Posted on 3 Comments

Mashed Potatoes with Chilli Pepper Topping using Scotty Brand Kestrel Potatoes

Scotty Brand sent us some lovely Kestrel potatoes before Christmas.  They are fabulous for using for lots of potato things, boiling, baking or roasting.  Mashing is just one of the ways that they can be used really well.

Potatoes are really quite good for us.  I read a lot of negativity around root vegetables, and I can never quite understand the reason for it.  They are high in folic acid which helps our immune system and our white blood cell production, so for that reason alone, I think they should stay part of a balanced diet to eat well.

With around 93 calories per 100 grams, it is easy to count them into a good meal plan,

I like some plain cooking with potatoes and for this recipe, I kept it very simple indeed.

Mashed Potatoes with Chilli Peppers

Lesley S Smith
4 from 1 vote
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Course Sides
Servings 6

Ingredients
  

  • 3 - 4 Kg Kestrel Potatoes Scotty Brand Potatoes
  • 2 Oz Butter
  • 100 Ml Fresh Milk
  • 2 - 3 Chillies or Peppers Choose brightly coloured options and chop finely

Instructions
 

  • Simply boil potatoes in a pan for 15 - 20 minutes until soft.
  • Drain potatoes and begin to mash. After a minute, add the butter and mash a few more times. Then add the milk to finish mashing your potatoes into a thick creamy consistency. I add my milk a tablespoon at a time, just in case. Too much milk will also spoil the consistency of the potatoes.
  • Serve and top with chopped chillies or peppers (or both)

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Posted on 20 Comments

Win 2 Kids Films as Xmas Stocking Fillers Courtesy of Scotty Brand – Ends 30th November 2012

Update: The winner is Rhiannon Alwen @HouseholdHorror

Scotty Brand sent me two films to giveaway on my blog.  All you have to do is follow the steps below to enter, and on the 30th November, I’ll pull a winner out with the random generator in the programme.  The films up for grabs are The Incredibles and Ratatouille.  Scotty Brand teamed up with Disney for the Brave Premier in Glasgow earlier this year, and the films are part of an ongoing relationship.

If you are already following me on any of the two methods, just leave a comment to say so, you still get the entry, even if you’ve been following this blog for years.

How to Enter

  • Like Scottish Mum on Facebook if you haven’t already and Leave a comment on this post to say you have done so.  Scottish Mum Facebook or on the sidebar at the right.
  • Tweet the following and leave a comment here to say you have done so.  “Enter to win a Ratatouille & The Incredibles DVD with @scottish_mum at http://scottishmum.com/2012/11/win-2-kids-films-as-xmas-stocking-fillers-courtesy-of-scotty-brand-ends-30th-november-2012/”
  • For an additional entry, follow my blog by RSS, and leave a comment here to say you have done so.  Scottish Mum RSS

Each comment equals one entry.  Each person can earn 3 entries.  Simple.

Conditions

  • The winner must be contactable within 7 days of the end of the giveaway closing date, or the prize will be reallocated to the next randomly generated winner.
  • Terms and conditions are subject to change at any time.

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Good luck to all.

Posted on 8 Comments

Scotty Brand Ayrshire New Potatoes with Sour Cream and Parsley

Sometimes, I think we overthink our cooking.  What’s wrong with some plain and simple boiled new potatoes, served with some sour cream and a topping of parsley like my grandmother would make.

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This is just so simple to make and the sour cream tastes lovely over the newly cooked spuds.

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Ayreshire New Potatoes with Sour Cream and Parsley

Lesley Smith
New potatoes with sour cream and parsley.
Servings 6

Ingredients
  

  • 1 bag of Ayrshire new potatoes from Scotty Brand
  • 4 tablespoons of sour cream
  • Sprinkling of parsley

Instructions
 

  • Wash and scrub the new potatoes.
  • Simmer in boiled water for 10 - 15 minutes.
  • Serve hot in a separate dish from the main course.
  • Add one tablespoon of sour cream for each portion of potatoes.
  • Sprinkle the top of the potatoes with parsley for a pretty finish.

 

Posted on 2 Comments

Luxury Potato Salad with Scotty Brand Ayrshire New Potatoes

Our newest delivery from Scotty Brand arrived on Friday.  Lovely Scotty Brand Ayrshire new potatoes.  I resisted the temptation to throw a couple of bags on for the evening meal over the weekend, and plan to do something different with them over this week.

