HUNTER-GATHERING: wild & fresh food

The Three-Bird Roast…

Christmas is about eating…lots. So there can be no better centrepiece to a festive feast than a huge bird-within-a-bird-within-a-bird. A bunch of friends received invites a week or so in advance and all that was asked for was £10, a bottle of plonk and a secret Santa present. I found that this supper-club approach to weekend revelry could be a taste of things to come for the New Year. Obviously I love cooking, especially when it comes to sharing it with friends, so naturally Clare and I thought we could cook up quite a bit with £100 in our pockets as we waited for the bus to the mupersarket.

Throwing in whole birds makes things a little more expensive. Good turkeys cost more than I expected, especially if it’s a Kelly Bronze Turkey, whole ducks and wine for mulling easily cleared half the budget! But the vegetables won’t cost that much will they? Don’t get me wrong; I admire those producers that take the time to carefully rear their crops, be it organically, bio-dynamically or otherwise.

But I am not one of these people who fill their baskets with everything organic, far from it, a good grope of a red onion or bunch of celery tells me everything I need to know. I am sure if I had the money to buy everything organic I probably would, but I don’t. Enough on shopping and food politics…

Stock.

The foundation of any good kitchen rests upon laying down some damned fine stock: the base for an infinite amount of sauces, broths and stews. Quick fix solutions come in the form of cubes or powder, but these will never do the real thing justice. Few things are more satisfying than skimming the fat off a simmering stock pot and I take great pleasure in knowing that whilst the stock market is all over the place, the stock in my freezer ain’t going nowhere. 

I always make my stock the way Marco Pierre-White does (I do find it ironic that he is the face for Knorr stock cubes!), I read a great recipe some years ago in one of his books under the aptly named ‘basics’ section:

• 2kg of roasted veal bones
• A couple of raw chicken carcasses
• Classic Mirepoix with a twist (1 red onion, 1 leek, 2 celery, 2 carrots)
• A squeeze of tomato puree
• Bouquet garni (sprigs of lemon thyme, rosemary, parsley and 3 bay leaves)
• 1 crushed bulb of garlic
• A good twist of black pepper
• ½ bottle of Red wine

 

Roasting the veal bones is a great way to add some serious body to your stock, as this melts all the marrow from within the knuckles (get your butcher to saw up the bones).  Of course stock wouldn’t be stock without the dog ends and roughly chopped chunks of onion, celery and carrot. My favourite kitchen smell is always kicking off a demi-glace; gently sautéing these three in a pan IS the essence of cooking for me.

Once the veal bones have been roasted, place them in a stock pot (make sure you get all the good bits off the roasting tin!) along with all your vegetables and the rest of the ingredients, apart from the red wine. Top up with cold water until everything is covered. Bring to the boil and then gently simmer for up to 5 hours, topping up with water every so often. Skim off any foam or oily-looking fatness that hangs around on the surface. Once you feel you have simmered enough, put the stock through a strainer into a fresh saucepan. Bring to the boil, reduce by half, add the red wine and boil again. Bag up or box the gravy and stick in the freezer until it’s time comes (I like to freeze mine in ice cube bags).

From here you are very near to having some incredible gravy for your roast. Boil up again, add some dried ‘shrooms and thicken with a roux (2 tbsp of butter, 2 tbsp of plain flour, melt butter in pan, add flour, whisk till combined, add to stock).

With the gravy in the bag, or more accurately the freezer, I can get on with more pressing issues: What birds and how many? I felt that a 10-bird roast was a little extreme for 10 people, perhaps 5? Or 3? I was extremely pleased to realise that there was some control, whatever my buddy Nick shot the weekend before would make the final cut, as well as determine the amount of birds within birds. 

