Try these refreshing small plate recipes from Glasgow’s favourite new restaurant, Margo

New restaurant Margo from renowned Scottish restaurant group, Scoop (Ox and Finch, Ka Pao) opened in Glasgow in winter 2024 to great acclaim. The kitchen is headed up by Glasgow native Robin Aitken, who first joined Scoop as a chef at Ox and Finch back in 2014.

Aitken leads the kitchen in delivering a menu of snacks, small plates and sharing dishes that highlight curated seasonal produce, sourced from the finest growers and makers. The menu evolves regularly, while retaining a flavour-led approach with a focus on Scottish seafood, meat butchered in-house, and bread and pasta made from scratch.

Now, with head chef Robin’s guidance, you can recreate some of Margo’s most iconic dishes so far: cod with black rice, garlic cream and tempura sea vegetables; Ham hough with sobrasada and guindilla croquettes and a confit garlic emulsion; and a lemon and sorrel posset.

Scroll to learn how to add finesse to your at-home cooking – and wow your next dinner party guests.

1. Ham hough, sobrasada and guindilla croquettes with confit garlic emulsion

By Robin Aitken, Head chef at Margo

Serves 4 (two croquettes per serving)

Ingredients

For the cooked ham hough

1 ham hough

1 onion, cut into large chunks for stock

1 carrot, cut into large chunks for stock

1 bay leaf

2 black peppercorns

Croquette mix

100g whole milk

40g sobrasada

28g plain flour

35g picked ham hough

8g pickled guindilla chillies, finely chopped

28g guindilla pickle liquor

20g manchego, grated on a microplane or fine grater

5g flat leaf parsley, chopped

Quarter of a leaf of gelatine, soaked in cold water

For breading the croquettes

60g panko breadcrumbs

40g flour

8g sweet smoked paprika

2 eggs, beaten

Confit garlic emulsion

160g neutral olive oil

40g egg white

40g greek yogurt

20g peeled garlic cloves

10g table salt

To serve

30g manchego cheese

10g pickled guindilla chillies, finely sliced

Method

For the ham hough

1. Cover the ham hough in cold water in a large pan and bring to a boil. Skim any impurities that form on top, then add the rest of the ingredients.
2. Reduce the heat to a very gentle simmer and poach for three to four hours or until tender.
3. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly in the stock. Lift the ham hough out and pick off all the meat while it’s still a bit warm. You’ll be left with ham stock and some extra picked meat which you could use for a soup or stew.

For the croquette mix

1. In a pot, gently melt down the sobrasada over a medium heat. Mix in the flour to form a roux and cook for four minutes, stirring continuously.
2. In a separate pot, bring the milk and pickle liquor to a simmer (it will look split, don’t worry). Add the milk and pickle liquor into the sobrasada roux bit by bit, mixing each time until the liquid is fully incorporated. When all of the liquid has been added, bring it up to a simmer to thicken.
3. Fold in the rest of the ingredients, making sure the gelatine leaf has dissolved and everything is well incorporated. Transfer the mix to a suitable container and once cool enough, cover and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight.

For the confit garlic emulsion

1. Place the garlic cloves and oil in a small pan and confit on a low heat for 30 to 40 minutes until the garlic is tender, then allow to cool to room temperature.
2. Remove the garlic cloves from the oil and add to a blender along with the salt, egg whites and yogurt. Blend to a paste. On a medium speed, very slowly add the oil to the paste mixture in the blender to emulsify.

This recipe will make a bit more garlic emulsion than you need, but it can be used for our cod and black rice dish, or stored in the fridge for other uses

To assemble

1. Once the croquette mix is chilled and firm you can shape into 30g balls.
2. Set up three separate bowls or containers for coating the croquettes, one with flour, one with beaten egg and one with the paprika and panko breadcrumbs mixed together. Roll the balls in flour, dip in the egg and then the crumbs. Chill for at least an hour before deep frying.
3. Deep fry the chilled croquettes at 180°C until golden brown. This should take approximately four minutes.
4. Spoon small dots of garlic emulsion onto your plates for the croquettes to sit on, then spoon another small dot of emulsion on top of each croquette.
5. Top each one with a pinch of sliced guindilla and finely grated manchego.

2. Cod, black rice, garlic cream and tempura sea vegetables

By Robin Aitken, Head chef at Margo

Serves 4

Ingredients 

For the confit garlic emulsion

160g neutral olive oil

40g egg white

40g greek yogurt

20g peeled garlic cloves

10g table salt Tempura sea vegetables

40g samphire

40g sea purslane (or replace with an additional 40g samphire / experiment with sturdy herbs, parsley, kale, cavolo nero or other dark leafy brassicas)

80g cornflour (plus and extra pinch for dusting)

50g rice flour (or an extra 50g cornflour, if you can’t find rice flour)

4g table salt*

50g ice cold sparkling water (you can mix the ice cubes in with the batter)

*If using sturdy herbs or dark leafy brassicas instead of sea purslane, you may need to adjust the cook time and seasoning accordingly

For the bed of squid ink rice

100g carnaroli rice

20g butter

100g shallot, finely diced

280g chicken stock

20g white vermouth

10g tomato purée

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

5g squid ink

5g fish sauce

To serve

4 x 100g – 150g portions of cod fillet, skin removed

1 lemon, halved

Neutral olive oil, for frying

Table salt, to season

Method

For the confit garlic emulsion

1. Place the garlic cloves and oil in a small pan and confit on a low heat for 30 to 40 minutes until the garlic is tender, then allow to cool to room temperature.
2. Remove the garlic cloves from the oil and add to a blender along with the salt, egg whites and yogurt, blend to a paste.
3. At a medium speed, very slowly add the oil to the paste mixture in the blender to emulsify.

