This is a delicious side dish to serve with pork sausages, pork chops, ham or with a vegetarian burger. It is tangy and sweet and earthy.
INGREDIENTS:
Around 450g beetroot, unpeeled
salted water
1 lime
1 level tbsp sugar
1 level tbsp butter
METHOD:
Boil the beetroot, skin on, for around an hour, until tender. Remove the beetroot from the hot water, and when it is cook enough to handle, peel away the skin, and chop the beetroot into bite-size pieces.
In a small saucepan, heat the juice of the lime with the sugar and butter until sizzling, then add the diced beetroot and heat through.
I’ve been itching to make rabbit paella since the spring, when we went on holiday to Madrid, and I realised that rabbit paella is a thing. Paella can combine many ingredients, it is essentially a one pot mixture based on what is available. I’ve had a couple of rabbits in the freezer, and once I had access to some fresh garden vegetables, I defrosted one, and this is what I did:
INGREDIENTS:
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
1 small rabbit, jointed
2 chicken thighs, boned and chopped
2 tsp smoked sweet paprika
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
100g artichoke hearts (in oil, or fresh, optional)
100g broad beans or green beans
100g runner beans, sliced
1 can of chopped tomatoes, pureed
a couple of generous pinches of saffron
1 litre or so of chicken or rabbit stock
400g paella rice
1 tsp dried rosemary
A squeeze of lemon juice
METHOD:
Add the oil to a large pan, such as a wok, shallow casserole dish or paella pan, at least 25cm across, and deep enough for all of the ingredients to cook together. Heat it up and fry the rabbit for around 3 minutes, then add the chicken and fry for another 5 minutes, seasoning the meat with salt. Cook until the meat is browned.
Add the paprika and one pinch of saffron and keep cooking for another 5minutes, before adding the garlic, broad beans, runner beans, artichoke hearts, dried rosemary and pureed tomatoes. Continue to stir and cook together for a further 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the stock in another pan and add the rest of the saffron, leaving it to steep.
Add 2 cups of the stock to the fried rabbit and chicken and let it simmer for around 20 minutes.
Add the rice – traditionally in an x shape to ensure it cooks evenly through the cooked ingredients. Add any remaining stock.
Cover the paella with a lid and leave to cook on low for another 20 minutes. Check at around 10 and 15 minutes to ensure that it is not cooking too dry, you may need to add a little more water or stock
At the end of cooking, let the paella rest for around 5 minutes before serving with a squeeze of lemon.
I made this in a large quantity the first time, which was a mistake. When making jam, smaller quantities are easier to manage. This was the outcome of round 2. I also used local angelica, which has a strange and pungeant smell on its own, but divine in apricot jam. The wild angelica locally is Angelica sylvestris, and you need to be sure of your plant identification. It is very common locally.
INGREDIENTS:
500g dried apricots, chopped
1.9 litres water
3 stems of angelica, finely chopped
2 lemons
1.5 kg sugar
METHOD:
Chop the angelica and apricots, and cover with the water in the jam pan. Leave to soak for 48 to 72 hours
Simmer for around 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the apricots are soft.
Add the sugar and lemon juice and stir until dissolved, then boil rapidly to setting point. Pour into warmed clean jam jars.
This is a relatively straightforward recipe with local ingredients. It was a bit of a breakthrough for me, as I finally got to grips with poaching salmon in the microwave. The original recipe includes details of a super-fancy sauce that I might post later. The sauce is a bit of work, TBH but it was tasty.
Anyway, on to the fishcakes.
INGREDIENTS:
300g raw salmon
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
Squeeze of lemon juice
water
350g cooked potatoes, masked
1 egg white
salt and pepper
1 tbsp chopped parsley
plain flour
1 egg yolk and 1 egg, beaten together
breadcrumbs (I used panko breadcrumbs)
METHOD:
Poach the salmon. If you are doing this in a saucepan, put the salmon and onion and the lemon juice in the pan, just cover with water and then simmer for a few minutes until just cooked. Remove the fish from the pan, and allow to cool. Strain and reserve the stock. This can be used to make a fancy sauce (separate recipe).