Packs of Ayrshire New Potatoes are run with a fabulous promotion to win family adventures in Scotland, and is inspired by Disney Pixar Brave.  You can find lots more on the Scotty Brand website, and promotional numbers from each pack of new potatoes to use on the website and see if you have won a prize. To do it, just peel back the sticker below and enter the code to see if you’ve won.

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I love potato salad, and so do the kids, but I buy it far more often than I should, as making fresh is much nicer.  With the lovely new potatoes, a bag did get boiled to make potato salad.

Luxury Potato Salad

Ingredients

  • 1 bag Scotty Brand new potatoes or approximately 750g.
  • sea salt.
  • 1 level teaspoon honey mustard.
  • 5 tablespoons of mayonnaise.
  • 4 tablespoons of double cream.
  • 2 teaspoons of chopped chives.

Method

  1. Wash potatoes and boil with a few pinches of sea salt for 10 – 15 minutes.
  2. Leave potatoes to cool before cutting into thick slices.
  3. Fold in mayonnaise and double cream.  You may need a little more or less mayonnaise, so add it a tablespoon at a time.
  4. Add the teaspoon of honey mustard and fold in gently until it is fully mixed.  Leave this out of you don’t like mustard.
  5. Serve with chives sprinkled on top for a decadent potato salad.

Posted on 18 Comments

Spaghetti Bolognese Scotty Brand Carrots

My two favourite produce providers are the reason for the fabulously speedy wolfing down of Spaghetti Bolognese for our evening meal.  It’s amazing how much difference the taste of good meat and vegetables makes to the enjoyment of what we eat.

The same Scotty Brand carrots used to make the Carrot and Orange Soup, added a lovely sweetness.  Combined with the gorgeously tasting steak mince from Andrew Gordon Butchery and Fine Foods in Aberdeen, the two ingredients made for a fantastic meal.

Feel free to use half portions.  I had three adults and four children to feed with these proportions.

Ingredients

  • 1kg Steak Mince
  • 1 Large Onion
  • 5 Large Carrots
  • Teaspoon Turmeric
  • Teaspoon Cinnamon or Nutmeg
  • 500g Carton of Passata
  • Salt & Pepper
  • Rapeseed Oil
  • 500g Spaghetti
  • 50g Butter (Optional)

Method

  1. Brown mince in a thick bottomed pan, or a good frying pan on a low heat.  I added a couple of tablespoons of Rapeseed Oil to help it along.
  2. Chop onions finely and add to the browning mince.
  3. Slice carrots and add to the  pan.
  4. Boil the kettle and add a pint of water to the mix.  Leave to simmer for 25 minutes, and top up the water if necessary.
  5. Salt and Pepper to taste.
  6. Put the pasta on to cook.
  7. Once the mince has simmered, add the tub of passata, turmeric and either cinnamon or nutmeg.
  8. Simmer the passata and mince mix for 5 minutes.
  9. Drain the pasta and use boiled water to rinse the spaghetti until it runs clear.
  10. Add the butter to the pasta if you like the taste, and mix it through.
  11. Serve immediately.
Posted on 8 Comments

Carrot and Orange Soup Challenge by Scotty Brand

As a Scotty Brand Blogger, I am loving the boxes of goodies arriving with instructions on how to make something that I haven’t made before.  This week, the challenge was to make Carrot and Orange soup, which I managed quite easily.  I had a couple of packs of carrots torn open and being chopped within about 10 minutes of them arriving at my door.

I didn’t read the recipe properly and thought that it only needed 600ml stock and so quadrupled the contents as my boys eat huge portions of food.  Don’t make the same mistake as I did, as I then had to up the milk quantity by four times as well – AND transfer my soup into a much bigger pot.  I’ll give you the Scotty Brand quantities and not mine, as we ended up with an obscene amount of soup which is now stored in the freezer for other cold days to come.

I also made the cardinal mistake of doing kids homework while I put the soup ingredients together, and I had put the butter in the microwave to melt.  It was after the soup was eaten that I discovered I hadn’t put it in the pot.  I have to say, the soup without the butter was delicious, so I’d say it was an optional ingredient and all in all, the recipe is fabulous and can cope well with some modifications.

