Stumbled across this the other day...

And it is absolutely fantastic!!! It's Marks and Spencer's TV and here you have a link to an Easter lunch and how to cook it.  Looks scrumptious and you can even put on subtitles..

http://www.marksandspencer.com/MS-TV/b/311612031

You will really have to watch the Video to see the end result, but here we have a picture of roasted lamb, so you get the idea....

Lemon meringue pie

Well this brings back very fond memories of Scotland and going out for afternoon tea...

INGREDIENTS FOR 6
1 packet of ready-made shortcrust pastry
8 tablespoons of lemon curd

FOR THE MERINGUE
6 egg whites
300 g of caster sugar

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190ºC.  Grease a 22 cm tin.
2. Roll out the pastry to fit the tin generously.  Line the tin.

3.  Spoon the lemon curd in and onto the pastry.  Spread evenly.
4.  For the meringue.  Whisk the egg whites up in a bowl until they form stiff peaks and you can do this...i.e.
hold the bowl over your head, without the whisked egg whites falling over you...Whisk in the caster sugar a spoonfull at a time.

5.  Spoon meringue mixture on top of the lemon curd.
6.  Bake for about 45 minutes until the meringue is crisp on the outside and inside is soft and marshmallowy.
7.  Serve warm or cold.

And here you have it.

Potato scones

Here is a recipe for one of my favourite breakfast foods (apart from black pudding).  Check it out here http://www.scottishrecipes.co.uk/potato_scones_recipe.htm

And this is what they look like

And here they are as part of a typical breakfast.  They can also be eaten as part of a fry-up for tea too.

with lorne sausage, bacon, black pudding, fried eggs and if you really insist with baked beans.

Tattie soup

Tattie soup reminds me of my days in the kitchen at Woolworth's in Dundee when I was on a work project there - the year I decided to have a gap year off from studying before university.  It was one of the favourite meals in the canteen and for the main course we had bacon and cabbage.  Can't remember what was on for dessert...
It's really easy to make and it's amazing how many things you can make with tatties....

Ingredients (for 8)
15 potatoes sliced
3 onions chopped
4 large carrots grated
3 litre stock (chicken, beef)
salt and pepper to taste
handful chopped parsley

Put ingredients into a large pot.  Add stock.  Bring to the boil.  Cover and reduce heat and leave to simmer for a couple of hours.  Add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with parsley when you serve.

Lovely on a cold winter's day....

Obviously if you want to make this more up-market you can make Vichyssoise instead.

Ingredients (for 4)
Butter for frying
a couple of leeks, washed and chopped
3 or 4 potatoes
1 medium-sized onion
1 litre chicken stock
salt and ground white pepper

To finish
150 ml fresh single cream
snipped chives

Melt a knob of butter in a saucepan.  Add the leeks, potatoes, onion, cover and cook gently for 5 minutes.  Add the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes.  Season to taste.
You can purée this in a blender or leave the soup as it is.  Adjust seasoning and serve with in individual bowls with a swirl of cream on top and some chives.

Beef Olives

This was another of my mum's specialities.  I don't know why they are called beef olives because there's not an olive in sight.  And this is how to make them.http://www.scotlandforvisitors.com/recipes/beefolives.php   Before you cook them this is what they should look like

And here they are when they are ready, you can serve them with some mashed potatoes and braised cabbage just like the picture below

Absolutely delicious!!!

Easter cupcakes

Don't they look delicious.  These are really decorated "fairy cakes" and I had no idea we ate them at Easter in Scotland.  Apparently they have sessions for kids to make them in the Willow Tea Rooms in Glasgow which is a place I would love to visit the next time I am in Scotland....

http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/Cakes%20and%20Baked%20Fayre/Cupcakes.htm
Here we have a quick link which will show you how to make them.  But anyway, Easter in Scotland makes me think of Cadbury's Easter Eggs...

and especially Cadbury's cream eggs....

which unless somebody sends me some from Scotland I won't be tasting this Easter...

Scones

Warm, buttered scones, spread with plenty of jam and topped with clotted cream, is everyone's idea of a Scottish cream tea. If buttermilk is not available, use fresh milk with a half teaspoon of lemon juice.

Ingredients
225 plain flour
1 + 5 ml. spoon bicarbonate of soda
1 + 5 ml spoon cream of tartar
25 g. butter
150 ml buttermilk

Method
Sift the flour with the bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar into a mixing bowl.  Rub in the butter.  Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the buttermilk, mixing quickly to a soft dough with a palette knife.
Turn the dough onto a floured board and knead lightly until smooth.  Roll until approx. 1.75 cm. thick.  Stamp out into approx. 12 rounds with a 5 cm. pastry cutter.  Leave to stand for 15 minutes before baking.
Put the rounds on a heated greased baking sheet and bake in a hot oven (220ºC) for about 10 minutes or until the scones are well-risen and golden.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly. Serve warm. (Recipe care of Mark's and Spencer's "Cookery Book".......

And if you are in Edinburgh, try out Forsyth's tea room, where you can try out a lot more things apart from scones...

....

Going doon the watter

A couple of times when we went on holiday to the Kyles of Bute we caught the steamer and "went doon the watter".  You could actually catch the steamer from Glasgow or Tighnabruaich and take a trip to Rothesay, an island,  where we would spend the day, walking around the town, visiting the castle..

and, of course having fish and chips for lunch in one of the cafés in the city centre...

and for the trip home, some Rothesay rock

Kames Hotel and pub grub

In between going back and forwards from Tighnabruaich to Otter Ferry, we used to go to Kames which was just a couple of miles away in the car.  Here we played on the beach and went fishing and stopped off at Kames Hotel at midday for lunch.  Here, due to Scottish licensing laws, the three kids (i.e. us) were packed off into the lounge bar to have lunch while my parents stayed at the main bar....

Here we usually had fried eggs, sausages and chips for lunch.  Delicious...

This picture has some fried mushrooms which makes it a bit more up-market.  And down below, I have inserted a picture of Scottish link sausages or bangers as they are called...the best in the world.

Which of course, gets us on to bangers and mash, i.e. fried sausages and  mashed potatoes

Here with tinned peas, gravy and some fried onions....

Otter Ferry and scampi

This was another little village we used to visit when we went on our summer holidays when we were small.

If we went down in the morning we would spend the day fishing off the small pier you can see in the photo and then we would go off for lunch at the restaurant you can see in the picture.  Incidentally, it seems to have become quite an upmarket eatery since then.

Almost fort years ago, when we went, it was run by a middle-aged couple who used to serve scampi in baskets, which was quite delicious

Which, according to Wikipedia, was a culinary preparation for small lobster!! But I'm not too sure if that was what we were really eating at all.  Anyway, check this article out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scampi.  Other days we used to go for afternoon tea, just the usual, scones, cakes and lemonade...

More about scones tomorrow...