Scottish Dishes
By Calliope O'Connor
1. Haggis: A Scottish dish, subdefined as a type of spiced offal sausage. It traditionally consists of a sheep's stomach stuffed with a mixture of the sheep's heart, liver, lungs, spices, onions, oatmeal, and additional mutton fat. It is poached in stock or water, and generally served with mashed rutabagas of 'neeps' (parsnips). It is a special dish, reserved for high days or holidays, and is the traditional dish on January 25, the anniversary of the birth of the poet Robert Burns. On this occasion, the Haggis is borne in on a silver platter, to great bagpipe fanfare. The name derives from the verb 'haggen' (to hack), although some muggle authorities believe it derives from au gui l'an neuf (mistletoe for the new year!), a comman herald around the time haggis is traditionally served. Today, haggis is often served with a veloute sauce. The texture is nutty, due to the oatmeal, bracing, and savory.
2. Cullen skink: The traditional name for a Finnan haddie (or haddock) and potato soup. It originated in Cullen on the Moray Firth coast (Morayshire). "Skink" originally referred to a soup made with a beef shin, though this uses fish instead. Potatoes and onions are sauteed, then simmered in stock. The haddock is added for 5 minutes to cook it through, removed, boned, and flaked. The remaining soup base may be mashed to make the soup thicker. The fish is returned to the soup base, and finished off with a small amount of butter.
3. Toastie: In general, the British breakfast savory consisting of a sandwich-like creation dipped in beaten egg and fried. Bacon, cheese, and tomato conserve are all common fillings, as are sausages, mushrooms, or fried eggs.
4. Tattie: Scottish in origin, a tattie is a potato based scone. Rather than being baked, these scones (a mix of mashed potatoes, salt, and flour) are shaped into triangles and fried in hot oil.
5. Clootie dumpling: A scottish dumpling, clootie means cloth, and refers to the pillowcases the dumplings were cooked in to allow for expansion. These are a sweet item. The cloth or case is scaled, wrung out, and dredged with flour. The clootie mixture, including flour, suet, breadcrumbs, sultanas, cinnamon, ginger, sugar, milk, and currants, is placed in the bag. The cloot is then boiled in a covered pot for upwards of 3 hours, the dumpling removed and finished off in an oven. The recipe does not make the small, multiple dumplings we are used to, but rather one mammoth dumpling.
6. Cock-a-leekie: A traditional Scottish soup of chicken and leeks (thus the name). There are two schools of thought on the origin: that the soup evolved from the 14th century English dish Ma-Leachi (ma means 'fowl'), or that it evolved from the sport of cockfighting- the loser was tossed into a pot with some leeks for flavor. A calve's foot can be added to the pot when the chicken is being rendered for broth, to improve the texture. Leeks are sauteed separately and added, or simmered directly in the broth. Barley is added for body and substance.
7. Partan Bree: Partan is Scottish for crab, bree means a liquid in which something has been poached or boiled then left to soak. Thus, this is another Scottish soup. Rice is cooked in milk until soft, then pureed with the brown meat from a cooked crab. The mixture is returned to the stove, extended with broth and seasonings, and brought to the boil. The white crab meat is added just long enough to heat it through, cream is stirred in and the soup is removed from the boil. It is garnished with parsley or other seasonal herbs.
In Miss Sweet's handwriting, done in a silvery ink is the following comment. The prose simply flows and bespeaks a familiarity with culinary arts unusual for one so young. My compliments to the talented possible chef to be. Come see me sometime and we'll talk about your future. Such a natural talent should not be squandered on less enjoyable pastimes.