Saturday 13 October 2012

Scottish Saturday the Second

Last week for Scottish Saturday I made Mince & Tatties, a regular meal in my house whilst I was growing up, and this week we have another classic from my childhood - Kedgeree. In case you haven't heard of kedgeree it's a curry powder spiced rice dish made with flaked fish, butter, parsley and hard boiled eggs...so, not the most vegan thing in the world! It used to be a favourite of mine though and I haven't eaten it since I moved out of my childhood home about 13 years ago.

Apparently the origins of this dish are debatable, some say that it originated in India, some insist that it's Scottish. Despite being a Scot myself I'm inclined to believe the former!

I took inspiration for my version of this dish from a whole lotta places. Firstly I remembered that I'd bookmarked Liz's recipe from a Vegan MoFo post back in '09 and from there I looked at the very fishy recipe she used as a jumping off point. I also checked out Tami's Food Network Friday post over at her blog Vegan Appetite.


Unlike either of Liz or Tami's recipes I decided to use a vegetarian fish product to replace the real fish in this classic British recipe. I have no beef with mock meat products of any kind, I used to love eating fish before I realised how cruel it was and I liked how realistic this was. Nick didn't entirely agree, he actually used to hate both the taste and texture of faux fish so he wasn't quite as into this as I was! I coated the non-nori side of the fish in a mixture of 1TB olive oil, 1 tsp Soy Sauce, 1 tsp Liquid Smoke and 1/4 tsp Smoked Paprika before pulling it apart and frying it in a little olive oil spray until it browned nicely.

For the eggs I took Tami's idea of using tofu and ran with it. I often make McVegans for breakfast at the weekends using this recipe and I used the apple cider vinegar, olive oil & salt marinade from there to coat the tofu before baking for 15 minutes flipping halfway. To make them kinda egg like in shape I used a tablespoon but I'm sure that this is entirely unnecessary, cubed tofu would be fine but if you have a melon baller this is quite fun! I would like to work on this part of the recipe a little more next time as I wasn't entirely satisfied with its eggyness. I forgot to add any black salt despite jotting it down on the piece of paper I had in the kitchen and I would also like to try to create a yolk using The Vegg.

Ingredients:


  • 180g Vegetarian Cod (prepared as above)
  • 150g Tofu (prepared as above)
  • 1 TBS Margarine (I used Vitalite, you can use something else but it can't be low fat!)
  • 1/2 an Onion, diced
  • 1/2 Cup Basmati Rice
  • 1 1/8 Cups Water
  • 1/2 tsp Curry Powder 
  • 1/3 Cup Frozen Peas
  • 1 TBS Parsley, chopped
  • Salt & Black Pepper to taste


Recipe:


  • Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5 / 190C / 375F
  • Prepare the tofu (as above)
  • Marinade the fish (as above) 
  • Melt half of the margarine in a saucepan, add onion & cook on a low heat until softened.
  • Add rice and curry powder and stir for two minutes
  • Pour in the water, bring to the boil, reduce heat & simmer covered for 8 minutes. 
  • Whilst you're simmering the rice pull apart & fry the fish (see above)
  • Stir in the fish and peas, cover and simmer for about 5 more minutes checking occasionally that the rice isn't sticking, if it is stir in a little more water
  • Remove from the heat, dot the rice with the remaining margarine & let stand for 4 minutes
  • Add the tofu, parsley, salt & pepper. Stir, taste, and adjust seasoning as necessary
  • Serve with lemon wedges and mango chutney if that's how you roll (it was not how my family rolled so no mango chutney here!)
I hope everyone's enjoying MoFo and having a good weekend! I'm looking forward to Football Food Sunday tomorrow and contemplating making more Kedgeree for breakfast!

16 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness! Vegan Scottish is sort of funny, and COOL and then Vegan Cod!!!! Can't even imagine!

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  2. I haven't ever heard of this and I have to side with Nick, fish was never something I enjoyed eating but, I would totally try this, Jojo!

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  3. That's awesome that you're able to veganize your childhood favorites. I haven't veganized anything in a while, but this has got me thinking about which recipes I should try.

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  4. i used to be a fan of kedgeree, this looks great.

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  5. Ooh, great post! I'd heard of kedgeree before but I never really knew what it was. I haven't tried many mock fish products (just redwood fish-style fingers) but I'd love to try this!

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  6. This looks like something I would like, I too used to like fish flavors. I have yet to try vegan fish products, although I had a vegan crab stuffed dumpling in a dim sum restaurant which was very good. I usually use seaweed to create my ocean flavors, I'll have to try the product sometime. Eggs are another thing I used to love and I always try to experiment with different ways of making vegan eggs. Have you tried black salt yet? If not, you must. It taste EXACTLY like eggs.

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    1. oh, you talked about black salt. Never mind, haha!

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    2. Haha, yeah, I just forgot to use it, duh!

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  7. I love kedgeree! OK, so I've never had the real, fishy version, but I've made a version with smoked tofu and it was goooood. I'd love to give that veggie cod a go too!

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  8. Who needs fish and eggs when you can have this! I don't think we have any vegan mock fish products in the US. Someone needs to get on that!

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  9. I've never seen that cod fillet! Where do you get that from? I used to love kedgeree before I stopped eating fish. I've never attempted making a veggie one but I think I would love this.

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    1. I get it from the little Japanese/Chinese superstore on Gardner Street in Brighton. I'd try looking for it at somewhere like that in Manchester.

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  10. Shame it wouldn't travel in the vegan food swap box haha!

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    1. I'm literally packing this up to send to you right now! If I trusted that it would travel well I'd pop it in there but I don't think it'd be a good idea either!

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  11. I love it when folks share their food histories, especially when they come from a different cultural context. So thanks for introducing me to Kedgeree. I think this would be perfect for those who like fishy flavors; sadly, I'm not one of them! I still think it came out looking pretty great. :)

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