Author: minceandskirlie

Writer, poet, musician, and sometime IT professional in the North East of Scotland.
Food and drink

Panna Cotta

minceandskirlie

Time for another dessert post! It’s been a while.

Some of the best puddings are the most simple and Panna Cotta is about as simple as it gets. Essentially just warm cream, set with gelatine and usually flavoured with vanilla. For the recipe I had a look around the internet and my books for some good examples then cobbled together something I figured would work for the quantity I wanted to make. This is mostly based on the always excellent Felicity Cloake “Perfect Panna Cotta” recipe in the Guardian but I left out the buttermilk (didn’t have any or wanted to try to find any) and used semi-skimmed instead of full-fat milk. Continue reading “Panna Cotta” →

Food and drink

Summer vegetable tart

minceandskirlie

Over the summer I get through loads of courgettes, tomatoes and peppers in various dishes so there’s almost always a couple of each lurking in a corner of the fridge waiting to be used. Most of the time I’ve also got a lump of puff pastry in the freezer as I rarely need to use a whole block. The other week I was stuck for ideas for a Sunday lunch and decided to use up some of the leftovers.
Continue reading “Summer vegetable tart” →

Snapshots

Aunty Betty’s ice cream shop

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I finally accepted that winter is unlikely to return suddenly so I drove down to Stonehaven to get my winter tyres taken off. Seeing as I had an hour to kill and the sun was out I wandered across to the beach to get an ice cream from Aunty Betty’s. Their idea of a single scoop cone is pretty ridiculous!

Food and drink

Pigeon with Roast Beetroot

minceandskirlie

My fiance loves pickled beetroot. She’ll munch through jars of the stuff as a snack but I’ve never been all that fussed by it. It’s too overpowering and annihilates whatever is unfortunate enough to share a plate with it. That’s not to say I don’t like beetroot. It’s the second best root vegetable in the packets of root veg crisps you can buy these days (obviously parsnip is the best) and I’ve had some pretty good beet experiences in the past.

Recently I’ve noticed roast beetroot appearing on cooking programmes and menus more often. I picked up some pigeon breasts at the farmers market and decided it would be a good time to try roasting beets. Continue reading “Pigeon with Roast Beetroot” →

Snapshots

Asparagus, prosciutto and egg pizza

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Watching the Scottish cup final and getting ready for the champions league final by relaxing with some homemade pizza and some kriek. Perfect lazy Saturday.

This is possibly the best pizza I’ve ever made.