The Shiant Isles

We have recently returned from a family (joined by a jolly cleric) holiday on The Shiant Isles. The Shiants are made up of three uninhabited islands. Eilean Tighe (House) and Garbh Eilean (Rough) are connected by beach but you require a boat to reach Eilean Mhuire (Mary); you also need to charter or borrow a boat to cross the Minch from Skye or Lewis to get to The Shiants.It was an amazing, privileged experience and we benefited hugely from that Scottish word 'fineness'. When the children returned home from primary school, their day was usually 'fine'. Fine is such a dull, non descriptive word, it always tempted me to press for 'finer' detail but in the case of Scottish weather, you can do no better.

Read Sea Room by Adam Nicolson to learn more about these uninhabited isles. I cannot begin to compete, he paints a magnificent picture; the challenges of nature and climate and I'm told by a Puffin expert (who spent time on St Kilda) that you will not read a better description of puffins and their lifestyle. Adam has even sighted an orange, beakless creature in the Mediterranean.

For my part, I clambered up steep cliffs, clinging on with sure footed sheep admiration, foraged for the supper table (limited: water mint, limpets, chickweed, sorrel and Scots lovage) and marvelled at the wild flowers.. we left a book in the Bothy for future visitors.The Bothy is home to lots of Black Rats but Coco, the dog seemed to keep them at bay. We stored our provisions in a metal trunk that my Great Grandmother had used at boarding school.We should have taken a padlock,not for protection from the black rats but against thieving, hungry teenage boys. The boys had to be tempted by water mint and boiled well-water tea, not lashings of ginger beer.Number five said that he wouldn't want to visit again because it had been just perfect.One for the Swallows and Amazons memory box. These amazing photographs were taken by the lovely Canon Bill Stuart White who was mad enough to join us.

Pancakes

We don't have a minister at the Kirk at the moment. There is much discussion as to whether or not Presbytery will allow Inverarity Kirk (with Glamis) 60% of a minister (he or she would work in another capacity for the other 40%) or if we join the Kirriemuir and Glens churches and share a minister from Newtyle with a floating holiday stand-in. All is up for discussion (and probable disagreement). I suggested to Dr Glenland Father of Six that he attends a few more Elders meetings because it is always easier to accept change, (yep, another cut) if you have an understanding of why it has happened. Beyond Kirk politics we are enjoying wonderful sermons from a retired Aberdonian who was a minister in Kirriemuir. He has a sense of humour and usually adds a good Prestbeterian stir - today it was about John Knox and pancakes. His late wife was an Episcopalian so he allows himself to enjoy the gaiety of Christingles at Christmas and of course pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. He explained the reasoning behind Pancake day: to absolve sins and do penance (the verb to shrive) and the Lenten fast. In preparation for the Fast, there arose a need to use up dairy products.Yep, good frugal advice here. Waste not want not.

Child number six and I made an audioboo during a pancake making session.We used the Easy Peasy Pancake recipe from Kids' Kitchen. You can listen to it here.

Pancakes are delicious but can be tricky with my youth club groups, especially where the floors are carpeted. Over adventurous teens frequently end up tossing soggy pancakes on to the floor not back in the pan.To get over this wee hazard, we make Scottish Pancakes perhaps with citrus zest for extra flavour. Email if you would like the recipe.

Marmalade

STOP PRESS: WINNER OF THE MERRY MARMALADE AWARD


The Marmalade Awards have given marmalade making a new lease of life; here is one of the best (of many) marmalade articles that I have read over the last few weeks.Gloria Nicol also sells beautiful French jam jars; quite perfect for the breakfast table or at any other time

A few years ago, I ran a children's cookery demonstration at Dalemain, where I enjoyed meeting Jane Haskell McCosh (the owner of Dalemain and festival organiser). She suggested involving the Mothers' Union in my cooking projects; her idea is still on my to do list. The festival is well worth a visit for marmalade viewing, local produce purchases and cookery demonstrations by amongst others, the the erudite, Food Historian Ivan Day.

