Supporting the local economy

I'm really quite sad. I get very excited about buying food. If anything, I'm a bit addicted.
I'm trying really hard not to shop at the supermarket too much. Obviously it is unavoidable for certain things but by buying organic boxes, meat from the local butcher and using independent shops you can pretty much be stocked up without stepping foot inside an aisle.

So when I have time to go shopping at the weekend I really like to head to Crown Deli because they have a great selection of cheese, Cromarty Bakery breads and rather reasonable wines. I also like the personal touch, if you want anything in particular they will order it in for you, even unusual cheeses. Now that is something you don't get from the big stores.

I've also recently got into buying meat only from a butcher. It's about the quality and about being able to get exactly what you want. The so-called butcher in the supermarket doesn't offer to tenderise your steaks for you or offer you bones for stock.

Usually we have a farmers market once a month but for the last couple of months there has been a maverick Market appearing and today Easterton Farm were selling a great selection of venison. As we were working out what to buy a couple walked past exclaiming "oh poor Bambi"...clearly they have never driven down a dark road in the Highlands at this time of year to be met by 'Bambi' all grown up, antlers and all, large enough to write off you car. Poor delicious Bambi thank you. Not only that but the hills are covered in Deer, we have Deer coming out of every Glen across the Highlands. It's good to eat them - plus the fact it is a lean meat so quite healthy in comparison to beef steak. Plus 'Bambi' has probably lived a far more natural life than the cow who appears in your McDonalds burgers.

So to conclude - eat local, eat seasonal and eat well. Think about where your food comes from - hopefully it won't be from the supermarket shelf too much.
Some of my favourite local producers:
Best beef sausages- www.grantandsons.com
Best meat - www.macbeths.com
Best haggis - www.scottishgourmetfood.co.uk/haggis/cockburns_haggis.htm
Best baking - www.black-isle.info/details.asp?id=212
Best deli - www.corneronthesquare.co.uk
Best veg - www.macleodorganics.com
Best venison - www.duncanfraserbutcher.co.uk
Best eggs - www.visitbeauly.com/company-16.html
Best smoked salmon :) - www.summerislesfoods.co.uk
Best breakfast - www.spoff.co.uk
Best deep fried pizza - only joking

Cracking crackling and pleasant pheasant

I love this time of year - it's all about seasonal comfort food. Hot soup, bread, cheese, red wine and cosy evenings sitting in the kitchen because it's the warmest room in the home...because the cooker is on all the time. If I had an Aga it would all be perfect.


However, I seem to be doing ok without an Aga for the time being. This weekend has been a bit full on with work so I thought it would be fun to try a meal which needs little effort but delivers great results. 


I've never tried slow roast pork belly before but think the idea of soft oozy pork meat with crisp crackling would be the perfect cold Autumn evening meal. 


I adapted a Jamie Oliver recipe to create Crisp Pork Belly with Apple Gravy.

1.5kg pork belly (ask your butcher to score it!)
Salt and pepper
2 red onions, halved
2 carrots, peeled and halved lengthways
2 sticks of celery, chopped in half
2 apples, peeled, cored and chopped in half
2 large cloves of garlic, skin on,
Fresh thyme
500ml vegetable stock
100ml dry cider


Pre-heat your oven as hot as you can then rub salt and pepper into the skin side of the belly. Make sure you get the salt into the scores as well. Place it on a roasting tray skin side up then pop it in the oven for approx. 30 mins or until the skin is covered in bubbles, starting to turn into crackling. Then turn the temperature down to 180c for an hour.
In the mean time prepare the vegetables, herbs, garlic and apples.
After an hour, take the belly out and baste it with the fat from the tray. Add your vegetables to the roasting tray and mix them around in the juices until coated. Then place your pork on top of the vegetables and put back in the oven for another hour.
When it's ready, take your pork out to rest while you make gravy out of the vegetables. Add your stock and cider to the tray and with a potato masher mash up the vegetables to get all their flavours. Heat your tray on the stove to boil it all up and let the stock and cider condense. Strain the liquid through a sieve to get lovely gravy flavoured with apple to go with your roast pork belly. Some folk like it with mashed potatoes, others with roast - it's all up to you. Make sure you serve with some seasonal vegetables though.


I picked up some pheasant at the farmers market last weekend so tonight we are trying pheasant breast braised in cider...


And no weekend would be complete without some soup being made so today I made Spinach, Broccoli and Stilton soup. Very warming and very comforting.

Potages de trois couleurs

Sweet Potato and Chorizo






Spinach and Broccoli






Beetroot and Apple 

I won't be beaten by beetroot!