If you are poaching the salmon in the microwave, put the salmon in a shallow dish with the onion and lemon juice, and 150ml boiling water. Cover and microwave on high for three minutes. Remove the salmon from the water and set aside to cool.
When cool skin the salmon and remove any bones. Flake the flesh into a bowl, and add the potatoes, egg white, seasoning and parsley. Mix well.
Divide the mixture into around 18 cakes. I made mine about the size of a pingpong ball, and then flattened them slightly.
Dip each fish cake in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs. Chill until required.
When you are ready, fry the fishcakes in hot oil. These are good with a green salad and a little tartare sauce.
Out of bread? I made these quickly tonight while my soup was heating up, and they were delicious with cream cheese spread on them while they were still warm. One of the secrets of good scones is to make them quickly and don’t handle the dough very much.
INGREDIENTS:
225g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
50g butter
50g grated parmesan (or other cheese)
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp mustard
150ml milk
METHOD
Set the oven to heat at 220C
Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Add the butter and rub it into the flour with your finger tips.
Add the grated cheese and mix in well.
Beat the egg and mustard with around 100ml milk, then stir it quickly into the dry ingredients.
As soon as the mixture starts to form a dough, bring it together with your fingers, and turn out onto a floured table. Use your hands to make it around 1.5cm thick. You can cut out round scones with a cutter, but I just cut the dough up into pieces.
Put the scones onto a baking sheet, and bake in the hot oven for 15 minutes. Once cooked, put them on a wire tray to cool. But of course they are best eaten while they are still warm.
I have been given some delicious foraged chanterelles from the mainland, and it is not an ingredient I get too often. I tried this very simple Italian recipe.
INGREDIENTS:
Approx 125g chanterelles, cleaned and sliced
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 clover of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper
approx 250g cooked salad potatoes, chopped
15g butter
METHOD:
Heat the oil in a large pan, and add the garlic and the parsley, and cook gently for a couple of minutes
Turn the heat up a bit and add the sliced chanterelles, and cook for around five minutes. Remove them from the pan using a slotted spoon, and mix in the lemon juice.
Add the butter to the pan, and then add the potatoes. Cook them on a high heat until they are getting crispy, and then return the chanterelles to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Serve once the mushrooms are warmed through.
You could garnish with chive flowers, or chopped parsley.
This year, I have grown some great beetroot, and I made this soup with it. I supplemented the ingredient list with a neep and some carrots purchased from Tagsa gardens. It is really tasty, and I was pleased to find some Polish soured cream in the local shops.
INGREDIENTS:
2 medium onions, sliced
50g butter
2 cloves of garlic
1.8 litres beef stock (or vegetable stock if you want to make a vegetarian version)
1 large beetroot, around 500g, peeled and diced
1 swede/turnip/neep around 500g, peeled and diced
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
1 large potato, peeled and grated
2 bayleaves
1 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
juice of half a lemon
Soured cream or plain yoghurt, to serve
METHOD:
In a very large pot, melt the butter and cook the onions over a low heat until soft. This will take around ten minutes. Add the garlic for the last couple of minutes of cooking.
Pour in the stock, and raise the heat. Add all of the chopped and grated vegetables, and the herbs, and bring to a simmer, and season with around 1 tsp salt and a good grating of black pepper. Simmer for an hour or so.
Stir in the lemon juice, remove the bayleaves, and adjust the seasoning to taste.
Serve with each bowl containing a spoonful of soured cream or yoghurt.
So delicious. I made this for when I had invited colleagues and friends over, we had a buffet set up with lots of salads, this was the winner. I will be making it again for our community party later in the year. It is a Turkish recipe.
