Ingredients

Step by step

1. If you’re making your own crispy onions, do this first; in a small pan, heat a 1cm depth of oil. Fry the onions in batches until crispy, lift out to a kitchen paper-lined plate and sprinkle with salt.
2. Place the smoked haddock in a lidded frying pan. Pour over the milk and add enough water to just cover the fish, then add the lid. Once it comes to a gentle simmer, cook for 3 minutes. Leave the pan off the heat, lid on, for a further 5 minutes. Lift the fish out onto a plate and save the poaching liquid.
3. Put the rice in a saucepan with 500ml of poaching liquid – top up with water if necessary. Stir in the turmeric, then add the bay leaf, about 20 parsley stalks and 3 strips of peel from the lemon – use a vegetable peeler to make these. Cover with a lid, bring to a fierce simmer and stir, then immediately turn the heat down to low and cook the rice for 11 minutes. Turn off the heat and don’t remove the lid for another 10 minutes.
4. While the rice cooks, prepare the other components. In a large frying pan or shallow casserole, cook the chopped onion, celery and apricots in half of the ghee or butter until the veg is soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Stir in the curry powder and cook together for another 2 minutes, stirring.
5. Put the eggs in a small pan of cold water, cover and bring to the boil. Once at boiling point, set a timer for 4 minutes for medium-size eggs, 5 minutes for large ones. Plunge straight into a bowl of cold water until cool enough to handle. Peel and halve or roughly chop.
6. Fluff up the rice, discarding the herb stalks and lemon peel, and stir this into the curried veg with the last 25g of the ghee or butter, warming it all through gently. Flake through the cooked smoked haddock. Chop the parsley and coriander leaves and stir most of these through, along with a good squeeze of lemon juice and seasoning.
7. Serve topped with the eggs, flaked almonds, the reserved herbs and the crispy onions.