September Catch Up

Apologies for the long absence folks but the blog's back at last. I suspended it for a wee while because it looked like I was enjoying myself too much when I was off sick! (And I was!). Anyway. I'm back at work now so normal service can resume. I'll try and give you a quick catch up as to what I've been up to and where I've been eating but I'll also try and keep up the 'regular' blog posts going forward.

September saw the start of the rugby season which means that I'm more often in the excellent Prestoungrange Gothenburg in Prestonpans and quite regularly eat there either before or after matches on a Saturday. (We're lucky at Preston Lodge RFC because it's also our clubhouse). The food's excellent and at the time of writing this, they've just won the Radio Forth 'Best Local Pub or Restaurant Award', as well as being runners up in the 'Best Pub Meal' category in the East Lothian Food & Drink Awards. They were also voted 'Best for Customer Care' in this category and that is definitely well deserved. You can't get any better looked after than you do by the staff at The Goth. Well done everybody and my Tip of the Month to anybody reading this is 'Go To The Goth'. It's fab.

Another project that I wasn't able to tell you about earlier was that I was asked by the Editor of the East Lothian Courier if I would be interested in doing some restaurant reviews for his paper. Of course I said yes and the first (and I'm afraid the only one so far) was published in September. We went to Duck's Restaurant in Aberlady and had an excellent meal. I've added the text of the review at the bottom of this post.

This is a time of change in East Lothian and this month, we've seen  the arrival of about 30000 pink footed geese - always a spectacular sight to see them arriving each night against the backdrop of a spectacular late summer sunset. There have also been torrential downpours which saw the River Tyne in spate and close to bursting its banks. The picture shown here was taken at the Linn Rocks at East Linton.

On the domestic front, my friend Heidi came out to see me before I went back to work and I made a Lemon Polenta Cake. I don't think I've made a cake without flour before so it's good for anybody who has a gluten allergy. It's texture is a bit gritty so use the finest polenta yo can get but it's definitely worth a try - here's the recipe:

Lemon Polenta Cake

Ingredients:

250g butter , softened

250g caster sugar
3 eggs     
100g Quick cook polenta - the finer the better  
250g ground almonds                                                                                               
1 tsp baking powder
3 lemons   (zested and juiced)
3 tbsp icing sugar

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3. Butter and base line a 23cm springform tin. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (use an electric hand whisk). Add the eggs one by one and beat between each addition. Fold in the polenta, almonds and baking powder. Mix in the lemon zest and juice of 1 lemon.
2. Bake for about 50 minutes-1 hour until the cake is risen and golden (cover the top of the cake loosely with foil after 30 minutes to stop it browning too much).
3. Make the syrup by warming the juice of the other 2 lemons with the icing sugar until the icing sugar has melted. Serve the cake warm cut in slices with a drizzle of the lemon syrup and a dollop of creme fraiche.

Duck’s Kilspindie - Review Published in the East Lothian Courier, September 2011

Since opening his restaurant with rooms at the former Kilspindie House Hotel in Aberlady, proprietor Malcolm Duck and head chef Johnny Dunbar have worked hard to create interesting, locally sourced menus in both the restaurant and bistro while the wine list is as impressive as any that might be found in far more established eateries in the capital.

We were fortunate enough to eat in the restaurant which at the moment may lack something as far as modern décor is concerned but plans are afoot to rectify this in the near future. The staff were friendly and welcoming but the most important thing is the food and that certainly didn’t disappoint. The a la carte menu is uncomplicated with four or five choices for each course and as the drive up the East Lothian coast had featured a stunning sunset worthy of Andalucia, I couldn’t resist trying the crab and brown shrimp gazpacho. Its colour matched the aforementioned sunset and the flavours were crisp, fresh and very tasty. A good choice on a warm evening. My dining companion was equally impressed with her choice; purple sprouting broccoli with a crispy poached duck egg. We were interested to see how a poached egg could be served crispy and it proved to be a clever trick from the kitchen where the freshly poached egg had been coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried. This was a real treat and the only complaint was that the twice cooked yolk had become slightly overdone. The local broccoli was perfect though and both starters were nice and light introductions to set us up for the main course.

