Recipe: Scotch Broth

St. Andrew's Day is Scotland's official national day and is celebrated annually on 30 November. This year, we had a belated celebration in our home, and invited one of our friends over for a Scottish feast.

We designed a 4-course Scottish menu, starting with canapes of smoked salmon followed by Scotch broth, haggis neeps and tatties and finishing with Scottish shortbread.

Scotch Broth is a traditional hearty, winter soup originating from Scotland. The main ingredients in this soup are stewing or braising cuts of lamb or beef, root vegetables and dried pulses or barley. Ideally, this soup should be made a day in advance to allow the flavours to develop.

For our version, we used striploin beef as we had it in our freezer, cut into small chunks as well as several types of vegetables including carrot, turnip, onion, leeks and cabbage. By adding barley, it helps thicken the soup and make it more substantial. We also added some streaky bacon halfway through cooking. This recipe is definitely a keeper - we loved it very much, as it is thick, comforting and delicious!

This would be a great soup to serve during Christmas ;)

Scotch Broth
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course
Preparation time: 15-20 minutes
Cooking time: 2 hours
Serves 6-8

Ingredients
400g beef, cut into chunks
2l cold water
50g pearl barley, rinsed
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 5mm dice
1 medium turnip, peeled and cut into 5mm dice
1 onion, peeled and cut into 5mm dice
2 leeks, cut into small pieces
1/2 small white cabbage, sliced thinly
1-2 rashers streaky bacon, sliced
1 beef stock cube (optional)
Freshly ground black pepper

To garnish
Chopped chives (or parsley)



1. Place the beef in a large pot together with the cold water. Bring to the boil and skim off any scum which appears on the surface, then add the rinsed barley. Simmer very gently for about 1 hour.

2.  If using, add the beef stock cube. Also, you can add in the bacon now. Add the carrot, turnip, onion,  leeks and cabbage and simmer for another 45 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Season with black pepper. If the soup looks too thick, add more boiling water. Turn off heat when ready and leave overnight.

3. Before serving, reheat broth and taste, seasoning with salt if required. Serve piping hot with a sprinkling of chopped chives.

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I am submitting this to the "Cook & Celebrate: Christmas 2015" event which I am co-hosting with Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Diana of The Domestic Goddess Wannabe. To join, simply cook or bake any Christmas recipes for the whole month of December 2015.

Your post must be a current post i.e. posted in December 2015 - please do not link older posts.Please mention our "Cook & Celebrate: Christmas 2015" event in your post and link back to Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Diana of The Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Baby Sumo of GoodyFoodies.

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