HAPPY (FRUGAL) HOGMANAY!

HAPPY HOGMANAY FROM FRUGALDOM

"It is ordinary among some Plebians in the South of Scotland, to go about from door to door upon New Year`s Eve, crying Hagmane."
Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence, 1693.

 

OK, so it's a bit of a big deal here in Scotland and nobody really knows for absolute certainty from where it originates. The fact is that it did!

The festival of 'Christmas' was all but banned in Scotland until as late as the 1950s, so our celebrations were more about welcoming in the new year and, to this day, celebrate we most certainly do - all over Scotland and the Scottish Isles.

The often ridiculed traditions of tartan, shortbread, whisky and bonny purple heather are all in evidence at this time of year and the practice of first-footing carries on regardless. There won't be fireworks for us - we live amidst farms, where livestock graze - but there will be the usual 'two fingers' (a unit of measurement used for pouring a half of whisky) to all who venture near.

 

Hogmanay is actually a very frugal tradition, one that's based on common sense, community spirit  (no pun intended) and basic human decency. Neighbours visited neighbours bearing gifts of coal (warmth), shortbread or black bun (food) and whisky (drink) - the basic necessities for survival. Houses were thoroughly cleaned (health) before midnight on the 31st, all debts were paid off in full (wealth) and all ashes from the fires cleared out in readiness to begin afresh, happy that the longest night had gone (happiness). Oot wae the auld, in wae the new!

If only people could see that it's about setting their homes in order and taking stock of what really matters - life itself. (Perhaps if Governments cleaned up and cleared debts each year then we wouldn't get into such a mess in the first place!)

 

CHEERS! SLAINTE! DOON THE HATCH!

IN time honoured tradition, most would suggest a rendition of 'Auld Lang Syne', but instead, here's a verse from an old Scottish poem that I'm sure Rabbie Burns wrote for us frugalers:

 

Here's tae us
Wha's like us
Damn few,
And they're a' deid
Mair's the pity!

 

Photo credit 1: foxypar4 / Foter / CC BY
Photo credit 2: djwtwo / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

Frugal Scottish Shortbread Recipe

FRUGAL SCOTTISH SHORTBREAD

170g plain flour

115g margarine

60g sugar
30g cornflour

Mix lightly to form a dough. If it's too crumbly, rub in a little more margarine.

Form into a round, approx 1cm thick

Place in a lightly greased baking tray or recycled foil dish and mark into 'pie slices'.
Bake for approx 25 mins at 170C

You can also roll this dough out and cut it into individual biscuits. Festive shapes are good, or smaller circles, marked into quarters. For these, I use an old tuna (or similar) can with top and bottom removed. (Make sure the edges are smooth.) Any little round, shallow tins make really great, frugal cooky cutters!

If baking as a single, large round, you can fork round the edges for that wavy effect and pierce the surface in a dot-to-dot pattern on each triangle. I just stab a few holes in them with the fork.

Your shortbread should stay pale in colour. Sprinkle with sugar as soon as it comes out of the oven - leave to cool for 10 minutes and then transfer it to a baking rack to cool properly. I've done mine double thickness for a bit of added luxury. :)

FRUGAL TIP
Always keep a stock of flour, margarine, oil, sugar, salt and yeast in your cupboards. These are basic essentials for so many recipes that, coupled with eggs, we'd not be able to easily live without them.

For long-standing readers, this is the same recipe featured in the 2012 Christmas frugal recipes, I thought I'd repost it after someone asked about it - hope it helps you save time in trying to find it.

Enjoy!

Traditional Scottish Clootie Dumpling and Easy Shortbread Biscuits

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2011 TO ONE AND ALL!

It's that time of year again, time for spending what we can afford on gifts for friends, family and loved ones. Homemade gifts abound, as do decorations, rhubarb and elderberry fizz, ginger beer, cakes, shortbread and, for us here in Scotland, the traditional 'clootie dumpling'. For anyone who missed last year's copy, here are the basic recipes I use.

