> TASTE TEST
Scottish-grown apples
With thanks to John Hancox of the Children’s Orchard (www.childrensorchard.co.uk) for samples and identification
SIDE DISHES News to nibble on
For more food and drink visit www.list.co.uk/food
Charles Ross October is the time for apples in Scotland – for this month at least you can stop buying the few familiar types of imported apple from as far afield as the US and choose from the hundreds of native varieties growing in orchards, parks and back gardens near you. The variety called Charles Ross is a popular one in Scotland: a good eater with firm, creamy white flesh and an aromatic, orangey flavour. Pretty versatile as it is great for juicing too. Discovery Hundreds of apple trees are being planted by schools and community groups in Scotland as part of the Commonwealth Orchard project, which is aiming to create a positive, healthy grassroots legacy for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Discovery is one of the more common varieties used for these new plantings: it’s a great apple straight off the tree with lovely marbled pink, crisp flesh and not too sweet, not too tart.
Emneth Early The vast majority of apples are bought in supermarkets, where we’re used to clearly distinguished types and perfect good looks. Not all apples plucked from local trees look so immaculate, but a few blemishes are unlikely to affect taste, or how well an apple cooks or juices. The Emneth Early, with its distinctive ridges running down the side, is generally treated as a cooking apple. To eat it’s crisp and clean but very sharp.
Katy Oor Wullie was always being chased down the street by PC Murdoch for stealing apples. These days local councils have to organise school trips to show kids where apples grow. Katy is the kind of apple you’d shin a wall to nab: not only are the trees often full of pretty red apples, but the fruit is delicately fragrant with a subtle flavour. Smaller in size and not a keeper – perfect for eating straight off the tree.
Howgate Wonder An apple that grows well in Scottish conditions. It will seem a tad sour compared to the warm-climate varieties we’re used to, but it’s well balanced with a fresh taste. A good all- rounder this one: it can be an eater, or a cooker, and is particularly good for juice – apple gathering projects such as Abundance, based in south Edinburgh, bring along a press to events to make fresh juice (www.abundanceedinburgh.com). Laxton’s Fortune The russet-skinned Laxton’s Fortune has a creamy flesh and is aromatic, sweet and reminiscent of Cox’s Pippins, which are sometimes the only British apple to find a place on supermarket shelves. People are sometimes reluctant to eat local apples because they don’t know the variety – ultimately, however, it’s not about what they’re called but how they taste. If they’re not an eater, they’re likely a cooker, and either way will probably make decent juice.
■ THE BBC Good Food Show Scotland, now in its third year, will be at the SECC in Glasgow from Friday 30 October to Sunday 1 November. Alongside the usual array of big-name cooking demos, there’s a strong showing from smaller local producers including regional stands from Perthshire, Lanarkshire and East Lothian as well as special zones for local foods run by Slow Food, Scotland Food and Drink, and Henrietta Green’s Foodlovers Fairs. Advance tickets bought through glasgow.bbcgoodfood show.com offer a saving on entry prices. ■ EDINBURGH CHEF Tom Kitchin is off to London on Sat 10 Oct to work in a pop-up restaurant that looks set to be the capital’s culinary event of the year. Kitchin’s former boss and mentor at the three-Michelin star La Tante Claire restaurant, Pierre Koffmann, is running a restaurant on the roof of the Selfridges building from 8–31 October, and has called in a number of his protégés, including Eric Chavot, Tom Aikens and Kitchin, to lend a hand.
FOODFORTHOUGHT Rod Jones Idlewild guitarist and spokesman/curator for the Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival
Whether I’m touring or at home everything starts the same way, a breakfast of toast, a banana and coffee. In the studio and during rehearsals it gets a bit fraught as we’re a band who all love coffee but argue over how it should be made. Colin [Newton, our drummer] guards the plunger like some caffeine overlord to make it strong enough. Lunch when we’re rehearsing is pretty much whatever was in the fridge at home formed into a sandwich, eaten while you’re waiting for people to tune up or whatever. On tour you find yourself relying on decent chain places like Pizza Express,
only because you’ll know what you’re getting. We had a policy of searching out great places to eat on our last tour — ending up at places like Abstract in Inverness — but that put a dent in the touring budget. At home I’ve got about ten dinner staples I rely on like risotto, prawn pilaf
and lamb kebabs, but when I’ve time I love to roast big hunks of meat. I’m a bit of a stickler when it comes to gravy. I’m doing a bit of pot roasting of small birds at the moment too. It’s really simple stuff, just chuck it all in and let it go. ■ Music Like a Vitamin, featuring Rod Jones, Frightened Rabbit, Attic Lights and Norman Blake is at HMV Picture House, Edinburgh, Wed 21 Oct.
■ QUITE a few new openings to report, with Roy Brett’s upmarket seafood restaurant, Ondine, now open for business on George IV Bridge in Edinburgh’s Old Town, a smart new daytime restaurant opening within the John Hope Gateway centre at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Scottish-Palestine café-restaurant El Daar setting up at 22a Nicolson Street and David Ramsden’s new bar Underdogs opening immediately under (a)more Dogs at 104 Hanover Street. In Glasgow, large-scale Japanese restaurant Sapporo Teppanyaki (pictured) is setting the stoves alight on the corner of Ingram and High Streets, while the lower key noodle bar Wudon can be found at 535 Great Western Road. 8–22 Oct 2009 THE LIST 11
S T R E B O R H A R A S
: O T O H P