Scratch Made Cordial

Making your own cordial from scratch has maaaany benefits but some of them include:

1. controlling your sugar intake, 
2. knowing exactly what's going into to your family's drinks, 
3. using up fruit which would otherwise have gone to waste and 
4. getting messy in the kitchen (safely) when conjuring up your favourite flavours!

Furthermore, Cordial isn't a million miles away from "coulis" (a posh fruit sauce!) or even just simple stewed fruit which can top yoghurt and desserts to add extra flavour so what's stopping you giving it a bash? 

To make cordial I would recommend marrying 500g fruit (such as raspberries, cranberries or blueberries) with 300-500g sugar (depending on how sweet you like your syrup) and 3 tablespoons of 'acid' (such as red wine vinegar, cider vinegar or lemon juice). 

Heat these in a pot, stirring often so the sugar doesn't stick,  until everything has dissolved into a pulpy mush.

Once you have achieved "mush" you are then looking to strain this through a fine mesh sieve or cheese cloth, you may have to do this in batches depending on the size of your jug or bowl. 

Once strained, place the left over pulp back into the pot and add 300-500ml of water, bring back to the boil and sieve again. Once combined, your syrup should be runny and, well, syrupy! Don't worry if it's quite thick though, you can repeat the process a third time to water down some more, or stick with what you have and impress your friends by calling it coulis :)

For the stewed fruit I mentioned, stop short on step one of completely heating it to mush. So long at the fruits are soft, sweetened and balanced with acid you will have the perfect topping for a New York Style Cheesecake!

These syrups make great treats for kids and delicious mocktail bases for those looking to cut back on alcohol or cut it out altogether. One afternoon, pictured below, I mixed my scratch made cranberry and apple cordial with sparkling water, a squeeze of lime and a dash of My Secret Kitchen Balsamic Vinegars - Blood Orange, Mango and Guava, and separately Caramelised Coconut and Spiced Rum - which might sound odd but are absolutely delicious! If you fancy trying the same you can purchase these vinegars here. Go on give them, and cordial, a go! 

Happy tippling x

Buttermilk is my New Best Friend

From the lightest of bakes to crispiest of crusts, Buttermilk has become an ally of mine this past week. An ingredient I have previously never given much time or thought to (mainly because it is in short supply in the supermarkets!) I was given the opportunity to try some fresh, local Buttermilk by the Stirling Food Assembly. Always keen for a foodie challenge I gladly accepted and then wondered, "hmmmm what the heck am I do to!?"

I browsed the interweb for some inspiration and also thought about the 'treat foods' I adore. As I stopped my mouth from watering all over my tablet I settled on 'scones' and 'wings'. Both appeared to benefit from the presence of buttermilk, accorrding to Google, and so after doing my usual 'read-five-recipes-and-do-the-bits-you-like-the-sound-of' I proceed to bake and to marinade. 

Now, as many of my friends and family will tell you, despite being 'pro scratch cooking',  I am an appalling baker. Simple bakes always end up a disaster with me (probably because of the methodology named above) and so I didn't hold high hopes for these Festive Fruit Scones. Similarly - I like a crispy skin to my wings, something I have only just perfected through a combination of boiling and baking so I wasn't yet prepared to trial deep fat frying. However, much to my amazement both experiments blew my socks off - something I put purely down the the buttermilk, and not my talent!

Buttermilk is a by-product of the butter making process and sadly much of it, these days, it's put to waste. This is because we aren't using it as much as our Grannies did when they were growing up. The slightly sour properties in buttermilk do something only a food scientist (which I am not) can probably explain and give another level of flavour, as well as a light and crisp texture. 

I'm pleased to say that my Local Food Assembly will be stocking Buttermilk in 2017 but only in limited supply so you must be quick to order! Go on give it a go, experiment one Sunday afternoon, and impress your loved ones when you take your Scratch Cooking to the next level! 

For full details, you can check out my Festive Fruit Scones and my Grill Master Buttermilk Wings by following the links. 

Enjoy! x

Grill Master Buttermilk Wings

Well friends, you know my achillies heel is "wings". Crispy, crooked, sweet, salty, flavourful wings!!

In recent months, I've had to go easy on the spice levels, probably because my stomach has gone on strike from processing the volume of Franks Hot Sauce I used to consume, so I've had to get my kicks in other ways. But luckily it was not just the lip smacking, vinegary spice I loved of the hot sauce, it was the crunch of crisp wingy skin. (Apologies Vegans and Veggies, you probably wana get off at the next stop). Texture is more than half the battle when it comes to the perfect wing - who wants soft, wobbly, pale skin? I have enough of that on my person, I don't need it mirrored in my food.

