Nine to Three Thirty

I love to eat seasonal fresh produce, not only does it taste better when its in season, it’s also much more sustainable.  It’s one of the reasons why I grow my own fruit and veg, but I can never keep up with demand and I don’t have the space to grow everything that I’d like to.  Obviously, I need to top up my supplies and when I am buying fruit and vegetables, I try to buy British whenever possible as I often find the product is better (British strawberries taste many times better than those produced in sunnier countries I find).  So I was interested to try out a selection of fruit and vegetables from Scotty Brand.

Scotty Brand is the home of the best in-season food from Scotland.  They work with partners across Scotland to bring consumers the freshest produce.  Scotty Brand was founded in 1948 in Coatbridge and has been supplying supermarkets in Scotland for many years.  In Scotland Scotty Brand are in most Asda stores, but this season you can pick up some of their produce in selected Asda stores in England and Wales too.

One of my favourite dishes to make with summer fruits is an Eton Mess.  It’s such an easy dessert to prepare and it lends itself to different fruits too, so you can ring the changes as the season progresses.  I was sent the most succulent, juicy and full of flavour strawberries and raspberries to work with.

Making Eton Mess

Eton Mess is just so easy.  You will need fruit, shop made meringues and creme fraiche. I bashed up the meringue into small pieces and chopped the strawberries into smaller chunks (the raspberries can go in whole).  Basically you just mix the three ingredients together and serve in a glass – you can vary the quantities to suit your personal taste.

Scottish berries are famous worldwide.  The weather conditions in Scotland means that the fruit ripens more slowly than in other places and this makes it sweeter.  The Scotty Brand berries are grown by Bruce Farms, based in Perthshire and the light, fertile soil there, together with long summer days and mild nights offer ideal growing conditions.

But, it’s not just berries that grow well in Scotland.  Ayrshires is an ideal location to grow early potatoes because of its position in relation to the south west coast of Scotland, which means it benefits from the warming waters of the Gulf Stream.   The sandy soil warms up quickly in the spring, so planting can take place in February and March.  It gets reliable rainfall from March to May, which is critical for the potatoes, but it’s sheltered from storms and frosts too.  The potatoes have a real melt in the mouth flavour and are regarded as among the best in the world. They are only available from June to early September.  Ayrshire potatoes have PGI status ( PGI stands for Protected Geographical Indication is one of three European designations created to protect regional foods that have a specific quality, reputation or other characteristics attributable to that area) which recognises their uniqueness.

Making Potato Salad

To make potato salad I used a bag of Ayrshire potatoes, 3 spring onions, mayonnaise and salt.  I like to steam potatoes when I am using them for a salad.  I cut the Ayrshire potatoes into chucks and steamed for about 10 minutes, till tender.  I then cooled them under the cold tap.  Once they’d cooled down properly I added them to the thinly sliced spring onions and seasoned them with salt.  Then I added mayonnaise.  You can vary the ingredient combinations to suit personal taste and I recommend tasting your food to make sure you are happy with the balance.

I’ve really enjoyed trying out Scotty Brand produce and will be keeping an eye out for it in my local supermarket.

Disclosure: This post is in collaboration with Scotty Brand.

Comptoir Libanais in Birmingham is in a great location in Grand Central, so it’s very easy if you’ve popped into town on the train as New Street Station is just below.  I love the decor at Comptoir Libanais, it’s got a great middle eastern theme and I love all the fez hats dotted around the place.  You can buy items from the decor too, which is a nice touch.  I went to Comptoir Libanais to try out their vegan offerings earlier in the year, but this time I was back as an omnivore, so meat was back on the agenda.

We picked out a selection of Mezze (starters) to share so that we could get a feel for the type of food that Comptoir Libanais serve.  First up was Lamb Kibbeh and Batata Harra.  The Lamb Kibbeh are  cracked wheat parcels filled with minced lamb, pine nuts and onions, served with a yoghurt sauce.  They are a lovely blend of spice and flavour.  I really enjoyed the Batata Harra which was spiced Lebanese potatoes with fresh coriander, chilli and garlic – very moreish.

I always like to try the Falafel when I eat Middle Eastern food – felafel was the first dish I tried from this cuisine and I tend to use it as a barometer of the restaurant.  I thought serving them with the pickled turnips was a nice touch.

Lamb Kofta Tagine was one of the mains that we tried and we found it a bit disappointing to be honest as we felt the yoghurt sauce overwhelmed the dish a bit and might have been better served on the side.  I found that the yoghurt made it difficult to taste the spices of the lamb which was a shame.

I picked out the Chicken Moussakhan for my main course and loved it.  It was really flavoursome and the spices of the marinated chicken worked well with the vermicelli rice and fattoush salad.  I’d certainly order this dish again.

For dessert there was Mango and Vanilla Cheesecake which was divine: very creamy and packed with flavour.  I opted for the Orange and Almond Cake which was a very moist cake with beautiful orange and almond flavours: a real hit.

We tried a couple of beers with our meal and I’d recommend Efes, which is a Turkish beer and very refreshing.  It was a lovely meal at Comptoir Libanais and it’s a great place to grab a bite to eat or have a longer, bigger meal if you are in the city centre.