A Public Service Announcement: Shambles Kitchen, York

Folks, stop what you are doing. You must get your a**e to York.

As some of you may know, hubz and I are here on a 4 day camp trip which was primarily just any old excuse to get a cheap weekend away from all the renovation works that still need done in the house, but secondly as we are both a tad sad and love trains, so we want to go to the National Rail Museum :) but you can imagine my sheer joy when a wee stoat around the town today unveiled an absolute Food Haven!!!

Streets upon streets of food filled bistros, cafes, delis, restaurants, pop up shops and market stalls! We have toured the York Brewery today, sampled a Chocolate Tasting Board at York's Chocolate Story and had real lemonade made before our very eyes on the street, whilst a fire throwing maniac entertained the rest of York behind us.

Yet, the real stand out experience for me today came in the form of a six seater postage stamp of a shop named Shambles Kitchen. I'm salivating as I type. Words cannot explain how out.of.this.world their Pulled Pork Bap is!! I kid you not! 12 hour slow cooked juicey pork, topped with a fresh, tangy and crunchy raw slaw, your choice of sauce all contained in a soft, chewy sour dough bun. Naturally I opted for Hot Sauce, it's a no brainer.

Disclaimer:  I have never been one for pulled pork, the 'on trend' phase of pulled pork last year completely passed me by and I never found what all the fuss was about. Now, a fuss must be made. This was simply the most delicious flavour and texture combination I have ever tasted, I mean that sincerely. The tang with the sweet and the salty rendered me silent and when I didn't think it could get any better I find out these guys are using local fruit and veg in their store, scratch cooking everything from their back of house kitchen and using all profits to push forward a social initiative in schools which teaches kids to set up their own juice bar!!! Come.on. Take your hats off for Shambles Kitchen!! They are rocking great taste and great ethics which leaves us with only one option....

....to go back for another tomorrow.

Donner Kebab Saturday Night Fake-Away

Donner kebabs are a bit marmitey - you either love them or hate them, but even if you love them (which I'm not ashamed to say I do) you still don't really want to know, or think about what's inside them.

This week, hubz and I are back on to our healthy 'conscious eating' streak but this  conciousness didn't help ease our kebab cravings this week! We held strong and vowed to make our own - saving us calories and money! What's more, this version was unsurprisingly tastier and juicer too so what's stopping you giving it a bash this Saturday night?

The kebab consists of 3 parts - lamb koftas, kebab shop style sauce and salad.

Lamb Koftas
Take half a kilogram of lamb mince (Scotch of course!) and mix this with 1tbsp of dried garlic, 1tbsp of cumin, 1tspn of salt, 1 tspn of pepper, 1tspn of smoked paprika and one egg. Then be prepared to get messy by using your hands to 'squelch' everything together and roll into 3 inch long, thick 'sausages'. I usually don't mind getting messy but I would recommend gloves this time round as lamb is quite a fatty meat and so the fat is pretty stubborn and resistant to soap when washing after! Cook these koftas at 180 degrees fan for around 20mins or until hot in the middle.

Kebab Shop Style Sauce
For tradition red kebab sauce, mix tomato ketchup, mint sauce, lemon juice, a pinch of cayenne pepper and salt to taste. For the creamier white sauce (this is usually a diluted garlic dip in the shops but I opted for a mint yoghurt for mine) combine yoghurt, lemon juice, finely chopped mint leaves and a pinch of ground black pepper to taste then mix. These are both now ready for drizzling into your warmed pittas!

Salad
Simply cut white cabbage very thinly, as well as red onion, and dice cucumber and tomatoes (without seeds). This avoids a very soggy kebab as most of their water is contained here, and when all mixed together gives a very crisp and crunchy bite to your meal.

Finally, to serve your kebab layer salad, sauce, kofta, salad and sauce into your warms pitta pockets. (If you wanted an ever more authentic taste you could char the pitta pocket over one of your gas hobs before stuffing...) just be careful though, and please use tongs.

Happy fake-away! x

Homemade Lamb Curry

Lamb isn't something that finds itself on my weekly shopping list and it isn't something I've ever cooked before. That's mainly due to the fact I didn't actually like the taste until recently but also I had little clue what to do with it- all I kept hearing was "low and slow". 

