Scottish Recipes

My Scottish mother-in-law arrived to visit us this week, and with her arrived bottles of pure malt Whisky, the best shortbread in Scotland, Millionaire’s shortbread and of course my father in law made his porridge and leek and potato soup. All that reminded me how delicious traditional Scottish food can be and how much I had missed a good old haggis with neeps and tatties.

Scottish food:

Due to the cold and humid weather in Scotland, most Scottish food is aimed to warm you up from inside out. A Scottish table will have steaming hot stews and all sort of dishes concocted with potatoes and winter vegetables such as onions and turnips. Traditional Scottish food relies on salt and pepper and almost ignores any other spices; the flavour is brought by the meat and vegetables themselves.

Easy to cook (except for the haggis) traditional Scottish dishes have oatmeal, meat and potatoes as the basic ingredients. With those few things, housewives were able to concoct delicious meals such as porridge for breakfast; scotch broth, leek and potato soup, Cock-a-leekie soup, Cullen Skink, stovies, mince and tatties, roasted Aberdeen Angus beef, venison or grouse and shortbread and oatcakes.

Bellow you will find some of the most traditional everyday Scottish recipes, from breakfast porridge eaten with a pinch of salt instead of sugar, to the heavy duty Scotch broth to be followed by stovies and shortbread. They are all very easy to make, very filling and can be stored for several days.

Like the Scots say before eating:

“Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thankit.”

Or, stick in til ye stick oot!

Traditional Scottish Porridge:

1.2 litres/2 pints of water

50g./2oz. medium oatmeal

Full fat milk

Pinch of salt

Preparation:

Bring water to the boiling in a deep saucepan and sprinkle in the oatmeal, stirring continuously.  Lower the heat and simmer for another 15 minutes depending how thick you want your porridge.

Season with a pinch of salt and serve piping hot with milk or cream or both!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1kg/2 lb mutton

1.8 l./3 pints of water

50gr/2oz washed barley

25gr/ 1oz. dried peas

Salt & pepper

75gr/3oz chopped carrots

75gr/3oz chopped turnips

50gr/2oz chopped onions

75gr/3oz chopped leeks

50gr//2oz chopped kail

1 ½ tablespoon chopped parsley.

Preparation:  Place mutton in a saucepan and add water. Bring to boil and add parsley, peas, salt and pepper. Reduce heat and simmer for an hour. Add carrots, onions and turnips and cook for a further hour. Add kail, leeks and chopped parsley. Cook for a further 10 minutes.

Serve with crusty bread. Serve 6 to 8.

Stovies are one of the Scottish National dishes. My mother in law used to make it quite often as it is a very easy to make dish and very tasty. Like an old advert used to say “hasty, tasty and no wasty”. Below is the original recipe for Stovies but you can add any leftover sausages, corned beef, roasted meat or mince for extra taste.

Ingredients:

1 oz (25 g) butter, dripping or margarine

2 lbs (1 Kg) potatoes

8 oz (225 g) onions

1/2 pint (300 ml) hot water or mutton stock

Salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:  Fry the onion in the butter or fat of your choice, add the potatoes and water or stock. Simmer at a low heat. Once the potatoes are ready add any meat you fancy and salt and pepper to taste. Eat hot and washed down with a long glass of Irn Bru –Scottish national fizzy drink.

This is one of my favourite finger foods. I like them with a cup of tea or even better, dunk in a glass of pure malt Whiskey. They are delicious as they soak the whiskey and the thick biscuit just melts in your mouth. But, the Scots can be very luxurious when they want and they have also created a sweet delicacy that will leave you speechless with pleasure, the name of that marvellous concoction is Millionaire’s shortbread.

Traditional Shortbread recipe

To make approximately 24 biscuits you will need:

500gr/1lb softened butter

175gr/7oz caster sugar

600 gr. sifted plain flour.

Preparation:  Preheat oven gas mark 3/325°F/160°C.

Beat together butter and sugar, add the flour little by little and beat until smooth. Grease and flour a baking tray, roll out dough and press into baking tray. Mark dough into fingers or wedges and prick all over with a fork.

Bake for approximately 30 to 40 minutes or until firm to the touch and golden brown. When cool, sift caster sugar over the top of biscuits.

Millionaire’s shortbread.

To create this delicacy you just need to take your baked and cooled shortbread (still uncut on the baking tray) and cover it with a thick layer of toffee; when the toffee has set, you just have to spread a thick layer of soft melted chocolate over the toffee layer. Leave to set.

Cut the end result into squares, make yourself a cup of strong coffee and sit by a sunny window to enjoy the ecstasy.

One of my favourite Scottish celebrations is Burns Day, on the 25^th of January. That day all across the country you can enjoy a Burn’s supper which consists of large quantities of whisky and haggis, all accompanied by bagpipers or fiddler’s music and of course Burn’s poems.

A traditional Burn’s supper starts with whisky or whisky cocktails such as a Rusty nail (equal parts of Whiskey and Drambui). After that you have a starter which can be either smoked fish or a soup such as cullen skink. After you have warmed up for the night, prepare to have your ears pierced by the bagpipers entering the room followed by the cook carrying the haggis. Before the haggis is eaten there is a formal address to the haggis. At this moment everybody fills their glass with whiskey and raises it in a toast to the haggis saying ‘Slainte mhath’, pronounced ‘slan-je va’ which means ‘your good health’. After that, the haggis is served with Champit Tatties and Bashed Neeps (mashed potatoes and turnips).

To finish the Burns supper a delicious dessert is served, it is my favourite in Scottish cuisine, the Cranachan. This luxurious dessert is made of oatmeal, raspberries, cream and whisky. A delicious concoction served with shortbread.

Cullen Skink recipe:

1 sliced onion

4 crushed peppercorns

Butter water

1 medium sized smoked haddock

500 g. potatoes

600ml milk

Salt and pepper.

Preparation: Melt butter and fry the onions and crushed peppercorns. Add the fish and cover with water and cook until the skin is loose enough to be removed. Remove the fish and skin it. Flake the flesh and remove any bones. Reserve the flaked fish in a dish and return bones and skin to the pan and simmer for an hour.

Boil mashed potatoes, strain the fish stock and add to a large pan with the milk. Heat gently and add as many potatoes as you like, depending upon the desired consistency. Add the flaked fish, a knob of butter and serve.

This is a luxurious and delicious dessert which is very easy to make; it only takes about 1O minutes to prepare. One of the few desserts only for adults.

Ingredients:

50g. medium oatmeal

300ml double or whipping cream

25g of icing sugar

6 Table spoons of good whisky (not that it could be otherwise if you are using real Scotch Whisky!)

225g fresh raspberries

Preparation: Lightly toast the oatmeal under the grill, turning frequently. Allow to cool down. Meantime whip the cream until is firm, stir in the icing sugar, toasted cool oatmeal and whiskey. Keep whipping and carefully add half of the raspberries.

Place the cream in individual serving dishes and decorate with the remaining raspberries. Serve immediately at room temperature.