The Royal Highland Show - A festival of food from Scotland

Foodie fans to feast at this year’s Royal Highland Show
Food and drink producers are busy preparing for what many regard as the most important four days of the foodie calendar – The Royal Highland Show. My first visit to the Highland Show was with my Mum and the ladies of the Scottish Women's Rural Institute better known as 'The Rural'. I would have been about 10 years old and can remember my friend and I went off on our own and got slightly lost, however we found our way back to the 'Rural' tent and were reunited with our Mums. My second visit was after I had become a member of the farming community and my son was in his buggy, the ground was wet and muddy and it was quite a trial getting around with the buggy, let's hope the weather is kinder this year! The food aspect of the Royal Highland Show has grown phenomenally since I last attended so I am really looking forward to seeing the demonstrations and tasting so much excellent Scottish produce.

Over 100 exhibitors will be joined by a host of the country’s best chefs and restaurateurs in an annual celebration of Scotland’s finest food and drink.

The event, with main show partner The Royal Bank of Scotland, welcomes an average of 170,000 visitors every year with the majority expected to visit the Food Hall over the four day event this June (20-23).
Reaching consumers and leading industry players, exhibitors will be hoping that their produce will benefit from the significant exposure the show platform presents. Last year, The Island Smokery on Orkney caught the eye of the Tesco buyer and the company is now ramping up its production after securing a deal to supply 45 Tesco stores across Scotland.
Innovation is key to the show, which has been successful in attracting new audiences while maintaining interest from those who return every year.
New for this year will be a showcase for The Highlands and Islands food and drink producers under the title ‘Land of Opportunity’.
Presenting a engaging stage for the region, ‘on the go’ street food will become a focus as four top chefs take to the Countryside Area to showcase the culinary delights from northern Scotland. Although relatively new in the UK, street food is eaten by an estimated 2.5 billion people a day across the world.

Taking on the theatre are famous chefs from the area including Bruno Birkbeck, Head Chef of the 3 AA Rosette Restaurant at the Torridon Hotel, Muji Rahman from the Michelin recognised Cafe India in Dingwall, David Coubrough, Head Chef at Cafe 1 in Inverness and Steven Devlin of the highly acclaimed Rocpool Restaurant in Inverness.Each chef has been tasked with creating a menu for the day using only Highlands and Islands sourced produce.
In the Food Hall, top attraction 120-seat Cookery Theatre, will return with a rolling programme of more than 30 all-action demonstrations over the four-day event. This year, the Cookery Theatre will be renamed the Natural Larder to pay homage to the Year of Natural Scotland celebrations.
Organised by acclaimed food critic Wendy Barrie with the support of theatre sponsors Event Scotland and The North Highland Initiative (NHI), this year’s President’s Initiative region, the Highlands and Islands, will take the fore.
Mike Cantlay, Chairman of VisitScotland, said, “Scotland’s many glens and munros, deep lochs, dramatic seas and coastlines are home to a rich natural larder that entices visitors from all over the world. Scotland is an unspoilt environment and has a climate without extremes - the ideal conditions to produce superb, high quality Scottish food. The Year of Natural Scotland aims to celebrate the wealth of Scotland’s natural larder.”

NHI Chief Executive, Tom Campbell added: “In sponsoring the Cookery Theatre at this year’s Royal Highland Show, the North Highland Initiative will aim to communicate with retailers, the hospitality industry and consumers the quality of produce for shelves, menus and plates.”
In addition to top chefs from the Highlands and Islands the theatre programme will also feature; Carina Contini and Suzanne O'Connor from The Scottish Cafe & Restaurant; Neil Forbes from Café St Honoré; Henderson’s of Edinburgh celebrating 50 years in the business; Paul Wedgwood from his eponymous restaurant and Craig Wilson, Eat On The Green’s one and only ‘Kilted Chef’.
Wendy Barrie commented on the star-studded line up. She said: “Passionate as we all are about our national food culture it is great to have such a positive message to broadcast – low food miles, unquestionable provenance and great tastes! We are all looking forward to cooking the produce, meeting the visitors and contributing to making the Royal Highland Show the ‘greatest show on earth’.

“Chefs descend from Peebles to Torridon; East Lothian to Aberdeenshire, so magnetic is the pull of the Show. Over the four days the Theatre is a living community: sponsors and chefs; students and commis chefs, set builders and sound engineers, all working collaboratively together to pull off one of the most impressive showcases of Scotland’s world class larder.”
Sampling Scotland’s larder at Show will be The Royal Highland Show’s new show manager, Becky Elvin. She said: “The show provides a unique opportunity for food and drink suppliers to reach new audiences. We are committed to supporting new businesses as well as established players as food and drink production is an important economic driver for Scotland.

