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DEAR READER
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Show & Tell
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@openjarcollective
First day testing recipes with the Central and West Integration Network, for a cookbook they have commissioned Open Jar Collective to make with them. Today the women shared their recipes for chicken curry, pakora, stuffed paratha, chickpea pilau and the most fantastic iced cake with handcrafted rose decorations. A great way to spend Monday! The recipe book is due to be completed by April. Photographs by Clementine Sandison.
What did we eat before baguettes, toasties and Panini?
Dumfries, in common with most Scottish towns, has a particular lunch time snack – the toasted Panini. First referenced in a 16th Century Italian cookbook, Panino (which comes from the Italian pane meaning bread) is traditionally a grilled sandwich made with slices of porchetta, that is popular in Central Italy. Panini became trendy in Milanese bars called Paninoteche in the 1970s and 1980s, and then subsequently in New York. Paninaro came to mean a fashionable young person who was very image conscious.
Through the dominance of American fast food culture, Panini have become ubiquitous in Scotland, alongside white sliced bread toasties, and french baguettes. All of these breads are made from highly refined strong wheat flours which are very difficult to produce in Scotland. Due to our shorter growing season, the wheat grown here has a much lower protein content which is fine for baking but lacks the elastic gluten required for conventional bread making. Scotland’s most successful cereal crop is Barley, once used in almost every home to bake bannocks.
According to the NFUScotland, out of the 2 million tonnes of Scottish barley produced in 2013, 55% was used as animal feed, 35% went to Whisky malting, and only a small proportion was sold as pearl barley or milled as flour for us to eat.
Bere (pronounced ‘bear’) is a form of six-row barley which has been grown in Scotland for thousands of years. Bere is quite possibly Britain’s oldest cereal grain still in commercial cultivation and was likely to have been brought here by Viking settlers. It has adapted to growing in soils with low pH and in areas with long daylight hours which makes it particularly suited to Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles. It grows rapidly, being sown in the spring and harvested in the summer. Beremeal was one of the earliest flours to be used to make bannocks.
Robert Burns once described southern Scotland as a "land o’ cakes". He didn’t mean desserts, but oatcakes and barley bannocks that would have been baked on an iron girdle over the fire.
“In Scotland, amongst the rural population generally, the girdle until recent times took the place of the oven, the bannock of the loaf.” F. Marian McNeil, 1929
In The Scots Kitchen, F. Marian McNeil suggests that the name bannok occurs in 1572, and derives from Latin panicum, probably through the influence of the Church. It may have referred originally to Communion bread.
Bannocks can range from soda breads, scones, or pancakes to a sweet fruity tea loaf in the case of the famous Selkirk bannock, but they usually have some barley meal in them. After testing numerous recipes, I think the best turned out to be F. Marian McNeil’s “Modern Method” using Beremeal from Barony Mills in Orkney (which is available through Greencity).
The Scots Kitchen Bannock (Modern Method)
Makes about 4 large bannocks
8oz beremeal
2oz unbleached white flour
1 tsp cream of Tartar
pinch fine salt
1 cup buttermilk, plus extra milk if needed
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
“General Directions” for making Bannocks from The Scots Kitchen
"The girdle should be put on the heat before the dough is mixed. To test the heat, sprinkle a little flour over it. If it browns at once the girdle is too hot; if it takes a few seconds to brown, it will do. For scones and bannocks sprinkle the girdle with flour, unless they are themselves sufficiently floury to prevent sticking; but for Scots crumpets and drop scones grease the girdle very slightly with a piece of suet wrapped in a clean rag. In a word, the girdle is floured for dough and greased for batter."
Method:
Mix the flours, salt and cream of tartar.
Put the buttermilk in a jug and stir in the bicarbonate of soda. Stir briskly and as it fizzes up, pour into the flour mixture.
Make into a soft dough (adding some milk if needed).
Turn out onto a floured board, handle as little as possible, but roll out lightly to about half an inch tick, then cut into rounds, or alternatively shape with your hands.
