Scots Wha Hae!

It's January, it's the 25th, it must be Burns' Night; the anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, Scottish poet and lyricist.  I'm not so patriotic but I do love a good Burns' supper and the Handyman and I look forward to our annual haggis fest.

If you've never tasted haggis please give it a try, it's a spicy concoction, not too pretty to look at but very, very tasty; and available from most supermarkets here in England and at butchers and supermarkets in Scotland. 

Served with the traditional neeps (swede - if you're English/turnip - if you're Scots, mashed with butter and black pepper) and tatties (creamed potatoes) and, a not so traditional, onion gravy it makes for sturdy January comfort food.

So no bagpipes or Scots poetry for us, but a generous helping of haggis, neeps and tatties with a wee dram to toast the Bard's 253rd birthday - happy birthday Rabbie!

Tasty Tatties

As usual I made far too much creamed potato for our meal last night, so rather than waste what was left I popped it in the fridge and waited to be inspired.  This morning as I pondered what to have for my breakfast I remembered the mash.  What about some good, old traditional Scottish tattie scones (or potato scones to the uninitiated). 

unadorned scrambled egg with potato scones

These flatbreads are savoury and go very well with sausage, bacon and eggs in a traditional Scottish breakfast or just with a scrambled or poached egg. They also freeze very well, just allow them to defrost and then reheat in the frying pan or under the grill. 

A quick and simple recipe to use up leftover potato and tasty enough to encourage you to make more mash than you need.

with a dash of HP sauce

Tattie Scones
Ingredients
leftover creamed potatoes (potatoes boiled and mashed with milk and butter)
plain flour
pinch of baking powder

Method
Mix the potatoes with enough flour (about 50g per 200g potato) and pinch of baking powder to make a soft dough.

Roll out the dough quite thinly and cut into about 6-8 scones and prick over with a fork.  Traditionally they should be triangular though mine were cut into rounds.

Heat a heavy based frying pan until hot then turn the heat to medium.  Cook the scones for 3 minutes each side, then remove from pan and cover with a cloth.  Eat warm with topping of your choice or cool and freeze for later.

My First Veg Box

On Thursday my first organic veg box from a local farm arrived.  The variety of veg was not bad given the time of year - there were a few potatoes (glad there were not too many as we still have a lot of our own potatoes), four large leeks, some carrots and onions, a handful of runner beans, a cauliflower, a cabbage, a very large swede and some curly kale.

We like our vegetables but this is quite a lot to get through before the veg starts to deteriorate and our freezer is already full to bursting with Holly Grove produce, so I had to make things that would use the maximum amount of veg in the shortest time.

First on the list was something to accompany fillets of trout that I had bought for our supper on Thursday.  The runner beans were an obvious choice and something using some of the lovely leeks, but what?  Then I remembered a dish that my Mum used to make when I was a child - stovies!  Any Scots reading this may need no further explanation, though from my experience family recipes vary.  The stovies my Mum made used potatoes, onions, butter and milk and it was cooked in a saucepan on top of the stove; this delicious concoction would be served in bowls with crusty, well buttered bread - real comfort food.

My interpretation is really a variation of dauphinois and uses leeks instead of onions - posh stovies.  The dish was perfect with the simply cooked trout and runner beans, the richness of the stovies went so well with the lightness of the fish - lovely!

A vegetable curry was next on the list and delicious it was too - that was Friday night's meal served with naan and vegetable pakoras.

Then using some beef from the local butcher and leeks, carrots, onions and swede I made a large slow cooked casserole - some eaten last night and the rest for a pie filling for tonight's supper.  The pie I'll serve with creamed potato and swede and some of the dark curly kale.

After all of this there is still enough veg left to make a warming soup and some vegetable stock that I may just be able to squeeze into the freezer - phew!  To be honest I'm not sure veg boxes are for me, I think I'd rather select my veg myself and probably buy smaller quantities more often, but it has been an interesting experience and reminded me of a childhood dish long forgotten - oh, and here's my recipe...

Posh Stovies

Serves 2-3
Ingredients

125ml double cream

125ml milk

2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced

1 bay leaf

good grating of nutmeg

salt and pepper

2 good sized potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced

1 large leek, cleaned and thickly sliced

leaves stripped from a few sprigs of fresh thyme

a handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese

Method

Put the first five ingredients in a saucepan and simmer together for 5 minutes to infuse the milk/cream mixture.  Remove from the heat and remove the bay leaf and season with salt and pepper.

Take an earthenware ovenproof dish and grease generously with softened butter.  Lay a layer of potatoes in the bottom of the dish and sprinkle with some of the thyme, add the leek slices in a layer over the potatoes and then cover the leek with another layer of potatoes, sprinkle the remaining thyme over the potatoes.

Pour the milk/cream mixture over the layered potato and leek.  Oil the inside of a piece of tinfoil and then use this to cover the dish, oilside down.  Put the dish on a baking sheet in the oven 200C for about 40 minutes or until the potato is soft.  Remove the foil and press down the potatoes with the back of a serving spoon then sprinkle over the parmesan and return to the oven for about 10 minutes until the top is golden.