[Probably] The Best Shortbread In the World

[Probably] The Best Shortbread In the World

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the pan
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon caster sugar (powdered sugar)
2 scant cups flour, sifted, plus extra for dusting
2/3 cup semolina or 1 scant cup cornflour

Preheat the oven to 300 o F, 150o C. Butter a tin. Cream butter and sugar together with a wooden spoon until pale, light, and fluffy. Add the flour and semolina or cornflour. Mix lightly until you have a smooth dough.

Press the dough into your pan, poking it into the corners with your fingers – don’t worry about it having to look perfect. Prick the dough all over with a fork and bake in the preheated oven until slightly golden – 50-60 minutes. While warm, sprinkle with a generous dusting of sugar. Allow to cool slightly, then cut into chunky fingers.

 

Looks great, we had to try one piece, you know, um, what do they call it, lack of control? No that's not it, its, called quality control. Honest.

Perfect recipe for shortbread as intended to be by Jamie Oliver in 'Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook' which looks a bit like this. Why not borrow it from your local library?

Until next time - Happy Shortbreading.

Frog in the bog

The rescue hens tucking into a rainbow petal snack. I didn't know hens ate petals, but they do. Fabulous.

It's a mainstay in our lives 'Frog in the bog' traslates into 'Toad in the hole' is a large savoury yorkshire pudding with sausages dropped into it. Scrummy sausages, spongy and yet crunchy Yorkshire pudding mix. Potatoes and a richly flavoured gravy always accompany.

OK so I've noticed most of our 'mainstay meals' are 'winter-ish fodder'. And with the new hens laying 5-6 eggs a day, we always need ideas with eggs! Sometimes we make 'chicken in a ditch' which is a variation using chicken dropped into yorkshire pudding mix, but dear hearts, please don't tell the lasses, ever.

And so, Frog in bog (toad in hole) is one of our favourites, so if it ain't broke, don't fix it. What's your favourite comfort bite?

Until you share.....Happy Scoffing!

Trenabies Fair Trade Cafe, Kirkwall

A bonnie wee cafe which sits in the middle of Kirwall's main street.  It does everything from breakfast to buns, wraps and french bread pizza's (himself's favourite) to local steak on ciabatta (daughters favourite). They also don't mind if you want your beans on your breakfast in a wee bowl, so it doesn't touch (contaminate) your eggs with bean juice, which is very important in my life (and they serve veggie and normal carnivore brekkies).

Used coffee grains, (not starbucks) just an illustration of the bags you can get full of useful grains for the garden

The coffee is ace and they also let you have bags of used coffee grains for the garden. And whilst this ISN'T a chain - the coffee is utterly fab and yes they do 'to go' although why you can't sit for a while is beyond me. And, they DON'T do internet, nor do you get much of a phone signal - bliss for ten minutes or an hour 'off grid'. 

So if you want a cuppa with superhelpful staff who give you peace but are there is you need them. Pop in. Ironically there are three cafe's in a stride in that area of Kirkwall - all good, take your pick. But this ones a real treat for a cosy, quiet natter either in a booth or on a squashy sofa up the back.

Until next time - take some time out and enjoy the coffee, knowing you're supporting fair trade, local good food and ingredients and by drinking coffee you're also helping someone's garden grow too.

Happy scoffing and mind those beans don't get near your eggs. Bleurgh!

Trenabies Fair Trade Cafe

16  Albert StreetKirkwallOrkneyKW15 1HP  View on map

• T: 01856 874 336

'Nanas on toast

There are few things in life which surpass 'nana's on toast. Hot buttery salt toast combined with the sweet smooth 'nana - reminds me of my grannie as it was one of her favourites. She preferred to mush them 'nanas - whilst I like to slice and equally festoon my toast with precision. We'd sit and have this brekie, lunch or supper nattering or playing cards after (she was a serious card shark!). Its nice to think of those times. So when I delve into a 'nana - I do think of my own Grannie.

