a this salty kick right at the end.  That makes it a really fantastic mouthful. A hot flask of soup and a cool wee flask of this whisky on some bracing sea shore. That would be perfect. That could possibly be my weekend.

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