the Bothy Bistro Archives - Scones, history and a dollop of politics

External view of Bootleggers in Hopeman — Bootleggers in Hopeman

Since our previous post from The Royal Oak in Cullen we have been to Hopeman, a seaside village next to Burghead. When we are in Burghead we particularly enjoy the Bothy Bistro, one of the best restaurants we know. Now they have opened a new venue in Hopeman called Bootleggers and, although it is still a work in progress, we wanted to see it. It’s a beach cafe so you have to park at the harbour and walk along the beach to get to it. It’s still something of a building site but we do recommend you try and go there if you are in the vicinity, we’re sure you won’t be disappointed. Unfortunately we couldn’t hang about because we had to get home so this post is from the Coffee Pot in Dufftown.

No excuses

In Dufftown there’s a saying – Where Rome was built on seven hills, Dufftown was built on seven stills. The stills in question are Mortlach, Glenfiddich, Balvenie, Dufftown, Glendullan and Kininvie. Another three: Convalmore, Parkmore and Pittyvaich are not producing at the moment. The town’s six working distilleries account for more than 10% of Scotland’s whisky production. Pat’s bound to find something here!

The Coffee Pot seemed to the only place open so in we went. The wee lass who came to serve us looked as if she would rather be anywhere else but here. Not even a hint of a smile. We asked what kind of scones they had. She replied ” plain, charry, cheese”. We said “what?” She repeated what she had just said. Then we realised it was our fault for not being fluent in Dufftownspeak. ‘Charry’ was actually ‘cherry’. We opted for a cheese and a plain.

The cafe recently made headlines because it was bought by a nineteen year old local girl, Chloe. She had worked there for several years and when it came up for sale she bought it. Well done Chloe, a big step but good luck with it all. It’s definitely a ‘no frills’ kind of place but we think it could do with a few more frills. The decor just makes it look fairly spartan so hopefully she will do something to make it a bit more cheery. The scones were okay at best … a bit ‘no frills’ as well. Maybe our server was just having a bad day but we really hope she brightens up soon.

The Watchers

To get home we decided to take the notorious A939 from Tomintoul to Cockbridge. It is billed as one of Scotland’s great and most dangerous drives. Every year without fail it is the first to get blocked with snow. Since the temperature was about 25C we reckoned it would be safe enough. It’s a great road. Soon we came to the Watchers a sculpture which mimics many of the prehistoric standing stones in this part of the world. They are actually made of folded sheets of steel that form a cowal with a seat to provide shelter from the elements as well as a fantastic view over Corgarff Castle.

The castle was built in 1530 and burned down a few times before eventually being used to suppress the illegal traffic in whisky. Did we mention that Dufftown had quite a few distilleries and that it would difficult not to buy some there? Well, she did … woohoo! I am now the proud owner of a bottle of Finlaggan whisky. Appropriate because my middle name is McDonald and Finlaggan, on the Isle of Islay, is the seat of clan Donald, Lords of the Isles! Problem … it appears to be prone to evaporation because the level has gone down quite a bit in the short time I’ve had it.

Home

We continued home at the end of our time away on very ordinary undangerous roads. It’s been great!

AB55 4AB 01340 820246 Coffee Pot FB

///renovated.edicts.decency

PS: Now you’ve all heard of Oberon, the King of the Fairies. Well the other day we heard from our Bathurst correspondents who were actually in Oberon, a village about a three hour drive from Sydney. Turns out that many years ago they befriended a Vietnamese girl called Quit (pronounced Whoot, as in soot). We think Quit (pronounced as in quit) should be Boris’s new name. Anyway Quit has just opened Café Oberon so they decided to visit.

This is in spite of the the pretty half of our correspondents having broken her leg … that’s dedication. We wish her a speedy recovery.

They report that their scone was excellent.Well done Quit

Pronunciation

On the subject of pronunciation they also report as follows:

“On the subject you raised recently regarding the pronunciation of “scone”, I can advise that the town so named to the north of us is pronounced like “phone”. Some hoity-toity people in our part of the world also pronounce the edible version the same way. Not us, of course.

