Crail Food Festival 2012

On Sunday Fiona and I hopped in her car and headed over the Forth Bridge into Fife in the hopes of escaping from the rain and checking out the Crail Food Festival.  We'd been alerted to this small, but bustling, food festival by fellow Cake Ladies and made plans to road trip over together.  

Crail is a really sweet harbour town close to the western tip of Fife and despite the miserable weather the place was heaving with people.  Both Fiona and I had our fingers crossed that we would get to have some lobster or crab freshly caught and boiled...but, sadly, the catch had been gobbled up by the time we arrived.  

Not to fear, there was plenty more to choose from, but...we did have to make our minds up quickly...no mooching back and forth weighing up our options.  The lines for every stall were long, and rightly so.  The first thing that caught my eye, after the "Sorry out of lobsters" sign on the crab shack, was the billowing smoke coming from the Arbroath Smokie stall.  I've never seen fish actually being smoked and then being prepared right there...in front of me.  "I have to have a smokie," I said to Fiona (luckily she loves smoked fish too).  

A smokie in hand we sat on a bench on the harbour wall watching the crowds and taking in the atmosphere.  A musician played a mixture of traditional and folky music, the seagulls screamed every now and then, and we devoured our giant smokies.  

With food in our bellies we wandered around and checked out the other stalls.  I was totally in love with some fab fruit cakes at the Sucre Coeur baking stall, but really didn't need a fruit cake...sigh.  I did, however, need some Caliente Hot Chocolate from the Cocoa Tree.  Rich dark chocolate with a decent hit of chilli...schhhhlurp.

Later we pottered through town, stopping at The Crail Gallery to check out the gorgeous prints, as well as a spectacular lighthouse cake by Sucre Couer.  After tea at The Honeypot we wandered over to Crail Pottery where I picked up the sweetest little red milk jug.  

I really enjoyed my time in Crail and at the food festival.  I might smell like smoke for the next couple of days but I am already looking forward to next year.  

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selkirk bannock...embracing my new culinary surroundings

Almost a month ago we packed up our little house in Chelmsford and started on our amazing new adventure in Edinburgh.  David's been working hard in his new job, mentally exhausted every night...and I have been exploring my new city and thinking up ways to amuse myself while he is at work.  Until we magically got the internet last week a lot of that consisted of going to the library and using their computers, browsing the book shelves and...reading a heck of a lot of novels....and bringing home two battered (not deep fried) and stained (in a good way) scottish cookbooks, which I have been flipping through like mad.

My grandmother's family is Scottish so I grew up with an eclectic mix of Anglo-Scots-Canadian cuisine (her shortbread are to.die.for...and don't get me started on the cherry pound cake) and coupled with the huge waves of Scottish immigration to Canada (and mostly similar climate) there are lots of foodstuffs I recognise in these books.  A lot of them are hearty....good stick to yer bones kind of food...and with the warm weather upon us here I can't see me making many stews over the next few months....so those recipes will have to wait.

What I did challenge myself to tackle this week was a yeast bread called Bannock.  It is basically a fruit bread enriched with butter (not highly authentic...but a modern version of a classic).  Apparently every region used to have its own version made with whatever grain was milled locally.  This Bannock, originally made in Selkirk (about an hour south of Edinburgh, close to the English border) is still made today and is mass produced and sold in stores...so...keep an eye out!

On a class trip in primary school we went to Historic Fort York in downtown Toronto and I remember making Bannock dough and then moulding it around the end of a stick and then "roasting" it over an open fire...in my cookbook it says that sometimes this dough was griddled....me?? I baked it, in a spring-form baking tin, and once cooled...slathered with butter (from a packet...not churned by hand, like at Fort York).

Looking forward to discovering more Scottish delights!