Place on the hot girdle and bake slowly for about 10 minutes until the underside is brown, then turn bannock and brown the other side for about 5 minutes. Serve warm with butter.
You can experiment with adding raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, and orange rind to make a sweet bannock. You could also try making your own butter and buttermilk, it’s really easy!
Open Jar Collective are exploring the cultural history of the Bannock in Dumfries and are looking for local recipes. Come along to toast your own bannock on the fire and share your stories in celebration of Burns Night with The Stove Network, at the Big Bannock Burn on Sunday 25th January 4-8pm, 100 High Street Dumfries.
Bannocks o' bear meal, Bannocks o' barley, Here's to the Highlandman's bannocks o' barley.
Wha, in a brulzie, will first cry a parley? Never the lads wi' the bannocks o' barley. Bannocks o' bear meal, Bannocks o' barley, Here's to the Highlandman's bannocks o' barley. Wha, in his wae days, were loyal to Charlie? Wha but the lads wi' the bannocks o' barley! Bannocks o' bear meal, Bannocks o' barley, Here's to the Highlandman's bannocks o' barley.
Robert Burns, 1794
We have been cooking up international cuisine at Kinning Park Complex this week as part of their kids programme. Inspired by the Empire Cafe menu we've been testing recipes with local ingredients and flavours of Commonwealth countries. The beetroot, so local that is was grown in the back garden of KPC was matched with some cocoa to make beetroot brownies. Carrots were a feature in many of the recipes including spring rolls, carrot and orange soup and Jamaican patties.
That’s the Newcastle Grub Crawl zines all ready to go. Hand stitched and packed. If you’d like to purchase a set, please visit here.
A big thank you to Ideas Tap for making the project happen!
The Empire Café is popping up in Glasgow this week and next for the Commonwealth Games celebrations.To celebrate the diverse menu that will be on offer, we’ve worked to put together a recipe zine to document the stories and personalities working behind the scenes.
If you can’t make it along to the café, you can purchase them here.
The latest recipe to make its way into The Empire Cafe Zine will be McCune Smith's take on the empire biscuit. They've added their own seasonal Scottish twist to a recipe for 'imperial biscuits' from the Glasgow Cookery School Book. Harrie's edition of the book was published in the 1930's (exact date unknown) but a centenary edition has been printed and is widely sold again.
"Once the bible of Scottish cuisine, the recipe book was the set text for the Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Domestic Science, affectionately known as the Dough School by locals."
These delightful biscuits and Open Jar's recipe Zine will be on sale at The Empire Cafe all week from Sat 26 Jul - Fri 1 Aug. And The Empire Cafe's full programme of events, talks and workshops is now live!
Last weekend Clem Sandison from Open Jar Collective was invited to give a talk by the Andrew Raven Trust at their Annual Weekend. This year's event focused on a question - What is the impact of how we consume food in Scotland?
It was a stimulating weekend of debate. Here are some thoughts and messages that particularly stood out for me - gleaned from my scrawled notes!
Clare Holohan led a wonderful herbal medicine walk and I learnt that daisies are Scotland's native equivalent to arnica.
Cesar Revoredo talked about the power of supermarkets within the food supply chain. Data from Kantar World Panel showed the retail market share of potatoes in Scotland: Fresh potatoes 38.4%, Crisps 38.2%, frozen potato products 23.4%
The decision on what is made available to the consumer is decided by the retailer. Choice is a myth.
The strategic objective of the retailer is to increase their sales. This may be stating the obvious, but when it comes to food which is a basic human right, is this really what we want?
Judy Wilkinson talked about the untold story of Allotments. They are places for more than growing vegetables… A Food Bank could feed a family for a week, a raised bed might feed them for a month, an allotment could feed a family for life.
One of the big questions that kept arising - what is land for?
Christine Watson reminded us that Spring Barley is Scotland's top crop production - for whisky malting. That's great for the export market, shame it's not being used as a food crop for people.
