Kedgeree: Leftovers Gone Gourmet

This is a dish I learned to make by peering over the shoulder of my then-young husband’s grandmother, born Jane Macbeath. She was Scotch, not Scottish. She wanted it clearly understood that she was a Highland Scot. “Scottish,” she told us, “are people who live near the English border.”

Gammie learned to make Kedgeree as a girl growing up near Inverness. Her father, John Macbeath, earned his living ferrying people by sailboat across the channel leading to Loch Ness. Salmon on their way to spawn near the verge of Lock Ness, I suppose, were as easy to catch as sitting ducks.

Kedgeree is a thrifty dish—of course. Its two main ingredients are leftovers. It’s a high protein dish, and can hold its own with any gourmet recipe from France. Gammie made it with rice  and  whatever fish was available on the Oregon farm, but she probably made it with barley grain in Inverness. It’s a well-traveled family recipe that went with Gammie to England, thence with her English husband and four children to Canada, then across Canada and down to Portland, Oregon by train. Now I’m making it in Washington State, with leftover cooked salmon from my freezer.  

  Salmon Kedgeree
        4 servings
2 teaspoons lard or olive oil
scant ½ cup minced onion
2 Tablespoons minced fresh fennel frond (can be found growing wild)
1 Tablespoon fresh tarragon leaves or 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
1 teaspoon fresh dill or ¼ teaspoon dried dill
2 cups cooked rice (I always used the more nutritious brown rice)
cooked salmon, a piece about the volume of two desks of cards, flaked
1 very large or 2 smaller eggs, beaten
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ cup water plus more as needed.

Heat the fat in a deep skillet with a 6-cup capacity. Add the onion. Stirfry until it’s glossy. Add the 1/2 cup water. When it boils away, add a little more, until the onion pieces are done. Add the salmon and herbs. Cook 3 to 5 minutes. Add the rice, salt and pepper. Mix well. When the rice is hot, add beaten eggs and stir in. Cover the pan and turn down the heat to low. When the eggs are done, serve the kedgeree.

Complete the menu with lightly boiled peas and a salad of torn green leafy lettuce and halved or sliced cherry or grape tomatoes. Ranch dressing or olive oil and vinegar go well with this simple quickly thrown together salad.
Och, ‘tis a meal that’s unco gude.