Recipe: Smokie Chowder
04 May 2017 at 11:37
This dish is based on the wonderful “Cullen Skink”, a rich east coast soup made from smoked fish, potatoes and onions. It was traditionally made in the village of Cullen which is north of Aberdeen - the word “Skink” is Norse for a soup or an essence. I developed the idea for this Smokie Chowder while I was doing some cooking demonstrations for the Fife Farmer's Markets. Iain Spink who has built his own portable smoker goes from event to event producing these succulent smoked fish. I saw him deftly removing the skin and bones from his Smokies and thought “what a waste, I could use the bones for stock". So here is a true Farmer's Market recipe.
Ingredients
1 Smokie plus a few extra bones and skins!
Herbs such as parsley fennel or dill
1 onion peeled and chopped
1 carrot diced
2 sticks celery diced
50 mls white wine
1 large potato diced
Butter
Method
- Make a stock from the Smokie bones and skin with 750ml water, the trimmings from the vegetables and some herbs.
- Chop the onion finely and sweat in a little butter, when soft add the celery and carrot and cook for a few minutes, add the white wine and 600 mls of the Smokie stock, bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes.
- Add the diced potato and cook until just done and no more as it is quite nice to have a bit of texture.
- Flake the Smokie flesh into the soup, you could add some cream but it is not necessary.
- Season and add some chopped herbs or in season wild garlic.
Read more about Iain Spink and his Arbroath Smokies here>
Recipe by Christopher Trotter
Food photography by Caroline Trotter