And, yes of course I own a piggy plate. You were're really in doubt were you? Quite a wholesome comforting meal in which butter is really best - but then again what's butter not better in? Frugal too a banana might even stretch to two folks......

 

Here's to comfort eating, reminding you of days on the sofa with your Grannie? What's your favourite nostalgic nosh?

 

Unitil next time - Happy Scoffing.

Mushy peas and chips!

Possibly the finest dinner on the planet - mushy peas and chips. Frugal, filling and fwoar! And, yes I have NO class. I'm fine with that.

I'm so glad I saved 'half a tin' of peas for a later time and froze them. YUM YUM.

Ok, so its not everyones fodder of choice, but I'm a happy lass. One large potato fried up as chips, one slice of bread and butter, half a tin of the glorious godly mushy peas.  And British no less. And although the website tells me they're 16p a tin, I think I paid more than that, but they're still a cheap meal. If my spud was a home grown one, this is a 7p meal :)

Until next time, what's your favourite cheeky, frugal comfort on-your-own meal?

Come on, spill the beans (or the peas!) - Happy Scoffing.

Cuppy egg

Boiled eggs smashed up in a cup with a wee dod of butter and a pinch of salt - utterly awesome. Always eaten as soon as it's made*, warm in the cup and perfect with soft boiled eggs.

Some childhood grub should be eaten your whole life! 

Until next time, don't forget your childhood favourites whatever they are - Happy scoffing!

 

*Hand scalding is normally essential when performing this ritual.

Pizza rice

Pizza Rice.

Often enough in 'wir' hoose, we have a quick cheap and cheerful risotto for tea. More often than not this is 'Pizza Rice' - all the joys of a pizza, in a rice. Tomatoes, veggies, cheese and tonight just a slice of lovely smoked bacon dropped in too for a bit of decadence.

 

Whilst we can use risotto rice, when making 'proper' risotto, which is lovely, if a bit costly. However like tonight, more often than not its just a cup of normal rice cooked in stock/tomatoes/fridge foraged veggies and cheese added. Super quick too.

 

Ready from scratch in less than 15 minutes, costs less than £1, probably a lot less. We buy value basmati rice and a bag lasts for ages. Everything gets lobbed in the pan at once - stirred and watched, cheese goes in right at the end. It's a really easy dish for kids to make too.

 

So that's Pizza rice - all the joy of pizza, in a hot steamy tomato-ey, cheesy rice.

 

Its a family tradition stemming from old university days when one bag of rice went a long, long way. The kids love it. Tasty too.

 

OK so we COULD call it roasted Mediterranean vegetables in a homegrown tomato infused rice with Orkney smoked bacon, scallions and cheese but who are we kidding - it's pizza rice!

 

Next time, think outside the (pizza) box - happy scoffing!

 

 

Cheap cheerful chowder

*

Now when you rush in from work like a crazy lady, never mind its also Saturday, you want something fast, filling and hot for tea. Chowder does that for me. Today's was also cheap and incredibly cheering and whilst home made in reality half of it was out of a tin from the cupboard (sweet corn).  At well under £1 for a tea to feed a few folks, its a good staple filling fodder. Soup for tea is a good way to keep those pennies working hard for you.

 

Leftover tatties cubed - around a cup 

(free as home grown)

A can of sweetcorn (325g)

(cheapest and cheerfulest range) (c35p)

A ham stock cube (or chicken) (c2-10p)

(the price range is value to posh - your choice)

Around a third to half a tub of cream cheese

(cheap and cheerfulest range) (c20p)

or cream or milk

A splosh of garlic is optional - be moderate though

 

So you lob in a stock cube into around a pint of water and start to boil. Its one of the few things I like a ham/bacon stock cube in as its cheaper than actual bacon. You can easily keep the whole dish veggie by using a veg cube. I like the hammy flavour, its a personal thing.  If you're feeling decadent add some ham or bacon. As you do this the can of corn meets its maker and gets lobbed enthusiastically into the pan. Please recycle the can, even if its just for me.