I have a rather lot of beetroot to get through just now. I love beetroot, only started to enjoy it recently because, probably like a lot of people, my memories of beetroot was on the nasty pickled variety you got at school, along side coleslaw, boiled eggs and corned beef. I feel ill just thinking about it.

Fortunately though, I've experienced some lovely ways of preparing beetroot and pairing it with suitable foods. Such as a meal I had once at Iglu which served pigeon breast on a bed of beetroot and red cabbage with black pudding. Divine!

So although I am a convert and a fan I still struggle to come up with different ways to serve beetroot so I thought I'd share some ideas with you:

Beetroot and apple bortsch - apparently you serve it cold but at this time of year I would go for hot.

Beetroot chocolate cake - This is amazing, no one realises it has beetroot in it. It's heaven and healthy.

Beetroot and potato rosti with smoked salmon - Beetroot and smoked salmon are a winning classic combo.

This should keep me busy for a while, other suggestions are welcome.

I have been in Glasgow this week and managed to catch up with a friend who sat me down and said "I want to talk to you about food...". I have a talent of turning a conversation to food within 5 minutes of meeting someone but this was a record breaking attempt! I was won over and it was a great chat about organic boxes, seasonal veg and cuts of meat. My friend has let me into a little secret - Pork Cheeks. Even Tom Parker-Bowles is a fan. Very cheap she says and delicious - so I will be off to the butcher this week to see what if I can get some and try out her recipe. Watch this space.

10 out of 10 for Fifteen

I've eaten in a few fabulous restaurants in my short life so far. Up there I would include Rocpool Reserve, Rogano and the Summer Isles Hotel but by far I think the best meal I have had so far was at Fifteen in Cornwall this week.

I went down to Cornwall with work this week to visit Social Enterprises - we spent the day at the Eden Project which was fantastic. Their social and environmental purpose is to reconnect people with plants. This covers nature and the environment too but many the importance of plants. Plants interest me greatly because so many of them are edible! After a day walking around admiring the various flora and fauna we had fair worked up an appetite and Fifteen is very close to the Eden Project so it was a natural choice. Fifteen runs an apprentice scheme for young people removed from the work market and I've never been to a restaurant that had staff with so much pride and ownership over their work. The menu was simple, 5 courses, 2 choices each course. So here is what I had:

Cornish hand-dived scallop 'saltimbocca, shaved florence fennel and loadsa herbs     

                                           

Aged Angus beef carpaccio, crispy capers, Newlina's wild rocket and Parmigiano Reggiano

Squid ink Taglierini, Carter's Cornish lobster, Amalfi lemon & chilli pangrattato

Crispy fillet of line caught sea bass, mixed beets, ruby chard and St Austell bay mussels

Amedei No'9 chocolate and fudge brownie slice, sticky toffee ice cream and mini Bourbon cream

The images don't even come close to capturing the meal and all it's flavours. I would go back to Fifteen in a flash. It was a great experience and I only wish Jamie Oliver would open one in the Highlands, I think a lot of young people up here could enthuse about the local produce in the same way our waitress did. All the young chefs in the kitchen were working so well as a team and the attention to detail was fascinating. Watching them cleaning up at end of service just showed how much pride they all took in their work, this wasn't just a job, it's a real experience and opportunity for them.


The only downside? Now I've been spoilt with this meal nothing seems to compare...yet....

A Brighter Shade of Kale

Kale is in season just now and I must admit, it's not one of my favourite vegetables so I was hunting around for a decent recipe. I found a few interesting ones:

Chestnut, kale and chorizo soup

Kale And Roquefort Parcels

Kale Pesto Pasta

However I thought I would try a sort of braised kale recipe with beetroot which was also in the veggie box this week.

I followed this simple Delia Smith recipe substituting Kale for cabbage. Then, I boiled some beetroots until soft. I removed the beetroot from the water and let them cool. Then I grated the beetroot and added it to the kale mixture. Cooked it up with a little vegetable stock until nice and soft. Serve with a pork chop - delicious! Kale is a little bit rougher than cabbage, I enjoyed the combination of the soft beetroot with al dente kale. 

What was in your vegetable box this week?

Strange Fruits...well, vegetables...

No, I haven't chopped someone's fingers off. These are Pink Fur Apple Potatoes which a friend was kind enough to give me at the weekend.

Perfect for Halloween time though.

There is a first time for everything...mussels, pesto and cupcakes, oh my

It's been a busy weekend and a weekend of firsts - the first time I've cooked mussels, the first time I've made pesto and the first time I found a cupcake recipe I liked!

