March 8th, 2010
Like your wife’s birthday and ‘the anniversary’, Mother’s Day is one of those dates that for a truly peaceful life is best not forgotten. So even though it is a busy time for us at Knockderry House with many families taking their mums out for a lovely lunch to say thank you, we all make sure that we have the flowers organised well in advance. But what is the history behind the tradition?
Many see it as a recent rather commercialised festival imported from the United States, where the tradition to celebrate Mother’s Day has become the most popular day of the year to dine whilst telephone companies record their highest traffic.
However, it is a tradition that can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans who celebrated with a Spring festival dedicated to Cybele, a mother goddess, presumably including a trip to the Coliseum to watch a few guys who’d forgotten their anniversary, Valentine’s Day, the birthday and Mother’s Day (The Grand Slam) being thrown to the lions or in later days being dragged round IKEA behind a chariot – TWICE!
Even early Christians, the ones who remembered, celebrated a Mother’s Day of sorts during Lent in honour of the Virgin Mary; eventually, the holiday was expanded to include all mothers. Some however, believe that Mother’s Day was so named as people returned to their home or “mother” church at least once a year. The same opportunities for holidays did not exist as they do now, but like today, children often worked away from home so this became a time for family reunions.
It was therefore, the reference to the “Mother” church which led to the term ‘Mothering Sunday’ which in turn led to the tradition of children, visiting their mother and family with gifts and a special fruit cake or fruit-filled pastry called a simnel.
These days, Mother’s Day is celebrated all over the world and although for many the church connection has been lost, it is still a special day on which to say thanks to our mums and the chance to express both love and thanks for all that they have given us. As long as you remember of course……otherwise it’s off to the Coliseum or even worse…..
From all at Knockderry House, we wish you a Happy Mothers Day.
Tags: Cybele, Mother's Day, Mothering Sunday
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February 9th, 2010
With Valentine’s Day fast approaching we thought we might take a peek at the relationship between food and love and specifically the aphrodisiacs properties in food.
Throughout the ages there has been a belief that certain foods increase sexual desire. The word “aphrodisiac” comes from Aphrodite; the Greek Goddess of Love and in ancient times a distinction was made between a substance that increased fertility versus one that simply increased the sex drive.
The key issue in early times was nutrition. Food was not as readily available as it is today so undernourishment created a loss of libido as well as a reduction in fertility rates. Substances found in Mother Nature’s garden that represented seeds such as bulbs, eggs, and snails were therefore considered to have sexual powers whilst other types of food were considered stimulating by their physical resemblance to the sexual parts of the body!
Most of us have heard of the potential aphrodisiac qualities of powdered rhino horn gaining its reputation from the aggressive qualities of the animal source. These days however, we can look closer to home and be totally ethical in relation to aphrodisiacs.
There is an abundance of aphrodisiac food available, and at Knockderry House Hotel on Valentine’s Day we combine many of these to produce a sensual menu to evoke the senses and ignite the desires.
Aphrodisiac foods include bananas, chocolate, carrots, fennel, garlic, pineapple, raspberries, strawberries, truffles and vanilla however, here are some ingredients that you may not have considered.
Seen as a symbol of fertility throughout the ages, the almond has an aroma that is thought to induce passion in the female. Meanwhile, the Aztecs called the avocado tree “Ahucauatl” which translated, literally means ‘testicle tree’. The ancients likened the fruit hanging in pairs to the males anatomy. Caffeine is a well known stimulant and serving small amounts over ice cream will stimulate both the body and mind. Oysters, of course have been well documented as an aphrodisiac by the Romans, and Casanova was reported to indulge in a few before his famous rampages. They contain a high concentration of zinc that is good for sperm production. And figs were traditionally thought of as a sexual stimulant. A man breaking open a fig and eating it in front of his lover was seen as a powerfully erotic act.
So this Valentine’s Day take your beloved out for a romantic meal and enjoy the food of love. Happy Valentines Day!
Tags: almond, aphrodisiac, aphrodite, avocado, caffeine, figs, love, oysters, Valentine's
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January 28th, 2010
A winter wonderland was the setting for our first wedding of the year. Ben and Annie Hobley were married on the 10 of January by a local minister in the lovely surroundings of the hotel overlooking a wintry Loch Long. As they took their vows, the snow began to fall gently on the frosty ground and the landscape began to transform providing a unique backdrop to a very special day.
The perfect setting for a Scottish wedding
The wedding was relatively small with the guests primarily made up of close family, very close friends and various children, the smaller of whom looked like winter fairies in their dresses.
The bride and groom clearly enjoyed their moment. Despite the chilly temperatures they braved the weather to ensure there were some magical photographs taken out in the hotel’s grounds in the falling snow. This was very special intimate day which despite the weather was full of warmth.
The happy couple together in the grounds of Knockderry House
‘what a wonderful location, excellent food and it was real joy to be looked after by staff who without exception were unfailingly friendly, courteous, efficient and for them nothing was too much trouble to make our stay a very special event.’ – Jim and Sue Hobley, Jan 2010
Tags: loch long, snow, wedding
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January 18th, 2010
Haggis is as synonymous with Scotland as Braveheart and Irn Bru, but is it truly Scottish? The auld alliance may be the key to that question. The French court would serve a similar dish of innards and gizzards inside a stomach lining, in fact nearly every European country from the Romanian tuba to the Spanish pig fest have all used bits and pieces and the stomach as a vessel.
