Scotland!

As one might surmise from the picture above, my girl and I are very enthusiastic about our Scottish roots and Scottish culture.  This was her lunch yesterday as we watched the vote for independence unfold.  I bet you can't tell which side we were cheering for, eh?  Hehe.  Anyway, it was a fun lunch to make!  And I have to admit that sheep faces are not as easy as I had thought.  It took me three tries to make one that I was happy with.

In the bento:  Underneath the Saltire flag is a PB and sugar sprinkle sandwich, there are three small Forfar bridies (two are hidden behind the sheep), a couple of Tofurky and cream cheese rolls, a checkered apple, steamed broccoli and cauliflower, a tiny cherry tomato and some mandarin orange slices.

The flag was made from blue egg sheet and provolone cheese.  It was probably the easiest thing I've ever made with egg sheet!  The sheep and his opinion were also cut from provolone, but his face was hand cut with scissors from a sheet of nori.  Lots of lettuce cushions everything and makes sure that the flavors don't mix.

Recipe - Bridies!

A few Forfar Bridies hanging out together. One regular sized one chaperones the minis.

Vegetarian Bridies are one of the true pleasures of the world to me. They are easy and wholesome and yummy and a fantastic HP sauce delivery device. The fact that my toddler loves the miniature ones is a great bonus. Here is my recipe.

Scottish Forfar Bridies (makes about 6): Don’t forget to buy HP Sauce!!
some butter
2 batches of your favorite pastry or pie crust (when I'm in a time crunch I use Pillsbury pie crusts)
1 pkg morningstar farms crumbles
1 onion, chopped extra fine
1 cup mushroom broth
dry ground mustard
garlic powder
dried parsley
salt & pepper

1. Melt some butter in a pan, if you like lots of butter then add 4 TB, if you're health concious just add 2 TB. Cook crumbles and onion in the butter.

2. Add the mushroom broth, 3 shakes of ground mustard, 5 shakes of garlic powder and 4 shakes of dried parsley, salt and pepper to taste.

3. Reduce until very little liquid is left. Set aside to cool.

4. Prepare pastry dough, cut as many 6 inch rounds as possible. (Or 3 inch rounds for miniature bridies) Put a large spoonful of the crumble mixture in the center of the pastry rounds. Wet edges with water and fold over, crimp edges with miniature fork.

5. If desired, cut cute smiley faces into the tops. These freeze well and if you want to freeze them now is the best time...they will be ready to cook straight from the freezer, just lengthen the cooking time about 5 minutes.

6. Cook in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes, checking near the end to make sure they don't get too browned around the edges.

7. Can be eaten at room temperature or just out of the oven!

Picnic Bentos

We were planning to go visit friends in South Carolina today but they had to cancel at the last minute. So we decided to go to the Botanical Gardens for a picnic instead. I already had the Forfar Bridies made up and in the freezer, it just took 15 minutes to cook them. Mine are vegetarian renditions of the old scottish favorite, with Morningstar Farms crumbles in place of beef. They are a family favorite, even A-chan eats them without balking! Luckily she doesn't like the HP sauce so there was more for me who can't get enough of the stuff.

The adult bridies were cut to look like kitty faces but they didn't come out quite right. They also didn't really fit into the bentos and had to have corners pinched off to get the tops on. I love how A-chan's smiley face bridies ended up, so cute!

We also had tomato parmesan pasta, blueberries and strawberries, grape tomatoes & green bell pepper garnishes.

Forfar Bridies? What? They are old scottish pastry meat pies typically made in half-moon shapes. The ingredients are beef, onions, beef broth and ground mustard. My version has soy crumbles, onions, mushroom broth, garlic and ground mustard.

http://www.monikie.org.uk/forfar-bridie.htm

HP sauce?Huh? It is a fantastic sauce a little bit like A-1 but much thicker and richer. It has dates and tamarind in it and anything with tamarind in is yummy! I don't know what most people eat it with...bridies and HP sauce are forever married in my mind. I fell in love with the combination at Scottish Highland Games as a kid and now it's quite stuck that way :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Sauce