I've always enjoyed shellfish, must be a West coast thing - scallops, langoustines and mussels are favourites of mine. I've cooked scallops hundreds of times, barbecued langoustines in the Western Isles but I've never tried to cook a mussel. I think I have been put off by the idea of eating a bad mussel or eating them in the wrong month! We went to the Living Food festival at Cawdor Castle and I got some live mussels from Dry Island Seafood. Watching them give a demonstration of how to cook mussels I thought "how hard can it be?"..and do you know what? It is easy!

The only difficult part of cooking mussels is the cleaning - remove all the hairy threads or 'the beard' and try to clean off any barnacles (good luck with that by the way). Once they are clean and bald (!) follow this recipe:

Moules Marinière

Pile of mussels

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

15g butter

Sprigs of fresh thyme

1 bay leaves

200ml  dry white wine 

Handful of chopped parlsey

Serve with Crusty bread 

Add your wine, garlic, onion and herbs to a pan. Bring to the boil. Add the mussels. Steam with the lid on for 4 -5 mins until all the mussels are open...then serve! Easy!

The other culinary challenge this weekend was set by our out-of-control Basil plant which was threatening to take over the kitchen. I've always been a little afraid of trying to make Pesto but faced with the triffid in our kitchen I thought it was worth a shot.

I am a huge Jamie Oliver fan, I've decided I want to have a collection of his cook books and have been buying the older books from Ebay or Green Metropolis. I dipped into one of his older books and found this wonderful Pesto recipe which I can highly recommend. It is really simple and I can't explain how wonderful fresh pesto is. I don't think I will be able to go back to shop-bought pesto. It doesn't have a very long shelf-life but that won't be a problem because it's too good to not eat! Incredible with just plain pasta...yum.

Ok, so that brings me to the cupcakes. Regulars of this blog and anyone who knows me will know that I have a real problem with cupcakes in this country. We don't make cupcakes, we make fairycakes. Cupcakes taste utterly different - the only way to explain is the sponge isn't sweet and the icing is light, fluffy and pure sugar. Anyone who wants a true cupcake should head to Magnolia Bakery, Bleeker St, New York. Then you will never look back. So, in my quest to find a real cupcake recipe I was delighted to find this genuine recipe from the Magnolia Bakery. It works! It's the best cupcake recipe I have tried. The sponge is light and not too sweet - I think the difference is unsalted butter. Try it and tell me what you think...
I'm going to stock up on cupcake cases and decorations and keep practicing until I get it right!

So, what did you get up to this weekend?

Highland Food Fayre

Things have been quiet on Gourmet Lass pages I'm afraid but don't think I've gone off food. Quite the opposite. I've been involved in producing a Highland Food Fayre for an event in Inverness which happened this weekend.

The Camanachd Cup final is a significant date in the Highland calendar. Two shinty teams, in this case Fort William and Kingussie, come and play together, clashing for the Camanachd Cup. This year the organisers secured funding to move away from the traditional Burger Van and wanted to lay on a spread of Highland food producers, showcasing the best in the local area.
Attending on the day were MacDougall & Hastie butchers, Ullapool Bakery, West Highland Dairy, Macleods Organics, Baking Birds and Highland Hog Roast. It was a great display of local food from Highland producers.
A real highlight for me was the Camanachd Cupcakes made by Baking Birds. They were decorated in the team colours complete with stars, shinty sticks or scarfs! They sold out.
Another gem of local produce is the ice cream made by West Highland Dairy. Highland ice-cream producers are few and far between so these guys are well worth a visit if you are heading up to Stromeferry. Their ice-cream is deliciously creamy and with a great range of flavours such as Raspberry and White Chocolate, Skye Fudge, Chocolate Brownie and Blackcurrant there is plenty to stock your freezer with.

I''m also a real fan of Hog Roast. It's the crackling. I know it's not good for you but you can't beat a bit of pork and apple sauce topped off with a piece of crisp crackling. Highland Hog Roast did a great job, finishing off an entire beast of a pig with hungry spectators enjoying roasted Hog for lunch.

Although I was working, managing the Food Fayre, I did make sure I played my part in supporting the local produce - I didn't leave empty handed. I bought some delicious bread from the Ullapool Bakery.
I try not to eat too much bread but I can't resist bread with soup so I got some of their Cheese & Onion as well as their intriguing Stilton & Cranberry. I think that will go well with some Spinach soup or even Brussel Sprout soup when they are in season.

Speaking of Seasons - it's approaching Autumn which is really my favourite time of the year. I love the colours as the leaves turn and the golden sunlight you get while there is a slight chill in the air...I start thinking of soups and comfort food and I was delighted to get a massive pumpkin from Macleods Organics. Two things I love making with pumpkins, apart from lanterns, is soup and pumpkin gratin so that is my Sunday afternoon sorted....although I'm now thinking about a nice bit of roast pork too!

