Scottish Stovies
Scottish Stovies are the perfect cabin meal - hearty, warm, traditional and easy to cook. While the basic premise of frying an onion in fat, covering with potatoes and stock or gravy, then allowing it all to simmer away on the stove is the same in almost all Stovie receipes, you’ll find in Scotland that the rest of the ingredients that can differ hugely from family to family.
Dating back to around the 1600’s, Stovies were introduced as a way to use up all the leftovers to make a further meal. Variations of leftover recipes can be found in every country. For example, the English have Bubble and Squeak, the Welsh have Cawl, and the Irish have Colcannon.
Traditionally Stovies probably didn’t include meat, but instead just the lamb or beef dripping from a roast dinner that could be added to give the potatoes and onion a meatier flavour. In time, leftover meat scraps from a mutton or beef roast would also have been added - nowadays people purchase meat especially for Stovies, sometimes preferring the likes of sausages or corned beef. So at the risk of offending someone’s gran, here’s our take on the traditional Stovie dish, perfect to whip up during your stay at Ancarraig Lodges. The more you can make use of leftovers, the better! Use left over meat, roast potatoes and cooked veg where you can, even re-using left over gravy with the stock.
What you’ll need:
Large pan or frying pan
Measuring jug
Spoon
Knife and chopping board
Ingredients
250g meat of your choice - we used left over roast beef
900g of potatoes
50g beef dripping, butter, oil, dripping or lard
400ml stock
2 large carrots
Half a swede
1 large onion
Oatcakes or crusty bread to serve
Method
Heat your choice of oil in the pan and add the finely chopped onion.
Fry for around 10 minutes until softened over a low-medium heat.
Add the 2cm cubed swede and carrots, fry for 5 minutes.
Stir in your choice of meat. If raw, allow to cook.
Add the 3cm cubed potatoes, pour over the stock and season well.
Bring to the boil, then turn heat to low and simmer.
Cover and cook for 1 hr 30 mins - the veggies should be softened and potatoes broken down completely.
Serve with bread or oatcakes
Serve and enjoy!