With pork belly, fish, lamb, beef and risotto on offer, all of the obvious options seemed to be covered, so it was just a case of making the right choice. I needed something meaty, so I plumped for the sirloin of mature Buccleuch beef. It was served with a soft, fondant potato, a haggis fritter, celeriac puree and chanterelle mushrooms that had been foraged within a mile of the restaurant. The beef was tender as you would expect and the peppercorn sauce complemented it perfectly so there were no complaints as I cleared my plate. Mrs. C went for the halibut, cod and Shetland scallop and was only disappointed in the fact that there was only one scallop. However, all of the fish was cooked perfectly and well matched with beurre noisette, salty capers and samphire which interestingly, was also picked from within a mile of the restaurant.

A break was needed before dessert and Mr. Duck was seen visiting each table of diners to ensure that they were enjoying their visit to his establishment. We took the chance to ask him about the local produce on offer and he explained that the menus change with the seasons depending on what is available at that particular time.

We also asked him for a look at the comprehensive Donald’s Bistro menu which offers a wide choice of typical but interesting pub food. The a la carte menu in the restaurant is perfect for that special occasion but the Bistro offers a very good, affordable option for those less formal nights out after a hard day at work or on the golf course.

But the final courses beckoned – rich, decadent chocolate fondant with a sharp but refreshing raspberry sorbet for me and sweet, silky vanilla pannacotta with sweet Belhaven strawberries for Mrs. C who insisted that her pud’s perfect ‘wobble’ should be mentioned specifically. These choices topped off an excellent and enjoyable meal and all in all, there were few faults with the entire Duck’s experience.

Spreading Some Natural Goodness

Okay - the hedgerows of East Lothian have given up enough of their black jewels and this week, I've turned them into liquid black gold, which in turn, turned into glistening bramble jelly. Or brummle jeely as it's known in and around Port Seton. There really are plenty of berries around this year and I've definitely discovered a good spot on the disused railway line that once was the Longniddry-Gullane branch. There are still plenty left everywhere so why not get out there and collect enough for an apple and blackberry pie at least.

Making jelly is fairly straightforward but it takes a wee bit of patience because it's a two stage process. Thie first thing to do is get as much juice extracted as possible. I solved the problem I had by investing in a Kitchen Craft Jam Strainer Kit that conveniently sits on top of a pan or bowl. It makes the process a good bit easier.

I had about 2 kg (4 and a bit pounds) of brambles and I extracted about half a litre of juice from four small cooking apples that came from my mum's neighbour's garden. I also added the juice of a lemon, half a litre of water and boiled all of this together for about half an hour until it was really soft and pulpy. (You can just chop up the apples and put them in the pan to break down.) Then transfer the mashy pulp to a jelly bag and leave it to drip - overnight if possible.

Next, you have to measure the juice and for every 600ml, you'll need 450g of JAM sugar. It's easier in old money - 1lb of sugar for every pint of juice.

Then it's just a case of boiling it up in a big (really big) pot or jelly pan until you get a fierce 'rolling' boil. It can take up to half an hour to get to this point but once it does, timing is critical. Watch for it dripping off a wooden spoon in blade like globules. Or put some on a chilled saucer in the fridge for 2 minutes. It should crinkle when you push it along the plate. Remember, just because the boiling liquid seems very loose, it isn't going to stay like that once it's cooled. 

Then all there is to do is skim off any scum that's on top of the jelly and use a heatproof jug to pour into jars that have been thoroughly washed and then dried in a low oven. Seal the jars while the jelly's still hot.

I know it seems like a bit of an effort but homemade jam is far better than anything you can buy in the shops AND . . . because it's a preserve, it keeps for ages. So next January or February ,when you're down in the dumps because it's always dark and you're feeling rubbish because you've got a cold, add a tablespoon of bramble jelly to a glass of hot water and you'll be right as rain in no time. (Add a wee shot of gin to this for increased impact!)

Money Saving Tip: If you don't have enough jars and are thinking about going to buy some empty ones, you might find that they're quite expensive. I like to go to the supermarket and look for the cheapest item you can find in the size of jar that you want. I once found own make mint sauce in a medium sized jar and it cost only 14p. So chuck out the contents and you've got 10 jars for £1.40 - result! And they were the perfect size for filling with Autumn Chutney for giving away to friends at Christmas. I know it seems like a waste of 10 jars worth of mint sauce, but having tasted it, I'm not sure that it was fit for human consumption anyway.

