Burns' Night

Jo and Nick

Dave looks on in amazement as Sarah waters her whisky

Gina performing an underwear test

Wee Jon

Britain's greatest 18th century poet, Robert Burns, was born on 25th January 1759.  The tradition of celebrating his birthday has become an annual excuse for eating Haggis, drinking whisky and reciting his poetry.  We don't need an excuse for doing any of these things, except reading or reciting the poetry, but thought that a dinner party built around this might be fun.  And it was.

Haggis, bashed neeps and caramelised  red onions

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Spiced stew of Beef Shin

served with Fondant Potatoes, Leeks, Celery and Carrots

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A selection of Scottish cheeses:

Lanark Blue, Morangie Brie, Inverloch Goat, Tobermory Cheddar

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Orange Creams with Orange Jelly

Drinks:  Grant's Sherry Casked Whisky, Cotes du Rhone Village Vaqueras, Amarone, Glenlivet Cask Strength (60.2%) 18 year old whisky.

Spiced Shin of Beef

This was a massive joint weighing over 5kg and only just fitted into our largest pan.  The beef was gently cooked at 130 degrees in 2 bottles of wine, with a whole head of garlic, cinammon, cloves, coriander, pepper, salt and star anise for 8 hours.  After removing the fat and scraggy bits the final yield was over 2kg of lean, succulent meat.  I made a sauce by adding the cooking liquor to a brown roux and tomato puree and used this to reheat the meat for service.


After the traditional Selkirk Grace the haggis was piped into the dining room and we read Burn's Address to a Haggis.  Dave recited a poem wot he rote:

A Burns Night Toast to the Lassies

We’re here tonight at 4 The Butts

We’re here to raise our glasses

Not just to the bard, old Robbie Burns

But to our hens and lassies.

So hail you wee, sleek, timorous beasties

It’s you we’d like to praise

On this Burns Night, Scots men like us

Recite some rhyming phrase.

Oh, all reet, I know when all is said and done

We’re not Scots through and through

But dinna ken, it matters not

When we’ve had a dram  - or two.

And in our ineb…. inrebr…  inedrunken state

It is at your behest

I thank our hosts for food and drink

And in my case, for this vest.

So raise your glasses one and all

And from your head down to your toes

Let’s salute our tartened beauteous hens

And thank our Si and Rose.

The Lassies

Si and Rose.

And we finished the evening with a verse or two of Auld Lang's Syne.

Winter Breakfast

This is the opposite end of the spectrum from the Full English fry up and will win approval from your heart specialist.  This breakfast consists of porridge, stewed fruit and low-fat yoghurt.  The porridge is made with traditional Scottish pinhead oatmeal cooked with nothing but water, no added salt or sugar.  The fruit is a combination of Bramley apples and allotment blackcurrants from the freezer with a little sugar.  The apples bulk out  the blackcurrants, but the flavour is still intensely blackcurranty.  We like our porridge like this served with all manner of fresh, stewed and dried fruits.

In terms of the guideline balanced diet, this dish provides good proportions of food from the starchy, fruit & veg and dairy food groups.  The missing item is something from the meat/fish or substitute section, but both the porridge and the yoghurt contain reasonable amounts of protein (11% and 5% respectively).  Oats also contain a much valued form of dietary fibre that seems to be useful in controlling some types of diabetes by slowing the absorption of sugars into the blood.

Planting garlic

Rosemary planting the garlic

The new gardening year starts here.  We have found a way of planting garlic that gives good results, avoiding too much loss to the White Onion Rot virus that infects our allotment.  It seems that the longer the garlic (and onions) are in the ground the more likely they are to suffer from this disease.

We put the cloves into trays of compost and then plant them out on the allotment when they are well established and growing strongly.  The trays can be put outside as they are frost tolerant (I have even read that they need frost or a cold period in the ground to trigger good bulb development) but they need to be protected from the birds who love to tug them out.

For the second year running we have used the Dobies 'Garlic Lovers Selection'.  This provides 2 bulbs of 4 different varieties and worked out very well in 2010.  We don't use our own kept garlic as this seems like a good way of spreading the White Onion Rot.