If you are fond of fish smoked haddock it’s lovely for breakfast - or lunch or supper. Serve with a good grinding of black pepper, brown bread and butter and a poached egg on top as you would kippers.

And again, as with kippers, it’s nice to have some marmalade to finish up the bread and butter and accompany with a hot cup of tea.

Try this simple method of cooking smoked haddock.

Put a teaspoon of cooking oil and a level teaspoon of butter in a frying pan.

Pop in the haddock and cover with a closely fitting lid.

Cook haddock over a moderate heat for a few minutes until the fish loses its translucency and becomes opaque: usually about 6-10 minutes.

Fresh or Frozen?

If you have access to a really good fishmonger or wet fish counter in your local supermarket, then you are very lucky: they should sell top quality fish and also be able to advise you on best buys and give you cooking tips.

Equally, frozen fish is always an excellent alternative: and, crucially, it’s much cheaper.

Frozen soon after it’s caught, it’s often actually ‘fresher than fresh’. In some cases, ‘fresh fish’ may actually have been previously frozen.

You can buy 400g bags of smoked haddock fillets at most supermarkets: look out for offers for 2 bags at a reduced price. There are usually 4 fillets in each bag – admittedly of differing sizes!

Defrosting

You can cook the fish fillets from frozen but it’s easier to defrost first: just leave in a covered dish in the fridge overnight.

Tip

It’s much easier to cut up defrosting frozen fish than fresh: you can even cut it into neat cubes. A chilly experience, but worth it!