As luck would have it, super sharpshooter Nick turned up at my door the Sunday night before with 6 pheasants…three birds it is, with a few pheasant breasts for a game terrine. During my research on the ‘net, I came a cross an American phenomenon called a “Turducken”. This was not the latest box office smash hit from Warner Brothers (imagine the voice-over guys with the deep, throaty voices doing the trailer- you must see this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQRtuxdfQHw) 

Only in America would they name a 3-bird roast (turkey, duck and chicken) in such a way! On British soil it is more commonly known as a royal roast. After careful consideration I decided on a 6lb Turkey, a 2lb Duck and a 1lb pheasant; three quite different flavours and three slightly different shades of meat. On paper, the royal roast seems like the gastronomic equivalent of climbing Everest (or at least K2), when in reality it is much simpler; time and patience are the only things to worry about.

Having a steady hand and a sharp knife for boning the birds is a key element to building this roast. Firstly bone out everything from the duck and pheasant, with the turkey you just need to remove the torso. By leaving the turkey’s legs and wings intact, this will help the final product keep its shape once it is bound and trussed. As you can see from the pictures below, once the turkey was opened up and a layer of stuffing and a little seasoning was applied, the duck was placed on and the process repeated itself, likewise with the pheasant. 

 

On goes the first layer of stuffing and the duck (above).

The stuffing goes on the duck (above).

The pheasant goes on (above).

All layers and stuffing in place (above).

A bit of nip & tuck, turkey surgery.

Sewing the turkey back together was a tad fiddly; I had no butcher’s twine or needle. Improvisation came in the form of plain string and a cunningly fashioned piece of coat hanger, which was actually quite effective. Once trussed, I turned over my creation and stood back to admire my handiwork.

“That wasn’t actually too bad.” Said I, with a satisfied grin on my face.

Clare, ever the voice of reason, gave it a prod and said: “Yes, but you haven’t cooked it yet…”

Thanks love!

By careful consideration of poundage/temperature/time, I calculated that this beast would need about 4 hours in a preheated oven at 180C and then at least an hour of sitting time before taking it to the table. As long as it went in at 3.30pm, it would be ready for main course. “Turduckant Royale” done.

A Christmas feast wouldn’t work without all the trimmings, and we had them all. In typical hunter-gatherer fashion, I took charge of the meat and Clare took care of the vegetables. Mini sausages wrapped in bacon, swede and broccoli mash, roast potatoes in goose fat, honey roasted Chantenay carrots and parsnips and finally red cabbage parcelled up in white cabbage leaves. 

 

Even the cranberry sauce was homemade (225g of fresh cranberries, 150g sugar, 125ml water: 10 minutes). Unfortunately when it came to the main, we had had a couple of hours of aggressive pickling (mulled wine, champers and more wine) during a quiz, my dainty little cabbage parcels were forgotten about in the oven and never graced the table!

For our starter, the extra pheasants Nick had shot had been given the lazy treatment (pluck breast area, cut out breasts, discard bird); a few breasts and the livers from all the birds were saved and formed the foundation of a game terrine (see chicken terrine blog under meat for recipe). 

I love making terrines, the satisfaction of the bricks and mortar building technique, surrounding it with streaky bacon and then finally, once cooked, cutting through it to reveal the patchwork of breast meat and forcemeat peppered with capers. Amazing. We ate this with some freshly baked black olive bread and it went down a storm, perhaps even better than the roast…

There was little room left for Christmas pudding, but Clare had made some Rocky road, which was very well received. Cheese was washed down with Port followed by numerous rounds of charades and a few more drinks. On the whole it was a glorious evening, a few cheesy Christmas tunes and almost a dozen stuffed guests.

Christmas is the time for getting together with friends and porking out on rich food and drink. The three-bird roast was the terrific climax of all the roasts I have eaten this year, and there have been many. Even though I still have leftovers coming out of my ears and it’s a race against time to make use of them and fill the freezer with pies etc. for January, I will definitely do it all over again next year, perhaps 5 birds? Where exactly I will be doing it is anyone’s guess…perhaps in Sussex, maybe in a tree house…who knows.

