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(1) Serves 4–6

175 g (6 oz) long grain rice, preferably Basmati

2 blades of mace

90 g (3 oz) butter

1 large Finnan haddock, poached, skinned and boned

2 hard-boiled eggs, mashed or chopped

salt, pepper

1 raw egg, beaten

at least 6 tablespoons single cream

2–3 tablespoons chopped parsley

Rinse and boil the rice until tender with the 2 blades of mace; drain well. Heat two-thirds of the butter in a sauté pan and flake the haddock into it. Stir for a few minutes. Mix in the rice and, when it is piping hot, the eggs. Check for seasoning. Off the heat, add the raw egg and cream, the rest of the butter and enough parsley to give a good speckled effect. Taste and add extra cream, it you like. Turn out on to a hot dish and serve on hot plates, as quickly as possible.

(2) Serves 3

1 ½ Finnan haddock

1 medium onion, sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 scant teaspoon curry powder

2 tablespoons sultanas

125 g (4 oz) long grain rice, preferably Basmati

salt, pepper

2 hard -boiled eggs

chopped parsley

butter

lemon wedges and mango chutney

Pour boiling water over the haddock. Leave 2 or 3 minutes, then drain, skin and flake into pieces.

Cook the onion gently until pale yellow in the oil in a sauté pan. Stir in the curry powder and cook for a minute, stirring. Add the sultanas and rice, plus 600 ml (1 pt) water. Bring to boiling point and cook steadily for 10 minutes. Put in the haddock and seasoning and complete the cooking of the rice, which should be tender. The water will have been absorbed: towards the end of cooking time, keep an eye on things and prevent sticking by pouring in a little more water, or freeing the bottom layer of rice with a fork.

Turn on to a hot serving dish. Arrange the hard-boiled eggs and parsley on top with little knobs of butter here and there. Serve with lemon wedges and chutney.

OMELETTE ARNOLD BENNETT

The Savoy Hotel in the Strand was the scene of Arnold Bennett’s novel, Imperial Palace. He describes its inner life and workings so well that you begin to feel part of its enveloping claustrophobic world. Outside nothing mattered, nothing held the two main characters except what related to the hotel’s existence and triumph. The novel was published in 1930, the year before he died, and by then he had known the Savoy for many years, often stopping there for a late supper after the theatre. One of his favourite dishes was this omelette, which still appears regularly on the restaurant menu.

Serves 3

250 g (8 oz) cooked, flaked Finnan haddock

3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

salt, pepper

6 eggs, beaten

a little butter

3–4 tablespoons double cream

Switch on the grill at top heat, allowing time for it to warm up.

Mix the fish with the cheese and season it. Cook the eggs in butter in an omelette pan. When the underneath part is firm but the top quite liquid, spread the fish over it and pour on the cream. Place under the grill until lightly browned and bubbling. Slide on to a serving dish without attempting to fold the omelette over.

ARBROATH SMOKIES, ABERDEEN SMOKIES, PINWIDDIES

Small haddock, quite little ones, are used for this particular cure. The fish are beheaded, gutted and washed. Then they are tied by the tail, two by two together, and brined. The last stage, after they have been hooked over rods to drip dry, is the smoking at a temperature sometimes as high as 85°C (180°F). This gives the skins a deep coppery-brown look and cooks the inside to a flaky opaque creaminess that is quite different from the close, semi-transparent firmness of cold-smoked fish.

The cure originated in Auchmithie on the eastern coast of Scotland among the fishing families that inhabit the rocky cliff. Then it spread to Arbroath, 5½ km (3½ miles) away, a busy and prosperous port. The fame of the local smokies spread gradually at the end of the nineteenth century, but they have never quite managed to become as popular as Finnan haddock. At good fishmongers