Easter came early this year which hopefully heralds the start of tourist season, sunny weather and the best of what Dorset has to offer.

My personal goal is to return to scuba diving regularly this year.

Scuba is not for everyone, but I love the freedom and gracefulness of movement, not something I would say I do on land so much!

It also helps to bring back a bag of fresh scallops, crab and occasionally lobster at the end of a dive.

I’ve dived all over the world and Dorset has some of the best waters and coastline for diving and sea sports to be found.

We are also lucky to have an abundance of wonderful sea food, but its not all about the cod and chips special.

Explore alternatives and it doesn’t get much more comforting than this month’s recipe, a delicious fillet of haddock, an oozy poached egg with hollandaise and some bubble and squeak to mop it all up with, this is heaven for me.

Haddock With Bubble And Squeak, Poached Egg and Hollandaise Sauce

Prepare: 10 minutes 

Cook: 30 minutes 

  • Hollandaise
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 250g unsalted butter
  • ½ lemon juiced
  • Salt
  • 4 eggs at room temperature
  • 1tsp white wine vinegar
  • 600g mashed potatoes
  • 4 150g haddock fillets, skinned and boned
  • Unsalted butter
  • Small bunch garlic chives finely sliced

Make the hollandaise just before you start cooking the fish and eggs so it is still hot. You need a stick blender and a jug of about 500ml capacity that is only slightly larger in diameter than the blade end of the blender to make hollandaise with this method.

Heat 250g butter in a saucepan on a low heat until just melted , leave to cool for a few minutes. Using your stick blender and jug add the yolks, a pinch of salt and the lemon juice and whisk on high.

Now slowly pour into the jug the hot butter while still whisking to form a pale yellow sauce.

Cook the mashed potatoes in a pan on high with a little butter , it should colour and caramelise a little as you cook. Make four patties and hold them in a warm pan or in the oven on low .

Bring a large non stick pan of water, about 50mm deep, to the boil, add the vinegar and turn the heat off. Add the four eggs separately and leave to cook.

If the eggs are too cold you might need to heat the water a little to finish them.

In a large non stick frying pan put a kno b of butter and heat on medium until the pan base is covered and the butter is just starting to foam.

Season with salt and place the haddock fillets in the pan and cook until they are opaque 2/3 of the way through then finish them cooking by spooning hot butter over them, they should be caramelised and brown on the bottom and pale but cooked on the top.

Serve on large hot plates, place the bubble and squeak on the plate, then the haddock, crispy side up, the poached eggs and finally lashings of hollandaise sauce, sprinkle with chives to finish and serve immediately.