Having moved house, I still haven't unpacked my cookie cutters, so this year's shortbread had to be cut into rounds using a tumbler.

I used a very simple 2, 4, 6 recipe, as follows:

Scottish Shortbread Biscuits

2oz / 50g sugar
4oz / 100g butter (or margarine)
6oz / 150g plain flour (I used 5 plain flour and 1 cornflour)

Mix the butter, sugar and flour.
Place the resulting dough in the fridge for half an hour before rolling and cutting
Bake on a floured tray for approximately 25 minutes at 170C
Remove from oven, sprinkle with sugar and cool on a wire rack.

I used the old measurements (ounces) and got 24 shortbread biscuits from this.

Next up was the clootie dumpling, so my old, trusty cloot (cloth) got boil washed beforehand.

Great Granny Kerr's Traditional Scottish Clootie Dumpling

Get a large stockpot of water on to boil before you start, so the water is ready for the dumpling. Place a plate on the bottom of the pan, so the dumpling can bounce off that, rather than the bottom of the pan.

INGREDIENTS

12oz plain flour

4oz shredded suet

3 tablespoons of sugar

3 large handfuls of raisins (or sultanas or dried fruit)

1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon all spice
1 teaspoon ginger

Mix all of the above dry ingredients together in a large bowl, then add

1 large tablespoon of treacle

1 large dessertspoon of syrup

Enough milk to bind the mix together into a soft consistency without it going mushy.

Lay out the wet cloot / cloth and sprinkle plain flour liberally across the middle part, where the mix will be poured. (I use a round cloot/cloth cut from an old cotton tablecover, but a piece of muslin or even a cotton tea towel would do.)

Pour all of the mix into the centre of the cloth.

Gather up the edges and tie them all with string or a piece of cloth, leaving enough room for the mix to expand as it cooks.

Gently lower the dumpling into the pan of boiling water.

This now needs to be kept on the boil for three to three and a half hours, always ensuring that the water level doesn't drop.

It's also wise to check that you have left enough room for the mix to expand in the cloth. We don't want any episodes of dumpling bursting oot its cloot!

Traditionally, coins or lucky charms would be cooked in the dumpling, as gifts for whoever found them in their serving. This practice has slowly fallen by the wayside for health and safety, food hygiene and dentistry reasons, but some stalwarts still follow tradition! Best to ask your host before biting into a big mouthful of clootie dumpling, especially if your host happens to be a wacky, Scottish traditionalist.

 Removing the dumpling from the cloth can be a bit hazardous, so use tongs to lift it from the boiling water and take great care not to drop it. I find it easiest to place the whole thing into the mixing bowl until the cloth is untied - a tricky process that's easier done if you have long nails, rather than burn your fingers. The prongs of a fork work quite well, too.

Turn the dumpling out onto a large plate - at this stage it will look very pale and pasty or, as we say here, 'peely wally'.

Sprinkle with some sugar and place into a hot oven for approximately 15 minutes, keep checking it doesn't burn.

During its time in the oven, your dumpling should develop a lovely, brown, leathery-looking skin. At this point, it is ready for eating hot, served with cream, custard or even some milk. You can decorate it with a small sprig of holly and a dusting of icing sugar if you really want it to look 'posh'.

If it's not needed at this time, allow your dumpling to cool, wrap it in tinfoil and keep it until it is needed.

Dumpling freezes well, whole or sliced.

Once thawed, dumpling can be reheated in the microwave, oven, grill or steamer.

If reheating dumpling in the oven, wrap it in tinfoil to prevent it from drying out, you can uncover it for the final few minutes.

If grilling, it's probably best to slice the dumpling first.

If reheating in the microwave, plate up the servings and cover them with an upturned bowl or microwave safe cling film.

Dumpling is very versatile. It's a fruit pudding that can be eaten hot with a topping of your choice, or it is a fruit cake that can be sliced and served cold, in similar fashion to fruit loaf. But better still, it can be sliced and pan fried as part of a traditional breakfast fry-up.

