Blog
2012
Facts About Parsnips and Delicious Parsnip Ice Cream Recipe
Parsnips are at their best at this time of year, February is always a good time for parsnips, and it’s certainly one of our favourites. Parsnips have a history in Britain, we have cultivated the root vegetable for at least two centuries, but at one time parsnips and carrots went by the same name. The [...]
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2012
Knockderry Haggis
“But mark the rustic, Haggis fed, The trembling earth resounds his tread. Clap in his walie nieve a blade, He’ll mak it whissle; An’ legs an’ arms, an’ heads will sned, Like taps o’ thrissle.” – Robert Burns, Address to a Haggis Haggis is a very old Scottish delicacy, traditionally prepared by the wives of [...]
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2012
Oxtail – Food to Nourish Those we Love
Recently, oxtail has become rather fashionable in restaurants and with some well-known chefs increasingly offering the humble oxtail on their menus. And no wonder. It is full of sweet and succulent flavour which comes from the meat being so close to the bone. It is therefore excellent as the base of stocks and sauces but [...]
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2011
In Celebration of the Hare
January is a cold, wet, and dreary month. Christmas is over, the hours of daylight are short and it’s a long time ‘til Summer. On top of which we are often found struggling with new diets and saving our pennies after the excesses of Christmas and Hogmanay. What we don’t need to do is make [...]
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2011
Celebrate with Chestnuts this Festive Season
“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping on your nose, Yuletide carols being sung by a choir, and folks dressed up like Eskimos.” Any time I hear this merry little tune it makes me think of the wonderful aroma given off by the chestnuts roasting the oven in our kitchen. Brown like a dull mahogany wood, [...]
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2011
Venison Pie Recipe
Venison is the culinary term for any kind of deer be it hunted or farmed; the meat is some of the best you can find in Scotland. The meat is somewhat like beef with a more gamey flavour and tends to have a much leaner texture than beef. It is best served with a sweet [...]
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2011
Brambles are Back!
We are blessed in this part of Scotland to have a profusion of wild blackberries or brambles in our hedgerows and woodlands – they thrive in poor soil and along our country lanes and have a depth of flavour rarely matched by cultivated types. Our advice is, do as we do at Knockderry Country House [...]
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2011
Knockderry Squid
People can often be put off cooking squid as it requires a bit of prior knowledge. However, it is easy once you know how. Begin by cutting off the tentacles, and pull the ‘quill’ out; a plastic like shard in the center of the body. Reserve the silvery ink-sac to colour the dish later. Peel [...]
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2011
Visit Townhead Farm on Open Farm Sunday
Our friends at Townhead Farm in Helensburgh are holding an Open Farm Sunday on 12th June from 12pm to 5pm. The day will provide an exciting and fun day out for the whole family who can discover for themselves what really goes on on a working farm. Visitors can see for themselves how natural plant [...]
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2011
Royal Afternoon Tea at Knockderry House
Have you ever felt that “sinking feeling”; that emptiness that occurs in the late afternoon with dinner still some way off? The 7th Duchess of Bedford in the early 19th Century came up with a solution that we all enjoy today, a pot of fragrant tea with delicious light cakes, pastries and sandwiches. Today as [...]
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