So in an eternal quest to take my wing game to the next level, I believed Buttermilk and my new range of spice blends held the golden ticket, and I wasn't wrong.  To get good bark on your next set of bird bones, follow these simple steps: 

 

 

Rub your wings in My Secret Kitchen's Grill Master - which you can buy here - along with a good sprinkling of granulated garlic, smoked paprika and a pinch of cayenne pepper.  Once all the dry ingredients are in the pool, cover with buttermilk and a good glug of Hot Sauce. Allow this mixture to work it's magic for at least 8 hours - ideally overnight. 

When you are ready to deep fry, heat your oil - safely - to around 190 degrees. To get this crust extra crispy you are going to bake these as well as fry so have your tray at the ready and oven preheated to 220. 

Whilst these are heating, remove your wings from the buttermilk bath, shake of the excess and dip into seasoned flour. (Again, I added Grill Master to mine, but salt and pepper would do the job here too, or even one of the other My Secret Kitchen speciality salts).

Test your oil by dropping a tiny left over bit of batter into the pan, if it browns up nicely it's ready. Gently ease your wings into the oil and avoid moving them around whilst they take colour (around 3-4 mins each side).

Transfer to the baking sheet and cook for a further 12-18 mins until cooked and browned further. 

These wings are abosultely delicious on their own thanks to their smoky American BBQ flavour but in my opinion everything can be enhanced with a little more Franks- I shook on just a little more after baking for good measure :)

Crispy and crunchy, yet the meat within was still moist (sorry, I know people get the creeps when that is said, but no better word for it). If you want to up your Wing Game I certainly recommend Buttermilk and my new mate- the Grill Master Meat Rub. Colonel Sanders, you can take your seat now, Sir. x

Easy Festive Bakes

It's that time of year where every second food item passing our lips seems to be sweet! It does nothing for our waistline but everything for our morale as we hibernate in our pyjamas.

It's also the season we are obliged to entertain, or at least offer up some home baked goods at somebody else's gathering... If like me you dread baking, and don't feel too confident with cakes, then just follow these simple recipes for tasty food gifts this festive season -  you are in safe hands.

Sweet Puffed Tacos with Spiced Apple
Mix apple pie filling with 1-2 teaspoons of My Secret Kitchen 'Country Baked Apple Pie' baking spice and allow the flavours to develop whilst you roll out puff pastry to approximately 3mm in thickness. 

Cookie cut this pastry into circles which are the same size and fill these discs with the apple mix. Pinch the sides of the 'taco' to close over and finish with a light brush of milk to help a sprinkle of Vanilla Sugar stick.

Bake at 180 degrees for 12-15mins or until the sweet tacos are golden. Best served warm.

Festive Fruit Scones
Sift 8oz of S/R flour; 1.5oz of caster sugar and a pinch of salt. Add to this 3oz of butter and 'crumble' it together with clean finger tips. 

Once resembling sand, add an egg, 2oz of dried fruit (I went for cranberries and sultanas!) and 1tablespoon of buttermilk - bring the mix together with a knife. Add another tablespoon of buttermilk and start to bring together with your hand. The mixture should be sticky but not wet. You may need to add one last tablespoon of butter milk. 

Shape and cut into 6 thick circular scones (or 12 miniatures). Bake for 15-20mins at 180 degrees again, making sure the bottoms are 'hollow' sounding when tapped. Best served warm again, with lashing of butter or cream, and jam. 

 

Proper Crimbo! x

Don't Be Duped: Are You Really Buying "Local"

I won't name the local business who has pushed me over the tipping point into actually writing this blog (it's been a bee in my bonnet for over a year!) as shaming isn't my aim or game, however I do feel compelled to write something now, after all this time, and I'm sure anyone with half an eye on my Facebook feed will know where this has stemmed from.

You might not care where your food produce is sourced, and if that is the case - brilliant, this post isn't for you. However, some people do - or are at least mildly interested - and quite rightly, they like to take local food businesses at face value, rather than investigating whether their claims are true.

By this I mean words like "local, small scale, batch made, hand made, family run, hand crafted, unique, traditional, fresh, farm to fork, bean to bar..." etc imply just that, and we want to believe them! But it's come to light in recent years - since the time when 'local' made an on trend come back really - that some of these budding local business claims are not always to be believed. Yes they may be "fresh from farm", but whose farm and what sort of outing has it had along the way?

It may suprise you to know that some local food outlets within the Forth Valley region are tarting up non-Scottish, hell, even non-British, produce in an attractive marketing campaign. Are you cool with that?!