Roast Pumpkin Gratin
works well with Butternut Squash too
1 Pumpkin, deseeded and cut into pieces for roasting
Smoked Paprika
Olive oil
1 red onion, sliced
25g butter
1 clove of garlic
250ml Double Cream
Emmental cheese

Method
Turn the oven up to 180c and put your prepared pumpkin pieces onto a roasting tray. Lightly cover the pumpkin with a glug of Olive oil then sprinkle smoked paprika over the pumpkin. Add as much as you like, it's up to you how strong you want your smokey flavours to be. Pop the pumpkin in the oven and leave to roast for approx 45 mins or until soft enough to peal away from pumpkin skin and then leave to cool.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a pan and add red onion. Cook until soft then add garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside once cooked.
When your pumpkin to cook enough, slice it into pieces about 1/2 cm thick. Grease a oven-proof dish with butter then start to layer your pumpkin on the bottom, then a layer or red onion, then pumpkin, continue until finished. Pour double cream over the top and finish with a layer of Emmental cheese.
Pop back into the oven for 25-30 mins at 200c or until golden brown on top.
Enjoy with a glass of red wine, some crusty bread and salad!

The Big Freeze

I've not updated the blog in a long time. It's not that I haven't been cooking but I wasn't preparing anything special, nothing exciting to share with you.

Well this weekend I managed to do something I haven't done in ages - I spent it cooking! I cooked and cooked and have filled the freezer up with the essentials to keep us going. Work has been hectic and some times you get home and can't be bothered to cook a nice evening meal but you still want something comforting and homemade...if this is the case for you too then try these freezer friendly recipes and get stocked up:
Chicken Fajitas
Mushroom, Parma Ham and Mascarpone Lasagne
Chicken in white sauce - a sauce which is the basis for several meals!
Basic Curry Sauce - again, the basis for several curries
Chilli - a classic meal, perfect for the freezer in case of a cold wet night
The Godfather Pasta Sauce - I googled this just for fun and found it, a fantastic pasta sauce recipe

So have fun cooking and if you have any great tips for freezer recipes please let me know!

Cheese please!

I didn't used to be the kind of person who loved cheese. My first cheese experience was as a small child and it was Smoked Cheese from Summer Isles Foods, my family's business. I was probably too wee to enjoy the strong smokey flavour and the intense texture because the rest of my childhood cheese consisted of Dairylea slices and mini-babybel. Hardly cheese at all.

Slowly and surely though I have completely come round to cheese in a big big way!
We are very fortunate in the Highlands to have a lot of good dairies around here which include Connage Diary, West Highland Dairy and Wester Lawrenceton Farm - all amazing cheese producers.
By far though, the best cheese I have tasted which is produced locally is Blue Monday - commissioned by Alex James of Blur and made in Tain by Highland Fine Cheeses. It is quite possibly the most amazing blue cheese I have or will ever taste. We tried it at Muckrach Lodge which is wonderful hotel in Speyside with a great season menu and of course, a great cheese board.

My taste for cheese made in Scotland is limited though. I went to Paris for New Year and while we were there we sampled some amazing cheeses and now I am a true convert - there are few UK cheese which can compare to what we had in France. May I bring the following to the attention of the Jury:
Camembert au Calvados - quite honestly the loveliest cheese I have ever tried
Tomme de Savoie - a subtle cheese but packs a punch!

If I only had to eat one cheese for the rest of forever I think it would be Camembert au Calvados spread on a fresh baquette...with a glass of red wine. I would be in heaven.

Now, that covers Scotland and France - the Auld Alliance. Yes we make good cheeses.
But which cheese prompted me to write this addition to the blog? Well, it's a classic, you will find it in your local supermarkets, a fine selection as well but try your local deli first to get the really good stuff...which cheese am I talking about? Colston Bassett of course - the most amazing blue cheese. Not quite the same league as Blue Monday but worth investing in some oatcakes to accompany it...but where will you get your oatcakes?  That is another blog...

Jamie and Julia have kept me busy

It's been a while since I last wrote. I wish I could say I've been cooking up a storm in the kitchen but to be honest we have been eating simple fayre recently. Also, I wasn't sure if anyone was really reading this so it didn't seem like a good use of time (when I could have been cooking!) but I was delighted this week when a friend forwarded me an email from a restaurant she is a 'member' of. The email was their regular monthly newsletter with news about their new branch opening in Edinburgh and also giving thanks to their fans who support them - including yours truly! They linked to my blog and everything. So thank you to Chop Chop for linking to me and once again, I highly recommend Chop Chop in Edinburgh. In fact I need to book a table very soon for our next trip down to Edinburgh.

