Scotch Cornered

I had covered almost five hundred miles in two days but the Dogg, The Panda (the make of car not the animal) and I had made it. We had found ourselves in the far North East at a converted cooperage overlooking the bay with stunning views inland to fields festooned with hay bales. The spire of a Church, that was almost steampunk in design, jutted up from near a set of thin trees huddled on a hillside. It was picture postcard stuff no question . 

The building we were in had a conservatory with a glass ceiling and the place had almost every facility you could think of. On the Sunday Night, which was the third one in September I was cooking for challenging and specialist tastes. 

I found inspiration from a cookbook of traditional Scottish recipes many of which seemed to be stews laced with Game and/or Beef. However it was necessary to make the chosen stew vegetarian so as to make it suitable for those I was cooking for. 

On the Player on the way up, and therefore fresh in my mind while prepping this meal, was Mark Knopfler’s peerless soundtrack to the film “Local Hero” . This film was set near to where we were staying and in fact the iconic phone box featured in the film situated at nearby village Pennan was once painted by my Genial Great Uncle. 

The album itself contains lots of atmospheric synth work, trademark twanging guitars, one song sung by the late Bearded growler Gerry Rafferty and “Going Home” a tune used regularly at football matches as well as an encore at Dire Straits concerts and his own solo gigs once Knopfler binned that band. The pick track however is “Stargazing” it may be short but it has epic qualities and is a good one to listen to if you’re looking for motivation to do something out of your comfort zone. 

The ingredients for this recipe were as follows: 

10 Ounces Green Lentils 

5 Red Potatoes Cubed 

3 White Onions fully diced

3 Shallots fully diced 

2 Cloves Of Garlic diced 

4 Rainbow Carrots Sliced thinly two yellow one purple one orange 

Tablespoon of Rosemary 

Tablespoon of Thyme

Tablespoon of Smoked Paprika 

Quarter pint of Vegetable Stock

Quarter of a pint of Red Wine 

The method was as follows: 

1. Boil the Lentils in a pan of water on the hob for thirty minutes. 
2. Fry the Potatoes with the Rosemary and Thyme in a deep frying pan for fifteen minutes.  
3. Add to the frying pan the red wine, Smoked Paprika  and the carrots and fry for a further twenty minutes.
4. After this add Onions Shallots and Garlic and fry for a further ten minutes 
5. Drain the Lentils and add them to the frying pan with the Vegetable Stock and stew everything for a further twenty five minutes . 
6. Serve with some boiled Broccoli.

The Rainbow Carrots which were yellow, purple and orange respectively added a sweetness and flavour to this dish. The Lentils and red Wine also provided a richness that would otherwise been provided by the game had I made this as a meat dish.