Photos by Lisa Paarvio and Words and Recipes by Kieran Creevy
The green walls of our tunnel tent glow, light shimmering and flowing in waves, the dawn chorus ebbing, reminding us that time is a wasting. Waking slowly in cocoons of silk, down and nylon, there's a delicious sense of lethargy, we’re slow to get moving.
Here, beneath stark basalt mountains on the Isle of Skye, the scent of sun warmed earth and heather flows into the tent. Still in our bags, there's good natured banter as to who has to leave the comfort of a warm bag to light our stove and get breakfast going.
Grumbling slightly, one of the team wriggles out of the tent, the fly taut with the heat from a cloudless sky. A rare and unexpected joy here in the far North West of Scotland, where one day of sunshine is a thing to be celebrated.
The contrast in this landscape bewitches, and pulls us into its embrace. Packs lie in the lee of the tent, the pink loops of our climbing rope wedged underneath a lid, ready for todays scramble along beautiful ridges, the beams of sunlight shading the rock formations, calling to mind a Jacobs Ladder of sorts, ascending to the heavens.
Descending to the stream, we fish out a dry bag wedged between boulders. Inside, chilled in this makeshift fridge, are wild salmon fillets and hard boiled eggs, cooked the night before. When I’d purchased the eggs - handing over cash, crumpled in a ball, to the farmer who raised the animals - I felt that the exchange came with a greater sense of human interaction than any chip and pin transaction in a supermarket. These type of encounters are still an everyday occurrence in the area from which we get the other elements of our meal.
Rice and spices from Indian markets mingled with the European addition of fish and eggs, transforming the traditional dish of kichirī into todays kedgeree. Though some kedgeree recipes include curry powder, no self respecting Indian cook would ever resort to the vaguely brown powder sitting in a jar at the back of the cupboard. Use the mix below, or add to it as you will, the flavour will be far better than any pre-made combination.
Dried whole spices weigh little, changing the quantities below can greatly alter the flavour of the recipe, so we encourage you to experiment.
Ingredients:
2 cups long grain rice or a mix of long grained and wild rice
500ml water
2 tbsp garam masala powder, or use the mix below
1 tsp tumeric
1 tbsp curry leaves
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp black onion seeds
1 tsp rock salt or sea salt
1 tsp pepper
2 organic duck or chicken eggs, hard boiled the night before and kept fresh in the drybag fridge.
2 fillets wild salmon or trout.
Chervil and coriander leaves
1 tbsp olive oil, butter, or ghee
Method:
Heat the ghee in a pan, when hot, add the spices and salt
Cook the fish fillets, skin side down first until crisp then flip and cook for 1-2 minutes more, remove and leave to rest.
Rinse the rise in clean water, drain the excess starch and add clean water to the top of the rice, then one knuckle deep extra.
Bring to the boil, with lid on until fluffy, season.
Peel and chop the eggs.
Flake the trout fillets into the rice, add the eggs, tear the chervil and coriander leaves and mix well.
Cranachan, deconstructed
Ingredients:
150g oats
400ml water
2 tbsp wild heather honey
3 tbsp butter
4 tbsp raspberries
4 tbsp strained yoghurt.
Method:
Bring water to the boil, add the oats and cook.
You should have a thick mixture.
Add 2 tbsp butter to the mix, and stir in.
In a pan, heat up the other tbsp butter.
Spoon some of oatmeal into the pan and flatted down to thick disks.
Fry on one side, flip and fry again.
Spoon into bowls and top with yoghurt, raspberries and honey.
You can also make this dish with cream instead of yoghurt and add a tot of good Scottish whiskey if you feel like it.