 

Next the potatoes go in and bring the mix up to the boil. If the tatties are cooked it doesn't really need cooking per se but it wants to be just at that bubbling stage. If you're using uncooked tatties - cook them out until they're soft.

 

Add the cream cheese now - you can use milk/cream but I think that whatever's to hand works. I like this as a creamy soup - but equally it would work with tomatoes.

 

To get a quick soup fix and scoffing as soon as possible I would blend this now with a hand blender - not to mush - but sort of half blended. Thickens the soup nicely and gives a good texture too. Again this is a person thing - you don't need to do it.

 

Have a slurp and season. A bit of pepper or paprika is lovely.

 

Lob into a bowl.

 

Happy cheap and cheerful in a hurry scoffing - until next time.

 

*the cheap and cheerful range is for most store cupboard things is a good spend. If you're into organic or certain brands - crack on - its your cupboards. Personally mine are stocked with cheap and cheerful where I can't tell the difference. That way I get to spend a few extra pennies on things I do like. And I do like a well stocked store cupboard - makes eating quickly a real essential.

 

PS excuse the lack of photos of the soup. Firstly it was scoffed in milliseconds. Secondly I really need to fathom how to take photos of grub in my dark kitchen especially at night.

Humble Tattie - Frugal grub

As far as instant nice grub goes, you'll not get much better than the humble tattie. Boiled, mashed, fried or baked, its one of my favourite veggies.

 

Instant grub too if quickly baked and served with some butter. Or as my favourite - with some prawns in mayonnaise with a dash of chilli sauce to give it a bit of a kick.

 

You've heard of Mr Potato Head haven't you.

I'm Ms Tattie Heid with her trusty potato hunting hound.

 

Until next time, look again at that potato you often put at the side of your meals - its the star of the show.- happy scoffing!

Scones - Quick Frugal Fodder

*I'm moving all my food recipes from my normal blog to this one - so some of these are 'something I did earlier' - excuse the duplication but we make these 15 minute scones, just about every other day. Perfect every time and a great way to use up sour milk, or excess milk. To be honest if there's a day  the milk goes over to smelling a bit funny - we make these. Or we label the going off milk as 'for scones' and throw it into the freezer for when we fancy them. Seems better than chucking milk away and they rise so beautifully with sour milk. (Fresh milk works just as nicely too).

The fifteen minute scone routine is thus:
Oven on (highest setting),
Find a bowl/cutter/cup measure/knife out cupboard,
Get a tray out too.

Ingredients
2 cups SR Flour
1 TBSP sugar
Pinch salt
1TBSP butter/marg/oil
3/4-1 cup Milk

Lob all dry ingredients into bowl** - (2 cups sr flour, 1tbsp sugar), dust tray with flour, then lob in 1tbsp butter to dry ingredients, rub in  butter, then grab butter knife and add 3/4-1 cup of milk to the dry ingredients - mix with knife until a soft dough forms, then stop and onto floured board.

Don't over mix or kneed, life's too short for rock hard scones. Minimal handling makes for better scones - lightly pat until the mix is about 1" thick, you'll thank me for it. Honestly LESS is more in this case.

Cut into shapes - a glass does the job just as well as a cutter - honest.

Lob into oven, timer on for 12 minutes - which is a perfect amount of time to tidy up and get a cup of tea ready.

After your twelve minutes - out they come. If you can get them into a tea towel in a basket or on a plate it helps to keep them nice and soft. Serve to suit we often have these at breakfast, if you're a bit pushed for time, you can always get the dry ingredients ready the night before and add the butter/milk first thing - pop into oven, get dressed and instant brekkie.......

These really are best eaten the same day - or frozen once just cold and used as you like. We never quite get to the 'freezing' stage in our house. 

Perfect frugal fodder for breakfast, elevenses, lunch, tea or supper.

 

Cost - if using 'value' flour roughly 20-30p a batch.

 

Like they ever get to supper........

 

Until next time - if you've got some milk that's on the turn - why not think I've got 15 minutes I'll just make some 'scones'.

 

Happy Scoffing.

