I had a free Sunday (deliberately left clear after Saturday was dedicated to whisky) recently and some beef bones in the freezer thanks to Morrisons so I decided to spend the time making beef stock for the first time. Continue reading “Beef Stock”
Tag: onion
Haggis, neeps and barley risotto – when good ideas go bad
It all started because Oliver at Salad Days, Offal Nights made a St George risotto using English ingredients (which seemed to contain mostly leeks!?). That’s a good idea I thought so I started thinking about a St Andrews version.
Neeps (swedes) would work quite well with the barley and my first thought was to roast some small joint of lamb or venison to go with the risotto. Then I remembered about the haggis in the freezer. Continue reading “Haggis, neeps and barley risotto – when good ideas go bad”
A local classic – Cullen Skink
I always want to feature more Scottish food, especially recipes from the north-east where I’ve lived my whole life. Cullen is a small village on the Moray coast, north of Aberdeen which is famous for one particular dish. A soup made of fish, milk, tatties and onion – Cullen Skink.
This is a very simple dish to make. You can knock it up in under half an hour if you’re efficient and have everything ready to go. I had a read through my books and found I had at least 5 recipes for this in my small collection. Most of them followed the same general pattern, with the River Cottage Fish book deviating the most and Leith’s Cookery Bible strangely adding tomato into the mix. The recipe below most closely follows Nick Nairn’s from New Scottish Cookery. Continue reading “A local classic – Cullen Skink”
Brrr! It’s a bit chilly for chilli
A foot and a half of snow! In November!?
We’ve had a remarkable week of weather featuring the heaviest November snowfall for 17 years, record low temperatures for the month and thunderstorms during snow showers. It’s bitterly cold and I spend most of the day clearing the snow off our driveway only for snow to return as soon as I go back inside. Even more annoying the snow plough comes along to clear the road and piles the snow across my nice cleared driveway. Then the pavement plough comes along and puts even more snow on the pile.
Stovies
My brother has a plan he mentions occasionally, to open a late night food cart selling stovies to drunk people. He thinks he’d make a fortune. Around here he probably would as well.
Stovies are another one of those dishes, like mince and tatties, which seems to define Scottish food for some people. They originated as a way of using up leftovers and making the most of what you had. The classic version that you find most often consists of tatties, onions and beef (usually boiled or leftover roast). There are of course regional and generational variations and you can swap the beef for lamb, mince, pork, even duck on one Aberdeen restaurant menu. Never corned beef though. That’s just wrong. Continue reading “Stovies”
Mince and Skirlie 