Crops bred for high yield are generally NOT climate tolerant or disease resistant. What's the priority?
Europe imports an area twice its own size of soya every year.
Davy McCracken spelled out how fundamental biodiversity is to ALL life!
We need a shift from the 'productivity' narrative that is the basis for most government policy to an 'Ecosystems services' narrative which values biodiversity. This reminded me of what Patrick Holden said at the True Cost Accounting event a few weeks ago - a bee never sent an invoice
David and Wilma from Cream o' Galloway shared their incredible story of the trials and tribulations of running a sustainable dairy farm and their move towards cheese production. Exporting ice cream to South Korea was a wake up call and highlights the lunacy of our export led market economy. David and Wilma are always an inspiration to me, and they make damn fine cheese!
There were big debates towards the end of the weekend about the need for massive systems change.
Geoff Tansey argued the case for a dynamic Steady State Economy. Hear hear.
Frank Strang announced that the Scottish government are launching their proposed 2025 vision of Becoming a Good Food Nation. "The Scottish Government wants food to be a key part of what makes the people of Scotland proud of their country - food which is both tasty to eat and nutritious, fresh and environmentally sustainable." So let's be part of this conversation.
Enjoyed a lovely day cooking with the Grow Green team in preparation for The Empire Cafe. We heard the story behind Ian's curried carrot and lentil soup, tested out the oatcakes, created a deliciously simple beetroot and orange salad, and shared warm banana cake in the sweltering Playbusters kitchen.
We also got a tour of the Parkhead Community Garden - an edible oasis in the heart of the East End. They're hoping to supply some of the produce for their menu at The Empire Cafe on Wednesday 30th July.
We're saving Ian's secret recipe for our Zine, but you can try out the yummy beetroot salad at home. It couldn't be simpler.
Beetroot and Orange Salad
Serves about 6 people
2 large beetroot
2 oranges
1 clove of garlic
splash of olive or rapeseed oil
salt and pepper
Peel and coarsely grate the beetroot into a bowl
Peel 1 orange and cut into segments then add to bowl
Squeeze the juice of half the other orange into the bowl
Finely grate or crush the clove of garlic and mix into salad
Season with salt and pepper to taste
You could try adding raisins or fresh parsley. Enjoy!
Photographs by Clementine Sandison
Today we had a serious production line going for the Thai Curry Puffs, which incidentally do not have curry inside them (although they can be served as a savoury pastry). June taught everyone how to make the sweet version that are traditionally served with tea of coffee and have a bean paste filling.
We also sampled Jyemee's incredible Malaysian carrot and cucumber salad with cubes of sticky rice and satay sauce, Angie's Papas Arrugadas from the Canary Islands, and Laritza's Cuban black bean soup and green bean salad.
Soul Food Sisters are about to launch an 8 week pop-up cafe in the Queens Park Arena, with the grand opening on Saturday 21st June as part of the Southside Shindig. These women really know how to cook! Don't miss it.
Photographs by Clementine Sandison
Cooking with Taste of Africa
Emily Chappell and Clementine Sandison from Open Jar Collective are working on a zine to document some of the incredible recipes and stories behind the food that will be served at The Empire Cafe.
The Empire Café is an exploration of Scotland’s relationship with the North Atlantic slave trade through coffee, sugar, tea, cotton, music, visual art, academic lectures, poetry, debate, workshops, historical walks, film and literature. The café will be based in the Briggait (home of the Merchant's Steeple) in Glasgow’s Merchant City from 24th July - 1st August 2014.
Clem has developed the food outreach programme and is working with Cafe Operator McCune Smith and five social enterprises from across the city to develop a unique menu for the cafe which will change on a daily basis. The menu will reflect the diverse cultural heritages of people living in Glasgow, explore Scotland's trade history, and showcase the best local produce as well as fairly traded goods from around the World.
