Another Scotland
Photography by Lisa Paarvio
The green walls of our tunnel tent glow, light shimmering and flowing in waves, the dawn chorus ebbing, reminding us that time’s a-wasting. Waking slowly in cocoons of silk, down and nylon, there's a delicious sense of lethargy; we’re slow to get moving.
Here, beneath stark basalt mountains on the Isle of Skye, the scent of sun-warmed earth and heather flows into the tent. Still in our bags, there's good-natured banter as to who has to leave the comfort of a warm bag to light our stove and get breakfast going.
Grumbling slightly, one of the team wriggles out of the tent, the fly taut with the heat from a cloudless sky – a rare and unexpected joy here in the far North West of Scotland, where one day of sunshine is a thing to be celebrated.
The contrast in this landscape bewitches, and pulls us into its embrace. Packs lie in the lee of the tent, the pink loops of our climbing rope wedged underneath a lid, ready for the day’s scramble along beautiful ridges. Beams of sunlight shade the rock formations, calling to mind a Jacob’s Ladder of sorts, ascending to the heavens.
Descending to the stream, Vreni slides up a sleeve, fishes for the dry bag wedged between boulders, and fills the kettle for a brew. Inside, chilled in this makeshift fridge overnight are wild salmon fillets and hard-boiled eggs, cooked the night before. Though the hue on the salmon skin is slightly muted, the flesh holds a dark pink hue, far removed from the pale colours of their farmed brethren. Coming across the farm yesterday added the final element of free range eggs to the morning’s breakfast. Handing over cash, crumpled in a ball, to the farmer who raised the animals gives a far greater sense of human interaction than any chip and pin transaction in a supermarket.
These types of exchanges are still an everyday occurrence in the area from which we get the other elements of our meal. Rice and spices from Indian markets, mingled with the colonials’ addition of fish and eggs, transforms the local dish of kichirī into today’s kedgeree.
Though some kedgeree recipes include curry powder, no self-respecting Indian cook would ever resort to the vaguely brown powder sitting in a jar at the back of the cupboard. Use the mix below, or add to it as you wish – the flavour will be far better than any pre-made mix. Dried whole spices weigh little; changing the quantities below can greatly alter the flavour of the recipe, so we encourage you to experiment.
Recipes
Kedgeree
Ingredients:
2 cups long grain rice or a mix of long grain and wild rice
500ml water
2 tbsp garam masala powder (or use the following mix: 1 tsp turmeric, 1 tbsp curry leaves, 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp black onion seeds)
1 tsp rock salt or sea salt
1 tsp pepper
2 organic duck or chicken eggs, hard boiled the night before and kept fresh in the dry bag fridge
2 fillets wild salmon or trout
Chervil and coriander leaves
1 tbsp olive oil, butter, or ghee
Method:
Heat the ghee in a pan, and when hot, add the spices and salt.
Cook the fish fillets, skin-side down first until crisp then flip and cook for 1-2 minutes more, remove and leave to rest.
Rinse the rice in clean water, drain the excess starch and add clean water to the top of the rice, then one knuckle deep extra.
Bring to the boil, with the lid on until fluffy, then season.
Peel and chop the eggs.
Flake the trout fillets into the rice, add the eggs, tear the chervil and coriander leaves and mix well.
Cranachan, deconstructed
Ingredients:
150g oats
400ml water
2 tbsp wild heather honey
3 tbsp butter
4 tbsp raspberries
4 tbsp strained yoghurt
Method:
Bring water to the boil, add the oats and cook.
You should have a thick mixture.
Add 2 tbsp butter to the mix, and stir in.
In a pan, heat up the other tbsp butter.
Spoon some of the oatmeal into the pan and flatten down to thick disks.
Fry on one side, flip and fry again.
Spoon into bowls and top with yoghurt, raspberries and honey.
You can also make this dish with cream instead of yoghurt, and add a tot of good Scottish Whiskey if you feel like it.
