Bound by the apron strings
SIDE DISHES News to nibble on
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A new book from Sue Lawrence invites well-kent Scottish faces to wax nostalgic about their favourite childhood foods. Donald Reid takes a trip down memory lane
Sue Lawrence clearly loves the warm waft of nostalgia emerging from the kitchen door. In interviewing over 70 prominent Scots including Gordon Brown, Andy Murray and Gordon Ramsay for her new book she has given them a topic few would be reticent about: childhood food memories. This rich vein provides more than insight into the individuals: it’s an affirmation of Scottish food in the place it was often the best – at home, on holiday, with favourite relatives or neighbours. And because Lawrence is one of our best recipe writers, a recipe given, or prompted, by the celebrity accompanies each profile.
This extract from the entry on Jackie Kay gives a flavour. The poet and novelist’s memory was the ‘complete unpredictability of a bowl of porridge’ that Jackie Kay remembers as a child, growing up in Bishopbriggs near Glasgow. ‘It could be lumpy, too salty, was always grey and to me was associated with depression. It was eaten a lot at home and I hated it – still do!’
But she also had good memories: the family used to holiday on the Isle of Mull and they all fell in love with Mull Cheddar. They used to eat big chunks of it, as if
it were big blocks of tablet. ‘But as well as associating Mull with the lovely cheese, I also remember
when I was about four years old,
stepping off the boat in
Tobermory and some of the locals asking my parents,
“Do they have the English?” as my brother and I were obviously the only non- white children they had
seen!’
Her parents were both members of the Communist Party
and with that, according to Jackie, came many perks:
on Saturdays her dad
would go to
the Party butcher and be given four
steaks and four slices of square (beef) sausage for free. If anyone in the Party needed a carpenter or plumber, it would also be easily arranged. When her parents went to Russia to be with fellow Communists, Jackie and her brother were left with family friends, apart from a couple of days when they stayed near Edinburgh. ‘I will never forget the gooseberry pie made by the little old man we were left with. This was a pie out of a fairytale, just divine. It was really juicy and thick and the flavours all burst in the mouth. There was a hole in the middle of it and the syrupy gooseberries oozed out. The old man had a long overgrown path he had to go down to pick the gooseberries from the garden of his wee cottage. I will never forget that pie.’ Jackie learned to do some basic cooking at home but the thing she loved doing most was ‘making a plate’. Her mum would sometimes say, ‘Let’s make a plate to cheer ourselves up.’ On this plate were beetroot balls, slices of ham, cubes of cheese, pickled onions ‘and a happy yellow pineapple ring’ (as written in her poem ‘Yellow’). She still remembers the strong complementary colours all beautifully laid out for them to enjoy. She also learned to poach smoked haddock in milk and make omelettes.
These days Jackie still likes to cook haggis, broth and smoked fish. But two of her mum’s dishes that she loved then and now are rice pudding (which Jackie liked to see emerge from the oven topped with crusty skin, though she never liked to eat it) and apple sponge pudding, made in a square tin. ■ Taste Ye Back: Great Scots and the Food that Made Them by Sue Lawrence, published by Hachette Scotland, £20. A percentage of the royalties from sales will be going to Children’s Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS)
FOODFORTHOUGHT
Cook School by Martin Wishart Donald Reid learns some culinary techniques from a master
I’m off to the cook school, so there’s no point in a big breakfast, is there? Arrive for a 9.30am start and there’s a pot of coffee on the table, thankfully. Halfway through the briefing Martin Wishart himself wanders in, looking relaxed. He answers a few questions, but he’s got bigger fish to fry. Instead the lead tutors are two chefs from Wishart’s kitchen, Ryan Blackburn and Kevin Ramsay. Mid-morning snack is going to be cheese soufflé – just so long as we get the sauce, the egg beating, the folding, the quantities, the timing and the seasoning right. The soufflé rises! It tastes great! Boy these guys are good.
Lunch sounds terrific: halibut in a saffron shellfish broth, the only drawback being that we’re cooking it. Tasting is encouraged as we go. ‘Chef’ (the person hitherto known as Martin Wishart) is back to taste the results. The fish is nice and moist. The broth’s got some depth. Did I salt the fish the way I’d been shown? Bit too much lemon in there? Just as well dinner at the restaurant is getting the same scrutiny. And that it’s not me cooking. ■ A session at Martin Wishart’s Cook School is one of 40 ‘Perfect Experiences’ being promoted by VisitScotland as ways to encounter different aspects of Scotland in a unique and special way. visitscotland.com/perfectexperience
■ THERE IS ALWAYS a rash of new places flinging their doors open in time for Edinburgh’s festival season, and this year is no different. One prominent newcomer to Victoria Street is a second branch of Broughton Street’s Bakehouse Co. Retaining some of the old-fashioned tearoom style of the original, it’s a narrow, slightly ramshackle but smart affair over three floors of the former Pine and Old Lace shop where you’ll find fresh sandwiches, salads, pies and classy baking, as well as pots of tea and good coffee. 46 Victoria Street, thebakehousecompany.co.uk ■ ELSEWHERE IN TOWN, The Holyrood 9A is located near the junction of The Pleasance and Holyrood Road. An old boozer made over with a bit more than just a couple of brown sofas and some IKEA tables, it has 20 draught beer taps including Bacchus Framboise Belgian raspberry beer, Stewart’s Edinburgh Gold and Brewdog’s Zeitgeist, while the simple but decent food includes gourmet burgers, salads, snacks and breakfasts. 9a Holyrood Road, 0131 556 5044, www.theholyrood.co.uk.
■ PEEBLES has a new chocolatier, Cocoa Black, selling handmade chocolates and patisserie and also operating a chocolate school offering tuition at all levels from beginner to professional. The operation is run by South African born Ruth Hinks, who has spent time at leading chocolate schools including Cacao Barry in Paris and picked up a gold medal at the Culinary Olympics in Efurt, Germany, a few years back. You can find out more by calling 01721 723764 or going to cocoablack.co.uk 13–20 Aug 2009 THE LIST 7