 

** this recipe is adaptable to add fruit/cheese/herbs into your scones. You would normally add flavourings after the rubbing in stage at the start and before you add the milk. Obviously if they're a 'sweet scone' keep the sugar. If savoury omit it, just saying.........

Yorkies - traditional, cheap and cheerful.

*I'm moving all my food recipes from my normal blog to this one - so some of these are 'something I did earlier' - excuse the duplication! Yorkies or Yorkshire puddings are a main stay in this household. Great way to make a bit of meat go further - or to have a 'meatless' roast dinner - just make these and a pile of veggies, you'll not miss the meat. They can be a much maligned misunderstood fodder. Some folks say they can't make them. I say they can. This recipe is fool proof. I am a fool and even I can do it. Therefore 'fool proof'. Simples. Onwards to the recipe.

Dear Manchild,
As requested here's the new start of the recipes you often ask for.
As you've claimed this recipe as your own for years, I don't know why I'm even writing this down for you, you already know it off by heart. Cheap as chips, yorkies are a great fill up food which costs pennies.

If you're eating these straight away, put your oven on at the highest setting. If you're making them earlier in the day to let the mix rest (always good) then prep the mix and put the oven on to heat about 30 minutes before you want to serve these. Put oil in your tray and put this in the oven, it needs to get really, really, really hot. Or the mix won't work, simplest fact about Yorkshires is if the ovens not hot enough it won't work and look like a flopped pancake.

Ingredients

1 cup of plain flour

1 cup of milk/water or beer

2 eggs

2 tbsp oil or dripping (funny white greasy stuff you'll find in the butchers or in the chill cabinet)

Equipment

A jug or bowl for mixing

A bun tray or a large oven tray

Oven gloves

Time - 20 minutes cooking, 10 minutes preparation

Temperature - highest on oven 220 degrees C

 

Measure out ingredients into a bowl or a jug - measure flour before wet ingredients as its less messy to clean afterwards. Sour milk works as well as fresh, water does at a push, using beer is fab - but on the other hand, as a student you might want to drink the beer. Its traditional.

Thoroughly mix the ingredients. Lumpy yorkshire pudding is not your friend, its quite manly (or womanly) to use a kitchen gadget to help you to do this like a hand blender, an electric whisk or a food processor. Or, if you want to get this whipped by hand, think of something or someone annoying and go for it. The batter should be thin and free from lumps. If you're making this in advance, pop it in the fridge until its needed. If you're using it straight away make sure the bun trays/oven dish is hot, the oil wants to be smoking quite scarily.  Pour into the dishes carefully and put straight into the oven. It should take about 20 minutes and is ready when these are puffed up and golden brown.

And we all know you can drop sausages, turkey, chicken, beef or vegetables  into the mix to make many a tea.
 

Serve with mash, gravy and some vegetables, or just dunk in gravy!

One day I'll see if I can take a decent photo of my own, but don't hold your breath.

Love

Mum

Happy Scoffing.

Mackerel - eat it!

Now I love fish, I don't eat enough mackerel. Silly lass. This fine beastie made for a wholesome lunch then turned into fish cakes for tea and 16 Peedie cakes later, 12 ended up frozen. At £1.53 a fish, now that's frugal food. And, local. Yum.

Until next time, viva la fish. Happy scoffing.

Smoked scallops, home salad & sushi rice

Pan seared smoked Orkney scallops

Pan seared Orkney smoked king scallops. Nom, I think of these as 'sea beasties', seems fitting somehow.

 

I'm not very experienced in cooking scallops, its the kind of thing I order if we're out somewhere and I see them on the menu. So, cooking these, well, its well out of my comfort zone, but I do try new things, just occasionally, especially when no one can see me mess up! However as they're not too expensive and I often see them in our local fishmongers, sometimes I get brave and I give it a go. You see, at the moment I'm home alone and eating what I please! 