My top tips for enquiring as to where your food has really come from is to....

Firstly - ask! I've encountered a couple of uncomfortable stall holders at food events when I've posed that question in the past, but that usually gives you a good indication. If they don't come up with the information willingly, I would advise you move on to someone who does.

Secondly - look at the packaging. Unless they are doing something really wrong the origin of source will still always be printed. No hiding there boys.

And finally - shop through your local Food Assembly! There you can be guaranteed produce is local and you can even meet the seller when you pick up your order to have a wee chat! There are two Food Assemblies in Edinburgh, two (or soon to be two) in Glasgow and one in Stirling so look them up.

As I say, this sort of thing may not bother you, but CouthieCantie is all about promoting and supporting Scottish produce where possible and for too long it has been bothering me. I wanted to flag this for others who may have been fooled as I have been, and to encourage you to demand more of our local businesses. It's the only way we will truly ever fulfill our ambition of being a Good Food Nation.

If you have encountered any suppliers of concern then please let me know - we may have a name and shame board for 2017 yet ;)

Nikki x

Scratch Made Thai Curry Paste

As we all struggle to accept that winter nights are well and truly here, why not take your taste buds and senses abroad one dinner time with a warming Thai curry?  I've had the pleasure of learning to cook in many overseas locations, from Russia to Africa but the one that stays close to my heart is Thailand. I love Thai food - so fragrant and aromatic! I also love Indian cuisine but there is a distinct difference despite both using a wide range of colours, spices and herbs in their dishes.

To kick off any curry, a homemade paste is an excellent place to start. Of course, you can buy these in supermarkets but with your own you know it is fresh, and there are no hidden 'nasties' such as high levels of sugar as well as preservatives. Yes, you will have to make this more often than shop bought but with this recipe yielding around 6 batches of curry, you have approximately 24 servings!

Make life east and wizz the following up in a blender (pestle and mortar are far more authentic, release oils in a different way and build up the old arm muscles nicely -  but for ease and convenience a blender is the way forward!)

5 medium sized shallots, 
2 inches of grated galangal,
2 tablespoons of grated ginger,
3 sticks of lemongrass,
2 medium heat chillies (seeds removed),
7 cloves of garlic,
The zest of one lime,
The juice of 2 limes,
and a large handful of fresh coriander (stalks included)

Always 'fry off' this paste in the pan before adding your other ingredients. This is to ensure flavours are not too harsh, that ingredients are not too 'raw' and that flavours have mellowed sufficiently to compliment the meat or vegetables you chose for your curry.

Enjoy! X

The Stirling Food Assembly: Why I'm a Fan

The word “Assembly” will either bring back really positive memories for you, or fill you with reminiscent dread. For me, sadly, it’s the latter with too many school assemblies being filled with awkward class rep speeches, knee knocking ‘show & tells’ along with a boatload of culottes, plimsolls and Kumbaya. However, I’m ready for all of that to change. There’s a new Assembly coming to town and one I’m banging down the door to get into!

Stirling’s first ever Food Assembly is due to launch later this month which is essentially the lovechild of online shopping and farmer’s markets. Traditionally produced, local food meets new age techy convenience – I love it! Once the Stirling Food Assembly goes live, you will be able to select and pay online, then simply collect in person on a wide range of foodstuffs such as freshly baked sourdough bread, lovingly made preserves, fine Scottish cheeses and moreish ‘good for you’ cakes – to name but a few. The real beauty of The Food Assembly for me is that I can pick up my goods straight after work, due to the allocated evening collection times, and don’t have to worry about having cash on me - or overspending – which keeps my budget in check. My purchases will have already been paid for so all I have to do is pop on by The Stirling Cycle Hub (right handy being beside Stirling train station) pick up my prepacked order and taste some free yummy samples from local producers, who may be showcasing from week to week, on my way out. This takes retail therapy to a whole new level!

Signing up is quick and easy to do and you don’t have to commit to a weekly, or even monthly order. As a Scottish Food Blogger and Real Food Educator the Stirling Food Assembly allows me to purchase local produce without the need to attend multiple markets (which are usually held during working hours) and also allows me to make a commitment to my customers that, wherever possible, produce used within CouthieCantie’s Cook Classes and Parties will be Scottish, and will be local. Something I feel very strongly about!

So join me in saying “Yes to Local” by signing up to show your support and interest in Stirling’s Food Assembly, today. You can find out more about the launch plans by following Forth Environment Link on Facebook and Twitter, as well as gaining useful hints and tips on what to ‘do’ with your locally grown produce by following CouthieCantie on social media too.

I look forward to seeing you at The Assembly!