Month: Aug 2020

The Hug and Pint hasn’t reopened yet and I’m missing it terribly. Their pan-Asian food is consistently brilliant, but much to Rooting Aboot’s excitement, they are going to publish a Hug and Pint cookbook, and this household was given a sneaky peek to some of the recipes because we’ve got it on pre-order. Ya dancer!

With all my Christmases coming early, I set about planning a couple of homage nights with chopsticks and everything! Both meals took a good couple of hours to prepare, but man, speak about delicious! The first night we had mushroom and cashew nut curry, puffed rice salad and chilli cucumber peanuts (see top photo). This was followed by a silken tofu and coconut dessert topped with fresh raspberry and cherry coulis.

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Lims Chinese Supermarket on Cambridge Street in Glasgow is THE place to go for all the special ingredients required. What a helpful man Mr Lim is too – we got everything we needed in one shop.

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The second night was Sichuan tofu, hot and sour potatoes and chilli cucumber peanuts with boiled rice. A Scottish company called Shore makes some cracking Asian Peking seaweed chips so we had some of them along with it.

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Once again I practiced the silken tofu dessert. This time I used frozen black cherries cos it was a hot day.

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I won’t disclose any of The Hug and Pint’s foodie secrets here, so please contact them direct for enquiries about their cookbook: https://www.facebook.com/TheHugandPint

This sausage cassoulet is a one-pot Rooting Aboot favourite – it’s quick, easy to make and there’s hardly any dishes to wash up afterwards. Fry’s sausages work really well in this recipe because they keep their shape and remain firm.

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Chop an onion, two carrots, half a neep and about eight small new potatoes to roughly the same size. Add boiling water to the pan until it just covers the vegetables and mix in one Knorr stock pot. Put the lid on and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 – 20 minutes till the vegetables are soft and cooked through.

Add Fry’s sausages and simmer again for 10 minutes. Now mix in Merchant Gourmet’s Tomatoey French Puy and Green Lentils and three to four tablespoons of tomato puree to thicken up the sauce. Cook for another five minutes and serve.

Note: Any kind of root vegetable can be used here including parsnips, brussel spouts, celeriac, fennel, sweet potato etc.

And for a sweet something to have after my dinner, choc chip oat cookies are just the biscuit (except they’re cookies) with a cup of builder’s tea. For that recipe go to February 2020.

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