Have you had your dumpling this year?

ENJOY!

NYK Media

http://www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

Frugal Things to do in the Kitchen (while awaiting the birth of new grandchild).

EEK MOMENT! Must keep busy or nerves will get the better of me. Daughter's due to have baby on 24th but she thinks it'll be sooner. With an hour's travel for her to reach the nearest hospital, I'm more nervous now than when I was expecting my own! Why don't they teach you these things in school? Son-in-law off on holiday for a couple of weeks, so there shouldn't be any need for me to worry... I'll go into the kitchen, make or bake something... bread's made, corn's in the big pan on the stove to make more hot mash for the hens, I'm running out of biscuits and mince pies and I need to make some lemon curd. Where should I start?

Frugal tip - any time you see porridge oats or muesli on clearance, stock up... BEST BEFORE dates mean nothing in Frugaldom, the contents of such packs will stay in fine condition for years as long as they're kept sealed and dry. Likewise with tins, pasta, pulses and sugar. In fact, sugar has no 'Best Before'date, it lasts as long as it takes you to use it, sometimes years! Don't be conned by the 'BBE' dates, the food isn't bad beyond them. It's the 'USE BY' dates you should adhere to and eggs are always best consumed within 3 weeks. Sadly, I can't guarantee that shop bought eggs are less than 3 weeks old but having garden hens, ducks and quail means I always have fresh eggs available. (OK, so the quail eggs freeze before I get to them in the mornings but with temps at -14C, I'm amazed the birds don't freeze!)

FRUGAL FRUIT, NUT and SEED BISCUITS

230g rounded tbs self-raising flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
175g muesli
50g sugar
115g melted margarine
1 large egg

Preheat oven to 180C & grease or flour a baking tray
Mix all of the ingredients into a soft dough
Split into walnut sized pieces and roll into balls
Press gently onto the baking tray to rounds
Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown
Cool for 10 minutes and then transfer to baking rack.

The above makes enough for approx 24 - 30 biscuits depending on the size you make them.

SODA SCONES / FARLS

While these were baking, I also mixed up 450g soda flour with about 175ml of milk. The dough was lightly mixed then formed into a round, scored into quarters and is now baking so we can have soda farls grilled with cheese as a quick snack - 2 for today, 2 for the freezer.

OK, that's the biscuits baked and the soda bread is still baking - time to mix up some short bread and some shortcrust pastry for more mince pies.

Off to make the shortbread and mincemeat pies now - making the most of all this extra heat in the kitchen. Lemon curd will get made on the stove, as that's the boiled corn and barley ready for the hens' dinner.



Don't forget you can join us in the Frugal forums. Just click the link at http://www.frugaldom.com/

10 Frugal Things to Do This Weekend

Phil the Pig

It's the final countdown! Only one week to go until the festivities begin, culminating in the hogmanay celebrations that will herald in the beginning of the 2011 Frugal Challenge.
 
Loads to do this weekend, making, baking, counting, wrapping, attempting to be prepared... especially if parcels need posting out on Monday! Here's hoping the weather doesn't delay any important deliveries.

So what are we doing in Frugaldom this weekend? I've made a short list of things to keep me busy once the feathered friends have been attended to and eggs collected



10 THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND



Cash Cow



1) Make shortbread

2) Make chocolate marzipans

3) Make lemon curd

4) Make snowman soup packs



5) Make a clootie dumpling (recipe here)

6) Make chocolate truffles

7) Count out the £2 coins you've been saving all year

8) Empty the papier mache banks you've been filling with spare change all year

9) Wrap presents

10) Clean kitchen - it's a bombsite after the weekend cookathon

I'm not very focussed when it comes to following lists, I prefer writing them, so there may be a few updates over the weekend, appealing for help when the shortbread burns, the marzipan gets stuck to the rolling pin and the chocolate for the truffles goes lumpy.

Watch out Twitter - that's where I get the quickest response if there's nobody about on the Frugaldom Forums.