Apparently, in most traditions the day is known for the eating of pancakes before the start of Lent. Pancakes are eaten because they are made out of the main foods available, sugar, fat, flour and eggs, whose consumption was traditionally restricted during the ritual fastening associated with Lent.  So there you go, in case you didn’t know that’s apparently why we have Pancake Day/Tuesday/Shrove Tuesday.

And now to the pancakes:

Ingredients:

• 175g self raising flour
• 40g caster sugar
• 200ml of milk
• 1 egg
• a little oil/butter for greasing your cooking pan
• butter/golden syrup/maple syrup for serving

Prep: 10 mins    Cooking Time:  2 mins    Serves: 15-20 depending how big you make them

1. Put the flour, baking powder and sugar into a bowl
2. Stir briefly and make a well in the centre, now crack in your egg and pour in the milk
3. Stir well with a wooden spoon to make a thick creamy batter
4. Now heat a non stick frying pan over a medium heat
5. Add a bit of oil/butter to kitchen roll and spread (be careful now) across the hot pan to grease it slightly
6. Then drop dessert spoonfuls or slightly bigger dollops of the mixture into the pan, spacing well apart
7. When bubbles appear on the surface, turn them over and cook for another 30 seconds
8. Transfer to a wire rack and cook the remaining mixture
9. Serve at once with butter and golden syrup or maple syrup or even jam, anyway you wish!

If you don’t manage to eat all 15 odd pancakes at once you can keep them in an air tight container and reheat very briefly in a microwave or oven (if the latter cover in tin foil).

Enjoy And Happy Pancake Day!!!

‘The beer industry is sick, and we are the f***ing doctor’.

This is how BrewDog describes itself in its ‘about us’ pamphlet. The craft brewery opened up a pub across from the Kelvingrove Museum last summer, but I only recently got a chance to check it out.

BrewDog is the only pub I’ve visited where you can order beer in the elusive 2/3 pint measure, and the even more elusive 1/3 pint measure. Many of their beers have a high ABV – up to 32% in the case of the Tactical Nuclear Penguin –and are only sold in small measures.

First I tried Prototype, a more traditional 4% IPA that’s made with raspberries. I liked that I could taste the tartness of the raspberries, yet it wasn’t sickly sweet like most fruit beers. Next I tried the Chris from Stone’s Stout – at 10.3% it was sweet, heavy and didn’t taste terribly beer-like, but the more I drank it the more I appreciated the intense, complex flavours. Then again, it WAS 10.3%, so I was probably slightly drunk at the time.

The strong beer won’t be to everyone’s taste. Neither will the setting itself, which has a hipster feel to it – vintage board games like Guess Who? and Connect Four, exposed brick, charity shop couches. But if you want to have a night out where you can try something more interesting than industrial lager and fizzy cider, it’s worth checking it out.

Also, you can’t argue with this view.

BrewDog Glasgow
1397 Argyle Street
Glasgow
G3 8AN
0141 334 7175

If you are a keen baker like me you will most likely have this little brown bottle of vanilla goodness in your cupboard.  And I’m going to give you some extra handy tips for using this for something other than baking.

But before I do, did you know you need to be over 18 to buy this stuff?  True story, it’s due to its alcohol content, although I’ve yet to try it as a tipple.  But I have to say I am always a little disappointed that I never get asked for id when purchasing!!

Anyways, despite using this extract a lot in baking, did you know there are some other handy uses for this little bottle too? And here they are:

1.  Put little drops of the extract on a light bulb so that when you switch it on the heat gives you a nice home baking smell, without the home baking. You can also put some drops along the back of your radiators too.
2. Freshen up your fridge by wiping around the shelves and walls with some vanilla extract on a clean cloth. It will banish bad smells and leave your fridge smelling of sweetness.
3. If you cooked something with a strong smell in your microwave you can get rid of the wiffy-ness by pouring a couple of drops of vanilla extract into a microwaveable bowl and microwaving for 1 minute.

And who thought vanilla extract was just for baking?

Porridge is such a delicious and easy dish to make. This recipe is ideal if you find yourself running around in the morning – too busy to sit down and have that all important first meal of the day. And the good news is that it really is very good for you. Claims for porridge being a ‘super food’ see it reported as helping reduce cholesterol, reducing the risk of heart disease and staving off hunger pangs for hours at a time.

