Smoked Haddock

Thursday, 3rd February 2011

Once you have made this once it could become a favourite. It is very easy (and cheap) to put together once you have done it a few times.

Ingredients
(for 4 as a starter, 3 as a main course)
- 500g (1 lb 2 oz.) smoked haddock (preferably undyed)
- 110g (4 oz.) streaky rashers
- 2 medium onions
- 225g (9 oz.) risotto rice
- 2 oz. butter
- 110g (4oz.) frozen peas
-60g (2oz.) freshly grated parmesan.

Method
Poach the haddock in 1ltr (2pts) water for 15 minutes. Take out the haddock but put the stock back on the lowest gas. Once the fish cools remove all bones and skin and roughly flake it into chunks.

Chop the rashers finely and fry in half the butter until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon but leave the fat in the pan. Peel and chop the onions finely and add to the pan with the remaining butter. Cook the onion gently for 9 to 10 minutes until soft.

Add the rice to the pan and fry the rice for 1 minute. Add the hot stock a ladle-full at a time making sure the liquid is absorbed by the rice before the next addition. After the last addition toss in the frozen peas - leave for about two minutes to cook these. This amount of rice should take roughly 825ml (just under 2 pints) of the stock and take 20 minutes to absorb it all. The risotto should be still creamy and not dry like rice normally is. Fold in the flaked Haddock and the bacon and serve.

Serve the Parmesan seperately. This is excellent with a crisp winter salad of chicory and chinese leaves.