MUCH of Scottish history surrounds the humble potato. A staple of our diet and a crucial source of food for generations past, it is a comfort food, irresistible when chipped, mashed, roasted, baked or boiled. Served piping hot or cold in salads, with or without their skins, it is hard to imagine meals without potatoes in one form or another. Even the leftovers are useful. But nothing compares with a pot of tattie soup on a cold day – warming, nourishing and surprisingly quick and easy to make.
Crofters in the Highlands and Islands have grown potatoes as one of their essential crops for generations, along with oats and barley. This year’s seed potatoes will have been planted already in anticipation of a fresh crop in late summer time. A large bowl of floury potatoes in their skins would often be a complete meal in days of old, perhaps with the luxury of homemade butter or cream, or better still, a spoonful of crowdie cheese.
Their diet was simple, but nutritious, based upon the ingredients that were available around them from sky, land and sea. Good cooking happened in family kitchens, where recipes were rarely written down, but handed down and learned through sharing the routine household chores.
The Highlands and Islands are now the source of some of Scotland’s finest ingredients, wild and natural, fresh and seasonal, eaten at their best when served where they belong, but also exported far and wide. This weekend, the Outer Hebrides is launching its new Food Trail, taking visitors on a beautiful journey from Barra to the Butt of Lewis. With 35 businesses already involved, the journey stops off at community shops, a hand-dived scallop shack, smoke houses, salt pans, seaweed providers and seriously good places to taste superb seafood. Some people may find it hard to imagine the Outer Hebrides as a rich source of delicious food and drink, but now there is even a distillery creating Harris Gin in a beautiful, sea-green glass bottle, with sugar kelp among the botanicals
Skye has championed its superb local food for many years, but for a while, The Three Chimneys was supplied with some of its potatoes by the wonderful Ena MacNeill from her croft in North Uist. Ena was a renowned leader in crofting circles, especially for her prowess in breeding Highland cattle. But it was her potatoes – planted in sandy soil, sea-washed by the Atlantic tides that ebb and flow between Sollas and the tidal Vallay Island – that would arrive by the sackful. They were transported to Skye in the Harbro lorry making its return journey to Portree via the Lochmaddy Ferry to Uig.
The Harbro Country Store, known in Skye affectionately as The Crofters, supplies animal feed and livestock farming products. It was not the place I was expected to be seen collecting my potatoes, but what potatoes they were! I could not get enough of them and nothing else produced potato rostis quite as crispy and perfect as they did. They were Duke of Yorks, a heritage variety, absolutely ideal for roasting and mashing too.
I have very fond memories of my telephone calls to Ena across The Minch, far from the chaos of the kitchen, checking we were able to have another sack delivered, while chatting about the weather, fresh air and ferry times. So here is my recipe for Mealie Tattie Soup, in honour of Highland kitchens, Ena’s potatoes and the new Hebridean Food Trail – www.eatdrinkhebrides.co.uk
Mealie Tattie Soup
Serves 6/8
600g potatoes, weighed when peeled and diced (choose a floury potato that is good for mash)
300g onions, weighed when peeled and chopped small
50g Scottish butter
2 level tbsp medium oatmeal
1 generous litre of vegetable or chicken stock
Approx 300ml fresh milk
150ml single cream
Salt and black pepper
Dulse seaweed flakes or chopped chives, or grated nutmeg (optional)
Method
1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan until foamy. Add the chopped onions and turn in the butter and cook until softened.
2. Add the prepared potatoes and stir together with the onions. Add a sprinkling of salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Allow to cook gently for a few minutes.
3. Pour in the stock and bring to the boil then simmer with a lid on for at least 20 minutes.
4. Add the oatmeal, stir and simmer for a further 10 minutes.
5. Add the milk and liquidise. Check the seasoning, then add the cream and warm through before serving.
6. Serve immediately, garnished with dulse seaweed flakes, chopped chives or freshly grated nutmeg, if liked and available.
(Note: If the mixture is too thick, add a little more milk or cream. The longer this soup is left to stand, the thicker it becomes because of the oatmeal so serve it quickly in warm bowls. This is a great recipe to make using your own chicken stock prepared from leftover chicken bones.)
Shirley Spear is owner of The Three Chimneys and The House Over-By on the Isle of Skye and chair of the Scottish Food Commission, which is helping to build Scotland into a Good Food Nation. For more information on The Three Chimneys visit http://threechimneys.co.uk or phone 01470 511258
