St Andrew's Day Meal

We moved into our first home a couple of months ago, and with pretty much all the renovations finished it was time for the housewarming dinner. When trying to work out what to cook I looked at the holidays/festivals this month for inspiration. Calling to mind my Scottish heritage and the fact it's St Andrew's day on the 30th (plus the fact I have Burn's night decorations!) I settled on a Scottish theme.

Menu:

Welcome drink
Purple Heather Martini Spritzers:

Ingredients
50ml of gin
15ml of whisky
15ml of Drambuie
100ml of lemonade
Dot of purple food colouring

Method 
Add ice to shaker, combine ingredients, shake and pour into Martini glasses

Canapes 
Smoked salmon blinis

Ingredients
Shop bought blinis (or if you are feeling flash you can make your own)
Scottish smoked salmon
Cream cheese
Fresh chives

Method 
Slice the smoked salmon into small pieces. Heat the blinis according to instructions on the packed. Use a teaspoon to add a tsp of cream cheese to each blini and then top with a little bit of smoked salmon. Use scissors to snip over some fresh chives.

Main
Slow cooked whisky beef stew (serves 6) with Hasselback potatoes and vegetables.

Ingredients 
900g of diced beef
7 shallots
Packet of button mushrooms
2 garlic cloves
1 rich beef stock cube
50ml of whisky
Good quality gravy granules

Method for the stew
Chop the shallots and fry them for about 5 mins. Dice the garlic and add it to the onions and fry for another two minutes. Transfer to the slow cooker. Brown the beef and add to the slow cooker. Make 750ml of the stock, pour half the stock into the slow cooker. Heat the whisky until bubbling and then add the other half of the stock, simmer for 3 mins and then carefully pour into the slow cooker. Cook on low for 6 hours. Then add the washed button mushrooms, and slow cook for another hour.  Add 2 tbsp of gravy granules and stir. Then transfer to an ovenproof dish and put in a hot oven and let it bubble away for another hour.

Side dishes
I used a recipe I found online for the Hasselback potatoes. You could make basic roasts or even add the potatoes to the stew (just watch to make sure they don't soak up too much of the liquid). Then the other vegetables are your choice, I did runner beans and sweetcorn. As the stew is so rich you probably want to keep the sides simple.

Dessert 
Butterscotch Tart

I used a recipe from Scottish Cookery by Claire McDonald but you can find other recipes online.


Decorations: 

The table
I like to use a cream/white tablecloth coved with a white lace cloth (the lace detracts from any hard to get out stains!). I then added a tartan runner.

I used fabric napkins, rolled up and tied with tartan ribbon with a Tibetan silver Scottish themed charm (from ebay) and secured with a bow.

I bought fake heather and secured a small golden safety pin to each sprig (using some red tape) and put them beside each female guest's place.

For the place cards, I filled miniature glass bottles with whisky, secured with cork stoppers and glued a little fake heather near the stopper. I then added a wine glass charm ring to secure them to each glass. I added tiny labels with the Celtic version of each of my guest's names as a fun touch.

Other
Scented candles in the lounge and bathroom, heather scented is a lovely on-theme touch. Using lamps and lighting the fire all adds to a cosy atmosphere. We also hung up some lovely fabric tartan bunting that I had in my Burn's Night box. Also if you can dress in tartan, so much the better!

Happy St Andrew's day!