Chefs Blog
2012
Oban Landed Brown Crab Salad
Oban landed brown crab is perfect this time of year but many people are put off buying fresh crab uncertain how to prepare it, but just ask your local fishmonger. For the recipe below you only need the white meat so freeze the brown meat for a soup or sauce at a later date. Crab Salad [...]
Read More →
2012
Parsnip Ice Cream
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 [...]
Read More →
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 [...]
Read More →
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 [...]
Read More →
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 [...]
Read More →
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 [...]
Read More →
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 [...]
Read More →
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 [...]
Read More →
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 [...]
Read More →
2011
Wild Garlic at Knockderry House Hotel
It’s that time again when Chef gets all excited and the pungent smell of wild garlic hangs in the air. I suspect these two things are connected as he spends an inordinate amount of his free time out in the spring sunshine with his kitchen team gathering armfuls of these small leaves. Either that or [...]
Read More →