So when I was approached by Suzie at The Scotch Kitchen to blog using either certified Scotch Beef or Lamb I jumped at the chance to try out something new! My inspiration for this dish came from my discovery of the most flavoursome curry I have ever tasted from Green Gates Indian Restaurant in Stirling - my 'go to' location for amazingly authentic Indian food with great service and atmosphere!

Lamb Pardesi is the curry I refer to: a rich, spinach and mushroom based curry which holds just the right amount of 'kick', a far cry from my usual Indian Food order of chicken based dishes which are typically cooked Tandoori style (equally as tasty but just completely different).

When aiming to replicate this dish I first of all fried off the spices, sealed the lamb and then transported it all into a slow cooker so it could do the rest of the work. For my spices,instead of going out an buying several packets of new spices I wasn't sure about, I used spare packets of spice from kits I had bought previously from The Spicery. This is an excellent way of getting to know and try new spices in small amounts as well as new dishes you may never have challenged yourself to try before!

1. Prepare onion, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, cumin, chilli and bay leaves - the quantities of these will depend on how much lamb you are cooking and your own personal taste. However my advice is you can always add more, you can't take away! (3 large onions, 4-6 cloves of garlic and a tablespoon of each spice is usually a good start for around 2lb of meat.
2. Fry all of these off in a hot pan with oil and butter (around 100g butter and 2 tablespoons of oil)
3. Then add the lamb to the pan after dusting in a seasoned flour mix.
4. Once sealed, transfer the spiced lamb and onions to your slow cooker with chopped mushrooms (I used a mix of button and chestnut mushrooms- around 600g combined), a large bag of spinach and 3 tablespoons of tomato puree. 
5. Leave to cook "low and slow" for at least 6 hours (the longer the better) and serve with rice, naan bread or both!

 

You may be panicking about the lack of water added - don't. I've been cooking with spinach a lot recently and find it releases water during the process so don't make my mistake of drowning your food and the flavour you've built up. You can always add some towards the end of the cooking time if you do feel the dish is too dry.

My Pardesi lovely but certainly not as good as Green Gates, I have a few more attempts to go to achieve their standards, but the Scotch Lamb was delicious - it wouldn't have mattered how it had been served, the quality spoke for itself!

I would encourage all of you to give Scotch Lamb a go whether in a curry, stew or Sunday roast but also to mess around with spices in order to add flavour and depth to a dish- it's not all about heat. The Scotch Kitchen Blog is a fantastic resource, offering handy hints and tips on how to cook your Scotch meat products in new and wonderful ways so head over their now and get experimenting!

Good Luck! x  

Wine and Dine in Auchterarder!

As you may remember, a few months ago I went crazy for a new deli that opened in Auchterarder - Corbie and Cheip. For me, it was a big deal. A food enterprise which embodied wholesome morales and values, stocked local and small batch produce as well as flaunting it all in such chic vintage style! So you can imagine my excitement grew ten fold when I heard they were opening a continental style wine bar in November - I was one of the first in the queue!

Now, customers can not only enjoy fresh, local and European produce in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere, they can also couple small plates and nibbles with a selection of fine wine too! Not your typical bar, certainly not a pub and without restrictions such as a menu (small plates change on a daily basis depending on what fresh and organic produce is available) Corbie and Cheip's wine bar allows a refreshing alternative to 'coffee with friends' and is a firm advocate of good company and conversation.

If you fancy an alternative night out, a new meeting place for your weekly catch up or simply want to relax after a hard days graft then pop in and sample for yourself! Plus - with the added bonus of Gleneagles train station serving the village of Auchterarder from Stirling, Dunblane, Bridge of Allan, Glasgow and Perth to name but a few, why not make a night of it!? Happy drinking! x

18th November 2015 : The bar is NOW open to the public and serves fine wine and delicious dishes until 10pm.

Bring the Smell of Highland Scotland Home!

Do you, like me, crave a wood burning fire at home yet cannot have one? Have you enjoyed a rural retreat in the Highlands of Scotland and the smell of wood fire and peat smoke brings back cosy memories? Or are you simply a Whisky buff who agrees with the statement "It's the peat that puts the soul into the spirit" and would like more of that in your own surroundings?