I have made marmalade for years, mostly in cold, Scottish kitchens. My memory of Foffarty Marmalade (the house was called FFFForfarty by my father) is of condensation, and pools of water in window sills. Even in my current kitchen which benefits from a four door Aga, the windows soon mist over. I poach the Sevilles overnight in the simmering oven of the Aga, this eliminates some of the steam but all, in all, I'll confess, I love the orange aroma and even the steamy kitchen. It is also a wonderful environment for proving dough - freshly baked bread and Seville Orange Marmalade is delicious, and a fatal, comfort food combination on a cold January day. Sevilles (with the correct orange pronunciation) are also good in curd. Seville orange curd added to lightly whipped cream or yoghurt adds a seasonal touch to meringues and cakes.


And another photo from my kitchen, at marmalade time with my Grandmother's Great Aunt Annie's preserving pan in the background.


The most irritating things about Marmalade making :
Giving jars to firends who don't return them (clean and empty). This goes for any jam and for egg gifts too - please return jars and egg boxes.

My other grievance is the difficulty of removing label adhesive from old jam jars. This received much Twitter advice which is made for sharing, in fact, it prompted this post.

@Victoriark Bit late for this year, but Lakeland do a specialist product called Sticky Stuff Remover @porridgelady suggested this too

@jaynehowarth suggested the dishwasher but I have to say, some adhesive seems to be dishwasher proof.

@marmaladeawards said:a good soak,lighter fluid rubbed on paper, then wash again

Excellent stuff, and if my friends (Mummie excluded) read my plea, all will be well for Summer berry jam making.

The Alternative Orange Christmas Pudding

I opened today's Times and read Heston's My Hidden Orange Christmas Pudding, sadly because of the pay wall I can't link it. Blanching and cooking an orange several times seems rather a guddle, even to an aged BBC Masterchef Finalist but if you are keen, Rose Prince shows you how to make it on this video

Living in the Scottish outback means that I rarely frequent Waitrose, where you could have purchased Heston's pudding and you can still buy Delia's classic Christmas cake with the ingredients individually packaged for you (wee eco footprint sigh). However, I can buy all of the ingredients for this suet free pudding which I have made for years, in the Co-op of the Glens.We try to make it on Stir Up Sunday (the Sunday before Advent) but now that my children are away at boarding school, we often make it later and it still tastes just as good.

All that my delicious pudding needs is some homemade custard made by the only Bird girl.

Makes one large( 3pint ) and two individuals which are ideal for Grandparents.

What to find:

100g chopped cherries
100g chopped apricots
75g crushed Amaretti biscuits
225g wholemeal breadcrumbs
50g chopped almonds
225g sultanas
225g raisins
100g candied peel
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp ground cloves
1tsp mace
1tsp ground nutmeg
2 tbsps marmalade
4 eggs
juice and grated rind lime
juice and grated rind orange
150ml Cointreau
Butter for greasing

What to do:

1.Ask younger children to chop the cherries and apricots (a cutlery knife and chopping board works well).
2.Put the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well with washed hands.
3. Put the marmalade, eggs, fruit juices and Cointreau in another bowl and mix together.
4.Pour the wet ingredients over the dry, stir well, cover and leave to stand overnight.
5.Butter the pudding basins and spoon in the mixture (the pudding is flourless so you can fill it to almost the top of the basin). Cover with pleated greaseproof paper and secure with string.
6. Put the basin on a trivet (up turned saucer) in a large pan and half fill the pan with boiling water. Cover and bring to the boil and simmer for 6 hours topping up water as required.
7.Allow to cool completely and then re-warp in greaseproof paper and store in a dry place.



Steam for 2 hours before serving.




