Godfrey Winn’s Kedgeree

Dr Lawrence Napper has been obsessed with Godfrey Winn ever since Charles Barr bought his Godfrey Winn Tea Towel into a seminar at UEA and proudly presented it to us.  I’ve been promising him Godfrey’s Kedgeree for a long time and so it came to pass yesterday for brunch.  Godfrey’s recipe was pretty plain – it didn’t even have any curry powder in – so I jooshed it up a bit with some curry sauce and deep fried tumeric flavoured onion rings.  I got the recipe for these parts of the whole here and I’m very glad I did as the sum of the parts was very good.

Nathalie, Lawrence and I had a fab afternoon drinking, eating kedgeree and blueberry muffins, playing 78s and laughing about film related things.  Nathalie is putting together a book of film star cocktails so if any of my readers know any, send them over and I’ll forward them on (testing them on the way of course).  We discussed the holy grail of film star recipes – we’d both love to find a Betty Balfour dish to go with the recipe Nathalie has for a Betty Balfour cocktail.  Then we could have Betty-Fest – an international day of celebrating BB.  It’s coming.  Once we find a recipe.

I forgot the joke I was going to make when Nathalie arrived, “Oh, I didn’t recognise you without your usherette’s uniform” as I’d seen her the day before at Home Movie Day at the Cinema Museum.  I’d been there spinning the shellac, in particular to accompany a selection of Alfred Hitchcock home movies.  That was very cool.  Seeing Hitch in his onesie is something none of us will ever forget.

It’s always one of my favourite days of the year.  I LOVE the Cinema Museum and always see much loved old friends there.  Lots of people come and chat about gramophones and old records, and there is always amazing CAKE and lashings of tea.  So with that on Saturday and chums to lunch on Sunday it was one of the best kinds of weekends.

So here is Godfrey’s very sensible kedgeree recipe.  My lovely friend Derek Parker who now lives in Sydney posted on Facebook that he’d once had Godfrey’s kedgeree with Godfrey himself so now I am checking my Facebook every 2 minutes to see if he has responded to my plea for more details.  No other reason of course…

Godfrey Winn’s Kedgeree Recipe

80z rice (I used approx 225g)

80z Cooked Fish, Baked and free from skin or bone (about 225g)

4 oz butter (110g)

4 hard boiled eggs

Chopped Parsley

Cream – about 4 tablespoons

METHOD

Boil the rice in plenty of salted water.  Drain thoroughly.  Melt the butter but do not brown, add the fish and chopped hard-boiled eggs (I just halved mine).  Mix well and heat thoroughly.  Season well.  Add the rice and stir with a fork until very hot.  At the last moment stir in the cream.  Turn into a hot dish and sprinkle with chopped parsley.  The mixture must be creamy.

Godfrey says this is sufficient for six people but the three of us ate the lot!  Thanks Godfrey!