When I started looking into Scottish recipes and traditional foods, one that showed up, again and again, was Irn Bru. Apparently, it's the OTHER Scottish drink for those who aren't in the mood for whiskey. While I was planning on sticking mainly to homemade recipes, we did want to try just a few imported goodies as well - and Amazon just happens to have a supplier on this side of "the pond." We placed an order for three authentic Scottish goodies, and they arrived JUST before the coronavirus quarantines started shutting things down. We will be trying them over the next few weeks.
Our first imported goodie was Irn Bru.
What is Irn Bru? It's a BRIGHT orange carbonated drink. (For those that know about my allergies - this has Yellow #6 in it, NOT Yellow #5 - I checked SIX TIMES - so it's safe for those with a tartrazine/salicylate allergy!) I've seen it described as tasting like bubble gum, citrus, and my favorite "
a combination of rust, battery acid and pure magic." When our 6-pack arrived, in trying to cut the bottles from their blister wrapping I accidentally dropped a bottle and broke the seal, so we shared a bottle last week to see what we thought for ourselves. WE think we tasted: a nondescript citrus flavor, a medicinal/energy drink flavor, and possibly something floral - which sounds ghastly, but worked, in a strange way. It was, however, MUCH sweeter than we'd expected so rather than simply drinking all 6 bottles we are experimenting with Irn Bru as a recipe ingredient.
Our first attempt is based on - but heavily modified from - THIS RECIPE for slow cooker Irn Bru chicken. I had PLANNED on simply using a vegan substitute for the chicken, but in the interest of not visiting the store for what I didn't have on hand while self-quarantining, I ended up needing to substitute roughly half the ingredients. So if you'd like to know how this dish tastes in the UK, PLEASE follow the link and try their version. I based all my substitutions on the fact that the original recipe is described as a sweet-and-sour dish, and simply used what I had on hand. So for my make-do or do-without vegan-version, here's what went into my slow-cooker:
2 12oz packages Quorn meatless pieces
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tsp roasted garlic
20ml balsamic vinegar
60ml V8
30g cornstarch
1 bottle Irn Bru
I dumped everything into the slow cooker, gave it a few good stirs, and let it run on medium-high for 3 hours. Every hour I gave it a good stir because my little pot is prone to sticking. Otherwise, I left it alone.
Because this was supposed to be a sweet and sour dish, I served it over rice.
And... we liked it! It had an American-Chinese flavor, not unlike a mild sweet-and-sour chicken. Were I to make this again, I would add a nice heaping tablespoon of ginger, and some broccoli. It's not at all what we expected, but it's good.
Will we be making this again? I'm not convinced that it's worth the splurge-y price of an imported soda. I WOULD try this again with a properly strong ginger beer, however! But for cooking a savory dish with a funky new soda? Yes, it was definitely worth the attempt, and for someone who can get their hands on Irn Bru - I would definitely recommend this as a fun recipe to try.
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