Making Hay and Baking Cakes

As previously mentioned, the East Lothian harvest is in full swing and you can see and hear the combine harvesters as they work late into the night, or even right through the night if the weather's good. Once the combine has done it's job, the cut straw that's been deposited on the field needs to be baled and collected for storage through the winter. I'm not quite sure why the straw is sometimes made into square bales or the giant, round 'shredded wheat' type ones. Perhaps it just depends on what kind of baling machine the farmer has at his disposal. This is the field at the bottom of the road as you come out of Dirleton and I expect that it won't be long until the stubble is ploughed over and the next crop is sown - possibly Winter barley or something similar.

Tomorrow is Bring-a-Cake-to-Work Day in Mrs C's office which meant that for Mr C, today was Bake-a-Cake-or-Two-So-That-Mrs C-Can-Take-A-Cake-to-Work-Tomorrow Day. The top one in the picture was an Espresso and Walnut Tray Bake which was quite easy to make and although I haven't tasted it, it looked pretty good. Click the link for the recipe. The other one took a bit more effort but I have tasted it this time (I made 'one for the chef' with the leftover mixture) and already it's become a favourite. I strongly recommend that you give it a try. It's a Muscovado Carrot Cake from the Sept 2011 edition of Olive Magazine. Carrot Cake isn't  usually my favourite but you can't really tell that there's any carrot in this. It's more like a fruit and nut cake. Yum! Go on, get baking - you know you want to.

Muscovado Carrot Cake:
300g Self Raising Flour
2 tsp Cinnamon
half tsp Baking Powder
100g Dark Muscovado Sugar
100g Light Muscovado Sugar
4 Eggs
250ml light, flavourless oil (eg Grapeseed or Rapeseed)
Zest of 1 Orange
2 medium sized carrots, finely grated
100g Pecans, roughly snapped into pieces
150g sultanas - preferably golden sultanas

Cream Cheese Frosting:
75g melted butter
2 tbsp Dark Muscovado Sugar
2 tbsp Golden Syrup
250g Soft cheese (eg Ricotta or Mascarpone)

Method:

• Heat the oven to 150C/Fan 130C/Gas 2
• Line a 22cm deep cake tin with baking parchment (although I used a deepish tray bake tin and made a thinner cake
• Sift the flour, cinnamon and baking powder into a large mixing bowl
• Stir in the sugars making sure all lumps are crushed
• Beat the eggs with the oil and orange zest then add the grated carrots to this liquid
• Add the pecand and sultanas to the flour, then add the oil/egg mixture and fold everything together
• Spoon the mixture into the baking tin and bake for 1hr 25mins or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin.
• (Because I made a thinner cake, my baking time was only 40mins)
• For the frosting, beat the butter, sugar and syrup until soft, then beat in the cream cheese until you get a smooth mixture. Chill the mixture until it's thick but spreadable. Pipe in whorls or spread a thick layer on top of the cake 

A New Deli and a New Dish

The bramble picking has continued apace and I now have enough for the first batch of jelly, which I'll get underway next week. I found a new patch of berries today on the old, disused railway line between Aberlady and Gullane and there's still plenty more to ripen so I think I'll be back to get some more for the freezer.

It's always good news when a new shop opens in East Lothian. For me, it's especially good when it's in the Gullune - North Berwick area. And it's even better when it's a shop that I know I'll use. So it was a nice discovery today when I was in the Main Street in Gullane and saw that a new deli had opened - Letourneau's. I love delis and this one is quite small but I think it's going to have a lot of character. I hope it does well though I fear my meagre purchase of 6 peppadew peppers stuffed with cheese, will not make them a vast fortune. But don't worry, I'll be back.

Tonight I tried yet another recipe from the Olive '£5 Suppers for 2' booklet. 'Baked Salmon and Noodle Parcels' - except this one didn't do exactly what it says on the tin because the two salmon fillets cost me a fiver on their own. Salmon isn't my favourite thing but I thought I'd give it a try - possibly because I fancied cooking it and serving it in a paper parcel. I also added broad beans and fresh peas to the parcels, mainly because they're in season but they also added good colour and fresh, summery flavour. It certainly was tasty but it didn't convert me to being a salmon lover. If I try it again, I think I'll use a realy good piece of fish like haddock or maybe even sea bass. That will definitely burst the £5 barrier though!

