TONY STAPLES: The Arora Hotel offers one smoking hot dish

We’ve got a new smoker in the kitchen here at the Grill and, like all boys with a new toy, I’ve been experimenting with it, smoking a range of fresh ingredients to see what works best.

The obvious choices have been fish and meat, but when we decided to put kedgeree on the menu, I used the smoker for the rice.

Adding uncooked rice to the smoker for about eight hours gives an amazing flavour to the final dish. Although usually eaten for breakfast or brunch, kedgeree is one of those dishes that can hold its own any time of day.

If you didn’t find a smoker in your Christmas stocking, then make this recipe using smoked cod from your fishmonger or supermarket.

We have dressed this kedgeree up for our dinner menu, serving it with soft boiled quails eggs, pea puree and Arancini – little balls of the same curried, smoked risotto rice, which has been allowed to cool, then dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and deep fried.

“And, of course, it’s topped with fresh cod fillets that have been smoked in our new kitchen gadget. Now, I wonder what else I can smoke...”

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Visit www.gatwick.arorahotels.com.

Kedgeree

Serves 2

180-200g fillet of smoked cod

1 onion, peeled and finely diced

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

100g butter

1tsp ground cumin

1tsp curry powder

3cms of peeled fresh ginger, grated

1 litre chicken stock

500ml milk

half a bunch of fresh coriander washed and chopped

75g butter

half an onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

200g risotto rice

Soft boiled eggs to garnish

Method

In a deep frying pan, melt the butter and gently sweat the diced onion and three garlic cloves.

Stir in the cumin and curry powder and fry for a minute.

Add the grated ginger, milk, chicken stock and coriander.

Blitz in a blender and return to the pan. Add the fish and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove the fish and keep the liquid on a low heat.

In another pan, melt 75g butter and add the half chopped onion and two cloves of crushed garlic. Cook for a few minutes to soften, but not colour.

Stir in the rice and cook for a few minutes. Add the warm curried liquid a little at a time, stirring until the rice has absorbed all the liquid and is just soft to bite – ‘al dente’. This takes about 15-20 minutes.

Either flake the fish into the risotto or put the fillet back into the frying pan to heat through and serve on top, garnished with halved soft boiled hens or quails eggs.

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