Bowled Over – Soup & Selkirk Bannock

Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it,
But we hae meat and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thankit.

I’ve never been passionate about poetry. However if a poem could convert me it would most definitely be these few words. Attributed to Robert Burns but believed to be a 17th C traditional prayer that Burns recited when asked as the honoured guest to give thanks before the meal while dining with the Earl of Selkirk in the late 18thC.

Most of us associate saying grace as short prayer or thanksgiving for before or after a meal. Thanking the lord or at least the cook for supper is always a good idea.

I’ve trained the children well, including Victor,to get a thank me for their supper. They say timing is everything The tone and the speed of the thank you is the monitor of the success of the supper. The instant thank you is often oh no, this isn’t my favourite so I’ll eat it under duress. The thank you at the end is ok thank goodness that’s over and I hope we don’t get that for another month. The thank you after three mouthfuls is the the one I wait and watch for. Three spoons is enough to calm the hunger and satisfy the taste sensation and just enough time to process this is delicious. It makes me laugh as I’ve sussed their tactics. So without even asking I know what the verdict is and the cook loves to cook another meal.

Medicine soup gets the three spoon thank you every time. This is my mid week staple that I make every Sunday. I get at least two meals from it and it makes me feel like a real homely mummy.

I often make a spatchcock chicken and use the back bone and leg trimmings to make a small pot of stock – just enough for one fix but a pot of soup make with a whole, trimmed, corn fed chicken is a treat.

Selkirk Bannock is also a three bite thank you every time. The children call it Scottish panettone so the end of January is just the antidote to a long winter month with an alternative to our Italian christmas cake, which now seems like a distant memory.