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I feel like a Duns for not going before
One of the pleasures of touring theatre around the Borders is that it forces me, or at any rate, encourages me, to explore the shopping potential of other towns in the Borders.
And I'm not talking about the usual suspects like Melrose and Peebles.
I'm sure that I've sung the praises of Innerleithen in this column before now.
It's an amazing wee town with so many good shops along the high street – the best ice-cream in the Borders at Caldwells, the only bakers I know that manufactures Aberdeen buttery rowies as well as seasonal cakes that can be positively obscene in size and richness.
Add to that the best lighting shop in the Borders, a new state-of-the-art Co-op, Smail's the printers, a couple of second-hand shops and the wondrous wee pies and other fleshy delights at butcher Adrian Keddie's.
Oh, and they have a fruit and veg shop as well.
Because part of my family live on the outskirts of Peebles, I find that these days I frequently stop in Innerleithen for essentials and luxuries alike.
Duns, on the other hand, is a town I hardly know.
Because Berwickshire was never part of the knight's parliamentary seat, I'm just not familiar with it the way I am with the other Border counties.
Indeed, what with election meetings and polling station visits and now theatre productions, I reckon I could lay claim to being the world's foremost expert on village halls in the Borders.
I could make it my specialist subject for Mastermind.
The Volunteer Hall in Duns, however, where Rowan Tree played to a couple of hundred excited primary 6 and 7s, was almost new to me.
I think we once went to hear Archy Kirkwood playing in a band there. And the town of Duns itself is somewhere I've never explored.
So, a reconnaissance visit to the Volunteer Hall also uncovered the delights of a fantastically well laid out fruit and veg shop, where I bought the last aubergine.
"There's been a real run on them," said the helpful owner. "I think there must have been a recipe including them on TV over the weekend."
We also found a caf called the Pewter Plate, run by an enterprising Thai family.
Wisely, they had not ditched the traditional Scottish fare on the menu of the tea-rooms they took over a few years ago, they simply added their own Thai cuisine.
So, on my first visit, I had a delicious noodle dish for my lunch, and on my second, a cheese scone for my elevenses.
As I left Duns, secondary school pupils were streaming out of their state-of-the-art new school in an orderly, purposeful way. I hope when they're grown up that Duns will still offer such a good array of modest, well-stocked shops.
The third Border town whose retail facilities I've been sampling has been Lauder. I like Lauder very much: I always feel I'd be happy living there, though not in one of the frightful new houses on the town's southern limits.
There's the Flat Cat Gallery with its Tim Stead furniture, its amazing artwork for sale, and its luscious cakes.
Again, there's a fantastic butchers – Shaws.
What more could a woman on the move want for her lunch other than a freshly-baked pie? Again, all the shops are honest to goodness family businesses.
All these towns start from the same advantage as Selkirk – no gross supermarket on their periphery.
Long may they remain in that happy situation.
One thing they do all lack, like us, is a fish shop.
I'm fortunate, as just near our Edinburgh pied-a-terre there are two excellent small fish shops in South Clerk Street.
So when I'm in Edinburgh I usually stock up on some of the more unusual fish there.
Here's a dish I made this week.
Halibut steaks with beurre blanc sauce
2 halibut steaks
1 lemon
olive oil
2 shallots
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons dry white wine
4oz unsalted butter (at room temperature)
Crushed black peppercorns
Run a little oil over the bottom of a small roasting pan and coat the fish in it. Slice the lemon and lay in the pan with the fish steaks on top. Put in a moderate oven for about 15 minutes.
Chop the shallots and cook with the wine vinegar, wine and pepper until almost all the moisture has evaporated. Then puree the shallots and the reduced wine mixture. On a very gentle heat, add the butter ounce by ounce. The resulting sauce should have a creamy consistency. Serve the halibut steaks with the sauce and plain boiled rice. This is quite simply the best fish sauce I know of – I first had it at Mere Michelle's in Montmartre more than 40 years ago and it remains one of the most sublime gastronomic memories of a long life of good eating. It needs to accompany especially fine fish such as halibut or turbot to do it justice. SERVES TWO.
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Weather for Selkirk
Wednesday 30 May 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 10 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 7 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: East
