A food lovers journey through an ancient land
The festive season is a time when eating really goes into overdrive but as food costs continue to rise and animal welfare becomes more and more of a contentious issue it is harder and harder to feed family and friends cheaply and ethically. One way to eat well and keep the budget under control is […]
On the last day of November, on the cusp of autumn departing completely for winter, with crisp cold frosty mornings, early evening darkness and the last of the summer leaves still cling to the trees, comes St. Andrews Day. The story goes that the relics of Andrew the Apostle were brought from Constantinople to what […]
Spice has long been on the menu in Scotland, whether from trade, conquest or immigration the peoples of this land have had a taste for the exotic and aromatic. A look at the menu of Mary, Queen of Scots in the great kitchens of Stirling Castle in the 1500s will reveal a fondness of the […]
Autumn is my favourite season. Yes winter brings snow and Christmas, spring has new-born lambs and delicate vegetables while summer means sunshine and strawberries. But autumn to me is above them all, there is a bountiful harvest on the trees, in the soil and resting on the land. Game is plentiful and as jumpers come […]
When the cold weather bites and your heart starts to feel a little heavy at long dark nights through the interminable winter months, there’s one thing that wraps you up like a childhood comfort blanket. A big bowl o’ soup. Lentil soup was never my favourite growing up, I always preferred the creamy bite of […]
When I was growing up, lamb was probably my least favourite meat, possibly the woolly lanolin flavour that seemed to be the overriding memory of lamb dishes of the 1980s. However these days I can’t get enough of it, especially from Scottish heritage breeds and Scottish lamb is very much back on the menu countrywide. […]
I’m delighted to have been asked to join in the newly launched Scottish Government campaign, Eat in Season, encouraging Scots to make the most of cooking and eating with local, in season foods. Scotland has an amazing natural larder and eating with the seasons has long been the way that Scots lived. Squash is the hero […]
For children of my generation and older growing up in the west of Scotland there must surely have been no meal as ubiquitous and warming as mince and tatties. Whenever I think back to meals in my early years it’s hard to remember any set dishes that we would have had regularly, except this one. […]
