Scottish?

[Claire]

I really didn't know where to put this, here or the special events thread. But we do a lot of potluck entertaining, and when one of our group takes an interesting vacation, we often throw a party with the theme of where we've visited. One friend went to Scotland this year with her father and son. Since her dad was visiting this month, she threw a party with a Scottish theme. I was determined to find an appetizer type food to go with the theme, even though she'd said that there wasn't much out there. I must have looked at a dozen sites and hundreds of recipes. You know I was scraping the bottom of the alphabetical barrel when I found "Whiskey marinaded prawns." Now, I have to tell you there are very few kinds of alcohol I dislike, and scotch is one of them. And I'm not that crazy about shrimp. On top of that, it called for something I've never heard of in addition to the scotch; green ginger wine (?) So, in my usual manner, I mixed about a cup of scotch, a few slices of ginger, and some sugar, brought to a boil, then poured over pre-cooked large shrimp.

I was amazed at how good it was and how many compliments we got! Scotch, ginger, and shrimp? Who'da thunk?

[ErikC]

Sounds great!

Scottish cuisine has been given a really bad name, especially due to the stereotypes of fried food and haggis. I'm going to have to make this next Robbie Burns Day!

[Claire]

Erik, I used about 1 cup of Cutty Sark, a couple tablespoons of demarara sugar crystals (but I'm sure any else would do), and a few slices of ginger. Brought up to a boil and immediately turned off (just enough to get the sugar dissolved and to slightly mellow the scotch flavor and get the ginger flavor throughout the shrimp. Bought already cooked, but good quality shrimp (about 3 lbs, shelled but tails on) and soaked it all for the day (made it at about 9 a.m., brought it to the party at 6 p.m.) I think that longer would make the shrimp mushy. I swear, I thought this would be an expensive, not very good, experiment and it was a hit. I'll definitely do it again.

[bknox]

I bet that would work for bourbon as well as I dislike Scotch as well and have none in my house. I have a couple bourbons to test with.

[shalinee]

I am a Malaysian Chinese and have been staying in Scotland for the past 6+ years. If there's anything that I really like and I think is very special about Scotland is the Sticky Toffee Pudding. It's a very moist date cake. You serve it with very sweet toffee sauce poured over it and a big scoop of good quality vanilla ice-cream at the side or on top. It's fabulous but mind you....definitely not for those who are on diet.

[Claire]

Oh, there were plenty of desert recipes. I was assigned an appetizer. Seems there is almost no such thing in Scotland!

[shalinee]

Scotland is very popular for it's smoked salmond. A good Scottish appetizer is little smoked salmond rolls. It has cream cheese filling. You can add herbs or other flavours to it. I actually like it. Hope it helps.

[Claire]

Several people were already bringing salmon dishes!

[Bilby]

Originally Posted by shalinee

I am a Malaysian Chinese and have been staying in Scotland for the past 6+ years. If there's anything that I really like and I think is very special about Scotland is the Sticky Toffee Pudding. It's a very moist date cake. You serve it with very sweet toffee sauce poured over it and a big scoop of good quality vanilla ice-cream at the side or on top. It's fabulous but mind you....definitely not for those who are on diet.

Don't know its true origin but we in Australia see a Sticky Date Pudding as an Australian dessert. Funny, eh?!

[Bilby]

Originally Posted by Claire

On top of that, it called for something I've never heard of in addition to the scotch; green ginger wine (?)

This is the wine they refer to
Stone's Original Green Ginger Wine

My uncle was very partial to this stuff but I can't say it ever held any appeal to me. I guess I should try again one of these days just to see if it now suits. Life is, after all, dynamic!