Goodies list.When you arrive there will be:- Fair-trade tea, ground coffee (on request - instant), sugar, scones, raspberry jam, milk and butter for tea, home-made marmalade, salt and black pepper and for weekly stays a bottle of wine and organic bread.
To order a week before arrival (with additions during the week). A selection of vegetables (end of May - October) from the croft delivered fresh each day during the week, all grown using organic principles from £5 - £15 containing whatever is in season - lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, beetroot, onions, garlic, shallots, cucumbers, tomatoes, red Russian kale, green and yellow courgettes, potatoes, green and black climbing beans, carrots, parsnips etc. all in season. Outside of these months we usually have something please ask. Lettuce £1 - £1.50 or bag of mixed leaves including rocket, mizuna, red veined sorrel, mustard, various salad leaves from £2.50 - you can order these fresh every day Raspberries – Summer and Autumn fruiting £5 for 500g (indoors or Autumn fruiting) May/June/Sept/Oct/early Nov, £4 for 500g (outdoors) in July/Aug Other fruits and berries as available - tayberries, blackberries, blueberries £5 - 500g rhubarb £2 kilo, gooseberries ½ dozen free-range chicken eggs £1.80 ½ dozen free-range duck eggs £2.50 Goose eggs £1 each A side of home-smoked salmon weighing approx. 1- 1.3 kg £20 a kilo we believe it is the best smoked salmon you will ever eat. Sliced home-smoked salmon a plate of 250g £8 500g £16 drier than normal as it is sliced to order and not vacuum packed so the oil stays in the fish and is not sucked out Home-smoked mature cheddar cheese £12 a kilo Home-made Mayonnaise large £3.50 small £2.50 Salad dressing 300ml £3 (fab) Various Jams - Raspberry or mixed berry jam 1lb jar £3.50 Blackcurrant, Rowan, Crab Apple, Apple and Blackberry or Redcurrant jelly £2-£3 Bill’s marmalade (for men!) £2.50 Various Chutneys £3.50 Home-made Wholegrain mustard perfect with the ham £3.50 for 250g or £2.50 for 125g Home-made organic bread £2 - £3. Home-made cakes chocolate or lemon, large £13.50, small(ish!) £9.50, very fruity loaf £9.50. Sweet 'jumbo oat' biscuits £3.50 for a dozen (like Anzac biscuits but no coconut) Home-made raspberry, lemon or elderflower ice-cream £7.50 a litre Vanilla ice-cream £9 a litre. Our own home produced free-range meat. Beef Killed for us at a small abattoir on Mull and hung for three and a half weeks - minced steak £7.50, stew £7.50, sirloin steak £20, rump steaks £18, topside £15, sirloin joint £20, all per kilo. You can also buy a pack of a kilo of minced steak, a kilo of stew, 2 sirloin steaks and 2 rump steaks or 4 of either and a 2 kilo joint topside for £50. Pork - you will be surprised by the flavour of this meat and be warned, never be able to buy from a supermarket again - sausages made by Bill and Sukie from our own pork meat, salt, pepper and nutmeg - nothing else or with a little fresh leek from the garden £7 per kilo, chops £8, piece of a boned leg £8, loin on the bone £8 with lots of crackling I will cut the skin well for you, , smoked streaky bacon £10.50, home-smoked ham weighing 1 - 2kg (cooked for you if you like) £12.50 per kilo (raw weight). When we have run out of our own belly of pork we can smoke Ramsays middle cut bacon that is reared outdoors in Scotland for £12.50. Chicken - Farm Rangers (this year ready mid July onwards) hatched by us on April 8th/9th and grown slowly outdoors completely free-range - weighing between 2 - 4 1/2 kilos, £5 a kilo without doubt the best chicken everyone has tasted for years. Can provide 3 or 4 meals - roast, cold with baked potatoes, risotto and soup. You can order part of a kilo (of most things) from local suppliers. Mull cheeses – very strong cheddar style Truckle £10 for 400g or £18.50 for a chunk of the whole cheese, Clava a Brie-style £18 a kilo Blue Cheese by Humphrey Errington Dunsyre Blue £18 a kilo MacLeans Oatcakes from Benbecula ordinary £1.50 organic £1.70 Squat Lobsters and Whole Langoustine Prawns weather dependant and on application but about £10 kilo live (or I can cook them for you) min. 4 kilos Local Black Face Lamb £15 kilo about £40 a huge leg Haunch Venison (bone-in) £10 a kilo Vension or Beef Burgers £6.50 a kilo (hand-made) Stornaway Black Pudding £7 a kilo Mussels a net of localy farmed weighing up to 5kg £15 We have our own smoke-house so all the smoking is done here of our own and bought in product. Please give us plenty of notice for smoked things as it often takes more about a week to prepare them for you e.g. home-smoked bacon, ham and salmon. Don't forget that even though you are self-catering you don't have to cook every night - with 15 years experience of running their own multi-award winning 'Restaurant with Rooms' Bill and Sukie former 'Rural Chef of the Year' can provide Suppers/Dinners - from a beef casserole in the Aga or oven on arrival at £7.50 a head to suppers from £7.50– £15 for 2-3 courses and dinner from £20 for two courses to £40 for 