From My Kitchen, Whispers and Titbits: Issue #2: Aonach Mor
Highland Adventures and Snickers Fuel
Welcome to the 2nd edition of "From My Kitchen, Whispers and Titbits"! I'm delighted to share this weekly journey with you, exploring the wonderful world of food through recipes, discoveries, and the occasional delightful tangent.
This week’s post I bring to you from the highlands of Scotland. The tangent starts just off a lay-by on the A86 close to Roybridge. I slept okay, although I was amazed at how much the temperature dropped during the night. Driving up the night before, a dream without the usual traffic that needs to be waded through. Straight over the Forth Bridge with no lane changers. The main Perth roundabout was empty.
Although it's about 4.45 am, I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself. The sky is amazing and just the kind of day I'd hoped for, given the craziness of the hour and my choice of bed.
Today's hike takes in Aonach Mor and Aonach Beag, a good 10 miles, and I'm keen to beat the rain forecast for the afternoon. Two of Britain's highest mountains.
A 45 or so minute drive sees me at the car park for the adventure. I woke some campers in their van. They have risked the no overnight camping sign, something I wasn't willing to do for fear of being moved on. I'm kind of envious when I think about how many times I was shaken in the night on that layby. No matter, I'm here and I saved the three and a half drive before the walk, and the car park is fairly empty.
It's easy to get going, the light is changing fast, and I'm keen to get into a nice place for breakfast.
I make it to the glen, Steall Falls, and I'm amazed at the lack of water in the river bed. There's been little rain for weeks, and great for tackling those hills that suffer from being boggy. Just a little further, past the single tents, wild campers still in their slumber and a little more height.
Breakfast, just after 7 am or so, a little more climbing, the aim is to pause and take in the awe, the beauty that this planet offers .......thank you for sharing with me! Coffee from the flask, amazing views and overnight oats. It's going to be a beautiful day.
Overall, this was a tough hike, and the views of Ben Nevis, Scotland's tallest mountain, were amazing. Typically covered in cloud, but not today. The same for the hills that I was traversing. I would not thank you for the descent on Aonach Mor again. Brutal on the knees! A good day, the car park was full to bursting on my return. Tourists are hitting the glen and admiring the falls, unaware of the majestic mountains that lie just around the corner.
🍳 From My Kitchen
Snickers Oat Bars
A box of Celebrations has been lurking in our cupboard for a while. What I thought was a whole tub was actually the leftovers. You know how it is, there are always those few that aren't the family favourite. For some reason, in this house, it's the Snickers bar, whilst everything else disappears. Rather than dig into them myself, I decided to experiment with melting them down into a flapjack-style creation.
The Snickers didn't melt as cooperatively as I'd hoped - the nougat needed a little persuasion with the back of a spoon! The end result was brilliant: robust, satisfying bars perfect for packed lunches or, in my case, fuel for a Highland adventure. These kept me going beautifully during my recent hike up Aonach Mor, with a few pieces in a Tupperware tub rattling about, they held together well.
Serves: Makes up to 24 bars
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Baking Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
100g Snickers bites (or chopped regular Snickers bars)
100g butter
3 tablespoons clear honey
75g demerara sugar
400g whole rolled oats
150g self-raising stoneground wholemeal flour
2 ripe bananas
200g buttermilk
2 eggs, beaten
Method
Preheat your oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Line a 21 x 31cm tray bake tin with non-stick baking parchment.
Gently heat the butter, Snickers, honey and sugar in a saucepan until melted. Encourage the snickers to melt with the back of a wooden spoon to break down properly.
In a large bowl, combine the oats with the flour. This creates your dry base.
Mash the bananas thoroughly and stir together with the buttermilk and lightly beaten eggs until well combined.
Pour both the melted butter mixture and the banana mixture into the oats, stirring everything together until you have a cohesive mixture.
Pour the mixture into your prepared tin and smooth over. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown and firm to the touch.
Allow to cool completely in the tin before lifting out using the parchment. Cut into bars once fully cooled.
Notes
These bars will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or can be frozen for longer storage. I've also baked similar recipes using a large Swiss roll tin (25cm x 38cm) - obviously, you get a flatter style flapjack rather than a cake bar, which some folk prefer. I think the chunkier ones are easier to eat on the go. Perfect for when you need portable energy that actually tastes like a treat rather than virtuous cardboard! Lastly, you could swap natural yoghurt for the buttermilk. I was just using up something else we had knocking around in the fridge.
👨🍳 Whispers from the Grapevine, From One Kitchen to Another
It's that time of year here for us in the Northern Hemisphere when things start appearing in abundance. I'm thinking strawberries and courgettes, not together, but maybe the first course, a salad featuring courgettes and then a dessert obviously featuring strawberries. I've got Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook as a way of keeping me right on the seasons, and so the whispers are from her this week if you are looking for a bit of inspiration.
1. Courgette and Lemon Salad
Also featured in her book Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook1
2. Baked Vanilla and Lemon Cheesecake with Marinated Strawberries
✍️ Scribbled Discoveries: Titbits of Note
1. Nights Out At Home
I've just finished reading Nights Out At Home2, which was very entertaining and enlightening. Tales of being a food critic interspersed with tales of converting his favourite restaurant recipes to those he could make at home. I was about to file it in the amusing food reading bucket. Then I remembered my memo to self about the link to the pictures that he has on his website... which in turn reminded me that I wanted to tackle a couple of his sauces: Salsa Verde, Anchovy sauce and the thick vinaigrette. Along with the Sweet Soy Braised Pork and the Greggs-influenced Steak Pie.
My recommendation though: if you love humour in your food writing, this is for you.
2. The butter board - seriously, it's a thing!
I'm a fan of a cheese board, but butter? I think I’m very, very late to this party, given the dates on the substack posts.
I've stumbled across a craze where you spread butter across a board and then sprinkle your favourite toppings. I'm not convinced... but love Dennis Lee's take on it.
And then, Desiree’s piece….made me smile
If I show up at your house and you’re making me clean your countertops with scraps of bread that I then have to eat, I am going to calmly and silently walk out of your home, get in my car, and drive away.
3. Run/Weed - The Art of Combining Seemingly Unrelated Activities
This week, Linda McLaughlin posted one of her reflections from writing in the wild. Thoughts on combining running with garden maintenance, and it struck a chord. As someone who tries to keep a regular 5k run habit, I need to stretch and cool down properly. Perhaps sorting a few bits in the garden would help. There's something deeply satisfying about those moments when two passions intersect - whether it's running home with plant pots in hand or, in my case, carrying energy bars up Scottish mountains. Linda's post about 'winning back the garden from determined invaders' resonated. Her question, "What seemingly unrelated activities do you love to combine?" got me thinking about how food and adventure constantly weave together in my own life.
Sarah Ravens - Garden Cookbook, just recently re-released
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/152368835-sarah-raven-s-garden-cookbook
Nights Out At Home
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/210459259-nights-out-at-home
Another great post, Alex - I love this format :) Early mornings and coffee from a flask with an amazing view sounds like a pretty epic start to a day to me! Apart from the assault on the knees on that descent… can imagine you could have done without that.
I do fancy that Jay Rayner book. Butter boards - what is that about??!!