So cooking hasn't been too high on the agenda recently although we did have some friends over for dinner a couple of weeks ago and went for a Moroccan theme. It was going to be quite a spread so we didn't have a starter but had a huge main course. My partner prepared some Kebabs, lamb and chicken. Marinated overnight so the meat was lovely and tender. We had hoped to cook them on the BBQ but the weather was against us. We served the kebabs with Salad Insalata, beetroot with pistachio sauce and carrot with orange & coriander. I also rustled up some flat breads and some garlic prawns and crabmeat! See what I mean? A huge selection to choose from. I really like those meals where you put everything in the middle of the table and you just help yourself. These recipes were from the Moro East Cookbook and the new Jamie Does....book - I can't praise it enough. I love the new Jamie Oliver book - think I will try something from the Italian section next.

We finished the evening with another Jamie Oliver recipe - Snakey Cakey - it's actually something else in the book but roughly translates as Snakey Cakey. It's a lovely filo pastry coiled cake - stuffed with a rich almond and zesty filling. It's just to die for and when served with vanilla ice cream it's the perfect way to end a meal - I'm going to make it again as soon as we have someone else round! Anyone hungry?

So I guess I have plugged a lot of cook books - can I plug one more? I recently bought the Julia Child "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" which has been an eye opener. You think you know how to cook? Cook the basics? My friend, you are probably wrong.
I found out today that I have been preparing asparagus wrong all my life! It is asparagus season now so I recommend getting some - it tastes great and as a wee treat it's worth the price. We got ours from a farm shop just outside of Nairn but was it local? Nope - Lincolnshire! Apparently it's the finest in the UK...well, it was nice. Shame it had to travel so far.....

Entertaining Easter

This has been the first weekend in a long time that I have felt honestly excited! Like Christmas, but better. There is no doubt that Easter is a significant date in the calendar - whether it is for religious reasons or simply because the long weekend means time off work - Easter is exciting. For me I think Easter feels like the mark of Spring, new buds and blooms sneak out from the snowy winter months and the sun shines with much anticipation.
This Easter we headed north to Achiltibuie to spend the weekend with my family. Weeks in advance we had planned the menus for the long weekend and the car was packed with shopping to keep us all going.
Now the road from Inverness to Achiltibuie leads you through Ullapool, a wonderful wee fishing port which boosts some of the best fish and chips I have ever tried (and I have tried many many many). Last time we passed through Ullapool The Seaforth was being refurbished in time for the start of the tourist season so we headed there for a late lunch on Friday and it did not disappoint. The Seaforth is the only place (plaice?) I have ever been able to have Queen Scallops with chips. The man in my life tried the Scampi and chips which is my usual meal from a chippie but not the Seaforth. Their Scallops are the small sweet kind, lightly battered and fried to perfection - the chips are the best, home-made chips you will find on the west coast. As far as I'm concerned, a visit to Ullapool isn't complete without a visit to The Seaforth chippie.

Anyway, once lunch was done we drove up to Achiltibuie with enough food to feed an army. The meals for the weekend are listed below with links to recipes where possible. I made slight alterations as I went along but feel free to stick to the recipe or try the Gourmet Lass twists:
Good Friday
Fine Oatmeal coated Scallops with Roe in Garlic butter, served with Garlic Mayo
Pancetta Wrapped Salmon with Saffron Rice
Lemon Ice Cream with Biscotti

Saturday
Pancetta, Blue Cheese and Pear salad with walnut pieces
Lemon & Garlic Roast Chicken with roast vegetables
Passion Fruit Meringue

Sunday
Mezze platter with pea, mint, feta and pancetta salad
Roast Rack of Lamb with aubergine & goats cheese bake
Baked Yoghurt Cheesecake

Delicious meals from the deep

We have been away from the weekend. Down to Edinburgh. The plan was to do a lot of family things and then enjoy a nice meal in one of the best restaurants in Edinburgh - Chop Chop. It is so good that it made it onto the Gordon Ramsay F Word show as one of the best Chinese in the UK. It made it to the final two but lost out to a restaurant in Manchester. A real shame because Chop Chop is best known for it's dumplings - they are great, both boiled and fried. I tried the Crispy Northern Beef for the first time (I've been there 3 times in all) and it was delicious. I would highly recommend a visit to Chop Chop when you are in Edinburgh. Already planning our next trip as we have bought tickets for the Taste of Edinburgh Festival in May so are looking forward to more culinary delights when we return.

