the best of scotland

I've been thinking that it might be fun to do a little series of blog entries over the holidays and perhaps beyond (while I still have free time) about my experience living here in Scotland.



One of the challenges of blogging is trying to keep your posts (relatively) interesting.  Since starting this blog, I've taken a fairly relaxed approach since I understand I have a relatively limited audience.  An audience who, more than likely, knows me personally and will tolerate a less engaging read.  However, that's no reason to be dull.

With that sentiment in mind, I've decided to do a few 'best of Scotland' entries that will expose my own tastes and reflect a few of my (mostly positive) opinions on my life here.  

Irish Oatmeal

To continue the breakfast theme around here... I've had a request for the slow cooker steel cut oats that are a feature in our breakfast rotation. As it's getting colder around here, it's perfect timing. The recipe comes from one of my favourite cookbooks of late Slow Cooker Revolution, from my heroes at ATK/Cook's Illustrated.

As a very oaty household, we typically have a few types of oats about - jumbo rolled oat (our standard porridge oat), quick rolled oats (for mixing in raw to yoghurt) and pinhead, also called steel cut (for a different type of porridge).

I need to preface this with the fact that in my mind, oatmeal porridge ought to be a mostly savoury dish. I don't normally like anything sweet in mine, bar dried fruit. Although I do like cold evaporated milk. So this recipe is a bit off the norm for me.

Steel cut oats are delicious and have a great texture, but are a bit of a pain to prepare, compared to rolled oats. This slow-cooker method makes it a snap and the leftovers are easily reheated. Since we have a very basic slow cooker (sans timer) I just plug ours into one of those timer socket thingies to get the right cooking time for it to be ready at breakfast. If you leave it cook too long, it's all ballooned out.

Irish Oatmeal

2 tablespoons unsalted butter (I've used salted and just back on the salt)
2 cups steel-cut oats
8 cups water
1 teaspoon salt

Method
Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat, add the oats in and toast. You need to make sure to stir this well as they can get dark quickly. You want them to be a golden colour and smell quite nice. Transfer over to the slow cooker and add the water and salt, cook on LOW setting for 4-6 hours. Our slow cooker tends to run hot, so they're done in 4, easily. Stir the porridge well and let it sit for about 10 min before serving, it just evens out a bit and is less hot.

The book provides a few options to this recipe - Cinnamon & Raisins, Bananas & Walnuts and Apples & Raisins. We've tried the first option, in which you simply add 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1 cup of raisins. I love it! I'm hoping to try the banana one soon... For it you reduce the water to 7.5 cups and add 4 mashed bananas, 1 cup of toasted walnuts, 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/4 tsp of cinnamon.

The real efficiency from this recipe is the leftover factor. It makes quite a lot and reheats as new. Just need to add a bit of water to get the right texture, although I prefer it solid.

Pikelets

This last recipe is fantastic. In some ways it is more than just a variation on a theme, which so many pancake recipes are. Although the ingredient list is similar to normal pancakes, it has different DNA, so to speak. The secret ingredient - yeast! Don't worry though, it's not nearly as finicky as bread. In fact it's the easiest yeast-raised thing you'll ever make.

This recipe comes from "The Classic 1000 Cake & Bake Recipes", by Wendy Hobson. This is a very unassuming book, unfortunate graphic design. I was given this book with a pile of other cookbooks that a friend was wanting rid of, either they went to me or to a charity shop. I must admit that I nearly passed this one along to the charity shop when we did a book clear out. I'm glad I didn't, even if it were for this one recipe (truth be told it's full of good ones).

One of the quirks of this book is it's metric/imperial/US measurement layout. It's a pain to read, but it does allow me to present it in both systems here. I'm told pikelets are an Aussie thing, but as far as I can tell, it's really just their word for a raised pancake. This recipe appears to have rather ancient origins, what with the yeast and all.

Pikelets

1 teaspoon dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
1-1/4 cups milk (300 ml)
1 egg
2 cups flour (225 g)
1 teaspoon salt

Warm the milk in the microwave so it is lukewarm and add the sugar and yeast. Allow the yeast to proof (it will float to the top and be bubbly)*. In larger bowl (I use a pitcher) add the flour and salt. Now add the egg to the milk mixture and beat, finally adding it to the dry ingredients; mix well into a thin batter (I use a hand blender or just do the whole thing in a regular blender). Unlike regular pancake batter, this stuff has to be lump-free. Cover and leave somewhere warm until double in size (no more than 30 min usually). Fry as you would normal pancakes, but be warned the mixture tends to pour gloppy.

