Burns Night Recipes: Cranachan

Burns Night is perfectly placed to perk up what can be a dull month. It is a night for rich food, great poetry and best of all, a nice wee dram of whiskey. For dessert it is hard to beat Cranachan, Scotland’s answer to Eton Mess and the perfect dish to round off the night. The ingredients showcase the very best of Scottish produce and the quick assembly time is a godsend, particularly when Burns Night falls on a Monday this year. Virtually any fruit can be used for the compote, but as rhubarb is in season in January, I prefer to use this as the base. 

Oats, a staple of the Scottish diet are an important component  in this dessert. Pinhead oats are best to use here as their coarse texture gives the dish more bite. Gently toasting the oats until they are golden in colour greatly improves their flavour and adds a nutty note. 

To be truly traditional, you’ll want to use heather honey. It is a widely available product, but if you don’t have it to hand, any honey will make a fine substitute. The whisky should of course be Scotch, and if you have bought a bottle for the evening it is not too much of a hardship to devote of couple of drams to the dessert. 

Ingredients - Serves 4

300 ml Double Cream

2 medium rhubarb sticks

100g strawberries

1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp heather honey

2/3 tbsp whisky, preferably Scotch

50g pinhead oats

First, make the compote by chopping the rhubarb into inch sized chunks and the strawberries in half. Place these in a saucepan with the tablespoon of sugar and a scant amount of water. Simmer until the fruit has softened completely. Allow to cool, then refrigerate until assembling the dessert.

Place the oats on a baking tray and place into a medium oven for a few minutes until golden. Keep a close eye on the oats, as they can go from attractively golden to burnt in a matter of seconds. Allow to cool completely.

Just before serving whisk the double cream into stiff peaks with an electric hand mixer. Add the whisky and honey and combine the mixture with a spatula. Stir through the compote and three quarters of the toasted oats. Divide the cream into four dessert dishes and sprinkle the remaining oats on top. Serve immediately.

Is Cranachan a superior dish to Eton Mess? What is your favourite dessert to have on Burns Night? What will you be using to stave off the whisky hangover the next day? 

January

January is often referred to as the most depressing month of the year. It’s not hard to see why. Christmas creeps up on us earlier each year, with shops determined to fill us up on mince pies and Baileys before the Guy Fawkes’ fireworks have fallen from the skies. After months of build up, culminating in a hedonistic couple of weeks of seasonal celebrations, going cold turkey (groan) in January can be a shock to the system. 

Whilst our bodies are recovering from the influx of rich foods, our wallets also need a rest from the pounding (Groan Part II) they took paying out for endless gifts. Having a restful month means that more time can be spent in the kitchen elevating simple ingredients to something special. Warm salads are my top January pick. It’s a way of satisfying oneself with warming food without resorting to stodge.

Warm salads are a saviour in a cold, austere month. Roasting vegetables like cauliflower and broccoli brings out their sweetness and nuttiness, providing an excellent base for a tasty meal. Add some pulses such as chickpeas or fava beans as an alternative to meat. 

Warm Tuna Niçoise Salad

"Veganuary" is the latest New Year's food fad but I would never advise going completely meat-free for a whole month. The onus is on cuts of meat that a relatively cheap to buy and that benefit from long, slow cooking. The butcher’s counter at Waitrose is great for this. They stock a selection of “forgotten cuts” that include things like oxtail, lamb breast, pigs cheek and beef skin.  There is no better way to work up an appetite than the aroma of a delicious dinner wafting through the house for hours on end.

Pork Shoulder Goulash

                                                                 

Dry January is also sensible. It saves money but also gives the liver some respite, having been over-worked with bucks fizz and mulled wine. I find abstaining from alcohol an absolute bore and the mere thought of a ‘dry’ weekend an awful one, so the quest is to find a non-alcoholic drink that doesn't feel like a deprivation. Orange blossom can elevate a lime cordial to something classy and moreish. Pubs - take note: exciting, virgin drinks are more in demand than ever before but orange juice and coke don’t cut it anymore. 

There are also plenty of ingredients lurking in one’s cupboard that can be used for some restorative beauty sessions. When chucked into a hot bath, an old stocking filled with oats will soften and brighten skin that has been treated harshly by the cold winter weather. Any cooking oil mixed with salt and a few drops of lemon juice will slough away dead skin cells and improve circulation. Epsom salts (or Magnesium Sulfate) are my favourite bath time treat. I buy 25kg sacks off Amazon and add two large mugfuls to my bath once a week. It is the easiest way to get more magnesium into our diet, because it is absorbed throw the skin. Toxins are also removed during reverse osmosis and the goodness of the salts are drawn in. 

Burns’ Night is surely a highlight of January. My Burns’ Night menu hasn't changed in the few years I’ve been doing it and true to form my starter and dessert will be the same as usual. A cullen skink made from arbroath smokies and a cranachan, Scotland’s (superior) answer to the Eton Mess.The one change this year is that I’ll be attempting to make my own Haggis. Give your butcher plenty of notice to ensure that you have all the components to make the haggis because a sheep's stomach is a difficult item to procure, even in Waitrose. 

So it's not all doom and gloom! There's plenty of opportunity to make your January as delicious as your Christmas, albeit in slightly different ways.

Happy New Year!