I’m not a big fan of the microwave for serious cooking – however for making porridge I’m definitely a convert. Indeed I’d go as far as to say that it’s easily the best way to cook porridge. If you have had many mornings trying to scrape clean a pot used to make the quintessential Scottish breakfast then this recipe is for you. It can be made in minutes and provides the perfect creamy start to a cold winter’s morning.

One little tip for this recipe. You can use inexpensive porridge oats to make it however  if you look on the supermarket shelves you will find a fine range of organic oats that really are great value for money and add something to the final dish.

Ingredients

• 40g porridge oats
• 225mls semi-skimmed milk
• Small handful of raisins
• ½ banana
• 1 tsp honey

Prep: 2 mins    Cooking Time: 3 mins    Serves: 1

1. Measure out 40 g of porridge oats (three dessertspoons) into a bowl.
2. Add 225mls of semi-skimmed milk and stir.
3. Cook in a 650w microwave for two minutes.
4. Stir and cook for a further one minute at 650 w.
5. Stir again and leave aside for one minute.
6. Add raisins and chopped banana and drizzle with honey.

For a decedent treat you could drizzle with single cream and some malt whisky! You could equally use blueberries, strawberries or any other fruit you have in your fruit bowl.

The recipe is inspired mostly by Levi Roots’ recipe for ginger cake, but as always I’ve made a few tweaks after baking it several times over the last year while still keeping it easy peasy, my favourite type of baking.

Ingredients

• 125g butter, cut into cubes
• 125g dark soft brown sugar
• 4 tbsp golden syrup
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 200ml milk
• 200g plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp all spice
• 100g raisins

Prep: 10 mins    Cooking Time:  50-55mins    Serves: 6

1. Preheat the oven to 150 oC and grease a 20cm round tin (or 900g loaf tin if you prefer) and line with baking paper
2. Put the butter, sugar, vanilla extract and golden syrup into a small pot and heat gently, stirring until it has all melted
3. Add the milk and remove from the heat, pour into a jug and leave to cool for a few minutes
4. Add your eggs and mix together
5. Sift the flour, spices, bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl
6. Then add the wet ingredients in the jug and fold in together, then gently mix in the raisins
7. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 50-55min (an hour if using a loaf tin)
8. Then turn onto a wire rack and allow to cool before serving

I said it was easy!  I now recommend serving with either home-made custard, ice-cream or whipped cream (with a sprinkling of cinnamon), whichever way you have it, Enjoy!

Nothing says Christmas more that a glass or two of the hot red stuff and so for the last few years on Christmas Eve this is an easy little drink that I rustle up in the kitchen just before I am about to settle down and watch some festive movies.  It’ll take less than 10 minutes I promise, so go on give it a go and indulge in the taste of Christmas.

Ingredients

• 1 bottle of red wine (preferably one of your favs)
• 2 tbsp of honey
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 orange sliced
• 1 dessert spoon of whole cloves
• 2-3 star anise
• a shot of sloe gin (optional)
• a shot of brandy (optional)
  the last two are completely optional, you can add both or just the one or none, but I think it gives the mulled wine a lovely little extra kick

Prep: 5mins  Cooking time: 5mins  Serves: 4-5

1. Splashingly pour the bottle of red wine into a pot and put over a very low, gentle heat.  This is very important as you don’t want to bring it to a simmer or boil as otherwise you cook away all the alcohol
2. Add all of the above ingredients stir and keep it on a very low gentle heat for about 5 mins until the spices flavour the wine
3. Then simply serve a lovely glass of the mulled wine and just keep the rest of the wine warm until you are all done.

Now enjoy with any festive treat of your choice or just on it’s own -hic!

Merry Christmas.

As some of you know I had the delights of coming up with a recipe for the little beetroots that arrived in my organic veg box recently. Thanks to the help of many of you, you did clarify they were indeed beetroots otherwise this might have been a whole different recipe.  After a little online reading I discovered that the sweetness of beetroot goes remarkably well in baking (and so does zucchini apparently) and so I trialled a muffin recipe, which was inspired from a number of different cake recipes but tailored to one of my favourite muffins – chocolate chip!