“The Royal Highland Show is an invaluable source for highlighting the whole chain from farm production to retail counter. That, coupled with some hand-picked exhibitors from other areas, makes the Food Hall and the Cookery Theatre a priority on any show visitor’s itinerary.”
Joining Highlands and Islands producers will be a who’s who of Scottish food and drink names from big hitters such as Mackies of Scotland, Macsween and the Spencerfield Spirit Company who were all named as winners at last year’s Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Awards.
East Lothian Food and Drink will also return to the show for the fourth year to highlight the breadth of local production from the region. Six exhibitors including Thistly Cross Cider, Glenkinchie Distillery, Scots’ Cheer, Yester Dairies, Hood’s Scottish Honey and the famous S Luca Ice Cream, will allure foodies to sample the best from the East.

The Royal Highland Show takes place between 20^th and 23^th June at Royal Highland Centre, Edinburgh. Visit www.royalhighlandshow.org for more information.

I am posting this press release in return for a ticket to the Royal Highland Show, I have received no other payment.

 

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K is for Kugelhopf

The letter K is a rather challenging one to bake.  However, one of the main reasons I like to take part in blog challenges and events is to push myself to try recipes I wouldn't otherwise have made.  I searched around for bakes starting in K and there were not very many at all, I toyed with making some Kiwi Fruit Muffins but in the end decided to attempt a Kugelhopf. Kugelhopf is a yeasted sweet bread usually baked in a fancy tube tin.

Alphabakes is a blogger baking challenge run by Ros at The more than occasional baker and Caroline at Caroline Makes who is hosting this month.

It was particularly fortuitous that I was contacted by The Craft Company to review some items from their website.  The Craft Company specialises in cake decorations and cake decorating supplies including cake boards, cake boxes, cake decorating equipment, baking tins, ingredients and cake toppers, everything you might need for decorating cakes. When I browsed around their site I found this 'large tube ring silicone mould'  which is perfect for a Kugelhopf. I also asked to review a bottle of PME Release-a-Cake which I felt might just be required for such an intricate mould. Delivery from the Craft Company was prompt and the items were well packaged, I couldn't fault them. Prices were also keen with the silicone mould costing £7.00 and the PME Release-a-Cake £2.85 for 236g. A range of delivery options are available.

Dough risen in the mould

The Kugelhopf recipe that I used is one with an excellent provenence.  It is a recipe by Dorie Greenspan, a well known US author, and comes from her book "Baking from my home to yours".  I found the recipe on line at Leite's Culinaria  I did make a slight change (regular readers will not be surprised by this!) I soaked the sultanas in a miniature of Poire William, a pear flavoured eau de vie (40% alcohol), that we brought back from holiday in France.

Poire William

Baked and ready to unmould

The dough is very similar to a brioche dough and is best made in a stand mixer, although it is possible to make it by hand.  I don't have a dough hook for my vintage Kenwood Chef  (something I'm planning on remedying very soon) so mixed the dough with the K beater which worked perfectly well - how very appropriate for this challenge!  The process is not so much difficult and, while it takes a long time from start to finish, most of that doesn't involve you doing anything.  I started making the dough on Saturday morning and the Kugelhopf was baked and complete by Sunday lunchtime. 

Kugelhopf just before being brushed with melted butter

The Kugelhopf slid easily out of the mould which had been brushed generously with the PME Release-a-cake.  The silicone mould was very well behaved, I supported it in an 20cm cake tin on a baking tray, mainly for ease of putting in and out of the oven,  but it is quite a sturdy mould even without that.

The verdict? The Kugelhopf was a huge success, it was light, sweet and rich, the alcoholic sultanas don't overpower the soft bread.  Everyone loved it and my mother-in-law said she preferred it to cake.

 

I was very impressed by this recipe and by the silicone mould and PME Release-a-cake from The Craft Company.

I chose products up to £10 from The Craft Company to review.  I was not paid for this review and my opinions are my own.

Rhubarb with butterscotch sauce - Dish of the Month

This dish is simple but devastatingly good. Stew some rhubarb with sugar and water until tender, then remove the rhubarb to a dish, reduce the syrup and add muscovado sugar, cream and vanilla.

Nigel describes it as a 'sweet sour sauce for rhubarb' in the kitchen diaries II, a sauce for rhubarb that has the same comforting vanilla flavours as custard without making custard, I served my rhubarb with Madagascar Vanilla Ice-cream. Being a bit of a rhubarb obsessive at the moment, this certainly hit the spot.

 If you would like to take part, then please:

• Make a Dish of the Month from ANY recipe by Nigel Slater
• Link to Farmersgirl Kitchen or A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate
•  Use the Dish of the Month logo in your post
• If you use twitter, tweet your post with @serialcrafter or @Heavenona_plate and #DishoftheMonth and we will re-tweet it to our followers. 