The A9 is the road which joins Inverness to Edinburgh and on the way there are many food stops (no I don't include McDonalds in Perth, the Little Chef or Motor Grill in these). One real mecca for Foodies on the A9 is House of Bruar which has become the favourite stop for everyone traveling during 9 - 5pm (if it stayed open later it would still rake it in!). The Food Hall is amazing. I've worked there many a Saturday when promoting the wonderful Smokehouse which is Summer Isles Foods but to finally be able to shop to my hearts content is fun. We had a good look round and I was impressed to see they have expanded since I was last there. They have a butcher section complete with a hanging area. It's good to see a business showing where meat comes from. I can imagine it's too much for the non-meat eaters among us but I believe butchery is a great skill, to do it humanely is good and we need to understand what it means to eat meat.

However, what really attracts me to House of Bruar is the seafood section - Arbroath Smokies, smoked mussels and what we finally purchased - white crab meat. Crab meat is lovely and light, delicately flavoured meat and deserves a simple meal so we tried this tonight and I'm adding it to my list of favourite dishes - simple and perfect:

Crab linguine with chilli, lemon, garlic and parsley recipe

I feel this chicken tonight...like chicken tonight...

I thought I would share with you a couple of great meals for a weekend night. Nice and simple but quite impressive looking. The key of course is to use good ingredients. We try to regularly get our meat and veg from MacCullochs Food because he sources everything as locally as possible. Which means not only are you helping support local food producers but you get seasonal veg. I get quite excited when the box arrives and you see what you are getting this week. They also have an impressive range of box deals - meat & veg for £25 etc. This week I ordered a mixture of stuff but I always like to get some chicken so I can make meals like this:

Chicken stuffed with Boursin with cannellini bean stew
Ingredients for 2
150g Boursin
1 tablespoon of Crème fraiche
Grated zest of 1 lemon skin
2 chicken supremes, skin on
Splash of olive oil
For the bean stew
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
200g pack smoked bacon lardons
400g cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
100ml white wine, martini or vermouth
100ml chicken stock, hot
2 tablespoons of Crème fraiche

Heat the oven to 200C/ fan180C/gas 6.
Mix together the Boursin with a table spoon of Crème fraiche, salt and pepper.
Lift the skin from the chicken breast and stuff the Boursin mixture in. Try not to over stuff it. Spread evenly and repeat with the remaining chicken.

Place the chicken in a non-stick roasting tray, drizzle with olive oil, season and roast for 25-30 minutes until cooked through.

Then heat the olive oil in a pan, add the onion and fry over a medium heat until softened. Add the garlic and fry for 1 minute, then add the bacon and fry until golden. Stir in the beans and white wine and bubble over a high heat for 3-4 minutes. Add the stock, simmer for 2-3 minutes, then stir the Crème fraiche.
When you are ready to serve, place a portion of the bean stew in the middle of the plate and pop the chicken on top. Yum

Chicken and Mushroom Pie
25g butter
1 red onion, diced or sliced into rings
1 chicken breast, diced
6 rashers of streaky bacon, diced
150g mushrooms, sliced
75g Broccoli, in small pieces
2 cloves of Garlic
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 teaspoon of Tarragon (or use fresh)
1 glass of white wine.
25g butter
75g flour
Milk as required
150g Boursin
1 bay leaf
Puff pastry
1 egg, beaten

This is a nice simple recipe. First cook the onion in butter until soft. Then add you chicken, diced and allow to cooked for 5 - 10 minutes. Then add your diced bacon. Allow the bacon to cook then add your mushrooms, broccoli and garlic. Cook for 5 mins, until the mushrooms are completely covers in the flavours then season to your liking with the nutmeg and tarragon. At this stage, add a small glass of white wine and leave on a low temperature for all the juices to evaporate. Mushrooms contain a lot of water so the mixture will be quite wet. You don't want this at the next stage so let it cook off.

While this is happening you can make your sauce for the pie. Start to make a bechamel sauce with the butter, flour and milk. When if gets to a nice thick sauce stage add your Boursin and allow it to melt into the sauce. Add a bay leave and season to taste. Add as much milk depending on the thickness you want for the sauce. I like it quite thick...

When your sauce is ready the chicken and mushroom mixture should be a nice sticky combination of ingredients (at this stage you could also use this mixture as a sauce for pasta!) Now, the easy part, mix the chicken and mushroom mixture in with the sauce and stir until nicely combined. Pour this into your pie dish. I use a Le Creuset pie dish (what else!). The mixture should just about come to the top of the dish but not quite. Then, roll out some puff pastry, big enough to cover the surface of your pie and a bit more. Pastry shrinks when cooking so you don't want to cut it neatly around the top of the pie dish. Then, if you have spare pastry you can decorate your pie lid! Always makes pies look more tasty. Then finish your pie by brushing some beaten egg over the pastry and pop it in the oven for about 30 mins or until your pastry has risen and is golden brown.

