Saturday 10 November 2012

The neep that got away.

My noble neep, the one that got away.
Here he is, the one that got away. I purchased this rather fine neep, of which we've had many a hearty debate about before for its aesthetic charm and rather combley form. A neep, in Scotland, is a Swedish Turnip whilst feverently debated the whole swede/neep/turnip carbuncle, the kitchen table top taxomony outed the neep as a Swede (if you want to go through the finer points of this please do ask, its one of my favourite discussions).  Neeps have such beautiful colours that I couldn't bear to hide it in the fridge, so I let it bask in sunshine in full purply view. I rather love a good neep, but we know that don't we? I think I caught the bug from LinneW. Neeps in my mind are second only to tatties, which I'd marry, if that was legal.

I had rather intended to turn it into a rather fine latern for 'guising', which for some odd reason the children now call 'trick or treating', we've gone all American it would seem with our pumpkin carving and our trick or treating. Sad really, the hours it takes to carve a neep is good for the soul, even if its knackering on the arms, (ever tried to carve a neep, its like carving, well a neep really, pretty tough and a long process, take a packed lunch and expect to age during this process.). Neep carving is very unlike carving a pumpkin which appears to come ready scooped out (cheating in my view). I mean, thats all fine and well to do a pumpkin, but its not as if, in Scotland at this time of year we've a shortage of a neep or two is it?

Anyhows careful choosing of the neep, meant I knew its fate and being a sap that I am, I figured give the thing a bonnie we life for a couple of days before the dreaded attempt at scooping it out. So I let it loll on the dresser a while and soak up the sunshine. It had a nice chat with the scotch bonnet chilli's and the home grown shallots. Completely unaware of its soon to be deboweling and subsequent death for my amusement. I felt a teensy bit sorry for it, so I left it loll in the sunshine for an extra day or two. Only seemed fair.

Rather curiously, being a bit of a neep enthusiast, I hadn't heard of a local tradition here in the village of Stromness of  kids carving figures into neeps and going round the doors asking for 'A penny to burn me pop' -  on bonfire night (November 5th). How curious, what artistic traditions we have here and what imaginations they have, some really grnarly looking neeps there!
Stromness children and their pops. Photograph copyright Keith Allardyce from the book Sea Haven by Bryce Wilson
Having read about this tradition, via, of all things 'facebook' - I was unsure of how to progress, a neep lantern or a gruesome face.........As luck would have it for my neep, being deeply unorganised I needed to whip up a batch of cakes for a local event. Having, I completely forgot its fate and with a kitchen resembling mother hubbard I did the only thing I could and decided to make some emergency 'neep buns'. Its an old family recipe I invented one rainy day when bored. I make the children taste things like this, perhaps thats why they leave home?

Whoops. My neep ended up as cupcakes, which I'm not sure is quite as noble as being a latern or a gnarly face, but perhaps if I'd shared the 'secret ingredient' with the kids who munched unknowingly on neep buns (I'd titled them 'autumn surprise cakes'), their faces might have gotten quite gnarled too!

Well if people will ask you to bake for their events, you have to improvise with what you've got close to hand, they kinda get what's in season and local. So today's cakes were neep and cinnamon, or if you like 'autumn surprise cakes' and whilst they have the fainest hint of something familiar, you'd be hard pressed to think of a neep when munching on a cake would'nt you? And, not something I'd recommend with the more traditional haggis accompaniment.

I mean serioulsy, who's heard of haggis, tatties and a bonnie neep cake. YUK.



20 comments:

  1. Love it! Speaking as one who once made carrot muffins without telling the carrot-despising MrEH what was in them, I approve heartily of this!

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    1. Now you see, I have an issue with carrot cake, I don't like any cake, that is true, but carrot cake particularly offends me. Poor Mr EH and poor carrot.

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    2. Ps I'm sure they tasted nice :) x just not my thing! Which is why I bake and then give away quickly!!

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  2. Me too, in my case it was beetroot in the chocolate brownies!!

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  3. Me too, in my case it was beetroot in the chocolate brownies!!

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    1. Nth they're just so rich aren't they? And a perfect guess the ingredient cake!

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  4. No, no, no!!!

    Carrots and neeps are veg and should NEVER be anywhere near a cake!!

    Yeuch!!

