Name: Smoked Haddock with Curried Lentils
Cuisine: United Kingdom
Ingredients: a small bouquet garni of coriander stalks, bay leaf, and parsley stalks, plus 1 lemon grass stem, outer sheath removed, insides bashed with a heavy knife or rolling pin; 8 thin lemon slices; 4 large or 8 small bay leaves; 2 undyed smoked haddock fillets, each weighing about 300g, skin and any little bones removed with tweezers or pliers; 200 g green lentils (they don’t need soaking beforehand); 60 g carrot, diced; black pepper; 2 tbsp chopped coriander; a good squeeze of lemon juice; ½ a clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped; 1½ tsp salt; 250 g butter; 2½ tbsp curry powder; 125 ml double cream; 60 g onion, finely chopped

Preparation info

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Classic Bull

By Stephen Bull

Published 2001

About

Smoked fish and curry seems an unlikely combination – two very different kinds of cooking treatment from completely different latitudes. On the whole it doesn’t seem to work well except in kedgeree, although even there the arguments have come and gone over whether curry spices – particularly turmeric and ginger – should be included. It seems to me that smoked haddock is the exception that proves the rule and takes well to spicing. Here it’s applied indirectly, in the lentils, so purists cou