Recipe of the Month – Cullen Skink
Recipe of the Month
If you can’t be bothered to make this delicious hearty fish soup as in the recipe below, we recommend Baxter’s tinned version!
This soup is made up of warming wintery ingredients such as smoked fish and starchy potatoes enriched with cream
It takes its name from the fishing town, Cullen, on the Moray Firth where haddock was fished. However the origin of “skink” has a more puzzling history. Some claim that it comes from the Middle High German word for week beer; others that is a variation of the German ‘schinke’ or ham and that skink is a soup made from shin of beef
With Cattle being more valuable than fish in coastal regions, the locals replaced the meat with fish
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp olive or vegetable oil
- 1 leek, well-rinsed, chopped
- and cut into rough 2cm cubes
- 1 litre fish stock
- 200g waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into roughly 2cm cubes
- 300g undyed smoked Scottish haddock fillet
- 1 bay leaf
- Freshly ground pepper
- 2 tbsp whipping cream
- Chives, roughly chopped
Method:
Warm the oil in a pan. Add the chopped leek, cover and gently cook for a few minutes until soft. Add the stock, bay leaf, potato and haddock. Season lightly with black pepper. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes
Remove the haddock from the pan with a slotted spoon. When the fish is cool enough to handle, remove any skin and bones, then flake the haddock back into the pan
Blend a ladle full of the soup in a liquidiser and return to the pan. Stir in the double cream and simmer for another 2-3 minutes. Add more black pepper if necessary, then sprinkle with the chopped chives and serve
Serve with chunks of fresh wholemeal or granary bread