Last weekend I was fortunate enough to be asked by Marie Clare to do cooking demonstrations at the wonderful Gardening Scotland show near Edinburgh. I’ve done demos there before so jumped at the chance to get involved again. This time the food theatre was sponsored by Albert Bartlet Potatoes so all recipes had to be inspired by the spud! I chose to do three recipes (oh yes, a tad ambitious but what the hell) Greek Garlic And Potato Dipping Sauce, Scottish Minty Macaroons and the Minted Pea And Potato Scones that I’m sharing with you today.
Gardening Scotland is a beautiful show, it has to be beautiful with all those stunning flowers everywhere, and it’s not just those flowers themselves, it is how they are presented that makes all the difference.
From the quirky old car with herbs growing all over it (even including a chamomile lawn on the back seat) to the walls of stunning floral arrangements, your eye was caught by something amazing everywhere you went. There was even a Poison Plant Garden with a lightly streaming corpse in a coffin (luckily made from wire!) to show the dangers that can lurk within the prettiest of petals.
It wasn’t just the colourful flowers that demanded attention, the glorious greens of the veggie patch held their own and the display crops fairly made the mouth water. Cabbages, kale, leeks and beetroot all brought healthy eating to mind and had me thinking up soup recipes every time I walked past.
There was a wonderful display of children’s gardens too, where school kids had been asked to make a growing display on a small-scale. There was an amazing herb garden build into four wooden palates (really I so want to do this one) and another that had all sorts of flowers growing out of recycled bottles. There were suitcases, hats and welly boots all pressed into service as planters showing the wonderful imagination of the children who took part.
Of course these shows are always a great excuse to do a bit of shopping and I was soon filling my basket with gorgeous foodie goodies like cheeses, homemade sausages and the freshest Scottish strawberries.
Something else that really impressed me was the wonderfully tasty Isle of Skye Sea Salt. I must admit to being somewhat ill-educated in the field of Scottish salt makers so was thrilled to discover this delightful condiment that hails from one of my favourite isles, Skye. I got a big tub and will be making something to share with you soon.
But it wasn’t just foodie goodies I was after, I also brought home some wonderful pottery for the kitchen and the most amazing eco-friendly lunch boxes and storage tins made by an American company called Eco Lunch Boxes. These containers aren’t just the healthy way to store and carry food but brilliantly quirky and fun to have around. I chatted to Donna their Uk representative and brought back a selection to try out. I can’t wait to do use them in some picnic recipes and share those with you this summer.
Oh and I brought home plants, lots of lovely herbs and some pretty flowers to add colour to my somewhat heavy on the greenery beds.
So enough of all this chatter, onwards with my recipe for minted pea potato scones!
Potato scones (or tattie scones as they are called here in Scotland) are very much traditional fare and served with every ‘full Scottish breakfast’. I’ve made them before on the blog with my smoked salmon on tattie scones recipe taken from my Wee Taste Of Scotland party food book, and have also made the traditional breakfast style potato scones in my Simply Scottish Cakes & Bakes book.
This time I wanted to get some herbs in there and add some Spring time colour and flavour, hence the minted pea potato scones. I also went for a round mini shape in the style of blinis, those popular nibbles ar parties.
I served my minted pea potato scones at the show with parma ham and a homemade mustard mayonnaise but I thought I’d show them today with smoked salmon and a dollop of homemade horseradish mayonnaise.
Read on folks for my recipe…….
Karon x
- 1 medium (125g/4 oz) potato
- ½ tbsp softened butter
- 1 clove garlic crushed
- 1 spring onion finely minced
- 5 mint leaves minced
- ⅓ cup/30g of boiled and pureed peas
- large pinch of English mustard powder
- Salt and pepper to taste
- ½ cup/50g plain (all purpose) flour
- a little oil to fry
- Horseradish Mayonnaise
- ½ cup of good quality mayonnaise (or make your own)
- ½ tsp prepared horseradish
- Smoked salmon and some snipped chives to serve
- Boil the potato in its skin to keep the flesh as dry as possible, when cooked through drain, peel and mash thoroughly.
- Stir in the softened butter until well combined.
- Add the garlic, spring onion, mint, mustard and peas and mix well till uniform in colour.
- Add the seasoning to taste and stir in the flour to form a workable dough.
- Flour your surface and rolling pin and roll dough to approximately 5mm thick/1/4" and use a small cookie cutter to make rounds. I got 15 from this amount of dough.
- Lightly oil a heavy based frying pan (or girdle if you happen to have one) and fry for approximately 4 minutes on each side till golden.
- Allow to cool a little but try to serve these warm.
- Mix the horseradish with the mayonnaise and spoon a little on to each minted pea potato scone and top with a small piece of smoked salmon and a sprinkling of snipped chives.
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