Just the same, although better - some ruminations on food

We have been in Scotland for a year and a bit. It is cold and dark and damp, just as when we arrived, and last week we attended the delightful Robbie Burns' birthday celebration at the Livingston Ward. It is, we are told, the most attended activity the ward has all year. Attendance was somewhat down from last year, but this was to be expected, as the night was bitterly cold, and many older more frail folk would have preferred to stay safely at home.  The tables were laid out in the gym, just the same as last year. The music was the same or similar. The men wore the same kilts and jackets, the program was almost the same, with the Selkirk Grace, the Ode to the Haggis, one other poem which was a repeat from the last year, and an additional/different poem or two. The menu was the same - we started with a choice between Scotch broth and butternut soup, with little rounds of French bread. This was followed by haggis and neeps and tatties, just the same as last year, only - the food tasted so much better than last year! Was this due to different cooks or acclimatization? I canna tell. It may have been a little of each. Still, the (vegetarian) haggis was good, the potatoes were excellent, and the neeps were better still. The sprig of parsley served on top added a gourmet touch, and the curry sauce some enterprising soul decided to serve with it all was interesting and surprisingly good.  Apparently a ward member of two had requested sauce with the haggis. Whiskey sauce, of course. One of the ward members treated me to a lengthy discourse on why we should have whiskey sauce with haggis because it tastes good (authentic), and all the alcohol cooks off anyway. It may have been in response to these requests that the bishop chose to serve a curry gravy with the haggis. Many/most turned up their noses at the curry, but we tried it and, to be honest, curry tastes better than even vegetarian haggis.

Last year I thought the mashed potatoes were tasteless and sloppy, and the neeps were better than the potatoes but only just. I spent the next couple of months reinventing the Scottish national vegetable dish. .Neeps and tatties refers to mashed potatoes (tatties, of course) and boiled, mashed swede. The English call it swede, and England is where this vegetable and we first became acquainted, so a swede it is and shall remain in our vocabulary. It is a large, yellow fleshed, bulbous root vegetable, a cross between a turnip and a cabbage. The Scottish call it a turnip (neep). Of course the Scottish also call a turnip a turnip, but who am I to argue with a Scotsman about anything while I am a guest in his country? Except for calling it a swede of course, but that is not so much an argument as a declaration of independence. Anyway, last year after Burns Night I was determined to render neeps and tatties, about which I had read before ever arriving in Scotland, not only palatable, but delectable. I succeeded with several different versions, all of them involving neeps, tatties, and butter. Quite a lot of butter in most cases. Salt and pepper also played their role. The vegetables can be very good mashed together, mashed separately, sautéed together or roasted together. Roasted swede was a wonderful discovery. You just slice it up and roast it with an assortment of other vegetables and it ends up tasting better than everything but the parsnip, and maybe the onion, Perhaps, on second thoughts, it is actually on a par with the sweet potato. We have a lot of fun with roasted vegetables.

We have a truly annoying little oven. The top element doesn't seem to work at all, so all heat comes from the bottom. As a result, things tend to burn on the bottom. We get around this by always heating the oven to 425 degrees plus, and then popping whatever it is into a really hot oven and letting the oven cool down while baking it. We have had some surprisingly successful baking adventures, but roasted vegetables, where it really doesn't matter it things burn a bit on the bottom, are a faithful standby.

We have rediscovered leeks and parsnips on our sojourn here. When we first moved to the US, I was horrified at the price of both of these and took up growing our own. The trouble is, neither grows especially well in our climate/soil. When we go home we will just include them in our vegetable shopping and put up with their being much pricier than here in the UK.

Enough of vegetables. When I was a child, my mother used to bake with a dried fruit mix, containing raisins, sultanas, currants and candied orange peel. It has been fun to become reacquainted with it. You can also buy a "deluxe" versions which includes cut up dried apricots, pineapple and glacé  cherries. Here is a recipe for my new version of fruity crunchies.

2 cups rolled oats
2 cups coconut
1 cup wholewheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups dried fruit mix (Just use golden raisins, or your choice of assorted dried fruit, cut up as needed)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup butter (oil also works, but butter tastes better)
generous 1/2 cup honey or golden syrup.

Melt the butter and honey or syrup together, and add to the other ingredients. Mix together and press into a baking sheet, about half an inch thick. Bake at 300 deg until golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. These are a little crumbly, but oh they taste good.

And while we are about it, I made a pineapple coconut meringue cake the other day for our mission president's birthday. It was pretty good. If you want to try it, use

1 yellow cake mix
oil as required for the mix
4 eggs, separated
1 smallish can crushed pineapple (I used a 15 oz can of pineapple chunks in juice, and pulsed it in a food processor until it was a bit smoother than crushed pineapple.)

2 cups sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups macaroon coconut (Fine dried, unsweetened)

Mix the cake using the oil, 4 egg yolks and the pineapple. Bake in a greased 13 by 9 pan until done.
(I will not share baking directions derived from my experiences with an insane oven)

While it is baking, make the topping.  Cook the sugar and water to firm ball. Because you are using very little water the sugar will be ready sooner than you think so keep an eye on it while you whisk the egg whites until stiff.  Add the hot sugar syrup into the beaten egg whites in a thin stream while beating like crazy. (electric mixer, please)  Beat until the mixture stands in peaks/holds its shape nicely. Beat in the vanilla if you would like, then carefully fold in the coconut until it is just mixed in.

Pile onto the hot, baked cake and return to the oven for another 20 minutes. Put it into the oven at 350 but drop the temperature dial to 300 when you put it in. The meringue should be lightly colored and the surface should be firm to the touch. leave it another five minutes if you are not sure it is ready

The meringue/macaroon will collapse a little as it cools. Enjoy!