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!

October

October kicks off with World Vegetarian Day which is held on the first of the month - a perfect excuse to get stuck into the squash that is in abundance this season. Carving pumpkins is a fun Halloween tradition but remember that the innards are a tasty treat. My favourite way to use them is roasted and puréed for a ravioli filling and when rubbed with garlic oil and roasted, pumpkin is a delicious addition to a Sunday roast. 

Of course, prolonged vegetarianism would be foolish seeing as October is when game starts trickling into shops. This year I got my hands on a glut of damsons and have made a jar of sauce that complements the meat beautifully. Loath as I am to utter the dreaded C word prematurely, it really is necessary to think ahead if you want to make your Christmas as tasty as possible. Damson sauce is a great alternative to cranberry sauce, if you fancy a more original addition to your seasonal table.

This month is also the height of the British apple season. It's almost a shame to cook them as they are delicious au natural but a bit of pastry never does any harm so I'm using this month to perfect my Tarte Tatin making skills. Waitrose stock "Weather blemished" apples which are great value, prevent food waste and give our orchard farmers a helping hand when the weather works against them. They are perfectly imperfect and I love them so much that I seek them out over their more aesthetically pleasing counterparts. It's the shopping equivalent of welcoming an abandoned kitten into your home, albeit less messy and a lot tastier.

Election Night 2015

To celebrate the General Election, I'm making burgers which will be themed around the main party colours.

So far I've got: 

Red meat and tomato relish (Labour)

Blue Cheese (Conservatives)

Cos Lettuce (Greens, obviously)

English Mustard (Lib Dems/SNP)

Burger Buns (slightly yellow in colour and possibly represent the Lib Dems desperately trying to hold everything together).

AND

A sorry little bit of beetroot which was added as an afterthought and doesn't really fit in with the rest of the meal ( UKIP...quite appropriate really).

For drinks, I fancy making this red wine, curaçao and orange juice concoction which looks a bit like a Labour/SNP coalition with a sprinkling of Green.

Whatever the result, it's highly unlikely that champagne will be in order...

Wiener Schnitzel

On the surface, Wiener schnitzel seems like a simple dish but there are various rules to follow which ensure that it tastes as good as possible. From the breadcrumbs used to the method of frying, here are my tips on making it perfect.

The meat: Veal escalopes are the way to go and they should be cut as thinly as possible and across the grain. It is also a good idea to bat them out at home with a meat tenderiser before coating them in breadcrumbs.

Breadcrumbs: Fresh breadcrumbs don't quite work here - they are too soft and don't develop the satisfying crunch that you get with dried ones. The breadcrumbs should also be fine in texture. I often give mine a quick blitz in a food processor to achieve this.

Egg wash:  A splash of double cream in the beaten egg adds a luxurious richness and compliments the milky taste of the veal.

Cooking: I've found a mixture of clarified butter and sunflower oil to be the best fats to cook the schnitzel. As the impurities have been removed from the butter, it can be heated to a much higher temperature without burning, meaning that the breadcrumbs have time to go crisp without acquiring those unattractive black flecks that often come hand in hand with cooking in butter. 

A generous amount of fat is needed to cook the veal (around 0.5 cm) and if you need to keep it to one side whilst batch cooking, place it on a cooking rack under a low grill. This allows any excess fat to drip out, hence preventing the crust from becoming soggy.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

400g veal escalope, sliced thin and tenderised

80g fine, dried breadcrumbs

1 egg, beaten 

1 tsp double cream

Flour, to dust 

100g clarified butter

80ml sunflower oil 

Method

Everything has to happen very quickly here, so set up your workstation. Place the flour in one dish, the egg and cream in another and finally the breadcrumbs in a large shallow dish, big enough to accommodate the veal.

Place the clarified butter and oil in a frying pan and heat to a high temperature. Test this by sprinkling in a few breadcrumbs - they should turn golden straight away. If batch cooking, switch the grill on to the lowest temperature.

Dust the veal in the flour and shake off any excess. Dip in the egg wash, letting any extra egg drip off before placing in the breadcrumbs, making sure the meat is evenly coated.

