Christmas Guest from Scotland

[davecap]

A friend of ours is coming into town over the holidays with her new boyfriend, who is originally from Scotland. I would like to try to make him something that would be traditional at the holiday time over there.

For the main course for dinner we will be having Beef Wellington.

Does anyone have any suggestions and possibly recipes as well?

Are there any traditional beverages at Christmas time?

thanks for your help

Dave

[Jenny McClure]

A friend of ours is coming into town over the holidays with her new boyfriend, who is originally from Scotland.  I would like to try to make him something that would be traditional at the holiday time over there.

For the main course for dinner we will be having Beef Wellington.

Does anyone have any suggestions and possibly recipes as well?

Are there any traditional beverages at Christmas time?

thanks for your help

Dave

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I'm pretty sure mulled wine is tradtional at Christmas in Scotland, it is in Ireland and I have some dimmed memories of drinking it at Christmas parties when visiting my friends who were at University in Edinburgh.

Turnip and potatoes are pretty standard sides.

Mince pies are very Christmasy.

[apshelbourne]

And the first person to mention deep-fried Mars Bars gets banned from this forum.

Oops.

[martinwa]

Last time I was in Scotland you could get deep fried pizza.

How about making malt whisky ice cream? Get a good single malt and enjoy the rest of the bottle together.

[martinwa]

Oatcakes are an easy one. Serve them with your cheese. And a glass of Irn Bru!

[Timothy Burke]

A simple and defintively Scottish desert would be Cranachan. Look up a recipe - they do vary - but basically it's double cream, toasted oatmeal, malt whisky and, essential in my book at least, raspberries.

[dellis453]

Have a look at http://www.discoverthetaste.com/reviews/Christmas_05.htm

my site I know, I attended a fascinating event last year and these were a couple of the recipes. The Het Pint is particularlygood!

[davecap]

A simple and defintively Scottish desert would be Cranachan.  Look up a recipe - they do vary - but basically it's double cream, toasted oatmeal, malt whisky and, essential in my book at least, raspberries.

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Thanks for all the suggestions.

Could I substitute mascarpone for double cream, or do you think I can get in the states?

[Jenny McClure]

A simple and defintively Scottish desert would be Cranachan.  Look up a recipe - they do vary - but basically it's double cream, toasted oatmeal, malt whisky and, essential in my book at least, raspberries.

←

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Could I substitute mascarpone for double cream, or do you think I can get in the states?

←

I could be wrong but, I think double cream is the equivilent of heavy cream in the States. Can anyone confirm??

[Duncan]

A friend of ours is coming into town over the holidays with her new boyfriend, who is originally from Scotland.  I would like to try to make him something that would be traditional at the holiday time over there.

For the main course for dinner we will be having Beef Wellington.

Does anyone have any suggestions and possibly recipes as well?

Are there any traditional beverages at Christmas time?

thanks for your help

Dave

←

The tradition in Scotland is to celebrate New Year more than Christmas. If you fancy something a bit different try making some Black Bun.

Whisky is of course the traditional drink at both New Year and Christmas (and all days in between). Of course some of us Scots aren't terribly keen on Scotch, so any reasonably expensive wine should do (as long as we're not paying).

[davecap]

Thanks Jenny and Duncan

I have some nice wines put aside for dinner.

I do not drink a lot of whiskey, is there a good one you could recommend?

[Duncan]

I could be wrong but, I think double cream is the equivilent of heavy cream in the States.  Can anyone confirm??

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Close, but not quite. According to McGee the fat contents are: Heavy whipping cream is 38% fat, Double cream is 48% fat or more. I expect for Cranachan you could just substitute heavy cream although it might not have quite the same consistency.

According to wikipedia, originally the recipe would have replaced the cream partly or wholly with crowdie (a soft cream cheese). So on that basis you could maybe justify adding some mascarpone if you wanted to enrich the dish a bit.

[ludja]

A simple and defintively Scottish desert would be Cranachan.  Look up a recipe - they do vary - but basically it's double cream, toasted oatmeal, malt whisky and, essential in my book at least, raspberries.

←

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Could I substitute mascarpone for double cream, or do you think I can get in the states?

←

I could be wrong but, I think double cream is the equivilent of heavy cream in the States. Can anyone confirm??

←

Heavy whipping cream or manufacturing cream is the closest to Britain's double cream, I believe. Some web info says that double cream is at a higher fat percentage than what we can usually buy in the US.

The dessert might be nice with mascarpone also, but it would be more different from the original than if you use heavy whipping cream.

[Duncan]

Thanks Jenny and Duncan

I have some nice wines put aside for dinner.

I do not drink a lot of whiskey, is there a good one you could recommend?

←

I think if you served whiskey you wouldn't be very popular: whiskey is from the US or Ireland; whisky is from Scotland. I'm not much of a whisky drinker, though I quite like Ardbeg for its very smoky flavour.