We had, had a bit of a problem getting a date that suited everyone prior or near to Christmas so had decided to go for the last Saturday in Jan.
The theme was quite traditional British and I had been looking forward to it since last year.
The Menu was arranged well in advance and so it was to be:
A wonderful bottle of Champagne
An Amuse gaul:
A Surprise
Starter:
A duck terrine and a hare pate, served with Dan Lepards oat crackers and Gillthepainters oat cakes. Chillibutter to accompany.
Soup:
Leek and blue vinney soup with toasted pita wedges.
A palate cleanser:
Champagne sorbet.
Main Course:
Roast turkey, with 2 types of stuffing, giblet gravy, Cranberry sauce, bread sauce, in goose fat roast potatoes, Carrots in a ginger dressing and spiced red cabbage.
Desert No 1:
A strawberry composition in a glass
Dessert No 2:
Carolyn's homemade Christmas pudding with Irish brandy butter (it was a present from Joan in Ireland)
Kalles Amuse Gaul.
A square of sour dough bread fried in olive oil, spread with creme frais, this was topped with a cube of fresh sautéed salmon and drizzled with Cumberland sauce.
My Starter:
Mallard, Blood-orange, pistachio terrine
Ingredients:
First shoot yourself a nice Mallard, pluck and dress
150gr of pork collar
Some slices of pork back pure fat
100g of Chicken livers (you can soak these overnight in milk to remove any bitterness)
2 blood oranges
20to 25 unsalted pistachio nuts
3 shallots diced and softened in a little of the duck fat
1 teaspoon of game spices
20 ml cointreau
2 sheets of gelatin
Salt and pepper
Skin it removing as much of the fat as possible (render this down, this will be used later)
Remove as much meat from the carcass as possible ( the carcass will be used as part of a game stock)
Take 2 nice filet's off the breast, dice the rest of the meat and put it through a mincer or roughly blend (do not over blend this is meant to have bits in it) remove and mince the pork collar. Mix both meats together. Chop the pistachio and add this with the shallots to the mixture. Peel one of the blood oranges, remove half of the filet's (do this over the mixture and any juice will drop into it), squeeze all of the juice from the rest of the orange into the mixture, add the game spices and 10ml of cointreau mix and carefully mix in the orange filet's that have been cut into 3, season with Salt and Pepper.
Take a small spoonful of the mixture and fry in a little duck fat, taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.
Also fry the filet's in duck fat but don't over cook!!!
Put 1/2 of the mixture into a well greased form, put the reserved duck filet's on top and cover with the remainder, cover all with slices of back fat.
Knock the form on a kitchen towel on a work surface a couple of times (this will get rid of any air bubbles). place in a roasting tin, pour in enough boiling water to come 3/4 of the way up the form.
Put into a pre-heated oven at 200°C for 1.5 hours.
Remove from the oven put the form onto a board and press with a weight or as I do use a plywood form and press with joiners clamps.
When pressed (24 hours) remove the clamps.
Cut the other blood orange in half, taking a slice off each half (this will give you 2 even slices) squeeze the juice into a small saucepan with the remainder of the cointreau (you can use more if you wish) add enough game stock to make up to about 400ml add the orange slices and poach reducing the liquid by half. In the mean time soak the gelatin in cold water.
Remove the orange slices from the liquid, cut in half, add the gelatin, when dissolved spoon a little over the top of the terrine, put into the refrigerator to set (this is very quick) now decorate the top with the orange pieces and bay leaves. spoon over the rest of the gelatin. put in the refrigerator to set.
Allow to mature for a couple of days.
Hare, Port and Cranberry Pate
Shoot a young hare.
Any hare blood that you are able to save
Skin, paunch and cut into portions ( 2 front, 2 back legs, the saddle and the thorax (rib cage etc))
Remove the filet's from the rib cage and set aside (add the rib cage to the duck carcass with a few root veg, onion game spices and boil up for a wonderful game stock),
Remove the meat from 1 of the hind legs, dice.