Place the veal in the frying pan and allow to cook for a couple of minutes. Whilst this is happening, use a table spoon and pour some of the fat over the veal, coating it entirely. This seals the breadcrumbs on top and lessens the risk of them separating from the meat. 

Carefully flip the veal and cooking for a further 3 minutes. When flipping, tilt the pan so that the butter and oil run to one end, then the schnitzel won't land in half centimetre of hot fat. The schnitzel should be golden brown all over. Remove from the frying pan and place under the grill until ready to serve.

Mix any remaining breadcrumbs into the egg wash and fry as a fritter. If you have children, it can be fun to give out the 'fake schnitzel' as a reward. Leo has painful memories of fighting for it with his brothers. 

We like to eat schnitzel with champ, sauerkraut and pickled red cabbage. Truffle mustard is more than a truffle expensive but completely divine, made and sold by Fitz Fine Foods at Borough Market. Beer makes a good accompaniment. Leo likes a traditional German Pilsner or a nice cool IPA, whilst I like a crafted fruity beer. Put Schubert on Spotify, preferably the Winterreise.

Mini Pork Pies

It's finally summer! When the sun is shining outside, there is nothing better than al fresco dining. These indiviudal pork pies are perfect for picnics and don't take long to whip up. I make mine in Le Creuset ramekins but they could also be made in a muffin tin. The hot crust pastry is easy to handle but work quickly - it's important to seal the pies whilst the pastry is hot.

Ingredients (Makes 4)

For the hot crust pastry

350g strong white bread flour 

80g lard

1 tsp flour

1 tsp paprika

1 egg, lightly beaten

For the filling

400g pork mice

1 medium onion, finely chopped

Small bunch of sage, finely chopped

1 tsp English mustard

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

Pinch of salt

1 tsp cracked black pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

Method

Lightly grease four ramekins and preheat oven to 180°

Gently fry the onion in the oil in a saucepan until softened. Add the garlic for the last 2 minutes of cooking and then add this to a mixing bowl with the rest of the filling ingredients.

In a medium saucepan, melt the lard and tip in the flour, salt and paprika once it hits boiling point. Then take off the heat and beat with a wooden spoon (as you would with a choux pastry) until the mixture is well combined and a dough has formed. Turn this out onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly.

Set aside a quarter of the pastry mix for the pie lids and place until a tea towel to keep warm whilst you line the ramekins with the rest. The pastry should be around 3 mm thick (there may be some leftover) and it's important to leave a slight overhang in order to seal the lids.

Divide the filling mixture between the ramekins and roll out your lids on a floured surface. Brush the edges with the beaten egg and place on top of the pies, crimping the edges with your fingers to ensure the pies are well sealed. Brush the top of the pie with the egg and place in the oven for 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes, take the pies out of the oven, gently remove from the ramekins and place on a baking tray. Brush the sides with the remainder of the egg and put back in the oven for another 30 minutes until golden.

Remove and allow to cool. These go wonderfully well with apple chutney - and a little bit of sunshine!

Poulet Noir Stock and Soup

Last Saturday at the Ginger Pig stall in Borough Market, we bought a gorgeous black leg chicken or "Poulet Noir". The average supermarket chicken has a life of around 39 days whereas the Poulet Noir is reared for a minimum of 81, giving it a deeper, almost gamier flavour. 

I lost my nerve a bit when I got it back to the kitchen, so Leo had to remove the intimadating head and large talons, which I reserved for stock. I also added some woody herbs, an onion, carrot and a few black peppercorns along with the leftover bones from the roast chicken. 

I boiled it slowly for a few hours, until I had around 100ml of concentrated stock. This cooled into a rich jelly which formed the basis of my spring chicken soup.

As the stock is so rich in flavour, I wanted that to be the main focus of the soup. I sautéed an onion, carrot and a large leek until soft and then added the stock with around half a litre of water. I then stirred in some spinach right before serving.

I was really impressed with the Poulet Noir and will be reluctant to go back to headless chickens... The head and talons made the stock extra tasty and the meat was beautifully moist and gamey.