Smoked Kippers

We are having some beautiful Scottish smoked kippers tonight, on homemade toasted bread with poached eggs and cold savoury rice. This is a very cheap meal, but delicious meal. So here is tonight's recipe.

Cost - approx £1.00 per person
Serves 2

Ingredients

 For the kippers:

• 2 Smoked kippers
• 1 TBLSP of plain flour
• 1 TBLSP of butter
• Pepper to taste

For the poached eggs:

• 1 TBLSP of vinegar
• 2 Eggs

For the bread:

• 2 slices of thick bread
• Butter

For the savoury rice:

• 100g of long grain rice
• 1 onion finely chopped
• Two tablespoons of oil
• One clove of garlic, chopped finely
• 5 closed cup mushrooms - wiped clean and finely chopped
• One vegetable stock cube
• Pepper to taste *
• 300 ml boiling water **
• Pinch of turmeric

* Note I have not included salt and this will come from the stock cube
** You may need more water, just keep adding a small bit at a time if you do

Method for Savoury Rice

Ingredients for the savoury rice

• In a pan give the rice a quick wash and drain
• Add the water, turmeric and vegetable stock cube to the pan
• Place the pan on a medium heat, with the lid on, stirring once in a while
• When the water is bubbling, move the rice to the lowest heat possible and cook
• Keep a check on the water and top up if required, you are looking for the rice to be soft and the water absorbed
• Whilst the rice is cooking, gently fry the onions, garlic until very soft and translucent about 5 minutes, do not let them brown

The fried onion, garlic and mushrooms

• Add the chopped mushrooms and cook for another 5 minutes
• When the rice is ready, add the fried onions, garlic and mushrooms to the rice and stir well, season with pepper
• Now the trick is to cool the rice quickly for food safety reasons. Place the rice mix in a large bowl and set aside for 10 minutes, turning every few minutes
• Place the rice in the fridge

The finished savoury rice

Method for the kippers

• Add the flour and the pepper to a bowl and mix well
• Dredge the kippers in the flour on both sides
• Melt the butter in a frying pan and fry the kippers to your preference *

*We like ours very well done

Kippers

Method for the poached egg

• Whilst the kippers are cooking, bring a small pan of water to a rolling boil
• Add the vinegar and turn the pan down to simmering
• Add the eggs
• Cook for 3 minutes
• Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper
• Whilst the eggs are cooking toast the bread and then butter

The eggs poaching

Finally assemble the meal and enjoy. Note. Before serving the chilled rice, get a knife or fork and gently separate the grains by tuning it through the rice as the grains will have stuck together during chilling.

The final meal