Tag: tatties

Food and drink

Courgette Hash

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We’re deep into courgette season now and after the dismal haul of last year we’re now being over-run by masses of the things. Which just means I need to think of new ways to cook them!

I came home from a run this morning and wondered what I could eat for lunch. Cupboards were pretty bare but there was a couple of courgettes in the fridge, some old spring onions and I knew we had a few tatties ready in the garden. All those ingredients were just begging to be turned into a hash. Out came the frying pan and half an hour later I had a pretty awesome weekend lunch. Continue reading “Courgette Hash” →

Recipe

Roast poussin with chestnut and crouton stuffing

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I shouldn’t be allowed to go into supermarkets on my own. At least not into nice ones like Sainsbury’s. Tescos is probably safe enough if I avoid the world foods aisle – which also contains their specialist cooking ingredients. Or even the little Morrisons in Banchory as it’s got a pretty sparse range of food.

The other day I went to Sainsbury’s to pick up some cat litter and returned home with 2 poussins and a couple of tins of chestnuts. Not to mention the tub of deli olives, cat treats, two cat toys and the aforementioned bags of litter. There would have been more spur of the moment purchases but the beer aisle was closed. Continue reading “Roast poussin with chestnut and crouton stuffing” →

Food and drink

A local classic – Cullen Skink

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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” →

Recipe

Steamed and braised haddock with colcannon

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It’s been a while since I chose a recipe out of a book and then set out to buy the necessary ingredients and follow it as closely as possible. Post-Christmas, having received a few books as presents it’s time to break out of the making it up as I go along groove I”ve been in lately.

The excellent River Cottage Fish book is the one I decided would supply tonight’s dinner and I settled on a recipe for steamed/braised ling. Because Tesco’s is shit and it didn’t have any of the white fish Hugh recommended I decided to go for haddock. It was either that or Vietnamese cobbler. Seemed a better idea to go for the fish that had only travelled a few hundred miles instead of a few thousand. Continue reading “Steamed and braised haddock with colcannon” →

Food and drink

Stovies

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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” →