Nick Fisher
LATIN NAME
Melanogrammus aeglefinus
SEASONALITY
Avoid March–April when spawning
HABITAT
Northern Atlantic
MCS RATING
2–5
REC MINIMUM SIZE
30cm
MORE RECIPES
Cod with fennel, capers and tomatoes; Herbed pouting fish fingers; Crumbed whiting goujons with curried egg tartare
SOURCING
At an early age I was encouraged to think of haddock as a finer fish than cod. It was, my mum told me, a fish for the discerning palate. This early lesson has stayed with me.
For me, a haddock fillet does anything a cod fillet does and just as well – if not slightly better. It’s a matter of mouth-feel as much as anything: haddock is a little finer textured and more delicate. To be fair, it’s much easier to find a fat, thick fillet of cod. Haddock is normally a smaller fish and so its fillets are thinner. If you’re after a doorstep wedge of battered fish, it wouldn’t be the fish you’d buy, but I’m certainly happy to plump for a haddie. Go for fish from the right area, and it’s a good, sustainable choice too. Haddock from the North Sea, west of Scotland, Iceland and northeast Arctic is generally a safe bet and some Scottish haddock is MSC-certified.
Cold-smoked haddock is a firm favourite of mine. Steamed and served with kale or a few sticks of asparagus, and a poached duck egg, it’s a magnificent meal. Cold-smoked haddock should always be the colour of a just-planed oak plank: honey in hue, like the skin on clotted cream before it’s stirred. If it’s bright orange or as yellow as a bilious banana, it’s been dyed before smoking, or dyed instead of smoking.
The colouring generally used to be E104, quinoline yellow, a synthetic coal-tar dye that has been linked to hyperactivity in children. A lot of manufacturers now use curcumin, derived from turmeric, instead. But either way, the dye is a lie – to make the fish look more smoked. I prefer haddock where the flavour speaks for itself.
Arbroath Smokies should be hunted down and coveted with ferocity and passion. These whole, headless, hot-smoked haddock – usually tied together in pairs with string around their tails – can be lightly grilled or steamed, or even just eaten cold with horseradish sauce on toast. Then, you need to save the skins and skeletons to make a light stock, which will give you another experience of haddock joy the next day, when you can use it to cook a handful of pearl barley and lentils into a smoky broth.
SMOKED HADDOCK JACKET POTATOES
Served with a green salad and perhaps a poached egg, this is great comfort food. Smoked pollack works just as well. Serves 2
2 large baking potatoes
250g smoked haddock fillet
About 250ml whole milk
25g butter
50g well-flavoured hard cheese, such as mature Cheddar or Lancashire, or Quickes hard goat’s cheese, grated, plus extra to finish
4–6 spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced
Sea salt and black pepper
Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6. Prick the potatoes in a few places with a fork, then sprinkle with a little fine salt. Place on a baking tray and bake for about 1 hour or until completely tender; to test, insert a small, sharp knife into their centres.
Meanwhile, lay the haddock in a medium saucepan and pour on the milk; it should just cover the fish. Put the lid on, bring slowly to the boil, then take off the heat. Flip the fillet over, cover the pan and leave the fish to cook in the residual heat for 3 minutes. Check the fish is opaque and flaking easily from the skin, then remove it from the milk. Flake the cooked flesh into a bowl, checking for any small bones as you go. Reserve the smoky milk.
When the potatoes are cooked, remove from the oven and cut them in half. Scoop out as much hot flesh as you can, without tearing the skin, into a bowl. Add 2–3 tbsp of the fish poaching milk, along with the butter, cheese and some salt and pepper. Mash well, using a potato masher. Carefully fold in the flakes of smoked fish (you don’t want to break it up too much) and the spring onions.
Spoon the filling back into the potato skins and top with a sprinkling of cheese. Return to the oven for 12–15 minutes to heat through and crisp slightly on top before serving.