Ingredients:

• 180g plain flour
• 180g caster sugar
• 150-200g beetroot (cooked) this is around 6-8 small beetroots
• 75g cocoa powder
• 2tsp baking powder
• 70g chocolate chips
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 200g melted unsalted butter
• icing sugar for sprinkling at the end

Prep: 15mins  Cooking time: 30mins  Serves: 12-14   – wee heads up: to cook the beetroots I roasted them (parceled in tin foil) for 1hr 30mins at 200 degrees C the night before or you can do on the day.

1. Preheat your oven to 180 oC and line your muffin tin with muffin cases (don’t use your fancy ones as I recommend you remove the cases after baking)
2. Slowly melt the unsalted butter in a small pan and allow to cool
3. Into a large bowl sift in the flour, sugar, cocoa and baking powder
4. In the pan of melted butter add in the eggs, one at a time and whisk gently with a hand whisk and also add in the vanilla extract
5. Puree the beetroots in a small bowl using a hand blender and put to the side
6. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and then add the butter, egg & vanilla mix and fold in until fully mixed together
7. Then add the pureed beetroot
8. Sprinkle in the choc chips, mix gently and then scoop the mixture into your muffin cases
9. Bake for 30mins
10. Remove from the oven to cool, then remove the muffin cases and sprinkle with icing sugar

Now serve with a nice cuppa and enjoy the muffin as one of your five a day!

The Ubiquitous Chip, Ashton Lane

The Ubiquitous Chip or “The Chip” as it’s more commonly known, has been a firm favourite on the Glasgow fine dining scene for over forty years. Situated in the heart of the tourist heartland of the West End in the atmospheric Ashton Lane, it provides a fantastic all in one restaurant and bar that gives diners a perfect mix of style and quality.

Your meal should start with a visit upstairs to the cosy bar (with its open fireplace) where you can make your choices from a wide range of beers and wines all the time looking out onto the frantic activity of the lane.

Heading downstairs, our meal started with a delicious creamy warm soup appetizer served in little coffee cups. The soup was a fusion of cream and herbs and possibly coconut and was the perfect introduction to our starters. My starter was a plate of West Coast dressed langoustines which I had served hot with garlic butter though they were also available cold with mayonnaise. The langoustines were fresh and flavoursome and went down well accompanied by the plentiful supply of various breads and butter provided as standard in The Chip. I think that you can really tell how good a restaurant is by the freshness of its fish dishes and in this respect The Chip certainly didn’t disappoint.

West Coast langoustines

For my main course I opted for the standard festive season option of roast free-range turkey served with roast potatoes, root vegetables, chipolatas, stuffing and the famous Chip ’71 gravy (which presumably dates back to the opening of the restaurant in 1971). This dish was fine but didn’t upstage the starter in any way. The turkey was fairly standard and the dish would have benefitted from some more gravy to add a bit more overall depth. My fellow diners however raved about their choice which included a superb grilled pork loin and a perfect chargrilled sirloin steak dish.

Free range roast turkey

Puddings were very nice indeed. I opted for a delicious Christmas Pudding served with a rum and raisin anglaise. My fellow diners enjoyed their selections which included a cheesecake made with Scottish Crowdie cheese (this cheese is much underrated. Look out for it in your supermarket or deli as a wonderful local addition to your festive cheese board). If you are looking for something more substantial then the cheese option is certainly a winner. You get to choose three cheeses from a wide selection and these are served on a rustic wooden board with a date and hazelnut chutney, cornichon muffin and savoury wafers.

One small issue that I had with The Chip was on the drinks front. Branded Coca-Cola is sold in 200ml bottles. I always think this is a bit much, especially when served in 330 ml glasses, and especially when diners are paying a lot of money to eat. It also isn’t fair for nominated drivers who rely on reasonably priced soft drinks.

On the whole, the Ubiquitous Chip lived up to its reputation as one of Glasgow’s finest restaurants. The welcoming environment and overall ambiance is second to none, service attentive and the food is up to scratch. The lunch and pre-theatre menus offer particular good value.

12 Ashton Lane
Glasgow
G12 8SJ
0141 334 5007
www.ubiquitouschip.co.uk

Based in Kilmarnock, only 30mins from Glasgow, it was a quick drive to what is effectively just a large warehouse.  Doesn’t sound hugely inviting you might think but wait until you get inside to the Cook School, it’s a lovely luxurious state of the art kitchen – which gave us kitchen envy -  and a cosy dining area, where you get to enjoy the fruits of your labour, throughout the day, with a glass of wine or two!

