Abroath Smokies and Tipsy Laird

In my quest to learn the regional recipes of Scotland, I have experimented with a few recipes over the past few months. Some have been bland, others have been overwhelming, the textures of a few have been a little off-putting. But then there are those dishes that you wonder how you ever lived without. Enter smokies and trifles.

Abroath Smokies are famous around here. Basically a smoked trout, they are something of a delicacy, I understand. One Saturday, we went to the Farmer's Market in St Andrews and bought a bunch in order to make Cullen Skink (a fish chowder). We bought the fish from a family that had been making the smokies for something like 5 generations. In fact, I think Cullen Skink the soup may be named after one of his family members (his last name was Skink).

Above is how it looks after being beheaded and deboned.

Flayed open ready to be flaked and put into the chowder.

And finally, the finished product. It has a beautiful subtle smokey flavour that really blends nicely against the sweet "swedes" (rutabaga) and potatoes. There's also a touch of bacon in there for some extra flavour.

For dessert, we had Tipsy Laird which is a lovely, not too sweet whisky trifle. I made my own custard and layered it with sliced strawberries and shaved chocolate. A dollop of hand whipped double cream topped it all off.