A Wee Bit of Cooking

Friday at school is scone day.

Two of our best bakers (and we have quite a few) get up early in the morning and bake a couple of batches each. Just before 9am, they carry them carefully into school in big Tuperware boxes, watched from windows all the while.  Once securely in the staffroom, the cakes are then slathered with a generous helping of jam and cream and laid out ready for morning break.

The interval bell rings.  Classroom doors burst open and today, it’s teachers rather than pupils who are first out the doors and charging through the halls.   For a few short minutes it’s every educator for themselves.  Manners are forgotten as everyone tries to get to the staffroom in time to claim a scone.

I’d like to claim I was more mannerly than the masses but the day I saw the chemistry teacher take not the last scone but the last two scones and then devour them both right in front of my face still brings a tear to my eye.

I love scone day.

Here at home, I sometimes make my own scones but they are the savoury kind for eating with big bowls of vegetable soup rather than the sweet variety.  They haven’t caused any stampedes as of yet but they are pretty damned good.

Cheese Scones

(makes 8-10)

225g self raising flour (if you live somewhere that doesn’t have SR flour or are a bit sniffy about it see this page for flour/baking powder equivalents)

1 tspn baking powder

Pinch of pepper

40g salted butter, cut into cubes

50g mature cheddar (plus a little extra), grated

125ml milk

1 tspn English mustard

• Sift the flour, baking powder and pepper into a bowl.
• Add the butter and use your fingertips to rub it into the flour until a breadcrumb like texture is achieved.
• Stir through the cheese.
• Mix the mustard and milk together well.  Add little by little to the bowl and stir with a spoon until a dough is formed.  It shouldn’t be too sticky.
• Roll out until 2cm thick.   Use a pastry cutter to cut out rounds of dough and place on a baking tray.  Brush with a little egg or milk and sprinkle over some more cheese.
• Bake in a 200 oC oven (I have a fan oven – increase the heat a bit for non-fan) for 15 minutes.
• Cool slightly before eating.

I feel I ought to tell you something before sharing this recipe.  Before this year, I had absolutely no idea what meatloaf actually was.

Really. It’s not (as far as I’m aware) something that’s popularly eaten in Scotland.  I had heard about it on American TV programmes and films and, in my head, I had a vague notion that it might be a loaf of bread with flecks of mince through it and that didn’t sound terribly appealing.  Turns out it’s more like a huge sliceable burger.  Hmmm, that doesn’t sound particularly appetising either, now that I write it down…

Well, fellow meatloaf virgins, you’re going to have to just trust me on this one: it’s good.  Especially when bulked out with lots of veg like this one is and served with a smokey tomato & paprika sauce (this but with a teaspoon of smoked paprika and a glug of red wine).

Spinach & Garlic Meatload

(Adapted from The New York Times Cookbook)

(serves 4 – with enough leftover for a couple of rolls)

500g spinach

1 onion, finely chopped

2 celery sticks, finely chopped

Olive oil

6 garlic cloves, finely chopped

250g minced beef

250g minced pork

1/2 tspn nutmeg

1 slice of bread, whizzed into breadcrumbs

1 egg

A generous sprinking of salt & pepper

• Heat a little oil in a frying pan and add the onion and celery.  Cook until the onion is translucent then add the garlic.  Stir then set aside to cool while you…
• Drop the spinach into a pan of boiling water and pop the lid on.  Leave for a minute to wilt then drain.  Cool slightly then squeeze as much moisture as you can out of the spinach then chop roughly.
• Add the spinach, onion mixture, meats, breadcrumbs, spices  and egg  into a bowl.  Season well then mix together well using your hand.   I recommend testing the seasoning by frying a tiny ball of the mixture in the frying pan and tasting to see if you need more salt or pepper.
• Shape the mixture into the shape of a slightly deflated American football then wrap in bacon rashers.
• Place on a baking tray and cook in a 180 oC oven for 1hr 15 mins.
• Cool for 10 mins then slice.  Serve with a plain or smokey tomato sauce.
• Roast in a …. oven for….
• Remove from oven and let rest for 10 mins.  Slice thickly and serve topped with the smokey tomato sauce.