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Ingredients

  • 450g Scotty Brand carrots sliced
  • 1 chopped onion
  • 65g butter
  • 65g plain flour
  • 600ml chicken or vegetable stock
  • 600ml milk
  • 1 orange (juice and rind)
  • Salt and finely ground pepper
  • 5ml nutmeg
  • 5ml parsley

Method

  1. Melt butter and add onions and carrots  (I just added the onions and carrots to the pot with the stock and flour).
  2. Cook gently, and stir in the flour and cook for a further 1/2 mins (oops, I missed this step).
  3. Add milk.
  4. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
  5. Bring to the boil, stirring constantly, then simmer for 20/30 minutes  (you really have to stir frequently because of the milk).
  6. Liquidise before adding orange juice and shredded rind (I left out the rind as one of my boys doesn’t do bits in soup).
  7. Serve sprinkled with parsley and, if you like, a dollop of fresh cream or plain yogurt.

Enjoy
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Posted on 9 Comments

More delicious foodiness. Turkey and Potato Soup made with Scotty Brand Potatoes

Making potato soup is a big Scottish thing I think.  It’s often so cold here that soups are ideal for little snacks and to warm us up when we’re cold.

 

One of Scottish Mum and no measuring recipes again, and I just judge how much goes in by the size of my pot.  I used a big pot for this, so I used a whole 2kg bag of gorgeous Scotty Brand Kestrel potatoes which I was sent to make meals with.

This served 6 people about 3 times, so if you have a smaller family, make half the recipe, or freeze for future meals.

Ingredients

  • 2 kg potatoes diced
  • 0.5 kg carrots chopped
  • half a small turnip – chopped
  • two small or one big onion
  • turkey leg
  • salt
  • pepper
  • stock cube x 3

Method

  1. Make stock from the Turkey leg.  I used it straight in the pot, and let it simmer for two hours with the stock cubes and enough water to cover the Turkey leg completely.
  2. Remove the Turkey leg.
  3. Make sure there are no Turkey bits in your stock by straining the liquid.
  4. Add potatoes, carrot and turnip and onions.
  5. Add water to cover.  I just fill with water from the kettle till all vegetables are covered by a good couple of inches, often  more.
  6. Simmer for 40 minutes, or until vegetables are cooked.
  7. Salt and pepper to taste.
  8. Serve with warm bread.

The one thing no foodie will say is that the soup should be spoiled by the addition of anything else, but one of my boys won’t eat home made soup unless it is a tin of Heinz Tomato Soup.  We compromised and he has his own little pot which is mixed with Heinz.  He still gets the goodness of the Turkey and Potato Soup so I’m  happy not to fight this battle.

Posted on 11 Comments

Caravan Cooking with Scotty Brand Kestrel Potatoes – Slow Cooked Meatball Casserole

 

We received our package of potatoes from Scotty Brand just before we headed up to the top of Scotland with our caravan.  Sending a pack by way of my brother and his wife, I took 3 bags of their lovely potatoes with us.  We had a couple of baked potato meals, that I didn’t manage to get pictures of before my 3 strapping lads tucked into them.

On the days I made slow cooked soup and meatball casserole, I was much quicker off the mark.  For casseroles and soups, I rarely measure out ingredients unless it is to add spices and strong flavours.  At home, my slow cooker is a huge 6.5L pot, and there is always some left over to freeze for another day, but the pot for caravan cooking is 3L and makes just enough to feed the family for one meal.

For slow cooked meatball casserole done where space is limited.

Ingredients

  • 2kg potatoes, peeled and sliced
  • couple of carrots, sliced
  • onion, chopped
  • teaspoon of ginger paste
  • garlic clove
  • few cumin seeds
  • pinch salt
  • pinch pepper
  • meatballs
  • 2 x stock cubes
  • thickener

Method

I would usually pan fry the meatballs and onions, but being short of space in the van, I just threw them in the pot with the potatoes, carrots, ginger paste, cumin seeds and clove of garlic.   Sprinkle in the stock cubes with a dash of salt and pepper.

Add enough boiling water to read almost up to the top of your ingredients, turn the slow cooker on, 4 hours on high, or 8 hours on slow.

I had no cornflour with me, so some gravy granules it had to be for a thickener, a little more salt and pepper to taste, and then it was simply served up to hungry children.