This recipe will make a bit more garlic emulsion than you need, but it can be used for our sobrasada croquettes or stored in the fridge for other uses.

For the tempura sea vegetables

1. Combine the cornflour, rice flour, salt and iced sparkling water in a bowl. Gently whisk to combine, taking care not to overwork the mixture.
2. In a separate bowl, dust the samphire and sea purslane in a pinch of cornflour then knock off any excess.
3. Dip the sea vegetables into the batter to coat, and fry at 180°C for one to two minutes, or until crisp. Set aside on a piece of kitchen paper.

For the squid ink rice

1. In a wide pan, melt 15g of the butter and gently sweat the shallots.
2. Add the rice and heat for a few minutes, making sure not to brown the rice or shallots.
3. Increase the heat and add half of the vermouth. Once the vermouth has reduced and been absorbed, stir in the tomato puree and squid ink.
4. In a separate pot, bring the stock to the boil. Start adding the stock to the rice one ladle at a time, allowing each ladleful to absorb before adding the next one. The rice and stock must both remain at a simmer at all times throughout cooking. Keep stirring as you go.
5. Once the stock has all been added, cook until the rice is just al dente and you have a loose risotto consistency. Add the remaining butter and vermouth and season with the fish sauce.

To serve

1. Preheat a non-stick frying pan and lightly season the cod portions all over with table salt.
2. Add the oil to the pan, followed by the cod portions. Cook until golden on one side then flip and turn off the heat, but allow to cook through the rest of the way in the residual heat. Finish with a squeeze of lemon juice.
3. To plate, add the rice in a flattened pool at the bottom of each plate. Spoon a dollop of the garlic emulsion in the middle, and place the fish on top, followed by the crispy sea veg.

3. Lemon and sorrel posset

By Robin Aitken, Head chef at Margo

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the sorrel granita base

100g water

80g sorrel

40g sugar

Juice of 2 lemons Sorrel olive oil

25g sorrel

25g extra virgin olive oil

For the sorrel and lemon curd

2 eggs

2 lemons, zest and juice

20g butter, softened

20g caster sugar

20g sorrel leaves

A basin of iced water, for cooling the mix

For the lemon posset

400g double cream

100g sugar

2 lemons, zest and juice

For the confit lemon zest garnish

1 lemon

25g caster sugar

25g water

Method

It’s best to prepare this one the day before so that the posset has time to set, and the granita has time to freeze

For the sorrel granita

1. In a jug blender, blend water and sugar together until dissolved, then blend through the sorrel and lemon juice. Transfer to a container and freeze.

For the sorrel olive oil

1. Blitz together the sorrel and olive oil in a blender. Chill over ice to keep it vibrant green.

Sorrel and lemon curd

1. Whisk eggs, sugar, lemon juice and zest in a mixing bowl to fully combine, then whisk in the softened butter.
2. Place the mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water (bain marie), ensuring the base of the bowl isn’t touching the water.
3. Cook the curd mix over the bain marie, whisking continually until thickened (this will be at around 78°C). Once the curd mix has thickened, plunge the base of the bowl straight into the basin of ice water to prevent it from overcooking.
4. Once chilled, transfer the curd mix and sorrel leaves into a blender and blitz until smooth. Divide between four serving glasses and chill in the fridge to set.

For the lemon posset

1. Bring the cream and sugar to a very gentle simmer. While that’s heating, zest and juice the lemons into a separate bowl.
2. Take the cream off the heat, add to the bowl with the lemon and quickly whisk. Allow to cool to room temperature.
3. Once cooled, pour on top of the cooled curd in the glasses and set in the fridge. Confit lemon zest
4. Remove the peel from the lemon using a sharp knife or peeler. Remove any white pith from the zest.
5. Add the peels to a saucepan of cold water and bring to the boil.
6. Remove the peel from the hot water, add to fresh cold water and bring to the boil again, repeating three times in total.
7. Remove the peel from water a final time and once cool enough to touch, slice into thin strips. Return the strips to the emptied saucepan with the measured 25g of water and the caster sugar, and heat until reduced by half.

To assemble

1. Scrape the frozen granita with a fork, and spoon on top of the posset.
2. Garnish with a few strips of the lemon zest and drizzle on the oil.

Margo 

68 Miller Street

Glasgow

G1 1DT

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