It’s the final Me and My Buttery, and to mark it we are getting stuck in to some of the unusual rowie recipes we’ve encountered.
Over the past few months, our articles have been a celebration of all things buttery.
Everything from their unique hold on our childhood memories to the role they play in defining our cultural identity.
We even managed to persuade top chef Michel Roux Jr to eat his first.
But one thing was apparent above all – the passion people have for these squashed bricks of delight.
It is this passion that underpins the many weird and wonderful ways those in the north-east choose to eat them.
And it is why we were confronted with a wide range of answers when we put the traditional Me and My Buttery question to our subjects: “How do you eat yours?”.
So, in honour of the buttery, we knocked up four recipes of varying unusualness in the Me and My Buttery kitchen.
It would have been five, but we couldn’t track down any kimchi. And we weren’t about to deep fry another one.
Recipe No. 1 – Butter and jam
Of all the answers to the “How do you eat your buttery” question, the most common response was butter and jam.
Our version of this simple and elegant method was put together straight out of the packet using (as with all our recipes) rowies from Aberdeen baker The Bread Guy.
The rowie is salty to the extreme – like a slap in the face from a North Sea haddock.
But combined with the sweetness of Mackays strawberry jam it is delicious.
A classic for a reason.
Recipe No. 2 – Well-fired peanut butter
One of our first Me and My Buttery subjects, Aberdonian Kenny Luke said his recipe took him back to his gran’s home in Kittybrewster, where she would fire rowies on her stove.
We don’t have a stove, but the buttery gets a good roasting in the toaster as per Kenny’s instructions.
And despite almost burning the skin off our fingers when fishing the rowie out of the toaster, we end up with a lovely melted, peanutty buttery that tastes pretty good.
All that’s missing is the Kittybrewster nostalgia bump.
Recipe No. 3 – Cheese and bacon rowie burger
Now we’re talking.
The cheese and bacon rowie burger offended some readers who were flabbergasted at the use of two butteries to fashion a bap.
And we have to admit, as the bacon and egg sizzled in the pan spitting out globules of fat, there was slight apprehension that we’d have to eat this thing. How can this be a good idea?
Well, we can report that it is a wonderful idea.
As promised by Peterhead chef Steve Minty, who proposed the cheese and bacon rowie burger, it tastes much like a bacon sandwich, only better.
Don’t forget to add a slice of Dairylea cheese. Like a conductor with an unruly orchestra, it pulls the whole thing together.
Recipe No. 4 – The Eggs Doric
The Me and My Buttery team had been looking forward to this recipe.
But after the last gut-busting course, the wind in our sales had dipped somewhat.
Still, we love an eggs benedict, and this version – which swaps out the muffin for a buttery and the Parma ham for haggis – is tempting.
This is despite us using hollandaise sauce from a packet because of laziness.
The preparation does not go well – both smoke alarms in the Me and My Buttery kitchen go off while grilling the haggis.
We also over-poach the egg, therefore failing to achieve the lovely, photo-friendly runny yolk.
Still, it tastes ok, and we make a decent dent in the buttery – considering it’s our fifth of the day.
Verdict
It was a true odyssey of rowies that may yet have repercussions on the stomach health of Me and My Buttery. We are also very thirsty.
But after navigating through the four recipes there is one clear winner.
Everyone loves a simple butter and jam rowie, but by ramping up the grease and adding a slice of Dairylee cheese, the buttery achieves new heights.
And don’t forget the double-bubble of the twin bap. Two butteries HAVE to be better than one.
So there you have it. The cheese and bacon rowie burger wins!
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