On 30th Nov, Scots around the world will come together to celebrate St Andrews day. As well as paying tribute to the nation’s patron saint, folk will also celebrate our wonderful culture with traditonal Scottish food. It’s a great occasion for being sociable and for sharing food, especially from our naturally rich Scots larder. With it’s abundance of fresh food, beef, lamb, venison, game and fish from our doorstep larder will all be a part of the celebrations.
As part of the wider celebrations taking place throughout Scotland, the Scottish Government have launched an initiative to encourage people to enjoy a ‘St Andrews Night In’ and celebrate the day with a homemade fish dish. Earlier this month Young Scottish Seafood Chef of the Year, helped launch the event, and has created a recipe for an easy to make ‘Smoked Haddock Bake’.
Adam’s recipe includes, sustainably sourced North Sea haddock, potatoes, spring onions and peas, complete with a delicious cheesy breadcrumb topping. Quick and easy to make this dish will appeal to all the family and is the perfect way to celebrate the occasion with some of the fantastic fish that Scotland has to offer.
In addition to being Young Scottish Seafood Chef of the Year, Adam was also named Young Scottish Chef of the year. Commenting on his recipe, Adam said, “When it comes to creating hearty Scottish cuisine, I am always spoilt for choice with the wealth of quality produce here in Scotland that I have access to all year round.
“Coming from Arbroath, I’ve always loved seafood, and to create the St Andrew’s Day fish dish, I chose smoked North sea haddock, to take a twist on the traditional fish pie – warm, comforting and homely- perfect fare for the winter evenings.
Adam’s delicious smoked haddock bake
Ingredients
Serves 4
2 Fillets of Scottish smoked haddock
2 potatoes (peeled and chopped into a small dice)
4 spring onions (finely sliced)
25g fresh or frozen peas
25g broad beans (popped out of their skins)
2 tbsp chopped parsley
200g low fat creme fraiche
25g grated Parmesan cheese
30g of breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Method
Preheat oven to 180C. Par boil the diced potato in salted water, until it has softened slightly but not completely cooked. Then drain off and leave to cool.
Add the haddock fillets, onions, peas, broad beans, creme fraiche and nutmeg. Mix everything together in a big bowl with a good pinch of salt and pepper.
Spoon the mix into a ramekin, leaving a small gap at the top. Mix the Parmesan and breadcrumbs together and sprinkle across the top to cover.
Cook in the preheated oven for 20 mins and serve.
The Gillon boys gave this dish top marks, it was their kind of wholesome comfort food and for me, being a ‘one dish dinner, was a real winner.
A family feast for St Andrew’s day
St Andrew’s day see’s the start of Scotland’s winter festivals, Hogmanay, followed closely in January by Burns night. These celebrations will bring families and friends together to share, not only their love of Scotland, but of sharing and eating, good food. The smoked haddock dish is a wonderful tasting dish that will be perfect to serve at any of these celebrations.
Celebrating St Andrew’s Day
You’ll find this recipe and other fish recipes devised by Adam’s at www.scotland.org/fish.
For more information about celebrating St Andrews day and ‘St Andrews night in’ see, www.scotland.org/nightin If fish isn’t a family favourite, there’s also a host of other recipes created by Andrew and leading Scottish chef, Andrew Fairlie.
Artwork My thanks to artist Alice Strange for allowing me to use the fish artwork for this post. You can view more of her prints at www.alicestrange.com
Thank you to Smarts Pr www.smarts.co.uk for information/picture and to chef Adam Newth for creating such a wonderful recipe.
For further information on Scottish seafood, visit www.seafoodscotland.org