CopyrightFionaBird2010

Scottish Berry Pickers

When our older boys were small, Heather, my babysitter would join folk from Dundee who arrived in battered buses to pick berries. Equipped with a small, brightly coloured plastic basket with a collapsible handle, the berry pickers worked hard; up and down the drills from dawn until dusk on a fair weather day.The gang master would bellow to 'picke'em clean' and Heather saved her earnings (by the basket) to buy her school uniform. Sookin Berries by the traveller, Jessie Smith is a lovely book for junior readers.
Twenty years later, we are told that Scots didnae want to pick berries but in my experience this isn't quite the truth. My boys are willing but not every berry producer is happy to employ them. We suspect that it is cheaper to use the Eastern European migrant workers.... if a caravan that my GP husband visited a sick patient in, is anything to go by, these workers are happy to put up with grim living conditions.

Over to a guest edit by Xavier and Alasdair my sun kissed Berry Boys of 2010



Down at the Berries by Xavier

My brother Alasdair and I are working on a berry field down the lane for a couple of weeks. We are working on a machine which shakes all of the berries from the hedge and our job is to get rid of the green ones and the leaves. At the beginning, the machine was a bit faulty and kept stopping. This enraged our employer, who drives the machine and is called James. He is a really nice guy and he has quite a gentle voice, but that all changes when he swears. His brother Tom would say “Don’t worry, James loves this machine really.” We would then hear James say to himself “I f***in’ hate this machine.”

Now, the machine is working a lot better.

We had a Latvian guy with a shaven head working with us for a few days. He was very useful as, because Alasdair had lost his phone and neither of us ever brought watches, he was the only one who had the time. So when one of us was bored on the machine we could just ask Oscar the time and the response would be “four and six” or something of the sort in a Latvian accent.

However, he could not work on Sunday so we had a Lithuanian guy work for a day. He had scars on his face and smoked whenever we had a minute off. He scared me. Whenever I looked up I would happen to be looking at him. Then he would look at me and I knew that he would be thinking “that weird kid’s f***ing staring at me again.” I can’t put on a Lithuanian accent on when I’m typing and not saying it.
Our job is not difficult, but it is very monotonous. All you need is a good imagination so you can just think away about any random rubbish. However, it seems that whenever I am down there a good imagination always evades me. I end up thinking about the same things and singing the same songs in my head (or out loud) over and over again. When I sing songs out loud, usually I will look up and see James looking back at me strangely from driving the machine and the feeling is really awkward.

Berry Picking by Alasdair

In years gone past, a British past time in the summer was picking berries with events like Wimbledon being famous for strawberries. Nowadays, the berry farms are run as industries and most of the workers are migrants.
For the past few days I have been putting on my boots with my little brother and trudging down to our local fields and working on the back of a berry harvester. The machine was made in 1996 but runs like it was in the 1960 or an old banger. It also has the reliability of a machine made in the 1960s with the machine breaking about 11 times in the first 4 days we worked there.
The machine looks like a fire engine with a big gap in the in the middle. In the gap there are four rolls with long bristles a bit like a tooth brush; these shake the bushes and the raspberries fall off. These are then collected by a conveyer belt with a bucket.The berries then go into another conveyer belt which goes up a pipe and then it goes out on to another conveyer belt which is at the top of the machine. This is where I come in, because the conveyer belt is out in the open I am able to pick off the green berries, leaves and insects.... especially caterpillars. It's Ok berry juice is red...

When you've been working for 10 to 12 hours keeping your mind occupied is a struggle. Three things that popped into my mind were “No I’ve left the bread for yesterday, in the oven.” “I’ve lost my phone.” “How do they make scotch eggs?”

In July, their mother has a one track berry recipe mind. Here is child friendly Pink Lemonade and a delicious yoghurt ice-cream.




Raspberry and Basil Ice-Cream
Serves 4
What to find:

300g raspberries
75g caster sugar (to taste)
4 tbsps 0% fat Greek yogurt
Tbsp shredded basil leaves

What to do:
1. Put the raspberries and sugar in a bowl and leave for 10 minutes. Blitz in a food processor (and sieve into a bowl, if you want to remove the raspberry seeds.)
2. Add four tablespoons of Greek yogurt (reduced fat) and the shredded basil leaves to the purée and mix together.
3. Put the mixture into an ice-cream maker and churn until frozen.


