‘We need to get closer to where food comes from’
Sarah cooks up a storm with tasty treats in her new book
Self-taught cook and Masterchef finalist Sarah Rankin believes in getting up close and personal with our food. A Highlander, but now based in Perthshire, Sarah believes in having a close relationship with where your food comes from. “I am not a chef,” declares Sarah, with a healthy dose of pride. “I’m very much at pains to point that out.
“I’m not trained, I’m self-taught – so I’m a cook, really. But I was around home-cooked food all the time.”
Sarah’s new cookbook, Kith, draws on the bountiful larder of Perthshire, Fife and Angus. “We’re so removed from our foods,” Sarah explains. “My son is 18 years old and he’s been around home-cooked food all his life yet still, he’s really weird about touching meat. We’re just moving further and further away from where our meat comes from and the people that rear it for us. We should have a much closer relationship with them.”
Sarah has a long list of local producers who she admires and buys from regularly. Meat shouldn’t be bought from the supermarkets if possible, she says.
“My point is if you go to source, go to your local estate – if you’re lucky enough to live in the country – or you go to your butcher. Every butcher, even an urban butcher, will have a game dealer contact. They will know someone who can get you game.
“It’s about educating yourself. We have this massive distance between ourselves and the people that eat our food and what we eat. And I would really just like to narrow that gap a bit.” But it’s not just local game she supports. “There’s amazing seafood in Fife, in the East Neuk especially,” Sarah added. “My lobsters come from this great gal called Kate & Co Lobsters.
“You just phone her up and she will come and deliver them – and she’ll cook them for you too. I know cooking lobster is not for everybody. I have done it once or twice… The process of it can be slightly alarming!” Some – even others working in food and drink – can get twitchy about revealing the inner workings of preparing meat and seafood. Sarah said: “Interestingly, when I was on Masterchef, I made a seafood dish and I had a crab to prepare. And there was huge debate, because I used things like pigeon too. And they were always around me in a panic, like ‘what are we going to show?’
“I was like: ‘I think we should show all of it. I think you should show me cutting the head off it, I think you should show me gutting it.’ Because that is totally normal. We should not be getting our food in plastic, polystyrene packets with plastic film on them. That is not what food looks like.
“But they wouldn’t show me cutting the head off a pigeon, or gutting a pigeon – although I had to do it so they could see I could do it – but they wouldn’t put it on camera.”
As well as closing that gap between us and local producers, Sarah promotes eating seasonally in her new cookbook. “For spring, you can get young nettles, which are amazing
for soups and stews. They’re full of so many nutrients. Pick the ones from the top, ideally not on a heavily-used dog walking route,” she said.“we’re coming almost to the end of forced rhubarb season. You can get pink forced rhubarb which makes beautifully sweet desserts.”
Sarah has made a point of putting together some essential recipes in Kith for all those starting off on their food journey.
“I think having basic skills, and those firm foundations, is stuff that I wish I’d had – a little handbook – for when I was learning how to cook,” she said.
Sarah firmly believes that food is the greatest gift you can give someone you love. She said: “The process of not even just cooking something, but inviting someone into your home, planning, and wanting to give them the experience – and the feasting aspect of it – there’s no better way of showing someone how much you care about them, by taking that time.”