Smoked Haddock Soup (Cullen Skink)

Zillah's picture
Submitted by Zillah on Thu, 01/12/2006 - 2:08am.

Summary

Yield
Source

My Grandmother!

Prep Time45 minutes
RecipesSoups and Stews

Description

Ingredients

  • 1lb smoked haddock
  • 1 onion, peeled and cut in half through the root
  • about 6 whole cloves
  • about 1/2 lb of leftover mash, otherwise same amount of floury potatoes, peeled, diced small and cooked
  • about 1 pint WHOLE milk (don't try semi-skimmed, it'll split)
  • handfull of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
  • Salt and pepper to taste - lots of pepper is good, but the salt will depend on the saltiness of your fish
  • 1lb smoked haddock
  • 1 onion, peeled and cut in half through the root
  • about 6 whole cloves
  • about 1/2 lb of leftover mash, otherwise same amount of floury potatoes, peeled, diced small and cooked
  • about 1 pint WHOLE milk (don't try semi-skimmed, it'll split)
  • handfull of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
  • Salt and pepper to taste - lots of pepper is good, but the salt will depend on the saltiness of your fish

Instructions

Stud the onion halves with the cloves.

Place the haddock (cut the fillet in half if necessary, it want's to pretty much all lie flat on the bottom of the pan) and onion halves in a frying pan or saute pan or wide bottomed sauce pan. Pour in enough milk to cover the fish. Place on a low heat and bring to a simmer. Simmer until the fish is just cooked, about 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the piece.

Remove the fish from the milk with a slotted spoon and put on a plate to cool. Allow the milk and onion to simmer for another 15 minutes or so.

While the milk finishes simmering, take the skin off the haddock, if necessary, and flake the fish.

When the milk is done, take out the onion. Strain the milk through a sieve into a saucepan. Add the flaked haddock and cooked potato or mash to the milk and heat up again, don't quite let it boil. If you're using cooked potato, you might want to mash it up a little to give some thickness to the soup, but it works fine just with potato chunks

Stir in the parsley, grind in some pepper. Taste, then add salt. Some smoked haddock is very salty, so be cautious.

Serve with some good bread.

Notes

'Skink' is (Scots) Gaelic for essence.

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silverbear's picture

Curiosity piqued

Submitted by silverbear on Mon, 01/16/2006 - 6:54pm.

Cullen is my maiden name! Except ours is the Irish varient, Cullin.

I don't know where I would find smoked haddock. I don't suppose this would work with smoked salmon, or fresh haddock?

Guest's picture

Wholefooods has great smoked

Submitted by Guest (not verified) on Thu, 08/16/2007 - 9:54pm.

Wholefooods has great smoked haddock. Smoked cod works just as well.

Becky's picture

smoked fish

Submitted by Becky on Mon, 01/16/2006 - 7:04pm.

I don't know about haddock specifically, but try a Jewish deli-- you should be able to find a lot of different smoked fish there.

silverbear's picture

Rural isolation :( No deli of any sort

Submitted by silverbear on Mon, 01/16/2006 - 7:12pm.

I live in rural upstate NY. We have a Red Lobster in town, and that's the extent of it!

Becky's picture

hmm...

Submitted by Becky on Mon, 01/16/2006 - 10:46pm.

Well, the recipe basically looks to me like a chowder. So you could probably use fresh haddock and add bacon or something for the smoky flavor. There are also online sources. Are you near Toronto or Buffalo or Saratoga or anything? Even western Massachusetts? Those are all places with decent-sized Jewish populations. I guess Toronto might be a problem with agricultural customs inspections though.

Zillah's picture

lack of smoked haddock

Submitted by Zillah on Tue, 01/17/2006 - 2:06am.

I wouldn't try it with smoked salmon, I think the texture would be wrong. I think Becky's right, the combination of smoked bacon and fresh haddock might work quite well. No advice on getting the stuff, I'm afraid. Although in the UK people do have smoked fish delivered down from Scotland (where the good stuff tends to be made), which works pretty well, as long as you know you're going to be in for the delivery Smiling

zillah

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