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    1. Must remember that for future! Personally I think people shouldn't be anywhere near cakes!! But I know I'm in the minority there! :)

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  5. Carrot cake yes, but swede is for mashing with lashings of butter and pepper mmmmmm....!!! x

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    1. Neeps and butter are yummy. One of my favourites. Actually making neeps into cakes is probably sacrilege.......

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  6. Neeps, I know all there is to know about them, well! some say I am a bit of a neep but that's another story. In the 1950s when we were kids it was seen as a treat to nick a neep from the farmers field smash it on a rock and munch into the hard flesh avoiding the muck if possible. Oh the hardship of those days. Halloween was when we would dress up, carved out neep in hand with a candle burning in it, we would knock on the doors and say penny for the guy or if we were feeling brave we would say, do you want any guisers, if they said yes we would stand in their living room and sing some pop song of the day, very embarrassing for all concerned. Of course a lot of people have forgotten that the reason for collecting the money was for buying fireworks for the coming celebration of the demise of Guy Fawkes. I think you may be on to something with these neep cakes Fay.

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    1. Alistair, you're nae a neep loon! I remember guising too readily, the shame of trying to remember a poem or a song. Never could remember a joke. And, fingers nearly bleeding from carving the neep which always went out with the wee candle stubby in the base (I don't think we had tea lights back then??)

      Thankfully neither of us have to do it again.

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  7. Courgettes are my ingredient to smuggle into cakes. I did try it with beetroot but the colour is a total giveaway! Love the carved neeps and never knew about that tradition. They are wonderful!

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    1. Elizabeth so nice to see you on here. Courgettes I smuggle into pasta sauces and no one is any the wiser. I never knew about neep 'pops' either the kids have such imaginations!

      I think folk have more success hiding beetroot in brownies..........

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  8. Elizabeth - check out Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's Beetroot Brownie recipe! ;-)

    Fay - You've been tagged....here --> http://photozone72.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/a-bit-of-fun.html ;-)

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  9. Nice to see you upholding the great Scottish neep-carving tradition my Fay-- but wait, you skipped out on it! I detect some conflicted thinking about neeps vs. pumpkins. And, to be perfectly clear, pumpkins do not come pre-scooped at all. No. They are filled with the slimiest goo to which slick little flat seeds are attached and its all almost impossible to extract so that when you finish both the carvers and the kitchen (and the terrier) are slime covered too! But of course pumpkin makes awesome spicy cake and pie so it is competitive in the baking realm. At the same time I think a mix of neeps and potatoes oops-- tatties!-- mashed and baked together, are great and also neeps in soup. So perhaps I'm the seriously conflicted one here... ;)

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    1. Linnew - I meant to do it, honest I did, blame the kids, they needed cakes! Pumpkins - well I don't have a conflict with them persay - we now grow them in the UK especially for halloween - I wonder if the neep tradition would catch on as quickly with your culture?

      I have a vague memory of being covered in goo like something from Ghostbusters when attempting to deseed a pumpkin for the kids on year. I thought the slime and seed attachemnet was a great seed dispersal mechanism. Although why the seeds would want to grow on humans, or wall paper, or dogs beats me. Whilst a neep just sits there, sterile.

      Pumpkins do make nice food as do neeps so I think we're even on that one. Maybe they need to live in harmony together rather than battle for the top lantern spot??

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  10. Swedes: favourite food for cannibalistic vegetarians, as I oft told my neighbours in Swedeland!

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    1. Swedeland - love it. In Scotlandshire, we probably won't tell the vegetarians that cannibal bit as we take our neeps very seriously. But it did make me giggle.

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  11. In the Netherlands post war mangel wurzels (cattle fodder beets, a bit like sugar beets only more red) were used for carved out lanterns at 11 ovembre, Saint Martins day, our North Netherlands "begging for some sweets with lanterns day". My father hated awedes before he married my mother. Unfortunately my mums mother cooked swedes, cat into nutlike lumps, when he came to eat shortly before they married, in the 1930's. His comment: "Those were some delicious sweet apples your mother cooked". My gran must have added dark brown sugar and cinnamon to them. I have been considering roasting swedes instead of butternut sqaush or Yams, sweet potatoes. Must do it before 2013. Swedes are called koolraap over here, which locally transpires to "kroapen", must be like your neeps instead of swedes. Somehow kroapen taste better then koolraap.

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