My husband Shaun likes to make this at home. He loves food – loves eating it, reading about it, serving it – but he hates cooking it. He has a few dishes that he does make, though – they’re mostly one-pan wonders – and this is the best (when he hasn’t bought a ready-made soup from our local fishmonger, that is).
Prep 15 min
Cook 1 hr
Serves 4
400g sustainably sourced smoked haddock fillet
350ml double cream
50ml whole milk
1 tbsp butter
2 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
2 banana shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
Salt and black pepper
100ml white wine
200g baby potatoes, cut into bite-size pieces
6 baby leeks, trimmed, washed and cut into 1cm pieces
4 200g sustainably sourced cod fillets
60g baby spinach
10g chives, finely chopped
Using a sharp knife, cut out the central part of the smoked haddock fillet – the bit with the most bones in it – but don’t throw it away. Put the rest of the haddock in a wide pot with the cream and milk, and warm very gently until the liquid is almost simmering. Take off the heat, then strain the cream mix into another pot. Flake the cooked smoked haddock and set it aside.
Put the reserved bony bit of smoked haddock in the pot of strained cooking liquid, then put it back on the heat and simmer very gently for 30 minutes, to extract all the flavour from the bones.
Meanwhile, heat the oven to 190C (170C fan)/410F/gas 6½. In a separate pan, melt the butter, then add the sliced garlic and shallots and a pinch of salt, and saute gently, stirring often, until soft. Pour in the wine, reduce until the pan is almost dry, then add the potatoes and saute for a few minutes.
Strain the creamy soup into the pan, then cook on a medium heat for 10 or so minutes, until the potatoes are cooked through. Add the baby leeks, simmer for three minutes, until they are soft, then stir in a pinch of cracked black pepper and keep the soup warm on a low heat.
Season the cod, put it on an oven tray lined with greaseproof paper, then roast in the hot oven for 10 minutes.
Adjust the seasoning of the soup to taste, add the spinach, chives and reserved smoked haddock flakes, and stir just until the spinach wilts and the fish warms through. Ladle the soup into four bowls, top each portion with a piece of roast cod and serve at once.
- Roberta Hall-McCarron is chef/owner of The Little Chartroom, Eleanore and Ardfern, all in Edinburgh. These recipes are edited extracts from her book The Changing Tides, published this week by Kitchen Press at £25. To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
- The Guardian aims to publish recipes for sustainable fish. Check ratings in your region: UK; Australia; US.