TheCookSchool is part of the Braehead Foods Company, renowned for its game & fine food processing & distribution hence why its home is in the factory/warehouse of this company.  And suffice to say this means the ingredients you get to work with are of amazing quality and predominantly Scottish and locally sourced produce, which was a delight.

So, back to the day itself, on arrival you get treated to tea/coffee and freshly made biscotti (yum!) and then Phil Lewis (the head chef) and his team say a big “hello” and give you an overview of the cooking fun ahead of you.  Phil is a hugely knowledgeable and engaging chef to have as a teacher and, we have to say, makes the whole experience very enjoyable, relaxing yet motivational affair.  We could have sat for days just absorbing all his hints/tips and passion for the world of food and cooking.  And to be honest beyond the lovely aesthetics of the cooking environment I believe that it’s Phil and his team (Michael George et al) that make this experience as enjoyable, relaxing and rewarding for anyone who enjoys a bit of cooking.  One thing it does give you (and I believe everyone in our class that day) is the passion & motivation to learn and do a bit more in the kitchen.

The course we were on was their “dine with friends” course, but there are many to choose from, and few people who were there had been on at least one if not a few courses here before,  that in itself says a lot about the School and the courses they offer. 

Now down to the cooking – we were taught how to cook a starter, main, dessert and a range of sides for impressing your friends. This included wild mushroom bruchetta glazed with Talligio cheese, fillet of beef with fondant potato, apple tart tatin, and sides such as creamed cabbage, gravy/jus, and foccacia all of which we got to eat/take home!  Now if that gets you dribbling a little don’t worry I think Head Chef Phil will let us share these easy, yet restaurant quality, recipes with you all. And, if we can remember them all, we will be sharing all the tips we learned too.

 
The dishes might have sounded posh & complicated but in reality what  this course taught us  was the basic preparation required and how to cook easy recipes with the “wow factor” for friends without getting stressed or spending all your time in the kitchen.

The Cook School offers a range of courses for adults and kids at varying prices, for all abilities and different styles of cooking.  Our course cost £100 for the day, and kids’ courses are around £25.  The first thing I have to say is, what we got for our day was amazing value for money, they provide all the ingredients (which is of fantastic quality) you are well looked after for the whole day, fed throughout it with free wine with your main meal, endless cooking advice from a top chef, a “bag for life” full of all the recipes and tips from the day and of course the apron you have been cooking in for the day as a souvenir. 

We can’t recommend this experience enough, I’m already rewriting my letter to Santa just to inform him I wouldn’t mind going again *please*. To be honest, the fact we were there with about 18 other keen cooks, many of whom had been before, I think speaks for itself.  I think anyone who comes for this cooking experience would want to return again. We certainly do.

So if you want to treat yourself in 2012 or a foodie friend this is an amazing gift (at anytime of year) to bear in mind.

To find out more about what they have on offer visit www.cookschool.org

This is a must have hearty winter warmer that was inspired by the cauliflower that was delivered in this week’s organic veg box and some online surfing for cauliflower recipes.  So taking the favourite bits of the recipes I read I concocted this spicy soup. It may sound like an odd combination but it is lush *honest* so go on give it a try!

Ingredients

• 500g cauliflower florets
• 400g tin of coconut milk
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled & chopped
• 2-4 crushed garlic cloves (depending how much you like garlic)
• 1-1.5 litres of vegetable stock (I recommend organic)
• 2 tbsp red Thai curry paste (or any other curry paste will do)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp for ground coriander

Prep: 15mins  Cooking time: 25mins  Serves: 6

1. In a large pot add a liberal splashing of olive oil and over a gentle heat add the garlic and onion
2. After a minute or two add the spices & curry paste
3. Then add chopped carrot and cauliflower florets and stir until mixed with the spices
4. Now add the vegetable stock and coconut milk and bring to the boil
5. Leave to simmer for 20minutes
6. Then blend for a nice tasty thick soup, if you wish it a little thinner just add a little more stock.

And there you have it a lovely spicy, one/two of your five a day, bowl of soup. Guaranteed to warm you up this winter.  Now serve with some lovely crusty bread or even try making some home-made soda bread to go with it.  Most of all enjoy!