Chocolate makes the world go round

It has been a busy old time. People are already starting to look out anything with a bit of sparkle on it, plans for the Christmas season ahead seek to be taking shape…

Perhaps a little premature but I have indeed already been partaking in a few cinnamon spiced drinks round open fires, over indulging as the nights are drawing in. A dream scenario!

This weekend I made a delicious chocolate tart in practice for the party season – the first I’ve ever attempted, and it’s sure to get you in the Christmas mood…

Make a chocolate shortcrust pastry. (I managed to do this in no time at all, squeezing it in during the Scottish rugby match at half time!)

– 100g plain flour

– 65g of slightly salted butter

– couple of tablespoons of cocoa powder

– 1 egg yolk

– a tablespoon of icing sugar

Chill the pastry for half an hour, then roll it out to fit a 20cm tart tin. Blind bake it for 10-15 minutes.

Make the chocolate mousse:

Melt 70g of good quality chocolate over some hot water and add 60ml of double cream. (Naughty but very nice!)

Next whip 2 egg whites together (as if you were making a meringue) and add 2 tablespoons of sugar. Combine with the chocolate and cream mixture.

Pour into the pastry case and chill for a couple of hours before serving. Add a topping of your choice and you’re away!

Enjoy!

Goldilocks…

If you’re anything like Goldilocks (or me, for that matter) you’ll be looking for your porridge to reach those exacting standards.

Now I confess the gooey texture of porridge did not at all appeal to me as a child. But having heard the experts talking relentlessly about itsmany health benefits, I sought to find one that I could choke down in the mornings. Now that I’ve worked my way around almost every brand on the shelves, I’ve found one that is just right.

Based in Laurencekirk in the heart of Aberdeenshire, Oatmeal of Alford’s pinhead oatmeal is dried and graded on the Medlock family farm. It’s then whisked away to the Montgarrie Mill, leaving you with the perfect traditional porridge oats.

What’s more, the bi-product from the mill is then used to feed cattle – so not only are they kick-starting our mornings, their sustaining the north-east’s first-class Aberdeen Angus! (Another great reason to support them, if it were needed!)

Happy Easter! 🐣

From here at Deeside Pantry, we wish you all a very Happy Easter!

We hope your day has been as fantastically chocolatey as ours… 🍫🤤🍭

For our Easter Sunday dinner, we fancied steering away from tradition and opted for beef wellington, taught to us by Chef Nick Nairn and Chef Lewis Donegan in Aberdeen. Ours may not be quite as beautiful as theirs, but we’re working on it! Besides, with local beef and some Stornaway black pudding, it couldn’t taste anything but gorgeous…

Fife: A Foodies Day Out

Fife will always hold a very dear place in my heart. With its hills that hold secrets of the past, its long, winding beaches, its fresh sea air, and let’s not forget the array of beautiful produce on offer…what’s not to love? Even in the pouring rain, Fife has a undeniable charm that one can’t help but fall in love with.

There isn’t a single person I know that has visited St Andrews and not enjoyed the experience. Let’s face it, every year, it attracts people from far and wide, including some familiar Hollywood faces who visit the breezy sand dunes, hoping to sink a hole-in-one on the 18th green of The Old Course.

In The Auld Grey Toon, the food is second to none – the seafood goes straight from the North Sea to your plate, berries are grown and hand-picked not even a mile away, steak barns use meat from their own farm, restaurants create dishes that are seasonally inspired… With such a wonderful local larder, it serves as inspiration for every foodie out there!

If you’re planning a wee day trip to The Bubble to see the beautiful Chariots of Fire beach, there is one thing that you cannot miss out on… Find out more at Tasty Tuesday.

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The bread winner

Bread. Perfect for any time of the day…

Whether it’s the smell of hot toast waking you up in the morning, the feeling of sinking your teeth into a crunchy croissant at coffee time, or the taste of the perfect fluffy loaf at supper time, bread is a sure-fire winner!

If you’re tired of buying your usual, mass-produced supermarket bread, have a look here. This is sure to get your taste buds tingling again!

 

A tasty idea or two?

Needing some inspiration for those mid-week meals? Or just fancy a treat but don’t know where to look? Have a look at our latest Tasty Tuesday posts to give you some local ideas. You’ll be amazed at what is available to us here in this beautiful part of the world!

Happy Valentine’s Day! ❤️

Here at Deeside Pantry, we wish you all a very Happy Valentine’s Day! We hope it has been filled with sweetness and love…and maybe a few homemade, local treats too!

Cooking up a little surprise for your sweetheart, family and friends is easily the best way of showing them how much you love them…

Keeping it fresh

How important is eating fresh, local produce to you?

As we enter a brand-new year and start looking forward to our 2018 plans, Deeside Pantry wanted to hear about your priorities when it comes to buying fresh, local food. When this question was posed to the public, the results that came back were surprising.

In the poll, 101 votes were cast: 61% said that eating local food was “very important”, and 28% said it was “quite important”. Overall, the overwhelming majority of voters (89%) wanted to buy locally, or at least considered it when shopping.

One Aberdonian voter on Twitter said: “We should be proud of our local producers and help keep them in business.” They added that “we should be keeping every penny we can in Aberdeen City and Shire to help regenerate the massive economic slump. Surely buying local produce is another way of doing that whilst eating better quality food?”

Organisations like Aberdeen Inspired, Opportunity North East and Community Food in the North East, have been working hard to rejuvenate interest in the Granite City, especially since the decline of the oil industry.

Only 7% of voters said that eating local produce was “not important”, while the remaining 4% said that they “never think about it”. Though fresh produce may not be at the forefront of everyone’s minds, the results are nonetheless very encouraging for our local businesses.

While 89% of people aim to shop locally, many Aberdonians commented on the expense of local produce in “Talk of the Town”. Others were concerned that local produce was not readily available in supermarkets: the convenience of buying food from large corporations in Tesco, ASDA, or Sainsbury’s sways many away from our Scottish producers.

So, what can be done about it?

As Lesley Gillespie from Slow Food Aberdeen said, we need to re-evaluate the way we think about food. We need to introduce more local produce to our supermarkets; allow our producers to showcase their produce more often; and reassess the national and international competition we stock in our stores.

Though these changes take time to implement, we all have the power to encourage change by voting with our feet: by making a conscious effort to support our local businesses, we can start the shift towards a more supportive economy for our fantastic producers.

In Aberdeen City and Shire, we have so much on offer to us: with the coast giving us wonderful seafood, and the rural areas providing top quality meat, vegetables and dairy products, we are in the fortunate position of having a diverse Deeside pantry right on our doorsteps.

With the regeneration of Aberdeen continuing to develop, we have been given the opportunity to rediscover all that our city has to offer. I, for one, have fallen in love with our corner of the world all over again.

Raising the ‘steaks’

More and more of us are looking to source ethical, local food, particularly when it comes to meat. The desire to know about animal welfare, the conditions livestock have lived in, and how they reach our plates is undoubtedly a growing trend in the North East of Scotland.

Herd’s Butchers are paving the way to allow us to serve top quality, local meat that has low food mileage. Read on here!

Happy New Year!

Here at Deeside Pantry, we have welcomed in 2018 with some wonderful home-grown food and good company – we hope you have too!

While many people may now cast their minds to those New Year’s resolutions, cutting back on cheeky indulgences may be high on the list of things “To Do”…

Here’s the question though: why must 2018 be about cutting out your favourite tasty treats when they can be healthy and wholesome, as well as delicious?

Aberdeen City & Shire has so much to offer for those of us looking to get back on track with our healthy eating regimes.

How about this for a New Year’s snack idea?