Smoked Kipper Rarebit

Smoked Kipper rarebit – toasted crusty bread topped with a silky bechamel sauce flecked with lightly smoked kippers and mature cheddar cheese. Than grilled till golden.

If you’d never heard the term rarebit before than you could be forgiven for thinking it is some sort of culinary masterpiece, exotic, and difficult to make. It really is a  fancy word for possibly the world’s favourite snack, the humble cheese on toast.

I have no idea where the word rarebit comes from and having done a little research I’ve been left none the wiser. I did learn though that there are a couple of different versions of this pimped out cheese on toast recipe. There’s a Scotch version, two English ones, and even a more modern Irish one. The country most associated with the dish though is definitely Wales.

It’s a bit of a surprise that a country with some of the finest tasting lamb and seas teeming with some of the freshest fish and shellfish is so closely associated with cheese on toast. Apparently the reason for this is that back in the day the poor people of Wales couldn’t even afford the cheapest cuts of meat. We know all about that here in Ireland, it’s why we’re world famous potato eaters.

The classic Welsh rarebit has got to be the best tasting cheese on toast recipe you’ll ever come across and it’s really easy to make too. All you’ve got to do is mix some ale with mustard powder, butter, worcestershire sauce, and a big hand full of mature cheddar cheese. Gently heat it till it’s melted and bubbling then pour the molten mixture over some of your favorite toasted bread and grill till golden. Dead easy…

My fishy version is a little more complicated and takes a bit more time but it’s well worth the effort. First the kippers are gently poached in a little white wine and milk. This infuses the milk with a delicate smoky flavour. The milk is than used to make a smooth,  velvety bechamel sauce to which the other ingredients are added.

In goes the worcestershire sauce along with the piquant English mustard to add a little heat and a beautiful luminous colour. Than a small handful of chopped parsley is added for freshness and some freshly grated mature cheddar for a salty kick. The super silky sauce is finally finished with a squeeze of lemon and by folding back in the fragile flakes of cooked Kipper.

It’s than a simple matter to pile the sauce on top of your favourite toasted bread and grill till molten and golden. I used some vienna roll I had lying in the bread bin but any crusty loaf will do the job.

Cheddar is the cheese of choice in most rarebit recipes I’ve seen, and the one I went with here, but I could imagine any hard cheese like parmesan or even Gruyère working well too.

I also topped my fishy rarebit with a tender, softly poached egg. This part is strictly optional but it does add another element and richness to the dish, finishing it off beautifully.

You could use another smoked fish in the recipe too. Smoked haddock or cod would be fine. Kippers might be a bit unfashionable but I’ve noticed tons of them down the supermarket so I guess somebody must be eating them.

Kippers or smoked herring are cheap at a price of less than a fiver a kilo. There also healthy as their an oily fish rich in omega 3. Very sustainable (their on the Marine Conservation Society’s list of fish to eat) not to mention really tasty.

Will you give a kippers a go?

Ingredients

• 50ml white wine
• 250ml/9oz milk
• 200g/7oz kippers
• 50g/2oz flour
• 50g/2oz butter
• 250g/9oz strong cheddar, grated
• 1 tsp English mustard
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 25g/1oz chopped parsley
• 4 eggs for poaching
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 4 large slices crusty bread

Instructions

1. Pour the white wine into a pan and reduce it down by half to burn off the alcohol. Add the milk and bring it up to a gentle simmer.
2. Slide in your kipper fillets and cook for 1 minute. Than remove the pan from the heat allowing the milk to infuse and the kippers to finish cooking.
3. Next melt the butter and add in the flour to form a roux.
4. Remove the kippers from the infused milk and slowly, little by little stir the milk into the roux to make your sauce.
5. Bring the sauce up to the boil stirring constantly to avoid it turning lumpy.
6. Next add in the mustard, worcestershire sauce, cheddar cheese, lemon juice, and chopped parsley to the sauce.
7. Flake up the kipper fillets which should by now be cool enough to handle and add them to the sauce.
8. Toast four slices of your favourite crusty bread under a hot grill then spoon a generous helping of your kipper sauce on top.
9. Next bring a pot of water to the boil, add the vinegar, and gently crack in the eggs. Poach for about 4 minutes so the yolks remain soft and molten. Than drain well on kitchen paper.
10. Glaze your rarebits under the hot grill till golden and bubbling, top with the soft poached eggs and serve immediately.

Notes