Mince and Skirlie

Friday night beef

minceandskirlie — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 19:06:04 +0000

Who says a roast is just for Sundays? Keep things simple and you can fit it in any night of the week. Roast beef, onions, butternut squash and new tatties tastes pretty good with a ~~large glass~~ bottle of wine on a Friday night.

Smoked salmon and avocado salad

minceandskirlie — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:27:54 +0000

How’s this for a quick midweek meal? Lemon and peppercorn smoked salmon, new tatties, spring onions and avocado. Very simple, delicious and healthy!

Would you believe the picture was taken on my mobile phone?

Windswept and interesting

minceandskirlie — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 18:25:48 +0000

Here’s an example of American style IPA that seems to be an expected part of every brewery’s arsenal these days. This time from Lossiemouth brewery The Windswept Brewing Co. Plenty of hops, tastes great and goes down very nicely. Good to see another north east brewery delivering the goods!

Duck breast with creme de cassis sauce

minceandskirlie — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 21:09:28 +0000

The only time we ever cook duck in our house it ends up in pancakes with hoisin sauce. Which is, well, awesome but it’s nice to have a bit of variety. We happpened to have a bottle of creme de cassis in the house after making some Kir Royale during a cocktail night. This dish of very simply cooked duck breast with a brilliantly easy, fruity sauce is almost as easy as covering a leg in five spice and roasting it in the oven.

For the red cabbage accompaniment I fried off some sliced onion with some garlic and then added the cabbage until it started to wilt. I added some balsamic vinegar and cooked it a few more minutes then served.

I really can’t wait for this never-ending winter to finally bugger off so I can take pictures with natural light again. I took lots of photos of this dish and I wasn’t happy with any of them. Ah well. It doesn’t help when you over cook your duck breast either! The taste was fine but I would have preferred the meat to be a bit more pink for photographic purposes.

Serves 2

2 Duck breasts
1 small glass creme de cassis
1 large glass red wine
Salt and pepper
Knob of butter

Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
Using a sharp knife score the skin of the duck.
Season the breasts and rub into the scored sections of the skin.
Heat a small amount of oil in a roasting tin or oven-proof pan.
Fry the breasts skin side down to render the fat and crisp up the skin.
Once the skin is brown turn the breasts over and brown the other sides.
Move to the oven and roast for 10 minutes.
When the breasts are cooked move them to a plate and leave in a warm place to rest.
Return the tray to the hob and deglaze with the creme de cassis
Pour in the wine and reduce for a few minutes
Add the resting juices from the duck breasts and stir in the knob of butter
Serve the breast with wilted red cabbage, mashed tatties and the sauce.

Medicinal

minceandskirlie — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 22:01:51 +0000

Oh god I feel so bad just now. Thought I was done with colds for a while but it seems I was wrong. My whisky collection has taken quite a hit from it.

Goose island 312 wheat beer

minceandskirlie — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 17:27:05 +0000

Can someone tell me what it was I didn’t like about wheat beer? I’ve been drinking heaps of the stuff recently and asking myself that very question. This Goose Island “urban wheat beer” is a good example – slightly cloudy with good citrus flavours. Really refreshing but not the standout wheat beer for me. The Nøgne Ø Wit is probably the nicest one I’ve had the pleasure to try.

Mount Keen

minceandskirlie — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:42:50 +0000

Mount Keen from Broom Hill, above Tarland.

Tom Kitchin’s Smoked Mackerel Salad

minceandskirlie — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 20:18:54 +0000

I’ve always been very impressed by Tom Kitchin’s cooking when I’ve seen him on the telly. As with so many chefs it seems that focussing on quality local ingredients is the key to success. I received his book on home cooking, Kitchin Suppers, at Christmas and have tried a couple of recipes from it already and enjoyed them hugely. It really helps that when I opened the book and flicked through it many of the recipes were along the same lines as a lot of my favourites! I knew this was a book I’d get along with.

This salad is from the weekday suppers chapter and is oh so simple. Boil a couple of eggs and some new tatties then serve as a salad with some lettuce, beetroot and smoked mackerel. There’s a lot of press coverage for mackerel at the moment which is a real shame as I absolutely love it. Hopefully it’s a problem that can be sensibly resolved soon. I made a very mustardy dressing to go with this and have to say I was a very happy boy after eating it. My eggs were perfect, just how I wanted them; only just hard-boiled. I can’t stand overcooked eggs. Unfortunately when it comes to boiling an egg I don’t often get a choice but that’s through my own ineptitude.

Garlic tomato mushrooms on toast

minceandskirlie — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 18:43:47 +0000

Tonight I wanted to do a bit of cooking to distract me from something but at the same time I didn’t want to spend a lot of time on it. I was looking for maximum flavour, minimum effort. Which is a perfect job for the humble mushroom. Fried in some olive oil with a little garlic then gently simmered with half a can of tomatoes, some herbs and a few drops of hot pepper sauce resulted in a delicious quick meal to serve on buttered toast.

Veal Milanese

minceandskirlie — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 12:14:25 +0000

Every now and then I like to try and replicate a favourite restaurant dish. This time round it’s the turn of that Italian restaurant classic – veal milanese. I’m a big fan of veal – low in fat, high welfare (if bought from the UK) and it tastes great.

This dish is pretty simple. Blitz up some herby breadcrumbs, coat and cook the veal then leave somewhere warm while you cook the pasta with some sage and tomatoes. The whole thing can be cooked in under 20 minutes if you’re organised so it’s perfect for a mid-week meal

My photos are getting worse. Sorry about that. Maybe I should invest in some lights or probably just practice more.

Serves 4

1 slice of white bread
1 sprig rosemary
1 clove garlic
4 veal escalopes
Spaghetti
6 tomatoes, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
Handful of chopped sage
Parsley, chopped
1 egg, beaten
Plain flour

Blitz up the bread with the rosemary leaves, garlic and some salt and pepper.
Wrap the veal in some cling film and bash it with a rolling-pin to thin it out.
Dip each escalope in some flour, egg then the breadcrumbs and fry over a medium heat.
Once they’re golden brown on both sides and the veal is cooked place them on some paper towels and leave in a warm place.
In the same frying pan you used for the veal gently fry the onions until soft.
Add the chopped tomatoes and sage and gently cook until the tomatoes break down.
Cook the spaghetti in some salted boiling water.
Once it’s al dente add a couple of spoonfuls of the cooking water to the tomatoes to create the sauce.
Drain the spaghetti, add it to the tomatoes and finish with some pepper and chopped parsley.
Serve the veal alongside the spaghetti.