Peel and quarter the potatoes. Boil for 20 minutes or until soft. Drain and mash. Scald the milk by bringing it to the boil. Remove from the heat and add the butter. Add the milk mixture to the mash until preferred consistency. Salt and pepper to taste.

A Year in a Scots Kitchen Catherine Brown's marvellous A Year in a Scots Kitchen celebrates a return to the local and seasonal provision of food, as she proceeds around the year, starting at the ancient Celtic New Year, which we celebrate as Halloween. It also celebrates the many small producers, farmers, cheese-makers, fishermen, butchers and bakers, as well as those cooks in the kitchens of modern Scotland who keep alive the old traditions and at the same time are constantly adding to them, as their predecessors did. Catherine Brown's knowledge of food in Scotland is broad and deep; and the recipes she includes are embedded, quite rightly, in a fascinating account of Scottish culinary habits and their history. Indeed, the book is as much a history of Scottish foodstuffs as it is a cookbook. Many recipes are given in different forms, from different eras, sometimes concluding with a slightly surprising modern take on it. From Cock-a-Leekie, Brose and Stovies in November, we move through Haggis, Salmon and Pancakes in Spring. Oatcakes, the incomparable berries grown in the country, and shellfish such as lobster and crab characterise the long northern summer days; as Winter approaches, the attention turns to game, smoked fish and cured meats and the abundant mushrooms of the Scottish autumn. Very highly recommended indeed.

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