Rules:

• If you own The kitchen diaries II please do not publish the recipes on your blog without permission, they are copyright.
• If you are using recipes from the BBC Food website, please link to the recipe on BBC Food rather than publishing the recipe.  Likewise recipes on the Guardian Lifestyle website.
• One entry per blog.
• Recipes must be added to the linky by the 28th of each month.

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The Truckle Cheese Co - A Review

I love cheese, I have to restrict my intake otherwise I would pile on the pounds, so when I do eat cheese I like it to be good quality and packed with flavour.  I was delighted to be approached by the Truckle Cheese Company to review some of their cheeses. The Truckle Cheese Co is one of the UK’s leading producers of carefully crafted cheeses, marmalades and terrines.  From its base in Cambridge, the company has created recipes for an assortment of stunning cheeses including the mature, vintage cheddar cheese truckle, an award winning Blue Stilton and the innovative Revelation Cheddar, which carefully blends delicious mature cheddar with the indulgence of dark chocolate curls.

I chose to review The Truckle Cheese Co.  English Mature, Vintage Cheddar, and the Blue Shopshire Cheese and Pear and Vanilla Chutney.

The Mature Vintage Cheddar is very smooth, cuts well and has a very pleasant tangy flavour without being harsh.  This is definitely a 'cheeseboard' cheese, I felt it would be wrong to cook with it as it was simply too good. But I think it would be perfect in a cheese sauce for haddock mornay, mac n cheese or cauliflower cheese, it has the depth of flavour to really enhance those dishes.

While I really enjoyed the Cheddar it was the Blue Shopshire Cheese Truckle that was the real star for me.  A softer texture than the cheddar, with the slightly musty and acidic edge that only a blue cheese can deliver, it doesn't take much of this cheese to provide a huge flavour hit.  An oatcake was all that was required as a foil to the full flavour of the cheese.  A glass of malt whisky would be good too ;-)

I had asked to review the Pear and Vanilla Chutney as I was intrigued at the thought of vanilla in chutney.  The texture of this relish is soft, almost like a pear puree although there are pieces of fruit through it too.  The flavour is very soft and delicate, I tried it with the cheddar, but found it became a little lost against the strong flavoured cheese.  It is, however, perfect with cold meats like ham or cooked chicken where the sweeetness and low acidity works very well. 

These products and more are available mail order from The Truckle Cheese Co.
English Mature, Vintage Cheddar 400g - £7.95
Blue Shopshire Cheese 300g - £8.95
Pear and Vanilla Chutney 0.31kg - £3.95


I was supplied with the cheeses and chutney by The Truckle Cheese Co. I was not paid for this post and all opinions are my own. Prices are correct at time of publication.

Spiced Rhubarb and Lemon Muffins

It's still Rhubarb Central here! This time I'm bringing you some Spiced Rhubarb and Lemon Muffins.  This is a classic combination with the spices including cinnamon and little pieces of crystallised ginger.  I decided to make these when I saw the Recipes for Life Challenge at Vanesther's Bangers and Mash blog. The rules of the Recipes for Life call for a trio of ingredients, and this month they are rhubarb with lemon and spice. A monthly winner  will be picked and the best of the recipes will be included in a new charity cookbook to be published by SWALLOW later this year.

 

Spice Rhubarb and Lemon Muffins
150g light brown sugar
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 egg
1 tsp cinnamon extract (or 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon)
100ml milk
100g finely diced rhubarb
175g wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarb soda
1/2 tsp ground ginger
pinch salt
50g chopped ccrystallised ginger
grated zest of half a lemon

1.  Preheat the oven to 200C.
2. Line you muffin tin with paper cases.
3. Place 125g of the sugar, oil, egg cinnamon extract and milk.  Mix together and add the rhubarb.   

  

Wet ingredients

4. Sift your dry ingredients into the bowl, add the wet ingredients and stir until combined but don't over mix or your muffins will be heavy.

Dry ingredients

5. Spoon the mixture into the cases, filling about 3/4 full. 
6. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with the remaining sugar (I forgot to do this!)
7. Bake for 18-20 minutes.
8. Leave in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Cakey, fruity gingeryness!

What I really liked about these muffins was that they were really moist, the acidity of the rhubarb and the lemon took the edge off the sweetness and the combination of ginger and cinnamon worked really well with the fruit.  Best of all were the little nuggets of intense crystallised ginger.

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Rhubarb, Mango and White Chocolate Almond Cake

Are you fed up with rhubarb recipes yet?  When I asked Twitter for suggestions of recipes using rhubarb, Vicky Saunders of Yum Yum Bubblegum replied to tell me about the Rhubarb and Orange Cake, the recipe for which she had snipped from Good Food Magazine some years ago.

