Chef Thomas
A Proper Chicken Broth
Sunday's roast chicken, simmered slowly on Monday with carrots, celery, leeks, and thyme into a bowl of clear, golden broth that smells like the kitchen is paying attention.
Culinary Explorer
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Cullen Skink
Created by Chef Thomas
Smoked haddock poached in milk, potatoes crushed into the broth, cream stirred through at the end. A bowl of Scottish coastal cooking that smells like woodsmoke and winter and the kind of evening you stay in for.
Soups & Stews
British
Dinner Party
Comfort Food
15 min
Active Time
35 min cook•50 min total
Yield4 servings
January. Rain on the windows since morning and the light never quite arriving. This is the weather for Cullen Skink. Not a soup you make in summer, not a soup that makes any sense when the evenings are long and warm. It belongs to the dark months, to kitchens with the heating on and coats still damp by the door.
The town of Cullen sits on the Moray coast, and this soup is its quiet gift to the rest of us. Smoked haddock, potatoes, milk. Three ingredients doing all the work, the smoke from the fish seeping into the milk as it poaches, the potatoes collapsing to give the broth its body. It smells like a harbour kitchen. Like salt air and woodsmoke and butter in a pan.
I don't make it often, which is probably why I look forward to it. The first bowl of the winter goes in the notebook every year. The note is always the same: smoky, rich, right. There are few better feelings than putting a warm plate in front of someone on a cold night, and this is the bowl I reach for when the weather asks for it.
A recipe is a conversation, not a contract. The proportions here are a starting point. More cream if you like it richer, more potato if you want it thicker, a little less milk if you prefer something closer to a stew. Your kitchen, your rules. We're only making dinner.
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Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
undyed smoked haddock fillet
Quantity
400g
skin on
whole milk
Quantity
500ml
bay leaf
Quantity
1
unsalted butter
Quantity
30g
onion
Quantity
1 medium
finely chopped
floury potatoes
Quantity
400g
peeled and cut into rough 2cm pieces
double cream
Quantity
100ml
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
white pepper
Quantity
to taste
flat-leaf parsley
Quantity
small handful
roughly chopped
lemon juice
Quantity
a squeeze
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| undyed smoked haddock filletskin on | 400g |
| whole milk | 500ml |
| bay leaf | 1 |
| unsalted butter | 30g |
| onionfinely chopped | 1 medium |
| floury potatoespeeled and cut into rough 2cm pieces | 400g |
| double cream | 100ml |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| white pepper | to taste |
| flat-leaf parsleyroughly chopped | small handful |
| lemon juice | a squeeze |
Equipment Needed
- •Wide, heavy-bottomed saucepan
- •Wooden spoon
- •Ladle
Instructions
- 1
Poach the haddock
Lay the haddock in a wide pan, skin side down, and pour over the milk. Drop in the bay leaf. Set it over a medium heat and bring the milk to a gentle simmer. Not a boil. You'll see the surface start to tremble and the kitchen will fill with something smoky and warm and faintly sweet. Let the fish poach for four or five minutes until it flakes easily when you press it with a fork. Lift it out onto a plate and set it aside. Keep the milk. Every drop of it. That milk is now the backbone of the whole soup.
Look for undyed smoked haddock, pale and golden, not the bright yellow sort. The colour is cosmetic. The flavour is the same, but the dye turns the soup a shade of yellow that belongs on a raincoat, not in a bowl. - 2
Soften the onion
Wipe out the pan and melt the butter over a low heat. Add the onion and a small pinch of salt. Let it cook gently, stirring now and then, for about eight minutes until it's soft and translucent and has lost all its sharpness. No colour. You're building a quiet base here, not a roasted one.
- 3
Cook the potatoes
Add the potatoes to the onion and stir them through the butter. Pour in the reserved poaching milk and add enough water to just cover everything, perhaps another 200ml or so. Bring to a simmer and cook for fifteen to twenty minutes until the potatoes are completely tender and starting to break apart at the edges. This is what you want. Floury potatoes that collapse slightly will thicken the soup naturally, giving it that characteristic body without needing flour or anything else to hold it together.
Maris Piper or King Edward potatoes work well here. You want a variety that falls apart rather than holds its shape. The starch is doing the work of a thickener. - 4
Build the texture
Remove the bay leaf. Now, roughly crush about half the potatoes against the side of the pan with the back of a wooden spoon. Not all of them. You want some pieces to remain whole so the soup has substance, something to find with your spoon. The crushed ones will dissolve into the liquid and thicken it into something between a broth and a chowder. That's the texture you're after.
- 5
Finish and serve
While the soup is still on the heat, flake the haddock into large, generous pieces, discarding the skin and checking for bones with your fingertips. Fold the fish into the soup gently. You don't want it to disintegrate. Stir in the cream and warm everything through for a minute or two. Season with white pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice. Taste it. The lemon does something quiet but important, cutting through the richness and making the smoke sing a little louder. Add salt carefully, the fish brings its own. Ladle into warm bowls and scatter the parsley over the top. Serve with bread that can stand up to being torn and dipped.
Chef Tips
- •The smoked haddock is everything. Find the best you can. Properly smoked over wood, not dipped in liquid smoke and dye. Ask your fishmonger. If they can't tell you how it was smoked, find one who can.
- •Don't throw away the poaching milk. I'll say it again because it matters. That milk has taken on all the smoke and savour of the fish. It is the soup. Without it, you're just boiling potatoes in cream.
- •Flake the fish in large pieces and add it at the end with a gentle hand. The haddock should hold its shape in the bowl, smoky and substantial, not dissolved into the broth. You want to find it with your spoon.
- •A glass of dry white wine alongside, if you're so inclined. Something crisp and unoaked. Or a cold beer. Both work. Neither is compulsory.
Advance Preparation
- •The soup can be made up to the point before adding the fish and cream, then refrigerated for up to a day. Reheat gently and add the flaked haddock and cream just before serving so the fish stays in pieces.
- •Not one for the freezer. The fish turns woolly and the potatoes lose their texture. Make it fresh when the evening calls for it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 350g)
Calories
430 calories
Total Fat
23 g
Saturated Fat
14 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
8 g
Cholesterol
125 mg
Sodium
1000 mg
Total Carbohydrates
28 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
9 g
Protein
28 g
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