Modern Recipes

Sausage, bacon, black pudding and more Scottish breakfast soup with poached egg Sausage, bacon, egg, black pudding and mushrooms are integral parts of the full Scottish breakfast (or indeed any British fried breakfast) but it's probably not often that we find them collectively incorporated in a soup. It is for this reason that I should perhaps offer a bit of an explanation. This idea came about one day last week when I had a conversation with a family friend about a delicious black pudding and mushroom soup he had tasted recently in a hotel in the Lake District. His wife had a go at making it when they returned home with what he assures me were delicious results. Me being me, however, I immediately started thinking about how I could adapt the concept further and (hopefully!) take it to new levels of deliciousness. What follows are the results of my experiment and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Simple vegetable stock ingredients Ingredients 1 large carrot 1 medium white onion...

Traditional Scottish rolls and sausage incorporating cheese, tomato and onion A roll and sliced sausage must be right up there among the most popular of all Scottish food creations widely enjoyed on a regular basis. A sliced sausage (also commonly called Lorne or square sausage) for those outside Scotland is a sausage sliced from a larger block of sausage meat, rather than one where the meat is stuffed in to a skin to form a conventional sausage shape. The sausages can be either grilled (broiled) or fried and even though grilling is generally the healthier option, I always fry them in vegetable oil as I find they can dry out so easily under the grill. While the sausage is usually added to a plain bread roll (optionally buttered) and eaten as is with the addition only perhaps of some fried onions and/or sauce, I enjoy experimenting with different toppings for a plain roll and sausage. This simple combination of cheese, tomato and onion is one of my favourites. Frying Scottish sliced sau...

Slightly sweet and spicy Scottish yellow tomato and butternut squash soup This is the second batch of soup I made from my bumper delivery of fresh greenhouse tomatoes just over a week ago. This time I used yellow rather than red tomatoes and decided also to incorporate a butternut squash for an extra bit of texture and flavour. It was absolutely delicious and again, most of it is safely tucked away in my freezer for taking with me on Winter sea fishing trips in my flask. Scottish greenhouse grown red and yellow tomatoes Ingredients 1 large carrot, washed, topped and roughly chopped 1 medium white onion, peeled and quartered 4 ounces mixed sliced bell peppers 2 bay leaves Salt and pepper 4 pints cold water 4 pounds yellow tomatoes, washed and halved 1 teaspoon dried basil Olive oil 1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped 1 teaspoon cumin seeds Principal ingredients for basic vegetable stock Directions Add the carrot, onion and bell peppers to a large soup or stock pot al...