A Scottish Breakfast

It's Saturday, which means that a big breakfast is the thing to do.

I settled on a decidedly Scottish breakfast - I've been missing home a lot recently, and lots of colleagues and friends have been going up and down over the border in the last few weeks... it was time to have a wee taste of home.

Potato scones and lorne sausage!

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I started by preparing the sausage. Lorne sausage is only to be found in Scotland, and is a fantastic invention. It's square shape makes it perfect for sandwiches, and it's distinctive taste is to die for.

You will need:

800g beef mince
300g breadcrumbs
1 cup water
3 tsp coriander
3 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
2 tsp nutmeg

The first thing to do is blitz your bread. Once you've made the breadcrumbs, mix through all the spices evenly.

In a large bowl, combine the breadcrumb and spice mixture with all the mince and the water.

It is best to just get your hands in and pull it all together. Your mixture should end up with a fairly smooth consistency that is easily pliable.

Tip the mince into square shaped tins to set in the freezer.

While it's setting, turn your attention to the potato scones...

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For the potato scones you will need:

500g potatoes
200g plain flour
50g butter
Pinch salt

Skin and dice the potatoes before boiling them up.

Once the potatoes are cooked, drain them before mashing them with the butter and salt. Make sure the mash is perfectly smooth, as lumps will not work when you're trying to make the dough for the scones.

Let the mash cool for a while before turning it into a bowl with the flour. Start to work the two together until you have a soft dough.

Once the dough has come together, form a ball that you can roll out to a thickness of about 5mm.

Potato scones are traditionally triangular, but circles are also common. Really, it doesn't matter though - just cut them to a reasonable size and shape.

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By this time, the sausage should have part frozen making it easier to slice for cooking. Remove the tins from the freezer and turn out the sausage. Slice about 1cm or so thick - remember that as the sausage cooks it will lose thickness.

Leave out the amount of slices you want to use immediately, and return the rest to the freezer to finish freezing. Sandwich bags or a bread bag are ideal for the purpose.

Now it's just the cooking to do...

The sausages can be put on a griddle, pan or on a George Foreman or similar. Simply fry up the potato scones in a little oil.

Once cooked, spread some butter onto a few slices of bread, stack up your breakfast and finish with a liberal dose of brown sauce. Perfect... apart from maybe a lack of bacon...

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Coming up:

- Who knows...