Is there any more comforting food than smoked haddock.

We had some last night with potatoes and spinach. The potatoes came from the garden. I had dug them up a month ago and since then they had kept themselves hidden in a paper sack in the cellar.

The potatoes were parboiled and drained.

I then cooked the haddock, bringing some water to a simmer in a large pan, and then sliding in the fat haddock and letting it warm through until I could peel away its skin.

The pan was then drained and the haddock put to one side whilst in the same pan I sweated away an onion and a leek. I was careful to keep the water. I may have stirred in a crushed clove of garlic but it wasn’t needed. I managed to find some saffron lurking in the cupboard and I crushed this up and added it to the pan.

Once the onion and leek had started to take on colour I stirred in the potatoes and then the water in which the haddock had cooked. Once that was simmering it was left for a few minutes more to take on its flavours. I then added the spinach, it had been drained, cleaned and chopped, it had to be pushed down amongst the potatoes so it could start on its disappearing act.

A pot of double cream was then added and stirred in along with the flaked haddock.

It all deserved a good bottle of white wine and it had it!