Cullen Skink

What to Put on the Table With Cullen Skink

• Oatcakes or crusty bread
• A dry white wine
• A dram of Speyside whisky

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Oatcakes.

Making Cullen Skink, Step by Step

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1. Put the haddock skin side down in a wide pan with the milk and bay. Bring to a bare simmer and poach 5 minutes.

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2. Lift the fish out onto a plate. Strain the milk and keep it. Peel off the skin and flake the flesh into large pieces, checking for bones.

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3. Melt the butter in the pan and cook the onion and leek over low heat for 10 minutes without colouring.

   Mark done Start 10 min timer

4. Add the potatoes and the water, bring to a simmer and cook 15 minutes until soft.

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5. Crush about a third of the potatoes against the side of the pan — that is the thickener.

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6. Pour the reserved milk back in and warm through without boiling.

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7. Add the cream, then the flaked haddock, and heat 2 minutes only.

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8. Season with white pepper, and taste before adding any salt — the fish has usually done that job.

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9. Serve with chives, parsley and oatcakes or bread.

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Notes From the Method

Undyed haddock. The yellow stuff makes a soup that tastes of dye and salt.

Poach the fish in the milk that becomes the soup. Nothing is wasted.

Never boil once the milk is back in — it will split.

Ingredient Swaps

• In a sauce, full-fat crème fraîche can usually take the place of the double cream; single cream is thinner and more likely to split if it boils, so keep it below a simmer.

Keeping What's Left

Refrigerate up to 2 days and reheat gently. Do not freeze — the potato goes grainy.

What's in a Serving

Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: where a line offers a choice of foods, only one of them is counted; salt added to taste is not counted, so the sodium is low; garnishes, greasing and other items with no amount are not counted. How the figures are worked out.

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