It is that time
of the year again; autumn and game is on the menu.
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| The Autumn Table |
The venue was
out in Rural Kiel and our dear friend Carolyn was hos
But first a few
glasses of sparkling Sekt, then Kalle went into the kitchen to make his
starters, it was a poached pear, blue cheese, hazelnut salad, wonderful and
light, very tasty a very nice start to the evening.
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| Kalle preparing the starter |
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| The tasty starter on the table |
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| The wine was a Chardonnay Steinacker |
Next was my
smoked fish soup.
Ingredients:
Fish stock (I
had some already made and frozen, but a jar or a cube will do)
200g of undyed
smoked cod
200g of undyed
smoked haddock
100g piece of
smoked eel
100g smoked
trout
100g of Stemmellachs (Hot smoked salmon originally recipe from Pommerania)
15 smoked king
prawns
2 carrots
1 wedge of
celeriac
1 leek white and
light green only (cut in two)
2 cloves
2 pimento
berries (all spice)
1 tsp of
marigold powder (veg stock)
400ml fish stock
(own, jar or made from stock cube)
2ltr of water
1 egg white
beaten
While in the UK
earlier in the week I had been to the fish counter and bought some smoked (not
dyed) haddock and smoked cod (I had planned ahead), on Friday I visited Gosch
(an excellent fish purveyor in CITTI) of Sylt and had bought some smoked eel,
smoked trout and a piece of Stremmel lachs (hot smoked Baltic salmon).
I first skinned
and boned the fish, this went into a pot with some fish stock that I had in the
freezer, a diced onion, a grated carrot, a piece of celeriac finely diced,
white of a leek also finely diced, 2 cloves, 2 all spice berries, a bouquet
garni sachet, a teaspoon of marigold stock powder, a pinch of kukurma (for colour) poured in 2 liters of cold water brought to the
boil, skimmed and lowered the heat for 20 minutes.
Add the haddock
and cod and poach for a few minutes until the fish is still translucent but
just starting to flake. Remove from the liquid and set aside.
I then strained
the liquid and clarified with an egg white filter. (Whip the white of an egg
until quite fluffy (but not too firm) and put this into the liquid, bring to
the boil and skim the resulting scum from the top with a slotted spoon.
The broth should
be a clear golden yellow, tasting smoky and defiantly fishy.
This was the
base of the smoked fish soup.
I next diced
very, very fine (Brunoised) a carrot, a small piece of celeriac (a slice about
1 cm thick) a 3 cm piece of leek (white only) and a shallot. poached this in the stock.
To serve break
up the fish into mouth sized pieces (the eel will be soft and may break up into
even smaller pieces, it matters not), place in the middle of a soup plate,
place 3 of the smoked prawns on each plate, add a teaspoon of tomato petals.
Bring the broth almost to the boil and ladle over the fish in the plates, snip
some chives over and serve immediately.
I served olive
rolls along with salty Breton butter and home made herb butter.
Wine was a dry Rotling from the Nahr.
Next along trotted the Roebuck
Baden-Baden with cranberry filled poached pears, cepes, Brussel sprouts, red
cabbage and spätzle.
As hostess this
was Carolyn’s shout, she had bought a whole saddle of young Roebuck, this had
been prepared by her local game purveyor.
Preheat the oven
up to its maximum (250°-300°)
Melt 40-50g of
butter in a small pan.
The saddle is
washed and dried, and rubbed with a dry game spice marinade consisting of:
½ tsp Juniper
berries
½ tsp allspice
berries (pimento)
½ tsp black
pepper corns
1 tsp of course
salt
Crush all
together in a mortar (or grind in an electric grinder).
Place the saddle
on a rack in a large roasting pan add a good 2-3mm of red wine to the pan and pour
over the saddle the melted butter and put into the hot oven.
Roast at the high
heat for 15-18 minutes (depending on the degree of redness of the meat
required), now switch off the oven and allow the saddle to continue cooking for
a further 30 minutes.
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| A perfectly roasted saddle of Roebuck (medium rare) |
Vegetables were Martins Job, so in the meantime he washed and cook the Brussels sprouts, heated through the spiced red cabbage and set
the salted water for the spätzle to boil, added the spätzle to the water and cook
at a rolling boil for 8 minutes (or as directed on the packet) You can of
course make your own, if you have the inclination.
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| Martin adding the nutmeg to his vegetables |
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| Rear spiced cabbage, right spätzle, front game sauce, left Brussels sprouts |
Remove the
saddle from the oven, remove the filets (top and bottom) from the bones.
Cut
into nice size thick pieces (not fiddly slices).
In between make the sauce,
pour the contents of the roasting pan into a sauce pan, add 400 ml of game
stock, bring to the boil and add the puréed cranberries and add the cold Beurre
Manié ( mixture of 50% butter mixed with 50% flour) in knobs whisking all the
time until the sauce thickens.
Pour some over
the meat and serve the rest in a sauce boat
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| Roe, filled pears and sprouts |
We also had the cepes roasted alongside the meat and added to the sauce.
An excellent main course, the meat was succulent and everything passed well together.
Caroline served
a very nice 1999 –Bairadda wine as an accompaniment an excellent choice.
To finish the meal
Linda had made a Raymond Blanc’s recipe “Poached Autumn Fruits in a spiced wine”
This consisted
of:
4 quinces (peeled,
cored and quartered)
4 Holstein Cox
apples (peeled, cored and quartered)
4 ripe Conference
pears (peeled, cored and quartered)
10 plump prunes
A couple of
handfuls of blackberries (I had picked these a couple of weeks ago and frozen)
First make your
poaching liquor.
Ingredients
800ml of red
wine (cabinet Sauvignon in this case)
2 vanilla pods
split
2 cinnamon
sticks (each about 5cm long)
2 cloves
2 Bay leaves
100g of castor
sugar
½ tsp of fresh
ground black pepper
2 thick slices
of lemon
2 thick slices
of oranges.
Method:
Pour the wine
into a large pan, bring to the boil and add the rest of the poaching ingredients
Reduce the heat
to a gentle simmer and add the quince quarters, poach for 25 minutes, add the
apple after 10 minutes and after a further 5 minutes the pears. Remove from the
heat add the blackberries and allow to
cool then add the prunes. Allow to stand overnight so that
the fruit can absorb the poaching liquor.
Linda had made some caramel croutons and almonds to decorate and add a bit of a
crunch to the finished dish.
Dice into cubes about 1cm sq. some stale bread and sprinkle
with icing sugar allowing to caramelise in a frying pan, remove and allow to cool,
add the almonds and sprinkle with icing sugar and also caramelise.
When ready to
serve arrange on to deep soup dishes, a piece of quince, apple and pear on each
and spoon over the blackberries and prunes with plenty of jus. Sprinkle over
the crunchy croutons and almonds.
A very pleasant
relaxing evening, with good food, fantastic wines and wonderful company.
