Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary
cooking up a storm at the edge of the world
The Ptarmigan – Scotland’s highest restaurant at 1090 metres. Situated in the top station on Cairn Gorm Mountain, in the most unexpected of places, you’ll find Scotland’s highest restaurant – The Ptarmigan. At 1090 metres/ 3500 feet above sea level it’s no problem to access thanks to Scotland’s only Funicular Railway – a train carriage …
I miss trees. Where I grew up in rural Cape Breton, on the east coast of Canada, we had more trees than you could imagine. Most of my childhood was spent in them, falling out of them, getting lost in them, and on many an occasion, eating from them. There were so many wild apple …
This recipe for braised red cabbage with apples and star anise offers a tender and flavourful side dish. Sweet red cabbage is enriched with the warm, aromatic essence of star anise, cinnamon and other herbs, complemented by red wine vinegar and dark muscovado sugar. Prep Time: 10 minutes Cooking Time: 70 minutes Difficulty: Easy This …
We spent last Friday and Saturday confined indoors due to Storm Abigail, the first UK storm to be named under the Met Office’s Name Our Storms project. Schools were cancelled on the Friday because the risk of the high winds blowing the school buses over, and so duvet days were had with much lounging and …
As Storm Abigail bashes and batters the outside of our house on this windy, wet, cold Shetland winter’s day, and the flickering lights mean the electricity is still holding on, I am daydreaming of warmer temperatures and the family adventures of times gone by.
A recipe, review and giveaway in collaboration with Cole & Mason. Once you start cooking with whole freshly toasted and ground spices you can never go back to the ready ground variety. The difference it makes to the flavour of a dish is astounding. As soon as you grind spices they begin to lose their …
These cupcakes came into existence because my husband buys too many pears. I’m pretty sure no one eats pears in our house, and there’s been a bag of pears lurking in the fridge for well over a month now and lo, a few days ago yet another bag of fresh pears somehow appeared in the …
The best of Korean and Egyptian Cuisines by Amina Elshafei. Amina Elshafei was born in Saudi Arabia from a Korean mother and an Egyptian father, so the cultural influences behind her cooking are rather inventive and unique. She moved to Australia at the age of four, and in 2012 she was selected out of 7,500 …
Fried sage and white truffle-infused olive oil transform this soup into something really special. I’m not a big fan of dried sage. There’s something stale and unpalatable about the herb, I feel, so I tend not to cook with it. That was until fresh sage leaves began appearing in my veg box and I discovered …
Old Norse: feitiland – fat land, rich pasture Situated at the most northern tip of the Shetland mainland, Fethaland’s fertile soil has a long history of settlement. There is evidence of an Iron Age prehistoric round house or broch (there is some disagreement on this), the circular wall outlines of a Neolithic house and the …
aka how to salvage a failed attempt at making chocolate hazelnut spread. I like experimenting in my kitchen, I really do. Sometimes (quite a lot of the time, if I am to be honest!) it doesn’t quite go according to plan. I had a notion to make some homemade chocolate hazelnut spread recently. Ok, if …
In collaboration with Veetee Rice. I love home cooking, I really do. I enjoy the whole chopping, preparing and assembling process which results in a nice, tasty home cooked meal for the family, but time isn’t always on my side. Sometimes, at the end of a long, busy day ferrying children to clubs and events, …
A comfortable, quiet night’s sleep with ibis. As much as I am an adventurer at heart, I don’t get to travel nearly as much as I would like to. I have only ever stayed in a handful of hotels in my lifetime, usually opting for camping, renting a B&B or, like during my recent trip …
A weekend of great company and excellent food. Food Blogger Connect (FBC) is (in their words) “the world’s leading International food blogging conference” held annually in London, England. Founded in 2009 it brings together food bloggers, industry representatives and educational speakers for a packed weekend of networking and community. After hearing so many positive reviews …
Freshly toasted and ground cumin and a touch of cayenne give this hummus recipe a nice kick. There must be at least a hundred different ways to make hummus, and we each tend to have our favourite version. Mine includes plenty of toasted and freshly ground cumin seeds and a generous pinch of cayenne for …
The third, and final, post in my Paris series. The morning of my last day in Paris dawned bright and clear. I walked what had become a very familiar route over the last four days along the Esplanade de Villes into the city centre, enjoying the tranquility and the golden glow of the early morning. …
This quick and easy Hungarian plum cake is a great way to showcase fresh, seasonal plums. It’s very nutty and delicious, perfect with an afternoon cuppa. Post updated 16 August 2018. “Mum, why it so windy?” It’s that time of year again. The gales have returned causing ferry transport disruptions. It’s getting dark early and …
Plus some other rather delicious morsels in the city of lights! I’m going to be 40 soon, so I’ve compiled a list of 40 Things I’d Like to Do Before I Turn 40. Drinking coffee in Paris was #2 on this list. You know – a street side cafe, sunglasses, watching the passerbys passing by, …
Exploring the city of lights one geocache at a time… It’s funny how one thing can lead to another. How chance encounters and random events can shape our lives and create lasting memories. Earlier this spring I found myself bumping across the North Sea in a tiny seven seater aircraft returning from the most fantastic …
It’s funny how one thing can lead to another… and another… My regular readers might recall that a few months ago I created a rather unusual recipe for Minions Cornsicles in my trusty Optimum 9400 power blender. This was in collaboration with Tots 100 and Green Giant – I was asked to develop a recipe …
