Be inspired with Scotland Food & Drink Fortnight Cook-along with our Local Legend; Scotland’s National Chef
It’s an exciting time in Scotland. Scotland Food and Drink Fortnight; the annual September celebration has begun and today I’m raising my glass and announcing another very deserving ‘Local Legend’; the theme of this year’s celebration. I’ll also be providing you with the details of how you can get cooking with this ‘Local Legend’ from the comfort of your own kitchen, as he prepares a special #ScotFoodFort20 menu for you to cook-along with him via his Facebook page tomorrow, 9th September.
Every year the first two weeks of September are given over to celebrating all that is wonderful, local, delicious and inspirational involving Scotland’s Food and Drink. From celebrating our world-class cuisine heritage to raising a glass of thanks to the producers, farmers, fisherman, chefs and everyone involved in whatever way, shape or form makes for a fabulous fortnight.
I have missed putting together one of our special food and drink luxury tours to celebrate this year, but look forward to this pandemic being dampened down enough that we’ll be able to bring fellow foodies back together to enjoy a culinary journey in 2021.
Gary Maclean, Scotland’s National Chef.
So, yes you may have guessed it, we’re awarding the Tasting Scotland Gourmet Journeys & Events #ScotFoodFort20 #Local Legend crown today to Scotland’s National Chef; Gary Maclean.
Gary and I worked together for a number of years and an extremely talented chef he most certainly is. Winning Masterchef: The Professionals 2016 attests to that. Throughout our time working together his dedication to his craft and to those he inspired was evident and he deserves this award due to that dedication being mirrored night after night during lock-down.
Some of you may have tuned in. Every evening at 8 pm for well over 100 nights, Gary kept us all entertained with his live cookery demonstrations. I counted 114 in a row (all expertly recorded by his daughter with his two young sons providing help as commis chefs and supreme tasters!).
Get Cooking – What you’ll need to buy
There’s still time to buy your ingredients, dust off your Tasting Scotland apron and get set to cook along with Gary Maclean tomorrow night at 8:00 pm BST (Noon Pacific, Mountain 1 pm, Central 2 pm, Eastern 3 pm) via his Facebook page @gmacchef
Roast rack of Scotch Lamb with new braised potatoes and caponata
For the lamb
- 1 Rack of Scotch Lamb (or quality lamb from your area)
- ½ bunch Thyme
- 4 cloves Garlic
- 500g New Potatoes
- 1 White onion
- 500ml Lamb stock
For the Caponata
- 1 Aubergine, cut into 1 cm dice
- 1 Onion, chopped
- 2 sticks Celery, peeled and cut into 1cm dice
- 1 Courgette cut into 1 cm dice
- 2 Plum tomatoes, chopped
- ½ Bunch Basil
- 50g Sultanas
- 50g Pine nuts
- 100ml Olive oil
- 50ml Red wine vinegar
- 1tbsp Caster sugar
- Salt and Pepper
Grilled Langoustine with fennel, pea and herb salad and aioli
Fennel salad:
- 1 bulb Fennel
- 100g Peas
- 1 Small bunch Dill
- 1 pkt Salad cress
- 1 Lemon
- 100ml Olive oil
- Salt/pepper
Grilled Langoustine
- 20 Langoustine (Also known as Norway Lobster or Dublin Bay Prawns).
- 100g Butter unsalted
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 1 Lemon
- 1 Small bunch Chives
Smoked Salmon and Shetland mussel Kedgeree
- 200g Smoked Salmon, chopped
- 200g Mussel meat, 1 kg Raw in shell (Gary is using Mussels from Shetland)
- 1 Bay leaf
- 3 Eggs, boiled
- Small bunch Flat parsley
- Small bunch Coriander
- Few sprigs Dill
- 25ml Vegetable oil
- 2 Banana shallots
- 1 tsp Ground coriander
- 1 tsp Ground turmeric
- 2 tsp Curry powder
- 2 Veg stock cubes
- 250g Long grain rice
Share your photos with us @TastingScotland and tag with #ScotFoodFort20.
We’re looking forward to seeing your completed dishes!
And in the meantime, if you’re not already on our ‘first to know’ Tasting Scotland tours and tasting events list, sign up here.
Brenda
