Scottish Cuisine and 47 Weeks!

One of the books I got through the library is a cookbook. I don't know if you caught onto that whilst reading the long list of titles. It is called THE SCOTTISH KITCHEN, and has lovely pictures. Most of the recipes look delicious. I thought perhaps I'd try my hand at a few - and you may as well, if you like. I remember my friend Sarah just RAVING about Cullen Skink. And I remember that she'd sent me a recipe for it years ago. So I found it:
Cullen Skink (See: http://rampantscotland.com/recipes/blrecipe_cullen.htm)
Ingredients:
a large smoked haddock (2lb.)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1.5 pinks milk
2 TBSP butter
8 oz. mashed potato
salt & pepper
1 bay leaf
chopped parsley
water
triangles of toast

How-to:
Cover the smoked haddock with water, in a shallow pan, skin side down. Bring to boil & simmer for 4 to 5 turning once. Take haddock from the pan & remove skin & bones (ooh! fun!) Break up the fish into flakes, return to the stock and add chopped onion, baby leaf, s&p. Simmer for another 15 minutes. Strain, remove bay leaf but retain stock & fish. Add the milk to the fish stock adn bring back to a boil. Add enough mashed potato to create preferred consistency. Add fish & reheat. Just before serving, add butter in small pieces so that it runs through the soup. Serve with chopped parsley & triangles of toast.

Ooh. That does sound good. The recipe for the same in THE SCOTTISH KITCHEN is fairly similar, but this book also has a Cullen Skink tart recipe which looks delicious. The recipe for that is here:
Pastry:
2 cups flour
pinch of salt
1/2 cup butter, sliced
1 egg, beaten

Filling:
2.5 cups milk
2/3 cup light cream
2 egg yolks
pinch of thyme
2 fillets undyed, smoked haddock, cut into dice
7 oz potatoes
ground black pepper

How-to:
Preheat oven to 400.
Sift flour and salt together into a bowl. Add butter & rub into the flour and salt until mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Add egg and mix to a light dough. Cover in plastic wrap and chill 20 mins.
Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface and line a 8 inch quiche tin. Bake blind in over for 20 mins.
Whisk milk, cream, egg yolks, and thyme together. Layer the quiche case with the fish and diced potato, season with black pepper. Pour the milk mixture over the top. Return to the oven and cook for a further 35 to 40 mins. until lightly browned on top and set.

That does sound lovely. Perhaps in some spots of Scotland the food isn't so bad after all. But in Glasgow, alas, it is reputedly nasty . In one of my other library books (GLASGOW by title) it says,
"Glasgow diet is the despair of dieticians everywhere. Not only is it bad, they say, it is wilfully bad." Oh dear.