Scotland

Scotland:

Today is Ash Wednesday. This marks the first day of lent: the 40 days leading up to Easter. As a Catholic, we are not supposed to take part in any calibration. Many Catholics still follow not eating meat on Friday. Strangely enough, fish is not considered meat to Catholics.  I have been told this was to help support the fishing industry.

Today, much of Scotland is not religious, but those who are, are usually Christian. Many of these are Protestants belonging to the Church of Scotland, but others are Catholic.

Book:

The book “Whiskey Galore” takes place just before Lent during World War II, so I thought this fun book would be appropriate. In Scotland there were alcohol was rationed, and much of it was sold to America to pay for the war.

The mostly Catholic island of Little Todday certainly felt the effects of the lack of alcohol.  They had been worried that they would not be able to have Whiskey during lent, something they felt they needed to get through such solemn times.

The book has some interesting characters, like a member of the home guard who pretends to be a tweed merchant, Mothers who refuse to let their sons get married, and a couple who are planning to get married despite the fact that one is a Protestant Englishman and the other is a Catholic Scottish Woman. 

Food:

Since today is lent, I thought I would eat Cullen Sink for lunch: a potato soup with smoked haddock. I used my potato soup recipe and just added smoked haddock.

Here my Potato Soup recipe:

Ingredients:

3 large potatoes

2 cups milk

2 cups water

2 cubes chicken bullion

½ cup Plain Yogurt

2 tbs. butter

½ onion (chopped)

1 carrot (chopped)

½ cheddar cheese

Turkey ham, turkey bacon to taste, or smoked haddock (1 fillet)

Directions:

1)      Peel the potatoes and cut half into quarters and half into smaller pieces.

2)      In a pot boil the potatoes.

3)      In a 2 quart pot heat half the butter. Once the butter is hot, sauté the carrots and onions until the onions are transparent and the carrots are tender.

4)      Once the potatoes are tender remove the smaller pieces to the pot with the carrots and onions. Pour half the water from this into the 2 quart pot.

5)      Discard the rest of the water, and mash the remaining potatoes.

6)      Mix the mashed potatoes, milk, yogurt, chicken bouillon, meat (such as turkey bacon) to the 2 quart pot and bring to a boil.

7)      Top with the cheddar cheese when serving.

References:

Mackenzie, Compton. Whiskey Galore . Published: 1947

“Scotland”. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland#Religion . Retrieved: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland#Religion