Hi, happy to see you back.
As you know by now, I am living in a small town in Scotland named Cullen. Over the years, Cullen has been famous for various things: fishing; processing haddock; textiles and threadmaking; home to one of the two pods of bottle-nose dolphins in the UK.
Today, however, it is world famous for a wonderful soup of smoked haddock, potatoes and onions named after the town: Cullen Skink. The slightly odd name “Skink” comes from the Gaelic word for “essence”. I have eaten it about 5 times since coming here; and some I liked better than others. I prefer the thicker variety.
I am including here the recipe for Cullen Skink. I suggest you try it. This is the recipe I used to make it, with a few small additions. I will explain later.
Cullen Skink
Ingredients
- I tablespoon butter
- 1 medium onion
- 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 11/3 inch cubes
- 1 1/4 Cups water
- 1/2 pound smoked haddock
- 1 Cup milk
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley or chives
Method
- Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat, then add onion and fry gently until transparent. Cook for about 5 minutes but do not allow to brown.
- Add potatoes and water and bring to boil. Simmer for 10-15 minutes.
- Meanwhile in another pan, cover the haddock with the milk and cook gently for about five minutes until just tender. Remove from the milk and, when cool enough to touch, flake gently into large pieces, removing bones.
- Add milk and flaked fish to saucepan containing potatoes and other ingredients and cook for a further 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with chopped parsley.
- Serve with crusty bread and butter.
The changes I made were the following:
Since I like mine thicker, more like a traditional chowder, I added an egg and some flour to the milk mixture. I put about 1 T flour in a cup and add one egg. I mix them well and add some of the hot milk from the soup, a little at a time till it is mixed and somewhat liquid. I then add this mixture to the still cooking milk, stirring constantly till mixed well. I also add a pat of butter to each bowl when serving, before the parsley.
If you have a favorite recipe for potato soup, all you have to do is add the smoked haddock. Voila. Cullen Skink.
They always serve it with crusty bread and butter. Sometime white bread and sometimes brown bread. I even had it served in a bread bowl once.
BTW: I f you remember, I didn’t know how the houses were numbered in SeaTown, the part of Cullen where I live. It looked to me like the houses were numbered in a spiral, as they sat. It made it difficult to find any particular address. Well, I met someone who actually knew this. The houses were numbered in the order they were built. Imagine!
So, according to this, the houses nearer the road were built first and the ones across from the sea wall were built last. Now that I know that, it will be easier (maybe) to find an address.
Well, Anne and I are off to lunch uptown to our favorite restaurant, Lili’s. I’ll give you a report about that later. Meanwhile, make some soup! Leave me a comment if you think this sounds like something you have eaten. Hint: think New England