Blackberry and Apple Pie

I have Mark Williams of Galloway Wildfoods to thank for this post in that ever since I joined him on a foraging expedition along the banks of the Kelvin in Glasgow’s West End I have been afflicted by a mild attack of Foragers Syndrome; seeing potential new and exciting food stuffs where ever I go,  Although I still feel more at home foraging in Waitrose or Roots and Fruits or even at a pinch at the Partick farmers market I found it hard to ignore the wild side when I saw the profuse crops of blackberries growing in the hedge rows close to my house.

Of course once you have collected your brambles there as only one thing to do with them: make a blackberry and apple pie! I remember my father when he worked as a forester coming home with his lunch box crammed with blackberries and shortly thereafter my mother would produce the most wonderful pie. Blackberry and apple pies also featured in my life when I was in graduate school at the University of Washington in Seattle. One of the professors in the department had had a very tough time when he was a student and in order to make our lives easier he would bring in everyday the most incredible collection of cakes and other treats, covering a whole side bench of  the laboratory, and every so often there would be a blackberry and apple pie!

The egg wash glaze added the rich colour that I had hoped for but I missed some of the pastry and elsewhere the glaze has cracked while cooking; perhaps I should have used a weaker glaze say 1:1 egg and milk? So aesthetically far from perfect but what about the taste?

The first slice – looking good plus a nice dry crisp top and a wonderful whoosh of cinnamon!

Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and I am very happy!

It’s all a matter of taste: part II

In my previous post I said that one of my pictures had been commended in the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year competition but I was not allowed to publish it until it appeared on the competition web site on the 24th of April, well the 24th has come and gone and in fact it is now the 24th of May so it’s high time I posted “the Picture”
The photo was taken at the Scotland Street School Museum in Glasgow and was submitted in the “An Apple a Day” category and is therefore called:

An Apple for Teacher

The other pictures which I submitted are shown below.

Arbroath Smokies

This picture was taken last August in Edinburgh at the “Foodies Festival” where Iain Spink was doing a brisk trade in selling freshly smoked Arbroath Smokies. The fish, locally caught haddock, are filleted, dry salted and tied in pairs over a wooden baton before being smoked in a half whiskey barrel covered with hessian. After 30 to 40 minutes the fish are ready to eat, warm, smoky, moist and sweet – truly mouth-watering experience.

Partick Fishwife

I have been visiting the biweekly Farmers Market at Partick in Glasgow’s West End for many years and for all that time Macmillan’s have been there come rain or shine but always with a smile and the best of Scottish seafood.

Voluptuous Red Peppers

Food is not just a matter of taste it engages all the senses, smell, touch, even occasionally sound and of course always  sight! These bright rounded peppers look good in their own right but also hint at all the other things that they can contribute to from crisp salads to roasted and stuffed peppers.

Man Cooks Breakfast!

This picture is really just a bit of fun but there is also some truth in it as anyone who has seen me at work in the kitchen will attest with every pot, pan and utensil being used and every surface covered with the fallout from my cooking!

The Voluptuous Red Peppers shot is my personal favourite picture and when it was posted on Flickr it had an amazing 6800+ views, most of which occurred on just one day! However, different audiences react in very different ways to the same image. Clearly it’s all a matter of taste, if you have the time I would love to hear which picture you like best!