Alternatively: If you don’t have an ice-cream machine
1. Put the ice-cream into a wide, freezer proof container, cover and place in the coldest part of the freezer. After 45 minutes the sides will have frozen but the middle will still be soft. Mix the ice-cream with a fork and then beat well until it is the same thickness. Return the container to the freezer.
2. After 45 minutes repeat step one.
3. After a further 45 minutes take the container from the freezer and repeat step one for a third time and return to the freezer until frozen – (check after 30 minutes) and enjoy.

It is important to use ripe fruit.
©Fiona Bird

Yesterday, I ate chanterelles and broad beans lightly cooked in butter. “Are they around already?” I gasped, shoving another chanterelle into my mouth. Our host was quite visceral in his response,” Those wretched migrant berry workers are stealing ‘em from MY woods.” The trolleys of the migrant berry workers in Blairgowrie supermarket do not conjure up gastronomic thoughts: white value bread, tinned peaches, a few Polish sausages and value offers. Suddenly, I viewed these visiting summer workers in a new light – that of a discerning mushroom forager.

Fortunately, (after years of practice) I have discovered my own Chanterelle heaven. Chanterelles are orangey yellow mushrooms and have a lovely almost apricot fragrance. From mid summer through to autumn they can add flavour to risottos and pasta dishes that most children enjoy. Maxim, number six child has built a monument out of sticks and stones, so that we will remember the area of beech trees in our local wood, when we visit again. We have learned Hansel and Gretel’s lesson, all of the woodland will look just the same, when you go searching for that special chanterelle hiding place on another day.

Chanterelle hunting is an addictive game because once you have found one, another will be hiding somewhere. Maxim is easily bored but as soon as he finds a chanterelle he is down on his hands and knees, for just as sure as Christmas comes around, there will be more chanterelles lurking there somewhere.

Here are some of our mushroom foraging hints:
• Never pick mushrooms unless you are with someone who knows which are good to eat and which are not – there is a chanterelle called false chanterelle, no prizes for guessing why.
• Chanterelles like beech trees and can often be found underneath them. They also hide behind bracken on the banks of small streams.
• Pull out moss and see what is hiding underneath.
• Cut the chanterelle stems, don’t tug them out and then, you will leave the chanterelle mycelium (fibres under the soil) to grow again.
• Follow Maxim‘s advice, mark your spot for another week or even next year. Be sure to mark it with something that is natural to the countryside.
• Don't be greedy when you forage. It is tempting to pick more than you need but forage precisely and only gather for your kitchen table.



Yay, almost two months of chanterelle hunting before school begins again.


Zesty Courgette and Chanterelle Couscous

Serves 6

350g wholemeal couscous
700ml hot vegetable stock
600g medium courgettes (4)
Shallot very finely diced
1tbsp olive oil
20g butter
150g small chanerelles wiped cleaned
Handful parsley finely chopped
Zest and juice small lime
25g grated cheese e.g. Cheshire or Anster*


1. Put the couscous in a large serving boil and cover with the boiling stock. (Check manufacturer’s instructions and adjust liquid if necessary.) Cover with a plate or cling-film and leave for 5 minutes.
2. Wash, peel (if required) and chop the courgettes into 1cm slices.
3. Heat the oil and butter in a large frying pan. Add the chopped shallot and courgette slices and cook for 3-4 minutes over a low heat, stirring frequently. Add the chanterelles and cook for a further 2 minutes.
4. Meanwhile remove the cling-film and fluff up the couscous with a fork. Add the parsley and lime zest and mix well. Quickly add the warm vegetable from the frying pan adding as little oil as possible.
5. Squeeze the juice of the lime over the couscous and add the cheese. Stir to melt the cheese. Eat as soon as possible.

