Ali Stoner, author of Scran: Modern Scottish Food Inspired by Tradition, offers contemporary takes on classic Scottish dishes, including a Cullen skink bake, vegetarian haggis, and chippy batter potato fritters. These recipes aim to preserve traditional flavors while introducing new twists.
Cullen Skink Bake
The bake starts as a traditional Cullen skink soup, thickened to create a filling for smoked fish pies. Scottish smoked haddock is essential for authenticity, though Shetland smoked cod works well as an alternative. The pies are finished with grated sharp cheddar and served with a green salad.
Preparation takes 15 minutes, with a cooking time of 1 hour 20 minutes, plus cooling. For four pies, you need butter, olive oil, onions, potatoes, whole milk, smoked haddock or cod, flour, chives, flat-leaf parsley, Dijon mustard, ready-rolled shortcrust or puff pastry, cheddar, and an egg yolk mixed with milk.
To make the filling, gently sauté onions in butter and oil, then add cubed potatoes and sweat until they start to soften. Pour in milk, lay the fish on top, and simmer until the potatoes are tender but still hold their shape. Lift out the fish and vegetables, reserve the milk, and make a sauce by melting butter, stirring in flour, and adding the poaching liquid. Fold in the fish, potatoes, herbs, mustard, and pepper, then leave to cool.
Preheat the oven to 220C (200C fan)/425F/gas7. Cut the pastry into four strips, pile the filling on one half of each, top with cheddar, brush edges with egg yolk, fold over, and seal with a fork. Cut a steam vent, brush with egg yolk, and bake for 30 minutes until puffed and golden.
Vegetarian Haggis
This vegetarian version replicates the flavor, texture, and appearance of traditional haggis. It also works as a filling for sausage rolls. Stoner developed a Scottish seven-spice blend to capture the essence of Celtic flavors, which can be used in marinades, roast potatoes, and more.
The spice blend includes black peppercorns, coriander seeds, juniper berries, allspice berries, dried thyme, dried rosemary, and ground nutmeg. For the haggis, you need dried mushrooms, olive oil, butter, onion, garlic, portobello mushrooms, the spice blend, white pepper, ground mace, fresh sage and rosemary, carrots, black beluga lentils, yeast extract, vegetable stock, white beans, lemon zest, salt, and steel-cut oats.
Soak the dried mushrooms in boiling water for 15 minutes. Sauté onion and garlic in oil and butter, add fresh and rehydrated mushrooms, then stir in spices, herbs, carrots, lentils, yeast extract, mushroom soaking liquor, and stock. Simmer for about 30 minutes until lentils are almost soft. Stir in beans, lemon zest, and salt, then add oats and cook until they absorb the remaining liquid. Serve with champit tatties (buttery mash with spring onions), mashed neeps (swede), and warm whisky-spiked onion jam.
Chippy Batter Potato Fritters
This simple batter provides a crunchy coating for fish, fritters, and sausages. The vinegar reacts with baking powder to create a light, airy texture, while cornflour adds crunch. The fritters can be served with tartare sauce or a pickled onion mayo inspired by chip-shop condiments.
For the fritters, slice unpeeled baking potatoes into 5mm-thick rounds, rinse, and blanch in salted water for five minutes, then dry and chill. The batter combines plain flour, cornflour, baking powder, salt, malt vinegar, and cold water. The pickled onion mayo mixes pickled onions, pickling vinegar, capers, parsley, chives, and mayonnaise.
Heat oil to 180C (350F) for deep-frying. Dip potato slices in seasoned flour, then batter, and fry in batches for up to five minutes until golden and crisp. Drain on kitchen paper, season with salt, and serve in buttered rolls or with pickled onion mayo.
These recipes are edited extracts from Scran: Modern Scottish Food Inspired by Tradition by Ali Stoner, published by Mitchell Beazley at £27. To order a copy for £24.30, visit guardianbookshop.com.
