Scottish recipes

Conni's Cooking Corner

By Conni Attwell

Here are some Scottish recipes for Christmas and New Year, including one requested by a reader.

Scotch Eggs (great for an ‘Eve’ party):

Oil for frying
4 eggs
2 lbs pork sausage meat
also 4 eggs, beaten
4 cups seasoned bread crumbs
1 cup all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place eggs in pan and cover with water. Bring
to a boil, cover and remove from heat and let sit in the hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from pan, cool and peel. Flatten the sausage meat and make a patty to surround each egg. Very lightly flour the sausage and then coat with beaten egg. Roll in breadcrumbs and cover evenly.

Deep fry until golden brown (or pan fry while making sure each side is well cooked). Bake in oven for 10 mins.

Cut each egg in half and serve with lettuce and tomato.

Empire Biscuits (light shortbread cookies):

2 cups butter, softened
1⁄2 cup milk
24 maraschino cherries
1 cup white sugar
4 cups all-purpose flour
8 cups icing sugar
Some raspberry jam

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar until smooth, then gradually add in flour until well blended.

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough out to 1⁄4 inch thickness. Cut into rounds. Bake for 10 minutes then allow the cookies to cool on a baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

Sandwich 1 tsp of jam between two cookies.

Stir milk into icing sugar to a spreadable consis- tency, then spread on top of sandwich cookies. Top with 1⁄2 a maraschino cherry.

Easy Shortbread (personal recipe; this one for reader Rose):

1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour

Cream butter and sugar thoroughly. Add flour gradually. Press dough on ungreased baking sheet 1⁄4 inch thick. Sprinkle with sugar and prick with fork. Bake at 300 degrees until light brown. Cut into squares and let cool on sheet.

Scotch pudding:

An easy microwave way of making Clootie Dumpling. A mixture of flour and dried fruits traditionally boiled in a cloth for hours. Scottish version of Plum Pudding.

1 cup water
1: 1⁄4 cup golden raisins
3⁄4 cup white sugar
1 cup margarine
1 tbsp mixed spice
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1:1/4 cups chopped dried fruit
2 eggs, beaten

In a saucepan, combine water, sugar, mixed spice, cinnamon, mixed fruit, raisins and margarine

Bring to a boil and let simmer for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in flour, baking soda and eggs. Pour into a microwave safe bowl. Put in microwave uncovered. Cook 10 minutes on full power. Let stand for 5 mins. Serve warm with custard.