Jolly's fish and local produce shop in Orkney

We've a great local fish shop here in Orkney, its quite nicely called 'Jolly's' - and its a very fine place indeed. Really lives up to its name. So that's where we get our fish. Being on an island means that fish/shellfish and alike is seasonal, local and quite nicely priced. So, its affordable weekly. We don't always have scallops, but at around £3 for a handful, they make a nice treat.

And isn't that one of the most fab signs you'll ever see?

Jolly's Fabulous Fish/Meat/Local produce shop in Kirkwall, Orkney

So having collected my scallops (these were smoked, again I've never tried these), and having read lots about cooking said 'sea beasties', I have to say although I read, I mainly ignored all the complicated stuff (especially the bit about patting dry scallops before cooking, I mean seriously WHO has the time to DRY scallops.) So my scallops looked darn fine and not too wet. Very fresh.....

Plump smoked king scallops

 The main thing seems to be a hot pan, so we dutifully obliged with a hot pan, added a knob of butter and the scallops, hey presto, two minutes each side later, they turn into these gorgeous brutes, less sea monster-ish, more yummy......

Seared Orkney scallops

These plump little hooligans were then left to rest for a minute or two whilst I heated up some pre-cooked sushi rice and chopped a bit of salad. Now I love sushi rice and find its sweet seasoned soft texture great with seared fish or shellfish like these scallops. The rice is pre-cooked and seasoned (with a seasoned rice vinegar mix - sushi-su) it doesn't need much in the way of faff, just reheat and shape to please.

Seasoned sushi rice

 A nice salad is always great with scallops the crunch of the salad goes great with the sweetness of the seafood. The lettuce is home grown too, I'm that thorough (cos I don't spend time DRYING scallops)............and I never dress salad before I eat it, just not a fan.

Home grown lettuce, tomatoes and mangetout

So scallops and rice/salad to the plate.....just time for a bit of a 'deglaze' of the scallop pan.

Seared smoked Orkney scallops with sushi rice and salad

 Basically, to my mind a 'deglaze' of a pan just means lob some liquid into a pan you've just cooked your grub in to get all those juices on your plate. So in keeping with my love of spice I put a tiny tot of my own chilli sauce in the pan and a wee glug of water - a fizz and a pop or two and hey presto a nice tangy rich sweet and spicy sauce.

Pan seared smoked scallops, salad, sushi rice with a sweet smoked chilli reduction

Just a tot mind, you don't want anything interfering with the sweet taste of a seared scallop. The smokiness of the sweet scallop perfectly compliments each other. Salad adding crunch (and you know you feel virtuous because of the 'health' aspect) and the sweet sticky sushi rice absorbs all that gorgeous flavour.

So, if indulging with something unfamiliar give it a go (preferably in private, then if its great you can wow folks at a later date). Read a bit, ignore most of it and give it a go!

 

The worst that can happen is that you burn the pan, sometimes it's good to get out of your comfort zone.

 

Until next time, be daring! Happy scoffing.

 

 

Comfort food

So I've been sick with a cold. My answer to any illness is to eat it into submission and that means comfort food. Cauliflower cheese. Costs pennies, tastes like heaven. This bad boy was also heavy on the mustard and horseradish lobbed into the sauce for a bit of a kick.

Until next time, don't get sick! Happy scoffing.

'Anything you want for breakfast Sundays'

In our house Sundays are traditionally ANYTHING you want for breakfast (as long as you get it yourself). It's a long silly tradition started when my children were under school age to make Sundays special. And, to just terrorise their father, I'm cruel like that.

Today in true traditional style, I'm having gnocchi and asparagus with butter for breakfast. sadly I'm out if eggs. A poached egg would have just turned this from awesome to sublime. Love both, working all day, so I knocked up some of this for lunch and it looked so good I had some for breakfast too.

Love anything you want Sundays. As the cellist has exams I've made her some cinnamon and apple Danishes. Made with reduced pastry, a really wrinkly looking apple and a dollop of cinnamon, these cost less than 35p for eight of them. Great way to use up old fruit......

 

Well I had to test one......don't want her poisoned!

Until next time, happy scoffing!