On Monday Taste of Africa did a test run of dishes from Algeria, Gambia and Nigeria for their menu which will be served at The Empire Cafe on Friday 1st August. This included a Gambian 'Scotch egg' made with minced lamb.
Gambia was a British colony from 1888 - 1965. Interestingly, The Colonial Development Corporation (established in 1948) set up the Gambia Poultry Scheme which was intended to produce 20 million eggs for the British market. This export scheme was a spectacular failure.
It has left us wondering if there is any connection between this traditional Gambian egg dish and the British equivalent. Does the 'Scotch egg' originate in Scotland or is it more closely related to the Indian kofta? If anyone knows the story behind it, then please let us know!
Photographs by Clementine Sandison
Newcastle Metro Grub Crawl Stop 1 - Central Station
Subway: Individuals and the odd group of friends hover under doorways and bus shelters to consume their sandwiches.
A fantastic last day of the Broth Mix Cafe with an abundance of soup and cake, taiko drumming, Soul Train disco, easter egg hunt and fruit salad fashion show! Nadia and Ruby created some incredible outfits with the kids and Janine did a masterful job at getting everyone up dancing!
The Open Jar team would like to thank everyone at KPC, Euan from RiB and all our wonderful volunteers for making it such a lovely week!
We moved the tables outside and had a relaxing time in the sunshine today!
There was a chilled out family drumming session led by Paul from Rhythm Bridge, and despite the hot weather we sold out all our soup, soda bread and nearly an entire Chocolate and Almond cake. Luckily, there's Rhubarb and Polenta cake freshly baked ready for tomorrow.
Come along for a free drop-in Guerrilla Gardening workshop led by Creative Activism from 2-5pm. They'll be making edible seed bombs.
Day 5 at the Broth Mix Cafe...
The KPC women's group made delicious chickpea curry and chapatis on the hot plate of the new stove, the Open Jar crew made some new cake creations - rhubarb poppy seed roll and vegan lemon drizzle cake balls, we had the last session of Pester & Rossi's fruit and vegetable fashion in preparation for the Broth Mix Closing Party, June made a lovely Sweet and Sour salmon soup to mark Thai New Year, Roz got everyone making sourdough pizzas with beetroot topping (as piloted by Reuben a few weeks ago), and we had a great conversation about Community Ownership - which may lead to the formation of a City Property Tenant's Association!
All in all, an excellent day.
It's been a busy couple of days at Broth Mix!
We've had Pester & Rossi running workshops with kids to make their own weird and wonderful fruit salad fashion, we've had live music and spoken word from some of the KPC studio artists, we've concocted an array of different soups and cakes, we've had babies in the kitchen and films on the screen, we've discussed strategies for improving our local food system in Glasgow, we've drunk a fair amount of Williams Brothers beer, we've had Roz showing people how to make their own sourdough bread (tomorrow we'll be testing out the pizza dough), and best of all we've developed some regular customers who come in every day to try something new and have a chat!
Just 4 days to go before we close up shop. Stop by and see us anytime 12-5pm.
Huge thanks to all the volunteers who have been helping out on the welcome desk and in the kitchen!
What a fantastic opening to the Broth Mix Cafe! Following a week of hard work revamping the kitchen, we cooked up some delicious soup and cake today, while people explored the studios at KPC, listened to Nichola Scrutton's audio work, and enjoyed the family fun. Radical Independent Bookfair were selling books, Locavore were selling veg, and everyone enjoyed some good food and conversation.
Don't miss us, we're only around until Easter Sunday. Cafe open every day: 12-5pm (late opening for Film Night on Tuesday and Community Ownership Night on Thursday). Check out the Broth Mix programme for details of free gigs, workshops, and fun stuff that will be going on throughout the week. Tea Dance tomorrow 3-5pm with extra cake and a fine selection of tunes!
Our programme for Broth Mix at Kinning Park Complex is now available on our website and via this link: http://tinyurl.com/p3w2pqb
