14/11/2012

Pilchard Kedgeree

You read that right: Pilchard Kedgeree.

First, let's get the contentious one out of the way: is rice primal? If white rice is not for you, please do carry on with cauliflower rice.

Kedgeree is one of those totally fake exotic dishes. It is damn tasty, though!

So, boil, then simmer some rice with a few other ingredients: carrot cubes, maybe peas, green beans, chilli, turmeric, coriander, bouillon, that kind of thing. You want a nice savoury rice. If you're doing it with cauliflower, steam and crush your cauli, then fold it into the other ingredients in some fat in a skillet.

Serve out into a bowl.

This is my lunch, so to be eaten cold ... allow the rice to cool, or carry straight on if you want it hot.

Open a can of pilchards. These are cheap fish! Sardines, I believe, but Atlantic, or something like that. Wiki provides the following: "the terms sardine and pilchard are not precise, and what is meant depends on the region. The United Kingdom's Sea Fish Industry Authority classifies sardines as young pilchards. Another criterion suggests fish shorter in length than 6 inches are sardines and larger ones pilchards."

Canned fish like this is pretty low brow, but we have no pretentions.

As with all fish, you get a great pack of vitamins and minerals, especially selenium and omega-3, and a huge (no, HUGE) helping of B12. Being low in the food chain, pilchards are very low in contaminants like mercury but as we well know ... nature already sorted that problem out for us.

Drop a few fish bodies over your rice, spaced with boiled eggs and garnished with some 'erbs.

Perfect now, or cooled for lunch tomorrow. ... can't wait!

As an aside, I wonder just how good canned fish is given that it is super-heated to cook through and then canned. That super-heating surely does something quite bad to the fats. Is there a nutritionalist who can give us some insight?

On the back of that, canned fish gives us a cheap real food, even if it is the poor relation.