INGREDIENTS:
100g green lentils
300g tomatoes, finely chopped
60g red onion, finely sliced
4 large spring onions, finely chopped
1/2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp pul biber – chilli flakes
60 g walnuts, finely chopped. You could use a food processer, you are aiming for the bits of nut to be about the size of a large lentil.
chopped herbs – could be a mixture of basil, parsley, dill, fennel,
2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
Salt and pepper
crisp lettuce leaves, to serve
METHOD:
Cook the lentils, boil them in water until tender but still firm. This takes around 20 minutes. When they are cooked, strain them and rinse them in icy water. Set them to cool while you prepare the other ingredients.
In a large bowl, combine the lentils, tomatoes, onion, spring onion, chilli powder, and walnuts. Mix in the chopped herbs.
In another bowl, mix the pomegranate molasses, tomato puree and iced water to make a sauce, and season with 1/2 tsp salt and grated black pepper.
Mix the sauce into the salad, and serve on a bed of romaine lettuce leaves.
Angelica grows in profusion across North Uist, Benbecula and South Uist. First, rosettes of dark green leaves appear, and then from the centre, around the end of June, great fists of flower buds start fighting their way up above the grass, and then in July, domed panicles of white flowers come out. It is related to Alexanders, and you can candy their stems as well. Other endemic plants in the family, not all edible, include hogweed, and wild carrot, sweet cicely and wild parsnip.
It is Angelica sylvestris that grows wild here, but there are cultivated varieties with a pinkish tinge, and also Angelica archangelica, a much larger cousin. You can read more about the botanical aspects on the Botanical Society of Scotland blog.
This year, I decided I would work out how to make candied angelica. We used to get it in tiny squares and slivers, decorating cup cakes, and it is used as a flavouring in gin. First of all, at the very start of July, when the buds were beginning to burst upwards, I cut the stems while they were still tender. I blanched them, filling the kitchen with the most peculiar aroma. I left them in the boiling water for ten minutes and left them to cool. I reserved the poaching liquid. Once the stems were cool enough to handle, I peeled the outer layer off with a small sharp knife.
At this stage, you could chop finely and add to rhubarb jam, about 50g per kilo of rhubarb.
To make candied angelica. I weighed the peeled angelica, and then added an equal amount of sugar to the poaching water. The ideal proportions would be for each 50g of stem, add 25g sugar, 25g glucose and 75ml water, but we can’t get glucose and I didn’t worry too much about weighing anything. I boiled the sugar and poaching water to a syrup and then added the angelica, and left it to cool. The next day, I removed the angelica, brought the syrup to a boil and then added the angelica again as it cooled. I repeated this every day until the syrup was the consistency of honey. I left the angelica in the syrup for a week at this point, then removed it and let it dry before storing in a sealed jar.
This is definitely more useful as a flavouring than as a sweet snack, the taste is completely unique, slightly bitter, and very herbal. The best thing I did with it was to add it to rhubarb jam after blanching it. It adds a hint of gin to the jam.
An excellent, very simple meal, with bonus stock at the end for adding to soups and stews. I have a lot of kale this year, so look out for a series of kale recipes. This recipe serves 6 to 8 people.
INGREDIENTS:
Around 800g bacon joint or pre-soaked salted ham
1 bayleaf
1 tsp peppercorns
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp allspice
1 tbsp date syrup or brown sugar
1 level tsp salt (if not using salted ham)
around 500g shredded kale
1kg peeled new potatoes cut into chunks.
METHOD:
Put the ham or bacon joint into a large saucepan, and just about cover with water. Add the bayleaf, peppercorns, cloves, all-spice, date syrup, and salt. Bring to a simmer and cook over a low heat for 1 hour 30 minutes
Add the potatoes and cabbage, and simmer until the potatoes are just cooked
Strain off and reserve the stock
Slice the bacon and serve on a bed of potatoes and kale. You can pour melted butter over the latter.