Baked Salmon and Noodle Parcels:

100g Egg noodles

2 Skinless, salmon fillets

2 Spring onions - shredded

1 Red Chilli - shredded

200ml Chicken stock

2 tbsp Mirin

1 tbsp Soy Sauce

1 tbsp Sesame Oil

 - I also added broad beans, peas and diced carrot

Method:

• Heat the oven to 190C/Fan 170C/Gas 5. Cook the noodles until just tender as they will cook a bit more in the oven. Drain and rinse in cold water
• Take two large squares of baking parchment or foil and divide the noodles between them. Sit a salmon fillet on top then divide all of the other ingredients between the parcels
• Seal the parcels and bake in the oven for 10 minutes
• (I found that the dishes were barely hot enough so I blasted them in the micro for a minute and it was much better)

Review of the Week - Tapas and a Curry!

OK - So what has been happening during that past week that foodie wise, I might have forgotten to tell you about? Well, on Monday, I had to go into Edinburgh for the dentist and I was also going to hear Jonathan Agnew (the cricket commentator) at the Book Festival in the afternoon. As I'm still recuperating and have to make sure I don't overdo things, I had to stop for lunch - of course. Time was short, so tapas from La Tasca seemed a good idea. Tapas always seems a good idea and on this occasion, it was ok. But why are each of the individual dishes always so expensive? And why do they always have an odd number of pieces of fish, meat, croquette etc. on each? And why do they recommend you get 4-6 dishes EACH? Even at lunchtime! And why is it always the Patatas Bravas that are unlimited? (Probably because they're rubbish). I'm not really compaining but the report card for UK Tapas bars always reads 'Could do Better'.

In Andalucia 2 years ago, we stayed in a mountain village called Gaucin. There was a very basic, pavement cafe there that sold tapas dishes - nothing fancy but good quality. Top of the pops was very thinly sliced aubergine, deep fried in batter. Very crispy and tasty and very simple and cheap. Perfect. After I came home, I discovered this article from The Times - The Best Tapas in Spain - which features this cafe. Now I don't know if it merited such high praise,  but it was very good and shows what can be done with the right, simple ingredients.

On Thursday, following my most recent preservation success with my Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar, I set in motion my next project. I collected the first of the early season brambles. It was easy pickings as the damp summer seems to have suited the humble blackberry and the East Lothian hedgerows are bursting with them, so another outing and I should have enough for a batch of bramble jelly. Something else to keep you posted with.

Following that outing, I tried another new recipe from the wee Olive magazine giveaway - Prawn Massaman Curry. Except I couldn't get the Massaman Curry Paste so my version was Prawn Thai Yellow Curry. Here's the recipe, it was very good.

Prawn Massaman Curry:

1-2 tbsp massaman curry paste (Bart's do it in wee jars but I used Yellow Curry Paste)

1 x 400g Coconut milk

150g small, new potatoes

1 Cinnamon stick

2 Cardamom pods, squashed

200g raw, king prawns - frozen were fine - make sure you de-vein them

1 tsp Brown sugar

2 Limes - 1 juiced, 1 quartered to serve

1 tbsp Fish Sauce

1 Red Chilli & Basil - shredded to serve

 - you can also add 1 tbsp toasted and chopped peanuts if you want.

Method:

• Cook the curry paste and some coconut milk for a few minutes until it becomes fragrant, then add the rest of the coconut milk.
• Add the potatoes, cinnamon, cardamom and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the potatoes are tender.
• Add the prawns, sugar, lime juice and fish sauce and cook for 3-4 minutes until the prawns are just cooked and pink
• Serve the curry with lime wedges and sprinkled with chilli, basil and peanuts
• DELICIOUS!

A Patchwork Pallette of Colour

East Lothian is a riot of colour at the moment - especially when the sun shines. The harvest has started and some fields have been combined and baled but because there has been a lot of rain recently, there is still a great deal of work for the farmers to do. They'll be reluctant to bring in any grain that's likely to have a high moisture content due to rain, because it means that they have to dry it. And that costs money. It means that many of the fields really are golden but there's plenty of other crops waiting to be harvested too.

