Miaow

It was half an hour into the performance when fourteen year old Lewis whispered to me: “Miss, is this seriously two and a half hours of singing and dancing cats?”  When I nodded an affirmative his eyes widened then momentarily flicked towards the lit green exit sign to my right.

“Don’t even think about it,” I hissed threateningly.  “If I have to sit through this, so do you.”

Cats, it turned out, really wasn’t my cup of tea at all.  Cracking songs, great dancing and a jaw-droppingly beautiful set, but my imagination simply wasn’t captured.  Luckily, myself and bored Lewis were in the minority; the vast majority of the kids adored the performance and were high as kites afterwards.  Even caught a few of them today walking down corridors humming Magical Mr Mistoffelees.  Love it!  🙂

Despite my misgivings about Cats, I felt like a feline themed dinner this evening.  What do cats like, I wondered.  Fish and milk, of course. And fish and milk can mean only one thing to a Scot: Cullen Skink.

Cullen Skink is a hearty, Scottish fish soup.  It’s namesake, Cullen, is an adorable maritime village on the north-east coast, not too far from here.  What “skink” means, I’m not sure.  Some books claim it is from the Gaelic meaning “essence” but when I asked a Gaelic speaker about this today she claimed that was rubbish and that perhaps it was from a Norse language.  Chatted to a Swedish friend but all to no avail: I am still none the wiser.  Anyone out there know?

Cullen Skink

(serves 2 as a main, 6 as a starter)

Knob of butter

1 onion, finely chopped

2 celery stalks, finely chopped

2 undyed, naturally smoked haddock fillets

1 pint of milk

1 bay leaf

1 very large potato, peeled and diced into 1cm cubes

Double cream (25 – 50ml)

Seasoning

Chives

• Melt the butter in a heavy based pan.  Add the onion and celery and cook gently until softened.
• Add the haddock fillets to the pan and just cover with milk.  Bring up to simmering point and cook for 4 minutes.
• Remove the fish from the pan and reserve. 
• Add the potatoes to the pan and the remaining milk.  Bring up to simmering point and cook for 10 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through.
• Meanwhile, flake the haddock fillets using your hands. 
• When potatoes are cooked, use a slotted spoon to remove some potato/onion/celery chunks from the soup. 
• Add most of haddock to the soup, reserving a little with the vegetable chunks.
• Liquidise the soup until silky smooth. Season very carefully and add cream to taste.  Heat gently then pour into bowls.
• Add some of the vegetable chunks and haddock to the soup and sprinkle with chives.

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