So why did someone decide to boil up sheep guts, mince it and mix it with oatmeal and thyme? Out of necessity, I suppose. As long as there has been cooks, they have challenged culinary boundaries. The ingredients include the lamb pluck (the heart lungs and liver), oatmeal, thyme and onions. These ingredients were most readily available in Scotland and an obvious choice.
As time passed, spices were added to th mix, such as ginger, pimento, nutmeg and of course black pepper which gives haggis it’s heat. There are countless wonderful recipes to produce our Scottish icon that we call Haggis. At the Knockderry, we prepare our haggis weekly using the pluck of Cairngorm mountain lamb, pinhead oatmeal from Alford and thyme from the hotel’s garden.
Haggis is especially significant at this time of year as January 25th draws upon us. Robert Burns immortalised the chieftain of the pudding race in his fantastic poem ‘Address to a Haggis’ which is recited at Burns Suppers around the end of January all over the world.
Tags: burns supper, haggis, robert burns
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November 17th, 2009
Perched up on the west coast of Scotland with some of the best fishing grounds around the UK if not the world, fish and shellfish naturally play a large part of the menu at Knockderry House. Scallops are hand dived from the Sound of Jura, lobsters from Oban and mussels from Shetland and razor clams (spoots) from Arran. However, with the seas over fished and quotas met earlier and earlier each year, our customers are increasingly interested in the providence of the seafood we serve them.
We are supplied by a range of independent and retail fishing suppliers some of whom are pioneers in the supply of sustainable and responsibly caught fish. M&J Seafood champion the British Skipper Scheme which has been set up to allow chefs to be emailed what fishing boats are out, where they will be fishing and what they will hopefully be catching. On return to port an email is sent telling the chef where the catch is to be landed and what time the next day it will appear. This allows us to trace the fish we use back to the boat – be it the ‘Nova Spero’, fishing Albacore tuna in Cornwall or the ‘Skin Deeper’ in Wimborne fishing line caught seabass to name a few.
Local suppliers include Loch Fyne Oysters and the Flying Fisherman straight off the boats at Oban.
As the variety of fish is so diverse there is always interesting fish dishes at the hotel such as tempura battered cod cheek, ham hough and spring peas, Scrabster landed pollack with hot smoked salmon fish fingers and a tartar hollandaise seared John Dory, cauliflower gaspacho and pickled grapes or baked grey mullet, cuttlefish and chorizo stew.
Tags: British Skipper Scheme, Flying Fisherman, Loch Fyne Oysters, M&J Seafood, seafood
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November 4th, 2009
With the end of the season approaching we are taking the annual opportunity to carry out a few repairs and offer the building a bit of tender loving care to see it through another winter. Since taking over the hotel 8 yrs ago we have redecorated, or in some cases made wholesale renovations too, all the rooms at least once – so it is with an increasing awareness of the passage of time that I realise we are about to redecorate one of our principle rooms for the third time.
The room was once the dressing room for the master bedroom and on turning the home to a hotel in the 60s, it had been foolishly hacked about leaving most of the orginal carvings boarded up, cut out or given a lovely dash of magnolia gloss. Worse – the bathroom could not be reached from the bedroom but only from the corridor, leaving many embarrassed guests no choice but to appear in the lounge bar clad in nothing but a very small towel in order to retrieve a spare key.
Decoration revealed these treasures and the original Leiper panelling hiding behind the paint. Subsequent revelations included samples of the original wallpaper and evidence of Leiper ‘built’ in wardrobes. Interestingly we never did find a fireplace in the room – which would have necessitated some very hasty dressing in the winter months.
Fortunately modern central heating is now fully installed so the room with its new four poster bed and carpets will be significantly more comfortable for future guests than for the poor Victorian gentleman who first stayed there.
Tags: leiper panelling, renovation
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November 4th, 2009
Why does nobody believe me when I tell them what beautiful weather we are having this autumn at Knockderry House? Granted it’s a wee bit late and we can never guarantee it but it just makes the gift of the late autumnal sun all the more precious. The most sceptical are often expatriate Scots, brothers and sisters, friends and ex-colleagues grinding away ‘down south’ to the sound of passing traffic, who chortle doubtfully when I tell them of the stunning blue skies and golden hues that are delighting us at the moment.
So we learn to make jokes about our weather as we try to answer with humour the perennial questions, “Does it ever stop raining?” “Does the mist ever rise?” “How do you cope during the winter with all the snow?”, but in reality – when the clouds part and the rain drifts away – we are left with the most beautiful countryside imaginable. And the rain? Well we have it to thank for the hundreds of thousands of acres of lush verdant woodland, our rivers and burns, cascading waterfalls and fertile glens feeding contented, fattened cattle.
The rain will come – but for now, the colours are spectacular everywhere you look. So as I look out across the deep blue of Loch Long to the hills of Arrochar and beyond, the richness and variety of the colours of so many different trees turning a myriad of autumnal shades, I give thanks for the rain that has passed and look forward to the year to come.
Tags: autumn, rain
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