Category: Thoughts
Bramble Pie Fail
With my newfound grasp of shortcrust pastry I’m filled with grand ideas of what I can do with it. Unfortunately they don’t always work out as I hoped. This was supposed to be a bramble pie covered in golden, sweet pastry which I could perch some cold vanilla ice cream on. Then I would crack it open to reveal steaming brambles in their syrupy sauce inside with the ice cream melting all over it.
What actually happened was that the sauce from the brambles made the pie sides and bottom a soggy lump of stodge and they never cooked properly. While I had achieved a lovely golden pastry on top the sides were a mess. It was still edible and tasted great but a sad failure for what was a great idea. To add insult to injury the next day I was watching Saturday Kitchen and James Martin did exactly the same pie but made it perfectly. The git.
I’m not going to give you a proper recipe for this. If you really want to try it just add some sugar to a standard shortcrust pastry recipe. For the filling you just need to gently heat the brambles in a pan and add sugar to help break the berries down. Taste the sauce until it’s sweet enough and then take it off the heat.
Skye
Just a quick post to share some pictures of our weekend in Skye. It’s the first time I’ve made it over there and I fell more than a little in love with the island. The weather helped! As did the wildlife. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many birds of prey in the wild and was lucky enough to see a Sea Eagle and it’s chicks on a boat trip from Portree and then I walked right into a Sea Eagle on the top of Storr the next day! It just jumped in the air 5 metres in front of me and casually soared over the cliff. Amazing.
Miltonduff and Provenance Knockando Whisky
It’s been a while since I posted anything about booze on here. Partly because I don’t keep it around long enough to take pictures of it! But also because I don’t feel like I can talk about booze the same way I can talk about food. There are hundreds of fantastic beer, whisky and wine writers out there who can describe what they’re drinking with beautiful, descriptive prose. I’m not one of them.
However I can tell you what I like. Which might be enough for this blog. With that in mind I’d like to tell you about a couple of whiskys I’ve been supping over the last few weeks. Continue reading “Miltonduff and Provenance Knockando Whisky”
Before and After
It’s really amazing what a difference learning to cook and regular exercise can make. My Mum recently found a picture of me from December 2005 when I was considerably larger than I am now! Continue reading “Before and After”
Mince and Skirlie 