Potato Scones

Thursday 7.50am

Sunday morning, I’m up and dressed and gazing into the fridge wondering about breakfast. Nicola is still in bed reading because she is bunged up with a cold, tight chested and coughing and feeling miserable and tired because she hasn’t slept very well. To be honest there is not a lot in the fridge at the moment, but there on the middle shelf are a couple of big baked potatoes left over from last night. There are a lot of things you can do with left over potatoes but my favourite, the most homely and comforting, are potato scones. Call them scones or cakes these are another traditional recipe from . . . . well, everywhere that eats potatoes. Usually made with boiled potatoes, I like them made with baked potatoes for the flavour. And, like an unexpected visit from an old friend who is always welcome and fits in with anybody, these scones will go with anything, from soup to curry but especially butter, bacon or cheese

- Scoop out the insides of the potatoes and mash them by hand or in a food processor

- Add in salt, pepper and enough flour to make a soft but not dry dough

- Roll out thinly say a quarter of an inch and either make the proper big circles cut into triangles or use a pastry cutter

- Some people fry them but I always grill mine until speckled golden brown on both sides and puffed up a bit. A dry frying pan would also work, like the traditional ‘girdle’ or hot plate and thinking back when I was little one of our cookers had a flat hot plate on it beside the rings for just this sort of thing.

Eating them is easy, I poke through the leathery tops with a knife and put butter on the warm surface to melt. After taking a plateful to Nicola I sit outside with mine and remember the past – all the places I have lived, what I was doing and how I felt at the time.

Annette Hope also has a lovely description of potato scones in her book A Caledonian Feast