The ingredients:
The hares liver
Mild cured belly pork (speck or streaky bacon)
A piece (4cm²) of juniper smoked and cooked belly (small dice)
10 cranberries Chopped plus enough to decorate
1 teaspoon of green peppers
1 large mushroom diced
enough bacon to cover the form
1 egg
2 or 3 shallots finely diced
1/2 bread roll or 1 slice of white bread rind removed (from the previous day)
20 ml of Port (or so)
2 teaspoon of plum sauce (I used this as it was a present from Gill at Christmas)
1 teaspoon of game spices
Salt and pepper to taste.
Enough game stock for the glaze and to loosen the mixture
1 sheet of gelatin (soaked in cold water)
Soak the bread in the port
Blend the hare meat minus the filet's, add the mild cured belly pork, the liver, the egg, the soaked bread, the game spices and blend.
Add the cranberries, green peppers and any port not soaked up, mix this into the pate mixture, taste and adjust with plum sauce (the hare livers can be a little strong and bitter so the addition of the sweet plum sauce will compensate for this).
Fry the diced shallots until just soft add to mixture. The mixture should be a nice dropping consistency, if too thick add a little game stock to slacken, if too thin don't worry it will set when cooked.
Now adjust the seasoning, fry a small dollop (teaspoon full) of the mixture and do any final adjustment now.
Season the filet's, fry gently, still bloody and just coloured.
Grease a form, put half of the mixture into the bottom, place the filet's on top and push down.
Cover with the remainder of the mixture, banging down on the work top to remove any air pockets. Cover the top with bacon, then tie foil on top with kitchen string. Place into a roasting tin half top up with boiling water into a 200°C pre-heated oven for 30 min reduce to 180°C for a final hour.
Remove from oven allow to cool a little take of foil, and press for 24 hours.
Next day make up 400ml of port/stock, reduce by half add the gelatin and allow to dissolve
Decorate the top of the pate with halved cranberries and a few green peppers corns.
Spoon the gelatin over the top and allow to set, let it mature for at least a day before using (2 days is better)
The finished duck terrine and hare pate
I served the terrine and pate with
Dan Lepards oatmeal crackers, these I cut out with a 5ch pastry cutter and rolled into longish ovals. I made 2 variations, 1 with salt flakes and 1 with salt flakes and cracked pepper.
Also Gillthepainters oatmeal biscuits (a little darker than I would have liked but that's life)
http://gillthepainter.blogspot.com/2009/01/oatmeal-digestive-biscuits.html
I had made a pot of Chilli Butter for those that wanted (they all did)
Dead easy Chilli butter
250g of unsalted sauerrahm butter
1 medium chilli de-seeded de-veined and chopped very very fine,
1/2 teaspoon of marigold vegetable stock powder
Grinding of game spices.
Mix all together with a fork and put into a ramekin.
The starter board.
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| From 12O'clock, chilli butter, Duck and Orange terrine, oatmeal and sea salt crackers, Hare, Cranberry and Port pate, sea salt, cracked pepper oat crackers. Center oat cakes. |
Linda's Leek and Blue Vinney Soup
30g of butter
2 leeks white part diced
1kg of potatoes, peeled and diced
1.25 ltr of chicken stock
125ml cream
100g of Blue Vinney
Fresh thyme sprig to decorate.
Melt the butter in a large pot, add the leek and soften,add the chicken stock and potatoes, put on lid and cook until potatoes are cooked. Transfer the contents to a blender and blend until smooth. Transfer all back into the pot and add the cream and the cheese and over a low heat melt the cheese (do not allow to boil). Serve decorated with a thyme twig.
Serve with pita bread cut in two discs, cut each disc into 8 and put on a baking sheet. sprinkle with a mixture of 50g of Parmesan cheese and fresh thyme leaves. Bake in a pre-heated 180°C oven until golden brown and crispy.
Kalles Champagne Sorbet.
Make sugar/water solution. allow to cool, add bottle of champagne, pour into a freezable container. Freeze, scraping at regular intervals so that you get large Chrystal's.
Chill sorbet glasses, when ready to serve scrape with a spoon and put into the glasses.
Carolyn's Main course:
with Marianne's carrots
Roast Turkey and, and, and!!!
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| The Bird |
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| The red cabbage, carrots and the meat |
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| The roasties and the meat |
Martins Desert in a glass.
Carolyn's Christmas Pudding with Brandy butter
