I’ve seen lots of different recipes that say they’re Cullen Skink, but the traditional way is to use smoked haddock, onions and mashed potatoes. Using the traditional Cullen Skink Recipe requirement of pre cooked and mashed potatoes wasn’t an option for the slow cooker, as I wanted to be able to add the potatoes to cook in the pot like the other soup maker recipes.
I used regular haddock rather than smoked haddock, as I’m not a smoked fish fan. If I’d used the smoked haddock, then I wouldn’t have eaten it. Smoked fish is a very niche taste, with a smaller potential base of people who would enjoy it, so change your ingredients to suit your own tastes.
Using the water from the poached fish as the fish stock for your soup is what makes the dish. Without it, the taste will be diluted and it will simply taste of heated milk.
In the end, I had a wee bit of a disaster when my soupmaker gave up the ghost half way through and shorted out. It meant I had to transfer it to a pan to finish the job for this recipe, but it still turned out very nice. To serve, I simply dolloped in some mashed potatoes made for the supper that evening, with a dash of parsley on the top.
Presentation wise, this is a lovely soup to dish up. It would look perfect on any dinner table with some decoration on top of the actual soup itself. A piece of cooked fish would also work really well sat on top of the mashed potatoes. This is more of a meal in a plate than a regular soup, so be ready to have a full stomach after only one bowl full.
This is my version. How would you make yours?
- 400g Potatoes - Diced Small
- 300g Cooked Haddock (Usually Smoked but we use Unsmoked)
- 100g Onions - Chopped and Sauteed
- Salt
- Pepper
- Poach the haddock on some water on the stove for around four minutes, until fully cooked.
- Remove the haddock and strain the fish stock that's left over.
- Add the potatoes, onion and fish to the soup maker and 200ml of the fish stock. Top up with 600ml semi skimmed milk. Add a teaspoon of salt and pepper.
- Set your soupmaker to the smooth setting and wait until it's done. You may need to reblend to get the consistency you prefer.
- Optional. Add up to 100ml of fresh cream and mix well to serve. This soup is not suitable for freezing.
Different from my usual but will try this. We like various salty things like marmite so will stick with the smoked fish (but we use about 50/50 ratio£. Never heard about using mashed pots, and we are not far from the village of Cullen itself, so will probably stick with putting raw peeled and diced potatoes in the soup. Possibly completely non-traditional but they stay intact due to salt content of the soup!
How wonderful, thanks for sharing.