The Best of Scottish and Irish Recipes

IRISH SODA BREAD

12 ozs Wholemeal Flour
4 ozs Plain White Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda (Bread Soda)
1/2 pint Buttermilk,
or 1/4 pint of soured cream mixed with 1/4 pint of water,
or 1/2 pint of sour milk

Sift white flour, salt and bread soda, and mix thoroughly with wholemeal flour. Make a well in the centre and add most of the buttermilk. Working from the centre, mix with your hand adding more milk if necessary. The dough should be soft but not sticky. Turn out onto a floured board and knead lightly, just enough to shape into a round. Put onto a floured baking sheet and cut a deep cross over the top of the bread.

If you don't like a very crisp crust, wrap the bread in a damp tea-towel whilst it cools, so the steam it gives off softens the crust a little.

Bake on the top shelf of a pre-heated oven, at 2200C / 4250F for 30 / 40 minutes.

o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o

SCOTTISH STOVIES

There's a rumour that the word Stovies comes from the French "étouffée", to steam, but we think that's a load of old leftovers. Truth is that's exactly what stovies is - something to do on Monday with all that delicious meat and veg, fat and gravy, left over on the stove from the Sunday roast.

Often you'd get stovies in a pub during a darts match, or before and after the rugby or football. It'd be made more in winter to warm you up, and there'd be loads of salt in their recipes - why? So's you drink more! We present "Wee Stovies" - the scrapings off the stove - our basic recipe, and then some suggestions on how to spice it up a bit for a change each week. This recipe is free for private use only.

Stovies from Scotland
The picture is of our recipe below, using butter and with a chopped carrot

3 lbs tatties (potatoes) 1 large onion or 2 small 1 lb steak mince or lamb or diced pieces of meat or cheese or vegetables		2 ozs beef dripping or lard or butter or olive oil 1/2 pint of water Meat stock cube or veg Salt to taste, and Pepper
You don't have to be exact with the quantities

Chop the onions into a pot, add fat, and gently cook for 4-5 mins until soft. Add meat, stir into the onions and cook until a light brown. Peel, slice and dice your potatoes as you'd normally do. Hurtle them into the pot with the onions and meat. Chuck in the water, stock, salt, pepper. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes with the lid on, shoogling (shaking!) or stirring the pot occasionally to make sure it doesn't all stick. Cook until the potatoes are soft (push a table knife through a piece to test). Don't worry if the bottom layer is a bit burnt as this adds to the flavour of the rest. Mmmm.

Our Wee Stovie
Serve on its own, or with a bowl of fresh green beans or garden peas

Mix it all up a little more, if necessary, and serve steaming hot onto plates or bowls. Serves 6 as a meal, 10 as a snack, eat with a fork or spoon. Traditionally serve with milk for some extraordinary reason, or more commonly with beer or whisky. Use oatcakes or French bread to mop up the plate. Tuck in!

Most of the companies featured on this page take overseas orders, so please visit their websites.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Variety is the spice of life, so try some of these varieties:

Add herbs for your health and a delicious flavour
Grate cheese over the top and brown under the grill
Leftover vegetables; gravy instead of a stock cube
A carrot or two, grated or sliced, cooked or raw
Tomato puree, or even swirl some ketchup over
Split peas, lentils, barley or oats (cooked well)
Try some garlic, crushed and cooked with the onion
For an Exotic flavour add cumin or curry powder

Our Super Stovies recipe is arriving soon on CookCards