Food & Drink
As Edinburgh prepares to welcome the world to its festivals, Neil Forbes of Cafe St Honoré stages a culinary celebration of great Scottish ingredients
Neil Forbes is ready for the festival, plus Rose Murray Brown on the wines of Uruguay
Cooking takes me to many great places. After the recent horrors at Borough Market I went down to London to give my support and had a very busy and happy demo. It was so good to see the market bustling with enthusiastic shoppers and the abundance of great produce from around the UK. Enjoyment of food is a shared human experience that can bring us all together, with food markets and festivals a great way of doing this.
We are about to embark on our own amazing collection of festivals in Edinburgh. Providing food and sharing our produce and food heritage with our visitors is an annual pleasure for me and my team at Cafe St Honoré.
When I’m on holiday I want to eat out well: sustainably, inexpensively and to understand what the country is really about, away from all the touristy bits. There are so many global food chains it is important to try great, locally-sourced food which has a connection to a country. The clever cook learns through the years that good food doesn’t have to be complicated. Hopefully these dishes show I have picked up a thing or two. n
Seared scallops, chilled tomato, pepper and cucumber soup
The warm, sweet, seared scallops contrast superbly with the chilled soup. It’s similar to a Spanish gazpacho but a bit lighter. Great on a hot day if you are eating outside in the garden, and so easy to do. Instead of scallops, try a mix of brown and white crab meat mixed with a little mayo. I always say this, but please don’t be tempted by cheap scallops. Buy hand dived and ask where they came from.
Serves four 4 large hand-dived scallops, shells and frills removed, gently rinsed 4 large over-ripe tomatoes, I love organic Isle of Wight tomatoes 1 large Ramiro pepper, seeds and stalk removed, roughly chopped 1 British cucumber, peeled and seeds scraped out, roughly chopped 1 small clove of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced 1 to 2 tbsp red wine vinegar 2 leaves of basil 2 to 3 tbsp cold-pressed rapeseed oil good salt and pepper fresh bread croutons, optional
1
Cut the tomatoes into quarters and add them to a liquidiser jug alongside the pepper, cucumber, garlic, vinegar, basil, a pinch of good salt and pepper, and half the oil, then blitz with the lid on for 2 to 3 minutes. Taste to check if more salt or vinegar (or even tomato) is required. Pass through a fine sieve and refrigerate until required.
2 Halve each scallop lengthways so you have 8 rounds. Season with salt and pepper. Heat a frying pan on the hob and add the remaining oil. Place the scallops in the pan and fry on one side only for 2 to 3 minutes until golden brown.
3 To serve, place 2 rounds in the centre of each bowl and ladle the chilled soup around the scallops. Garnish with some fresh bread croutons if you like.
Fillet of halibut with samphire and chanterelles
Get your fishmonger to do the hard work and fillet the fish for you. As an alternative to halibut, try hake, or smoked haddock works well. Fish goes really well with chanterelles and it’s the start of the mushroom season here in Scotland, so these vibrant orange fungi are easily foraged. If you do go picking, be careful and make sure you know what you are doing. Salty samphire brings all the flavours together nicely. It grows wild on coastal marsh areas in East Lothian but you should get permission from the landowner before doing any kind of foraging.
Serves four 4 175g halibut fillets – farmed Gigha halibut is great 1 handful of British samphire, washed 2 handfuls of chanterelles mushrooms, cleaned a few flowers from the garden, I like nasturtium leaves and flowers, borage is pretty too 2 tbsp rapeseed oil 150g butter juice of a lemon some fennel fronds, optional good salt and pepper
1 Season the fish all over. Heat a frying pan and a pot on the hob, bringing both to moderate heat. Add the oil to the frying pan and put in the fish, leaving it for a couple of minutes. Then add half the butter and the mushrooms to the pot, followed by the samphire. Season. Keep tossing, being careful not to burn the butter.
2 Check the fish. It should be starting to turn golden brown on the underside. Once it is, turn over each fillet and continue cooking. Add the remaining butter to the frying pan. It will start to froth and become lovely and nut brown in colour. Season the fish again and squeeze in the lemon juice, a few drops at a time. If you like, add some fennel fronds at this stage, as they will flavour the butter well.
3 When the mushrooms and samphire are just soft, season again and spoon into the centre of four warmed plates. Place the fish on top and decorate with the flowers and a few more drops of lemon.
Cherry and frangipane tart
After many years of decline, as so many ancient cherry orchards were cut down for arable farming and pasture, these wonderful deep red, stoned fruits are back on many menus and here to stay. If you like to eat cherries, I suggest you buy a cherry stoner as life is too short to remove all the stones by hand. I love the old fable that many of our ancient roads around Britain are lined with cherry trees as the Roman soldiers spat out the stones on the way north.
Serves six 120g butter, unsalted 150g butter 60g icing sugar 150g caster sugar 270g plain flour (and a little extra for sifting) 3 eggs, beaten 150g ground almonds a pinch of salt a splash of cherry brandy or kirsch, optional 1 tbsp flaked almonds 250g washed, and stoned cherries crème fraîche or clotted cream to serve
1 To make the pastry, rub together the icing sugar and unsalted butter until creamed. Then add one of the eggs a little at a time before folding in 220g of the flour a little at a time too. It will seem a tad wet but will harden once chilled. Wrap the pastry in clingfilm and store in the fridge for 20 minutes. Once chilled, remove from the fridge and roll the pastry on a floured surface until 3mm thick.
2 Line a well-greased and floured bottomless 12in/30cm tin with the pastry. Remove the overhanging edges and leave to rest again whilst you make your frangipane.
3 Pre-heat the oven to 165C/gas Mark 3½.
4 To make the frangipane, beat together the butter and caster sugar until pale. Add the almonds gently and then the remaining 50g of flour. Slowly incorporate the last two eggs, then add the salt and the liqueur and mix well.
5 Pour a third of the frangipane mix into the pastry-lined tart case. Then add the cherries to the remaining mix and add this to the tart case. Smooth over with a wet palette knife and sprinkle over a few slivers of flaked almonds and bake for 45 minutes. Check and bake for a further 15 minutes if required. Your knife should enter easily and exit clean with only cherry juice on it.
6 Allow to cool slightly then remove from the tin and serve warm with dollops of crème fraîche or thick clotted cream.