It sounded like just what I was looking for to create a cake which meets the requirements of this month's We Should Cocoa, the blog event created by Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog and Chele at Chocolate Teapot.  As always, the recipe must contain chocolate and this month it is guest hosted by Shaheen at Alottment to Kitchen (A2K) who has chosen the star ingredient as 'Mango'.

Rhubarb, Mango and White Chocolate Almond Cake

Cake:

350g rhubarb, cut into chunks

100g dried mango pieces

200g golden caster sugar

grated zest and juice of half an orange

140g butter, softened

2 eggs, beaten

½ teaspoon baking powder

85g self-raising flour

100g ground almonds

50g chopped white chocolate

Topping:

25g butter

25g light muscovado sugar

grated zest of half an orange

50g slivered almonds

1. Mix the rhubarb with 50g of the caster sugar and the orange zest, then set it aside for an hour, giving it a stir or two. 

2. Cut the mango pieces into small bite sized chunks and cover with orange juice, leave to soak for at least an hour.

3. Pre-heat the oven to 190/gas 5 and grease and line a 23cm loose-bottomed cake tin.

4. Cream the butter and remaining 150g sugar until light and fluffy. Drain any remaining orange juice from the mango pieces and add to the butter and sugar with the eggs, baking powder, flour and ground almonds and beat gently until smooth. Stir in the chopped white chocolate.

5. Turn into the tin and level with a spoon. Spoon over the drained mango pieces, drain the rhubarb and spoon the chunks over the cake. 

6. Bake for 25 minutes. 

7. Meanwhile, make the topping by melting the butter and stirring in the sugar, zest and almonds. 

8. Take the cake out of the oven, reduce the temperature to 180/gas 4, sprinkle the topping over it and quickly replace it in the oven for another 15-20 minutes until firm in the centre. 

9. Cool in the tin for 20 minutes or so before transferring to a rack. Dust with icing sugar and serve warm or cool with thick cream.

Printable Recipe

 I was a little concerned that adding the mango as well as the rhubarb might make the mixture too wet, but it baked perfectly and, I have to say, the topping is genius!  The almonds caramelise with the sugar and butter and provide a sweet and crunchy contrast to the moist almond sponge and sharp/sweet taste of the fruits.

 I served the cake slightly warm with Greek Yogurt, but it would be equally good with cream or icecream or served cold with a cup of tea or coffee.  Many thanks to Vicky for passing on this fantastic cake recipe and to Shaheen for hosting this month.

As I bookmarked this from Yum Yum Bubblegum, I'm also entering it in Bookmarked Recipes run by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes

Dill Onion Yogurt Bread - for Random Recipes

 I am so pleased that I found the time to take part in Random Recipes this month.  I love homemade bread and although I don't have a problem making it, somehow I don't get round to doing it very often, but as Dom at Belleau Kitchen has challenged us to a Random bread making challenge, it was the perfect opporutunity to try something different.

 

First take your Bread books, there were eight, then choose one at Random. It's the 5th of May (might not be by the time this is posted but that is the day of the 'Random choosing') so pick number 5.

The chosen book is the New Bread Machine Book by Marjie Lambert, bought in the early days of owning a bread machine. Now to choose which recipe, I glance at the clock, it's 25 minutes past one o'clock, so I will turn to page 25...

...and the recipe is chosen: Dill Onion Yogurt Bread

Dill Onion Yogurt Bread
For a 1 1/2 lb (675g) loaf
120ml (4fl oz) water
185ml (6fl oz) natural yogurt
3 tbsp butter
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp dried dill weed
1 tbsp dried onion flakes (I sauted a finely chopped onion in butter instead)
1 tsp salt
425g (15oz) strong white flour
2 1/4 tsp fast action yeast

Put all the ingredients into the bread pan of your machine in the order suggested by your machine I structions. Set for white bread, medium crust. Press start.

 Note: as long as you keep the salt and yeast separate when you add them to the pan I find the order doesn't matter. 

No bread machine? Just use any handmade white bread recipe, BBC Food have an easy white bread recipe by Paul Hollywood which explains the techniques.

Printable Recipe

 I was really impressed with the even texture of this bread, the dill and onion had spread through the dough beautifully and it had baked to a golden crust.  The recipes suggests that the loaf is good for sandwiches and I can see why.  It is lovely and soft and the savoury taste of herb and onion would add to the flavour of the filling.  When I had tea at The Dorchester (highly recommended) one of the sandwiches was chicken served on basil bread and it was divine.  I may try making some of that myself using this recipe.

The loaf is very tasty indeed and the herb and onion is not overpowering.  I'm looking forward to having some tomorrow with the leek and potato soup I made.

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