What I like about this recipe is the veg is in the pie too so you can just clear up and then serve your pie when ready. It's very tasty too!

Beginning Basic Baking

I was in Paris at New Year. It was a long weekend of indulgence consisting of much vin rouge, fromage et croissant. This is the perfect way to spend a long weekend in any city I think. While we were in Paris I took my friend to Ladurèe for afternoon tea. The place was hooching with Parisians buying boxes of the world-famous Macaroons for New Year party presents. There is something child-like and innocent about a Macaroon. The playful colours, the cute perfectly rounded shape and the lightness of them is delightful! I can understand why they were a favourite of Marie Antoinette. We had a lovely selection of Macaroons (Raspberry, Chocolate, Pistachio and Vanille) as well as an amazing little Raspberry cake, not to mention the famous Marie Antoinette tea and Ladurèe hot chocolate.
It was an experience, one I would repeat any day of the week. Driven by this desire to enjoy macaroons regularly and given there is not one macaroon to be had in the Highlands I have tried to replicate the delicious treats. So far, with no joy. Macaroons are notoriously difficult to make. Even years of training with top patisserie chefs does not guarantee to perfect macaroon. It can be so difficult to perfect that entire batches of macaroons are thrown away if they are even remotely flawed. So far, my two attempts have been awful. So I took a step back and thought 'maybe, I need to perfect meringue first' so this is my plan. Practice Meringue until perfect then try the next step - Macaroons!
If you want to try the recipe I have so far failed to perfect then be my guest and if you manage to crack the technique please let me know!

Something smells good...

I'm getting a bit of a reputation at work for stinking out the office at lunch time. Guilty! And I'm not ashamed of it. I am making it my mission at work to make sure everyone smells my delicious lunch and drools! Well, not quite but for the last week I'm afraid work colleagues have religiously started popping their faces round the office door to find out what I have made that day. So I thought I would share a few of my favourite, drool-tastic lunch meals:
Cous Cous with Roasted Vegetables and Chorizo
Roast a selection of vegetables for 30 -40 mins with olive oil, garlic and seasoning of your choice. I like to roast mushrooms, aubergine, courgette, yellow pepper, red pepper, red onion and even a little butter squash! Chop them up into small bit size pieces, roast them up and then make your couscous. Mix altogether (and if you have made a large batch you can freeze some) then pop into your lunch tupperware with some chorizo (make sure it is the cooked kind, any size will do). The key to making your work colleagues jealous though is to pop it in the microwave for 2 mins so the juicy flavours of the chorizo melt into the couscous. Tastes amazing and guaranteed 'head popping' will follow....
Lentil Soup with Smoked Bacon
I take a flask of soup in with me most weeks but my all time favourite soup is Lentil with Smoked Bacon. I've tried many recipes but here is one I found earlier (although I blend it up) - read it here
Give your soup a quick blast in the microwave or on the stove if you have one at work. Cue 'head popping'...
Leftovers with green salad
This is an excellent meal for lunch, it works well with any leftovers from the night before; chicken, salmon etc. Grab some salad leaves - I like spinach, rocket and watercress but any will do! Mix in some avocado, cherry tomatoes, celery, cucumber etc whatever you want from a salad really. Add a little garlic olive oil (what? you don't make your own?) then wrap your fish or meat up in tin foil. Add the salad and fish/meat to a tupperware tub. When you are ready, unwrap and place the fish/meat on a plate to heat up - 2 to 3 minutes in microwave then serve with your salad. The head popping will start when you are half way through your lunch...
Creamy Chicken Mousaka
Ok this is a funny one but it's basically Mousaka but with Chicken instead of beef and Boursin instead of tomatoes...this is a great one when you have time to make it but basically...slice your aubergine length ways and sprinkle with salt. Leave for a couple of hours so water soaks out and the bitterness of the Aubergine is removed. When ready, start to fry using a griddle pan and olive oil. Set to one side, you are basically preparing 'lasagna' sheets. Then soften up some onions in butter, takes 10 - 15 mins. When ready add the chicken, cook it up. Once the chicken is cooked I like to add Asparagus at this stage if I'm feeling flush, mushrooms and spinach too are good at this stage. Then once, you have cooked all your vegetables mix in some Boursin and Crème fraiche. Once melted start to layer up like you are making Lasagna then finish with parmesan grated on top. Cook in the oven until golden brown. Take a portion to work, heat it up and yet again your lunch will be the envy of your colleagues...

