Kat lives in Fife and is passionate about seasonality, local produce and home cooking
Spring
By the end of January I am desperately yearning for a taste of spring. Normally, my go to food choice is lemon curd. Its enticing daffodil-like hue, comforting creaminess and sharp refreshing zing is just the ticket. Last year I discovered a recipe for passionfruit curd, which had a delightful exotic taste. However, with my resolve to make use of local produce as much as possible, I have been rethinking my ingredient choices.
Sea buckthorn
As my fellow blogger Cath Devaney mentioned last month, sea buckthorn is a plant that grows along the Scottish coastline often near dunes. We came across it on a trip to East Lothian last week and although we are now on the outer limits of the season for sea buckthorn, I couldn’t help harvesting a little to try out. Our local ice cream shop in St Andrews makes sea buckthorn ice cream, and it was my absolute favourite flavour last summer. This got me thinking…instead of my usual citrussy lemon curd, or the exotic, but less eco-friendly, passionfruit curd I could instead make curd from the sea buckthorn berries, which taste both citrusy and exotic.
The colour is a vibrant orange and the taste definitely provides the required January pick me up. What’s more, is that sea buckthorn is packed full of vitamins and nutrients. This was the perfect replacement for my usual curds and it was a pleasure to make use of a Scottish ingredient. Next year I will endeavour to harvest it earlier in the season.
Music to cook to
My brother in law plays in a bluegrass band called Wire and Wool, who originally started in Dundee. Their album is well played in our house. My current favourite track is Borderland.
www.lochaberfarm.com