Anster cheese is produced in Fife http://www.standrewscheese.co.uk/

©Stirrinstuff

Masterchef

Rosa Baden Powell Masterchef 2001



Along time ago I entered a cookery competition. My expectations weren't great and my dates for availability for filming were dependent on snow conditions at Glenshee (I have a fax saying: the snow may be good but we need your menus) and children.I didn't expect to get very far and I chose a cook-off date to fit in with a child in a school play in Winchester, in the full knowledge that if successful, I would have to cook again the following day.This is how I came to the final without having practiced one of the courses. Nothing major in my book but when you come across competitors who have scaled on graph paper vegetable placement,perhaps a tad worrying.

The morning after the final of Masterchef 2010 was televised the telephone rang; it was a journalist asking me if I had reached the final or had just been in the Scottish final of Masterchef? She couldn’t be sure from her internet search. I rather suspected that a Scottish round might not have been newsworthy enough, even for a Scottish national newspaper. I could almost hear the sigh of relief in her voice, when I confirmed that yes, it was the BBC not some Scottish wannabe show and yes, I had reached the final. “So, what do you want to know,” I asked.
“Did reaching the final of Masterchef change your life?”

If I am honest, I wouldn’t feel confident enough to enter Masterchef in its 2010 format and would have little interest in winning because I don’t want to run or work in a professional restaurant. However, my Masterchef card is a useful one and has opened doors. Not long after the competition the chef, Nick Nairn, invited me to do a cookery demonstration; even an also-ran finalist with a Scottish Masterchef title thrown in, was of interest to an All Scots show in Glasgow. A fee was offered too. When I was preparing for the show, I quickly realised that the expected Masterchef style wasn’t one that I was comfortable with: yet more complicated recipes that nobody would have any interest in trying to cook at home. I did wonder as I watched this year’s fantastic final if the food was warm when the judges tasted it; presentation is important but taste remains paramount - throw some heat in too. I had watched the gannets at cookery shows (and TV ‘runners’ too) push and shove, to steal a taste but after the plate has been licked clean, on they push in search of the next free sample. After my initial hubristic enthusiasm to sing about my pipped-at-the-post Masterchef status, reality checked in and I timidly asked if it might be possible to do a mother and daughter demonstration. I sold it with the mother-of-six novelty value who could encourage other parents to cook with their kids. The recipe worked, a teacher saw us in action and so Stirrin’Stuff evolved as a direct result of a cookery competition.

Nowadays, I steer away from the title of 2001 Masterchef finalist but still, it is alluded to or mentioned directly as at the 2010 Oxford Literary Festival’s A mediaeval Kitchen Cookery demonstration with Masterchef finalist, mother of six and cookery columnist Fiona Bird, author of Kid's Kitchen: 40 Fun and Healthy Recipes to Make and Share’

My cookery message has little to do with Masterchef and is as applicable to a single mum as a mother of six but who am I to complain? If Masterchef gets ‘em in to a kitchen demonstration, this is excellent but what happens when they are watching is up to me. My recipe is straightforward but still ambitious: simple cooking with real, raw ingredients. I suggest plenty of food variety for a balanced diet with perhaps a soupcon of sugar to make the bridge to palates that are junk food addicted but most important of all it should be fun.

I’ve been watching the Delicious Miss Dahl on BBC2, I simply love it. Sophie Dahl is easy on the eye, prepares food that most folk are capable of cooking and it all takes place in a beautiful kitchen. Even a sneaky tweet that suggested the kitchen is stage managed, hasn’t broken Sophie’s spell over me. Television isn’t the real world: do we really want to see parents and children learning how to peel a carrot? Dull, dull, dull let’s leave that for the classroom. I want to shout ‘Hurrah’ for the pretty Miss Dahl and the perfection of Masterchef dishes….and Carpe Diem contestants if Masterchef offers a platform to rant from .’We need simple nutrition and food skills on the primary school curriculum’