Oh did I mention I don't work in an office on Fridays so I usually forget about lunch but cook an amazing dinner...

So, make yourself the smelliest person at work. Make and take some amazing lunches with you, it's economical and you will be the culinary goddess of your work place too!

When is a cupcake not a cupcake?

It has come to my attention that many people claim to make cupcakes. I can't walk into a well-known food hall or local bakery without a pretty pastel coloured cake winking at me with its' cheeky "come eat me" icing.
Let me tell you, I have eaten many cupcakes in my life but I'm afraid I've never come across what I would describe as a genuine cupcake in the UK.

The humble cupcake started out as a small cake which was baked in a 'cup' which was any sort of tin, tray etc and they measured the quantities needed for the cake by 'cups' a la American recipes. Since then the cakes and quantities have grown and cupcakes come in many different shapes and sizes as well as colours and flavours. Yum!

However, since they were popularised (many claim through Sex and the City) the cupcake has been crucified and is no longer, in my opinion, a cupcake.

If you want a cupcake head to Magnolia Bakery on Bleeker St, New York. This is the bakery where Carrie and Miranda sat outside and shared cupcakes. This is the bakery which creates wonderful cupcakes, so good they have their own cupcake cookbooks! This is the benchmark for cupcakes.

There are many other great cupcake companies out there - many deliver using mail order so you can have cupcakes to your hearts delight but I stress, I am yet to try a good honest UK cupcake.

The reason for this post was I purchased a couple of cupcakes from a local bakery. I knew from their icing that they were probably not cupcakes...on eating them my suspicions were confirmed...they were fairy cakes disguised as cupcakes. Should I report the bakery to Trading Standards for false advertising? Would they care? Well, if they had tried a proper cupcake they would!

Comforting foods for wintery days

This week I enjoyed a drive up to Gairloch for work. It was a stunning drive. The winter weather meant clear skies, bright sunshine and a view of snow-covered mountains in the distance. It is a great time of year by all accounts.

When I arrived in Gairloch I was due to give a talk at a local hotel and was just in time for lunch. Given the cold weather and shortness of time being my talk I thought the best plan of action would be to order some soup and was given the choice of Scotch Broth or Cream of Celeriac. I love celeriac, and having made good soup with it in the past, I thought this would be a good choice. I should mention that other delicacies on the hand-written menu consisted of “Deep Fried Battered Beetroot” and “Brest of Duck” but my expectations were high.

When my soup arrived however it was more like a bowl of puréed celeriac, very thick and lacking any of the subtly which celeriac offers. Nevertheless the soup was a real ‘stick to your ribs’ substance.

Driving back towards home I noticed my dog was getting very excited about the smells coming from the countryside as we whizzed past. I realised it was because she could smell all the deer that had come down from the hills. The cold weather has been driving them closer to the roads in search of foods where the snow isn’t so heavy or the ground so frozen. Their presence was making my pooch crazy because of their scent. I on the other hand started to think about delicious venison meals I’ve eaten in the past. Venison is by far my favourite meat. It is so lean, tasty and also there are a lot of deer around, over populated in fact so we should be eating more venison where possible. Because of my strange gloopy soupy at lunch time I was reminded of one of my favourite comfort food meals which I thought I would share:

Venison with Celeriac Gratin
Works with most cuts of venison, try a steak for ease those or roast a nice haunch or for a lovely twist eat with cold smoked venison.

• 1 large celeriac, peeled and chopped into large chunks
• 1 onion, peeled and finely sliced
• 25g salted butter
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 125g Cheddar cheese (or to taste), grated
• 600ml carton double cream
• a handful of chopped fresh parsley leaves

Start by pre-heating the oven to 200°C.
Par-boil your celeriac in boiling water with a pinch of salt until soft. Drain and allow to cool. In the mean time cook the onion and garlic in butter until soft and just starting to turn golden (you want the sweetness of a slightly caramelised onion) and season. Slice the celeriac thinly and place a layer in an ovenproof baking dish. Sprinkle this layer with cheese, add another layer and repeat until you have built up a nice gratin. Pour the cream in with the onions & garlic and mix them together. Finally pour the creamy mixture over the gratin and finish with a sprinkle of cheese on top. Pop it in an oven and bake for about 30 - 40 minutes or until golden brown on top.
If you are eating with venison steak you can prepare these about 20 minutes before the gratin will be ready. Remember to give them time to rest before eating. If you are going for the smoked venison option (which I recommend!) then leave the venison out of the fridge for a good couple of hours so it reaches room temperature when serving.
When your gratin is ready, add some parsley to the top and serve all together with green vegetables, braised cabbage or crusty bread! Great with a nice Pinot Noir or Bordeaux.