*The original recipe tells you to make a paste with the dry yeast, sugar and some of the milk, then mix it into everything else. This does work, but it makes the rise time a lot slower - it will take 30 - 40 min at least depending on where you leave it to rise.

This recipe makes the most wonderful, doughy and fragrant pancakes. I eat them with just butter. If you have really active yeast, or a longer rise time, you will have very, very light thick pancakes, shorter rise times or less exuberant yeast yield shorter more bread like pancakes. I once made this with some very perky yeast and the batter kept growing to fill my pitcher, like a bottomless cup!

This is such a wonder, easy and unique recipe that you MUST try it at least once (but if you do, I promise it won't be a one-time-only thing).

Cornmeal Griddlecakes

In case I get accused of pancake nationalism, I shall now introduce the pancake we eat the most often, which is an American recipe (that is not, as MBC would point out, overly large or tasteless). The best way to describe these is in terms of cornbread: Hot out of the oven with butter, yum! But just a few hours later, meh. The next day, yuck. This recipe is like eating hot-out-of-the-oven cornbread, except small, flat and in series (the better to soak up butter).

This recipe comes from the "The Cornbread Book" by Jeremy Jackson, which I urge you to buy if you like cornmeal in any of its forms - it's witty, charming and full of great recipes. Actually just buy it for the read even if you don't like cornmeal.

Griddlecakes

2/3 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 egg, slightly beaten
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, slightly cooled

Add the dry ingredients into a bowl, add the milk, egg and butter then stir it all until everything is just combined.

I make this in a plastic pitcher for easy pouring. It is delightfully easy and is delicious with a variety of toppings like honey. For UK readers, you can get cornmeal easily at any Indian, Afro-Carribean grocery or health food store where they will call it maize meal (get course ground).

Oatmeal Pancakes

This is one of my grandmother's recipes, of which I am very fond. Like most of Grammie's recipes I can never get these to turn out as good as hers. This is likely due to the fact that my grandmother NEVER used recipes so every recipe we do have from her is sort of like a jotted-down transcript. Similarly, when we did copy a recipe out of her book, we got the original inspiration for what she actually made (never as good).

So in memory of Grammie (the late Kaye Smith), here it is:

Oatmeal Pancakes

3/4 cup rolled oats
1 cup buttermilk (or sour regular milk with some vinegar)
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg (separated)

Put the oats in the buttermilk and let soak at least 15 minutes (if you are using the large flake oats, go a bit longer). Beat egg yolk and stir into mushy oats then add sugar, baking soda and flour; mix together. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into mixture. Fry as smallish pancakes on a lower heat than normal as they'll be pretty thick.

As much as I love this recipe, it doesn't get made as often because I always have a problem getting the the egg white beaten stiff (I don't have electric beaters). This recipe makes enough for two people and no more. It easily doubles and in fact the egg whites are easier to beat with twice as much.

Riverside Pancakes

This is an old family standby, which makes a traditional Nova Scotian pancake - it is not a big, fluffy, syrup-absorbing sponge that falls apart on your plate (ie: a mix pancake). MBC and I have this discussion now and then about what I think an American pancake is. I have always thought of them as being massive and really fluffy, I suppose mostly based on restaurant fare in my travels down there. She rightly points out that you would get this sort of pancake at any restaurant in Canada as well. At any rate, these pancakes are not thus. They are, however, just like what is referred to as a 'scotch pancake' here in the UK, but minus the fruit.

The recipe comes from the North Cumberland Memorial Hospital Lady's Auxiliary Cookbook, Pugwash, NS (1970s vintage), which tells us that it was submitted by Barb MacKay.

Riverside Pancakes

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup white vinegar*
2 cups milk

Measure out the milk and pour vinegar in to sour. Add eggs and beat. Mix dry ingredients separately and add the wet in with a whisk. (My mother does the whole thing in a blender, also works well for pouring that way) Cook on a well greased griddle or frying pan until most of the bubbles burst, then flip (if it's too hot you'll know because it'll be burnt when you flip over).

*If you have it or feel so inclined you may just use 2-1/4 cups of buttermilk or milk that's gone sour in the fridge rather than the vinegar/milk combo. Important note here for those of you in the UK. White vinegar in Canada is a spirit vinegar, completely distilled. If you try to use UK-style vinegar it will taste awful. Just use buttermilk or, if you know where to get it, Polish white vinegar.

