Brian Stormont rounds up the latest news, releases and events for local food and drink fans

TRY SOME POTATO MILK

It’s no secret that Scotty Brand is a big potato fan, and the team is always creating, developing and sharing new ways to cook with the humble spud.

So, the keen canine ears of Scotty, the brand’s mascot, pricked up when he heard that there was a new potato trend in town.

Potato milk is the latest plant-based milk and is made in a similar way to other vegan milks such as oat, almond and coconut milk. The potatoes are cooked and then strained and combined with water alongside a few other ingredients to create a creamy delicious milk.

The team at Scotty Brand teamed up with Aberdeen-based vegan recipe creator Vegan Family House to produce delicious potato milk recipes.

As well as being the latest trend, potato milk is also more environmentally friendly for the planet than other plant-based milks. Growing potatoes takes up around half as much land as oats do and requires less water when compared to almond farming.

Michael Jarvis, head of marketing at Scotty Brand, said: “Scotland’s weather, climate and rich soil are perfect for growing potatoes, so when we heard about potato milk, we just knew our Scotty Brand potatoes would be ideal for this.”

To make potato milk you will need: 4 cups of water, 1 large Scotty Brand potato, peeled and boiled (or 3 Scotty Brand

baby potatoes), 1 heaped tablespoon of ground almonds (or ground porridge oats, if you don’t want to use nuts), 3 medjool dates or 6 small dates, half a teaspoon of vanilla essence and a pinch of salt.

Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth, strain through a nut milk bag, or a sieve lined with cheesecloth, or even a new nylon stocking (rinsed out first), then chill in the fridge. Like most plant milks, it’s best to shake or stir before use.

For a chocolate potato milk, use 1 cup of potato milk per person as per recipe above and simply add 1 banana, and 1 teaspoon of cocoa. Blend together to create a more decadent chocolatey potato milk.

NEW PACK SIZE FOR CRISPS

Pickled onion crisps produced by Scotland’s leading snack maker is to pack a punch in a smaller bag following unprecedented success as a larger portion.

Mackie’s at Taypack is launching a new 40g packet of its pickled onion flavour – available all around Scotland.

Having hit the mark with crisp lovers across the country, the flavour has now moved into the brand’s “core range” after more than 500,000 of the 150g packs sold within the first six months of trading, becoming Mackie’s fastest growing crisp flavour of all time.

Scotty Brand’s creamy delicious potato milk.