PS – your last post featuring Speyside Coffee shows a picture of The Sydney Harbour Bridge on the packet. What is the connection , if any. Perhaps it is the bridge in Newcastle which rumour has it, was a trial of the design of our SHB”.

We are happy to report that the bridge in question is in fact the Spey Viaduct only a few hundred meters from the cafe in Garmouth.

130 Oberon St, Oberon NSW 2787, Australia

WARNING 1: if you want to live as long as the Duke of Edinburgh do not eat too many of these. WARNING 2: if you fancy making some Aberdeen butteries set a whole a day aside.

By this time you may be wondering why we are making them. Well, principally because we were prodded with a big pointy stick by one of our Trossachs correspondents. She was brought up eating Aberdeen butteries in Burghead, one of our favourite places. It is home to one of Scotland’s best eating establishments, the Bothy Bistro … banana and bacon croissants to die for! Burghead also has two New Years. One on the 1st January (a kind of light rehearsal) and and then another on the 14th. The 14th is the Julian calendar new year and they celebrate it with Burning the Clavie.

The Clavie King goes all round the town to the Doorie Hill carrying a blazing barrel of tar on a pole above his head. And then the whole town dances in the street until the wee small hours. It’s great fun. Not sure if this sort of behaviour has anything to do with them eating Aberdeen butteries but it may well be a contributory factor.

Rowies

Oddly, in Aberdeen itself these butteries are more commonly known as ‘rowies’. “The toonsers ca’ them rowies and the teuchters ca’ them butteries,” most probably said by a resident of Aberdeen. We must be teuchters! They have also been referred to as “evil bricks of tasty.” You’ll understand why when we take you through the making process but maybe just a look at the ingredients will give you a clue: 250g butter, 125g lard, 1 tablespoon soft brown sugar, 500g flour, 2 teaspoons of dried yeast, 450ml warm water, pinch of salt … there’s a lot of fat! First you make a paste with sugar, yeast and a little warm water. Then mix the flour and salt and add the yeast paste once it has bubbled up. Leave it for 30-40 minutes to rise.

Then cream the butter and lard and divide it into three equal portions. When the dough has doubled in size, give it another good knead and roll it into a rectangle about 1cm thick. Spread one of the butter portions over two thirds of the dough. Fold the unbuttered bit over half of the buttered bit then fold the rest over to make three layers then roll it out again to its original size … phew! Leave for 40 minutes in the fridge.

Yawn!

Then you do all that again using the rest of the lard/butter portions … TWICE! By the time we had done all that it was getting near our bedtime! Then divide the dough into 16 pieces and shape into a circle before putting them on your baking tray. Then leave for another 45 minutes until they rise. What … another 45 minutes? It’s now past our bedtime however fear of the big pointy stick drives us on! Finally you can put them in the oven … hallelujah! 15 mins at 200C is all they need … that’s the shortest bit of the whole process!

Trawlermen

We have no idea what these things should look like except we have heard of them being referred to as “roadkill croissants” and judging by that description we felt we had just about got it right. How do you think they taste? Surprise surprise, buttery … very buttery. Due to the constant layering, the texture is firm but flaky and not at all unpleasant. They were originally made for the Aberdeen fishing industry because they would keep longer than any other bread on lengthy trips at sea. And we can completely understand that a couple of these would easily keep a trawlerman going for a whole day. The “evil bricks of tasty” presumably comes from folks knowing that with each bite they were knocking a month off their lives but were unable to help themselves.

We had ours in various ways … just as they were, lightly toasted with jam, with a sprinkling of salt. All perfectly acceptable. However, we’ve also heard that they are excellent with cheese (preferably roquefort) or even with corned beef? Versatile or what? Anyway, with a bit of luck, the big pointy stick has been put away … for a wee while at least!

David Cameron has ended up in the doodoo for a bit of under the table wheeling and dealing. Wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t seem to typify this entire sleazy self serving Tory administration. Probably unfair to tar them all with the same brush, there must be one decent one … musn’t there??

Scones, history and a dollop of politics

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