These are our all-around everyday pancake, be warned though, it makes a lot. The recipe does halve perfectly though.

pregnancy pancakes

It's been a busy few months since the last post - hence the lack of posts. We've sold the old house, moved into a tiny flat and downsized our belongings in anticipation of moving back to Canada. And, of course, the thesis (which is what I've been doing every day since the beginning of July).

As anyone who reads this and knows us knows, MBC is pregnant with our first baby, which I'm reiterating here as this post is related to that very condition. In the first few months of her pregnancy MBC was off just about every kind of food I would call 'delicious'. The main exception was pancakes - which were on the menu in a big way. I soon got sick of the 'standard fare' and we experimented with a few new-to-us options.

I've decided to present a few of the best recipes here. Both for sharing and so they can be accessed on the internet any time I might need them. Rather than make one massive post, I'll break them up - which should also make for easier searching. Some day I may even append photos, but... that's not too likely.

I put the lime in the coconut

Look what I've invented!

Coconut Lime Icing

100 g instant coconut milk powder

100 g butter

150 g icing sugar

lime juice to taste

Use as you would icing.

a place to live

I've been worried about where we're going to live for a while now.

The past 16 years have been quite transient for me. The flat where we are living now has been my home for nearly four years, the longest I've lived anywhere since 1995. We're now hoping to sell it and move on.

The long-term plan is to get in to eco-building, but not in the sense that we'd be builders working for developers. I'd like to work with people to build their own homes.

I found this great video this morning as I was recovering from my morning swim:

SHELTER from jason sussberg on Vimeo.

tuna noodle fish casserole

One of the small food drawbacks in the UK is the lack of Campbell's soup. I know it's strange that I say this, firstly because Campbell's soup isn't that fantastic as far as soup goes. Secondly, I usually poo-poo any recipe that has "...and now add a CAN of cream of BLANK soup". The soup is typically high in sodium and low in flavour.

However...

There are some times when you really want to slap together a quick little casserole or make a special recipe from your childhood that is of that 'can of soup' vintage and nothing really works in those recipes except Campbell's. I've learned this by sad experience. And I'll tell you what that's sad:

This past summer my sister left me some groceries that they weren't able to take back to Alberta with them (when we were all in NS). Included were two cans of Campbell's Chunky Soup (recall the 'Fork!'/'Spoon!' ads of the late 80s?). At the end of our stay we decided to eat one for lunch. I put it on the table and after taking a few slurps asked MBC if it was condensed soup. She didn't know, so I checked the tin: No, it wasn't. Holy salt! I mean, it was Fran-and-Gordon-salty-ham salty! It was like mechanically separated meat and vegetables in a light brine.

So, yeah, Campbell's... not really that fab.

On the positive side of things, if you must buy canned soup in the UK, Baxters (made up in Fochabers) is great (I also approve of their crinkle cut beets). However, their soup tastes too much like soup you might make yourself to be right as an ingredient. I'm afraid their cream of mushroom soup tastes too strongly of mushrooms to be right for tuna casserole. Sorry Baxter's. but you are just too good.

So, what are you to do? Well, I prefer to do it better. At this point, I'd like to welcome Mr Christopher Kimball in (although only metaphorically, as in real life I'd be too afraid to speak to him because he's so amazing).

Last year, the March & April Cook's Illustrated had a great method for Stroganoff and I plundered a small portion of it for my very own Tuna Noodle Fish Casserole. Campbell's soup be gone!

Here is the recipe, the way I do it, apologies to the slight changes and entirely different application from the Cook's Illustrated one.

Tuna Noodle Fish Casserole

1 can tuna (drained)

3ish cups of macaroni

1/2 cup peas

1 lb white mushrooms

1 Tbsp dijon mustard (a good French kind)

1 tsp sugar

ground black pepper

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 large shallots, minced (or a small onion if you aren't cooking for MBC)

salt

4 tsp flour

1/3 cup dry vermouth (or white wine, but vermouth is way better)

1-1/2 cups vegetable stock (we use Marigold Swiss Style)

1/2 cup creme fraiche (or sour cream if that's all you can get)

1 Tbsp of fresh dill

Method:

1. Get macaroni cooked as you are doing the rest.

2. After rubbing clean, chop up mushrooms to a reasonable size and put in the microwave on High for about 4-5 minutes (till they've decreased to half the bulk). Drain mushroom water and discard. Mix up sugar, mustard and about 1/2 tsp of ground pepper in a small bowl and set aside.