Well, if you can relate to any of the above,  Peatscence is certainly for you! I discovered it in the gift shop on a recent distillery tour and burning just two of these cones on the past 2 evenings has brought me great comfort and happiness - especially as it is sooooo bloody miserable outside, and dark so early!

Until we can afford to buy a country home of our own, this product will fool me into thinking I have it all already. And I'm OK with that....for now.

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Look Who's Moved into Auchterarder: Corbie & Cheip

This blog has taken quite some time to write, not because it's lengthy but because I don't know where to start! For me, there are so many plus points to the new deli in Auchterarder that I don't know which to bring to your attention first, so I thought I would start with my own highlights, and literally dump them onto the page. So, in no particular order, here goes...

• Organic vegetables sold upon, and in, a chest of drawers!
• Parking spaces for dogs!
• A 'pick your own' organic egg bar!
• Fresh ready made home dinners for one!
• A wide selection of Scottish produce from small batch and hobby producers!
• A gramophone playing 1950s background music!
• An exquisitely styled store with gentle nods to all things vintage....!

See why I found it so difficult? 

Corbie and Cheip is the brain child of German powerhouse Anne Schaeflein who wanted to bring continental style, market-place-shopping to the high street of her beloved, now hometown, Auchterarder. The founding principals of Corbie and Cheip could be summerised by:

• being to be true to our roots, 
• shopping locally whenever possible and 
• investing in our health, and that of our children, as we go! 

That's why I love it so much- it's not just a "nice shop" with lovely tasties, Corbie and Cheip really does have a moral backbone and makes me feel good about my food based indulgence!

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be invited to the launch event and I was gobsmacked at how all the ideas that once flowed from Anne's brain and mouth actually tied together in complete harmony and worked in the best way I've ever seen a new eatery work...genuinely! 

I'm pleased to say (and not at all suprised) that since the launch night Corbie and Cheip has gone from strength to strength - selling out of most items each week (once its gone, its gone, Anne concocts delicious dishes daily and orders produce fresh in each week!) and with plans to open a small plate and wine bar from November onwards this really is something local community food hubs could learn a thing or two from in terms of turning their local food initatives into sustainable businesses. 

With an attractively marketed brand name taking the cause of local food producers and current health issues seriously, I really do think this is the perfect enterprise!

Check out Corbie and Cheip here but most importantly pop in yourself and see what I'm raving on about - I'd love to hear what you picked up and I can promise you won't be disappointed!  

 

 Thank you Anne for bringing these delights to our doorstep, my reuseable milk bottle and egg carton will be visiting again very soon x

"I'll Cook".... be my guest!

Where do I sign???

I've recently found out about a local chef in Bridge of Allan, Kenny Wilson, who cooks to 5 star standards in....wait for it.... your home! For a foodie who loves eating fine food just as much as she enjoys trying to create home made delicacies this is the best of every world. Don't get me wrong, sometimes you just can't beat a visit to your favourite restaurant - getting all dolled up for the experience - but typically, the best conversation, the heartiest laughter and the sharing of the silliest of secrets all happen round the household dining table with friends and family. This is where Kenny's new venture I'll Cook comes in...

 

Kenny, who has over 25 years experience cooking in some of the most prestigious locations in the world, such as Gleneagles Hotel and on the QE2, not only prides himself on his ability to craft as a chef but also to source the finest of ingredients locally, bearing food sustainability in mind. Kenny selects his produce from suppliers such as Gartmorn Farm, George Campbell's of Perth and Summer Valley,  plating up delights such as Home Smoked Duck, Isle of Skye Scallops, Slow Roasted Pork Belly, Scottish Cheeses and even deep fried ice-cream!! Excuse me, I'm salivating... 

 

Tableware is included so your table will look as bonnie as any in a high class bistro and Kenny is more than happy to explain each dish during service so you really will experience a night of true private dining. If the taste of Kenny's freshly baked gluten free bread is anything to go by, I know his food will be fantastic but then again, Prince Charles, Princess Ann and the late Queen Mother wouldn't eat just anyone's food would they? That surely is testament alone to the standards Kenny is bringing to your home based work top and table. 

Now, as I go to check my diary to book Kenny as soon as possible, I will leave you with a couple of images which will surely have you reaching for yours too.

Happy fine dining folks! x