4/5. Suppers - usually brought to you in a bowl or casserole for you to cook/heat in the Aga or oven. Friday night (for arrival) I am afraid all we have time for is a casserole. Idealy we like to cook what is fresh and available and only one choice of dish per day. Suppers or dinner are generally only available on Monday or Thursday but please ask for other evenings. Everything is made to order so do please give us time to order/buy ingredients (at least a week before arrival). All ingredients wherever possible are from the croft including yogurt and cream for the ice-cream but if we have to buy in ingredients they are always Fairtrade and/or where possible organic. Bread flours are from Doves Farm, Shipton Mill and Bacheldre Watermill and are all organic. Minimum 2 adult portions, prices are per portion. Beef Casserole (using our own beef) £7.50 (veg. sold seperately) Home-smoked Fish Pie (with a mix of our own line-caught (in season) smoked and fresh fish with hard-boiled eggs and leeks in the potato topping) yummy - £8.50 Plate of Home-smoked Salmon, Salad, Dressing and Bread £8.50 Lasagne or Shepherds Pie made with our own beef £7.50 Bolognese Sauce using beef as above (provide your own pasta) £4.50 Vegetarian alternatives to all the above. Pizza - Bill's infamous with or without smoked venison sausage £4.50 Tomato and Red Onion Soup £2.50 Parsnip and Celeriac Soup £2.50 Fennel and Leek Soup £2.50 A Home-cooked Home-smoked Ham from our own pigs £12.50 a kilo (raw weight 1-2kg) Seasonal Fruit Crumble i.e. blackberry and apple, gooseberry, mixed berries, rhubarb £3.50 all per person Chocolate Mousse £2.50 per ramekin Lemon and Raspberry Posset (Sukie Special - fab.) £3.50 Meringue with cream and fruit from the Croft that has (sometimes) been frozen - rasps, blueberries, currants £3.50 Home-made ice-cream Raspberry, Lemon or Elderflower £7.50 litre Vanilla Ice-cream £9 a litre Sample Seasonal Dinner Menus please ask. Dinner must be booked at the same time as your accommodation as Sukie has to plan to be here. Good Food Our passion for good honest food continues. Since first taking Scottish food to Slow Foods ‘Salon del Gusto’ in Turin in 2000, we have remained active in Slow Food. We helped out at a Slow Food weekend in November 2004 at Ardtornish that was featured on Radio 4’s Food Program. Sukie led the team that cooked dinner on Saturday night at Britain’s first ever National Slow Food Congress on Skye in August 2005. The first of it is hoped many Slow Food Fayre's was held at Ardtornish Estate organised by Jane Stuart Smith, Hugh Raven, Sukie and Bill on Easter Saturday 15th April 2006 where about 24 local producers showed of their tasty food which was enjoyed by more than 500 locals. Our goal for 2007 was to help set up a local West Highland’s and Islands Convivium which we achieved in June 2007 by joining together with Skye and Lochalsh. For more details on Slow Food visit www.slowfood.co.uk Our enthusiasm for using fresh, local, seasonal food was one of the reasons Sukie was made ‘Rural Chef of the Year’ by the Scottish Chefs Association and given the ‘Flavour of Scotland’ award from VisitScotland – along with Sukie’s skills at turning wonderful ingredients into memorable meals. Now living on the croft we eat much more of our own fresh food. We are now eating our own beef, pork, bacon and fat chicken and cockerels as well as eggs, dairy products from the Jersey cow and even more fresh fruit and vegetables. We are still picking Autumn raspberries in November. Sukie’s cooking skills have remained in great demand since leaving Old Pines. In 2004 and early '05 she helped out at the Whitehouse Restaurant when they had a kitchen crisis and in 2006 was running local night classes, filled in for a few weeks in a small Primary School- a very interesting experience. We also occasionally undertake outside catering ranging from dinner for twenty in your own home to weddings and parties for up to 200. In October 2009 Sukie was a 'Guest Chef' at Ardeonaig Hotel for the second time and has been asked to return in October 2010. See the link on the Luxury Self Catering page of our site. Smoking
Courses, several times a year and Aga Cookery see the courses pages. Mull and Iona Abattoir. We have recently joined a group working to ensure the long term viability of the Mull and Iona Abattoir, a small facility that we and many others are dependant upon to ensure that stock, reared with thought, kindness and care, meet their end as humanely as possible. We are doing our bit to help save it and are setting up a website, if you are interested in becoming a 'Friend of Mull and Iona Abattoir' please e.mail to let us know. We have come to believe that we should all be eating less meat but of a higher quality, with the overall welfare of the animal a much higher priority.
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Bluebell Croft, 15 Anaheilt, Strontian, Ardnamurchan, Scotland UK PH36 4JA Tel 01967 402226 |
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