3. Heat up oil in skillet until just smoking and add mushrooms, onion and 1/2 tsp of salt. Cook until the vegetables are brown and starting to form dark bits on the bottom of the pan (6-8 min). Add tomato paste and flour, stirring constantly, until everything is well coated (about a minute). Add the vermouth and vegetable stock de-glazing the pan with a wooden spoon. Add the mustard paste and tuna. Reduce to medium heat and let thicken (about 5 min).

4. Once sauce is reduced sufficiently, add creme fraiche, peas and dill. Make any final seasoning adjustments (with salt and pepper if needed) and mix the whole lot with the cooked macaroni in a casserole dish.

5. Top with crunched up crisps (potato chips), or crackers or panko or whatever you fancy. and cook at 350 F for about 30-40 minutes (or until the top is nice and brown). I'm not too sure about this final bit as we use our Remoska and it takes about 25 minutes.

So that's how to beat 'the man' and not have to use canned soup. Of course it takes about 20 minutes more and uses a bunch of things, but it does taste about 37 thousand times better.

Yum.

breakfast

Since getting married last year (yes, it was last year now), I've been enjoying breakfast a lot more. I've always been a staunch breakfast eater, but often forfeited quality for time. My wife has re-introduced porridge to our routine and through several tweaks I've now converted to eating it without sugar. One small change which makes a big overall difference. A good theme for the new year I think.

Here are a few hacks for 'regular' breakfast items that push them over the top:

Porridge

We are big oatmeal fans of whatever type (rolled, ground or steel cut) but I must say it's well worth paying a little extra for a good quality brand. My favourite in the UK is the Oatmeal of Alford, which has a lovely nutty flavour. Cheap oatmeal tends to have a slightly 'off' taste and it's worth paying a bit more considering even the expensive type is extremely cheap by comparison to other breakfast options.

We follow the old Scottish tradition of soaking the oats overnight (as we usually cook them in our Remoska). It reduces cooking time and I think it keeps the porridge from turning to complete goo.

We add dry fruit (raisins, dates, figs, apricots) for flavour and a bit of milk to cool. I've adopted the Cox tradition of using evaporated milk, which is nice and creamy without being too fatty or sweet.

We usually eat oatmeal at least four days a week, depending on the season and because it is a low GI food it gives you a good dose of energy to get you through until lunch. We might periodically sub in Cream of Wheat or when available Waitrose Four Grain Porridge. The latter being one of the best hot breakfast cereals known to man.

Eggs

I've recently discovered the Mr Breakfast method for scrambling eggs. It's nothing particularly fancy, but it works - perfect fluffy eggs each time that aren't runny, watery or rubbery. It's all in the method really, click on the link and read. Delicious if served over toast.

Runner up is poached eggs on toast.

French Toast

MBC isn't a big French Toast fan, sadly. In fact, early on in our marriage she won't eat it at all. After some intense parallel research into steamed puddings, I discovered one of the reasons why French Toast often fails - incorrect egg to milk ratio! Most recipes assume that all eggs are the same size and some, I believe, assume incorrectly that people enjoy soggy bread. The secret ratio is.... 1:1! Yep, just crack as many eggs as you want in to a bowl on your kitchen scale and note the weight. Then pour that same weight of milk in. Done... perfect French Toast every time.

Yoghurt

Store bought yoghurt is the yuck! It is full of starch, sweeteners and non-dairy-gum-based nonsense. There are a few brands that are alright, but nothing beats home made... which is easier than making French Toast (that is unless you live in Sweden and have access to A-Fil). Serve with home made compote/fresh fruit and/or dry cereal.

So, those are our breakfasts of choice... now a word about cereals. Cereals, as in that food product that you buy from the long aisle at the grocery store with the brightly coloured boxes. I happen to kinda love breakfast cereals. They are the easiest food to prepare and have such dashing spokesmonsters as Count Chocula. How could you resist?

Well, cereal is pretty much entirely highly processed carbs. Probably the worst thing to start your day off with. However, as a snack they are pretty awesome, considering they are FAR better for you than just about any other thing you'd be tempted to eat during the mid afternoon or just before bed. In fact the journal of the American College of Nutrition says this exact thing.

I'm allowed to have Chocolatey Checkers, which is pretty amazing because it's filled with chocolate hazelnut spread (aka Nutella) and has more fibre than raisin bran and few calories.

So anyway, how's that for a New Year's blog post! So remember kids, it's best to enjoy your cereal as part of a complete bed time snack and enjoy a low-GI protein rich breakfast.