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NewsScottish NewsShirley Spear and VisitScotland want your favourite family recipes

Shirley Spear and VisitScotland want your favourite family recipes

Scottish chef and food enthusiast, Shirley Spear has joined VisitScotland to launch a nationwide appeal to find Scotland’s most treasured tastes.

The national tourism organisation wants to highlight the places and people behind the country’s favourite family meals and recipes handed-down through the generations.

Perhaps you remember Granny Mary’s mince and tatties devoured after a game of hide and seek in her Glasgow tenement.

Shirley and pal cook up a storm
Shirley and Darcey Burnham, 7, from Troon, cook up a storm

 

Maybe it’s a comforting bowl of Uncle Jim’s Scotch broth following a bracing walk along the Fife coast.

Whatever your favourite, the best will be compiled into a one-off recipe book entitled – You’ll have had yer tea? – Treasured Tastes of Scotland.

The book, due to be published later in year, will take readers on a culinary journey from the shores of Shetland all the way down to the rolling hills of the Scottish Borders.

The book will also help shine a light on the personal stories behind family recipes.

Shirley, owner of the renowned Three Chimneys on Skye, said: “Some of my most cherished memories are of spending time with my Mum, baking jam tarts and fairy cakes.”

This was followed years later, said Shirley, “with teaching my own children how to cook simple, basic things at home”.

“We all have these food memories that instantly transport us back to a precious time in our lives.”

Malcolm Roughead, Chief Executive of VisitScotland, said: “My personal favourite is my mum’s stovies, made with fresh lamb from Stirling market. I can still remember the smell of it bubbling away on the stove in our kitchen in Stenhousemuir.

“The recipe book idea is a way for us to inspire people across Scotland to discover more about the culinary offering that is on their doorstep and be proud of the traditional tastes created in their hometowns or family holiday destinations”.

Recipes must be submitted along with a treasured story about the location or circumstances behind the meal.  Entries can be sent either online on the dedicated webpage or by post.

All entries will be placed in a prize draw to win a one-night B&B stay for two at the Three Chimneys and The House Over-By in Skye. This prize includes dinner at the Kitchen Table at the award-winning restaurant.

The closing date is July 3.

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