STILL NEW YORK-HUNGRY

20. Scottish Skunk, er, Cullen SKINK (fishy carbs)

When I browsed my cooking+ library (a 6 ft. 7 bookshelf ; yeah, I know I've got a problem!), I stopped at this one, out of Scottish Chef's Gary MacLean: Scottish Kitchen.

And as the name may indicate to you, it originated from a small fishing town called Cullen in the Northeast of Scotland.

Like the Scottish Cuisine, it's simple – they're using what's growing and swimming around them up there – but leaves you with a warm, filled stomach and a fuzzy, sentimental feeling that only eating what fave food our Mums and Grammas make brings on.

Ha, and for those of you lying in wait for the BIGGEST Scotland Cliché of all: NO Haggis in sight.

Also, this was quite inspiring as I immediately had another puzzle part of my ever-growing Novel Series (it reads like a written quilt) falling out of a previously clogged brain gyrus.

My FMC, Laura and her Turkish bestie, Hatice run a You-Tube-channel called Frau Grüngemüs (roughly: M(r)s. Green Vegs), in which they post a video once a week dealing with growing fruit & veg in the often small spaces of the Big City, like on balconies, and what healthy dishes to cook from the harvest.

Sometime in the first novel, both catch a nasty cold, and can't do it... and after he's learned about it from their mutual friend, Elena, his sister, MMC Vince stands in, and cooks this.

When the ladies learn of it, they're both fond of him (and impressed!), but also shocked.

Hattie: "You cooked SKUNK? On a bloody VEG channel!?"

Vince: What? No! Skink! That's a traditional Scottish chowder."

You can't imagine the relief... and how hugged & taken care of our two sickies felt after spooning their share of it into their stomachs, before returning to bed.

Also, this dish only has eight ingredients, which most of us have at home, anyway (except maybe for the fish). So it's also a quick dish when unexpected guests announce themselves. (Note, Americans: when you have German neighbors and say stuff like, Oh, you gotta come round one of these days!", we DO. So be careful with saying such stuff to us.)

They can even help cooking as it's truly not rocket science – and learn to cook a healthy, nutritious dish for their own beloved as this has a great carb-protein-fat-balance.

Oh, I have your attention? Nice.

You want to go to the kitchen and try it yourselves? Even nicer.

Time to stop babbling. Let's GO!





Serves: 4 Recipe. 2-3 Me. But as a chef he serves smaller quantities. It's a starter while I eat it as a Main course.

Prep Time: about 1 hr

Degree of Difficulty: Easy




WE NEED

200 gr / 7 oz. smoked Haddock I had 270 gr / 9.5 oz.. More Yum, more healthy. If you don't get haddock, you can use cod or gilt-head Try to get fresh fish... but frozen's okay, too. As always: pure, NO chemical additives.

750 ml / 3 US cups 1 US. fl.oz. milk full fat. For the sake of TASTE.
1 bayleaf
30 gr / 1 oz. butter See Milk. REAL fats / proteins – NOT processed ones – sate quicker
1 onion Used a red, my carb-y fave.
500 gr / 1.1 lb potatoes
salt
pepper




WE DO

1. Prep the Haddock (fish). With that I mean: remove the skin – When you're VERY gentle, you can pull it off in one piece – and cut off any fishbones + not so pretty sections – usually at the rim of the filet.

BUT:

2. don't throw away these things, but use them to infuse the milk. For that you fill the milk into a saucepan, wrap the remnants you've cut off the fish into the skin, and add it, together with the bay leaf, to the milk, which you simmer on a low heat.

The milk shan't cook, only be warm enough to soak up the fish's aroma. It can be that this takes longer than expected – like in my case – so I simmered it on middle heat for a few minutes. STAY with it... boiling danger increased. You don't wanna rid a pot from burned milk and fish!

THIS is the reason you'll need two cooking vessels for this one.





3. While the milk's infusing, you finely dice the (red) onion and peel + dice the potatoes into 1/2 in big cubes. Melt the butter in a pot and sauté the onion until soft – but not colored – then add the potatoes and briefly fry them, too.


4. Hang a sieve into the pot and pour the fish milk over onion + potato. Fish (no pun intended) the bay leaf out of the fish remnants – which you can throw away now – and add it to the mix.





5. Cook for 15-20 minutes on low => middle heat – See 2. – until the potatoes soften. Then add the rest of the fish fillet, which you've diced – 0.75-1 in – while the soup simmered so you didn't get bored.


6. Cook NO longer than 5 minutes. You DON'T want the fish to overcook as it then disintegrates + vanishes.(Guilty!) YOU want the fish as an discernible asset to the soup. Bloody hell, why does the wordiest language on the planet not have a bloody word for Suppeneinlage. Ye haven't stolen it from German yet, or what?


7. Seasoning: you might not need to extra salt much because the fish itself and the infused milk are very salty already – salty enough for me, anyway – BUT: Chef Gary insists on a good load of pepper. Unfortunately not specified how much – Chefs know – but I caught a bit too much.



Guten Hunger!