Potatoes of course, one of the most famous East Lothian crops, mostly still have their green shaws. They get removed when they're about to be lifted and some of the early varieties have been already but there's still plenty more to go. There's also lots of cabbages with their dark, bluey green hue which is a striking colour when you drive past the huge fields. Who eats all of these I wonder? Do they stay in Scotland? Or the UK? Or do some get exported to Europe and beyond? I'll have to try to find out because there's thousands and thousands of them in each field and it'll be interesting to find out where they go and who sells them.

Tonight's dinner was something different but very tasty - Quick Soy Glazed Chicken with Carrot and Cucumber Pickle. It's quite easy and comes from a booklet called '£5 Suppers for Two' which came with the BBC Olive magazine this month. Why not give it a go but I should warn you that it was a bit spicier than I expected.

Quick Soy Glazed Chicken with Carrot and Cucumber Pickle

For the marinade:

Half a tablespoon Chinese 5 Spice Powder

3cm piece of ginger - thinly sliced

2 tbsp brown sugar

3 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

 - I also added some finely sliced spring onions coz I had them in the fridge

Put 2 chicken breasts or 4-6 skinless thighs into the marinade for at least 30 minutes

To cook:

Shake the marinade from the chicken and fry in a large frying pan for 4-5 each side or until nearly cooked through.

Add the marinade to the pan and continue to cook for another 5 minutes until the chicken is glazed with the sauce.

Slice the chicken and serve with noodles and the Carrot and Cucumber Pickle

For the pickle:

Heat 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar and add 1 teaspoon of (golden) caster sugar. Stir until the sugar disolves and add half a finely chopped red chilli.

Slice half a small cucumber and a carrot using a tattie peeler and add to the bowl. Toss  the ribbons in the sweet vinegar and keep in the fridge to be served with the chicken.

At Last . . . . It's Ready!

You'll be pleased to hear that the raspberry balsamic vinegar project has reached a conclusion. It wasn't as straightforward as I had hoped but I think that the end result is pretty good. And I've got a confession to make - I DID eventually source the raspberries in East Lothian - it's just that they were in the freezer compartment in Lidl's in the 'Pans! Well, when I priced the top quality fresh berries in the farm shop, it was going to cost about £15 to make before even getting the base vinegars. I hope you'll agree that this wouldn't be economically viable.

Anyway, the recipe I used after finding it on-line was:

900g raspberries

600ml red wine vinegar

The raspberries were to be mashed to a pulp before adding the vinegar and then the mixture was to be left for 5 days, stirring occasionally.

Then, the vinegary pulp was to be strained through muslin to extract only the juice and for every 600ml of juice, 450g of sugar was to be added.

Boil the mix for 10 min, skimming off any scum, and then bottle.

Easy!

Not so easy!

The problems I encountered were:

• I wanted a balsamic vinegar so I used 350ml of balsamic and 250ml of red wine vinegar. This, I think, made my initial mix too sweet
• I had a lot of trouble straining the pulp. Even after several hours, the muslin I had, seemed to be clogged up so I had to empty it out and clean it. I had to do this several times before I got all the juice through. Does anybody know a better way to do this? An old fashioned jelly bag I think
• I got 1 litre of juice extracted so I added 750g of sugar. The final product was very sweet and 'jammy' - very viscose. To get round this, I got another couple of bottles (2 x 350ml) of balsamic and mixed them in
• I then strained it through a fine sieve to remove the sugary 'globules' and this time it was fine with an excellent consistency. Interestingly though, although I had added an extra 700ml of liquid, I only got one extra 350ml bottle out. Now that's magic! But not good magic

So now I've left it to mature for all of . . . . . 2 days - and the tasting was today, along with a selection of antipasti, fresh bread for dipping and a bottle of South African Sauvignon Blanc. Just about a perfect Sunday afternoon along with the papers.

Dipping crusty bread into flavoured balsamic like this is one of my favourite things. The flavour is so sweet/sour, it's amazing. In fact, I wonder if you could use it to flavour drinks like gin. I think I'll try it - just a small amount around the glass and pour in the gin. I'll let you know.

I hope you like our blue wine beakers in the picture. They're recycled, posh yoghurt pots (La Fermiere) from Bunney's. Pretty good really and dishwasher safe.