January and February are probably the two most miserable months of the year in my book, but while we have the holiday season lets make the most of it. Next year will see this blog rising to new levels of culinary extremes, lashings of wild food and perhaps a few other ideas I have up my sleeve.

A Couple of things do remain to be said, I can’t thank all of you enough for taking the time to drop in and read some of my rambling entries and I hope that you have had the chance to play around with some of the recipes or at least learnt something new. So to one and all, I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, get stuffed! I know I will…

 

 

Gentleman’s relish.

As I sat nestled in the most enormous armchair in a quiet pub somewhere in Fulham, I turned to Nick and said quite innocently “I made some gentleman’s relish today.” His reply wasn’t quite what I expected.

“How many gentleman did you use?”, I couldn’t help but have a mild chortle.

Jokes aside, Patum Peperium is a unique part of Fine British tradition, by gad! It is more old boy than any other foodstuff I can think of and inherently more at home in the East India Club on St. James Square than it would be in a greasy spoon in Peckham, no doubt you would get a very different response upon asking what gentleman’s relish was in a South London café…

Despite the stigma of snobbery attached to this wonderful spread it is something that, along with Tea, Lea & Perrins, the fried breakfast and Tiptree preserves, shows the strength of our food heritage. Gentleman’s Relish is as ambiguous as Marmite in the taste department. You will either love it or hate it (is it weird that I don’t mind Marmite- Inaccurate advertising perhaps?) and with this spread, it is very true.

Over the last few centuries, this country appears to have become quite fond of the principal ingredient of Patum Peperium: The Anchovy. This small fish has even been able to hijack Worcestershire sauce to become an essential ingredient, Geo. Watkins Anchovy Sauce is also a popular condiment of bygone days.  It only seems fair to take a closer look at this remarkable fish and maybe even see what it looks like. I must confess I had no idea what they looked like until yesterday!

Anchovies were popularized during the Roman Period and were used in a fish sauce called “Garum” or “Liquamen”, this originated in Greece and involved using fermented fish intestines in brine as the main ingredient. As Anchovies have always been very abundant in the Mediterranean, this sauce was featured in many a Roman recipe (see Apicius, a 4^th-5^th century Roman cookbook). 

Fresh anchovies are fairly mild in flavour and usually soaked in a little white wine vinegar and olive oil and consumed on a hot summers day with some crusty bread and fresh salad, delightful. Life beyond death for a preserved anchovy isn’t quite the same, after being soaked in brine, matured and packed in tins with oil, the preserved anchovy develops it characteristic strong flavour: often the reason why some peoples dislike them.

An Englishman called John Osborn first released Gentleman’s Relish in 1828. The basic recipe involves Anchovies, butter and a blend of herbs and spices, this blend is a closely guarded secret only known by a handful of employees at the only company licensed to make it; Elsenham Quality foods. Therefore the only way to discern what these “secret” ingredients may be is to do a taste test with a well-stocked cupboard of herbs & spices. I was determined to locate these subtle additions, so here goes….

With all the Christmas prep that’s been going on around here, Nutmeg has become quite the regular in my sensory identification of spices, so that was a given. Maybe a touch of Cayenne pepper?  Or is that Tabasco? I then realised Tabasco didn’t exist until 1868 (50 years later). Because the real stuff is so overpoweringly salty, it is hard to pick out much else when tasting it, then I had an epiphany…I’m going to put some of my own additions in and make MY version.

 

Capers and anchovies are fantastic partners and often end up in the same tin, since they have always been considered a couple, who am I to split them up. The spice mix was to be a well-pounded blend of nutmeg, mace, cayenne pepper, pepper and dash of Lemon juice. I did think of adding mixed spice, but this isn’t a mince pie.

To make this wonderful concoction spreadable a good helping of butter cannot be held back, this would turn my gentleman’s relish into something not quite as heavy as the real stuff, something that you can really slap on and not gag whilst trying to cram it into your mouth.

 Homemade Gentleman’s Relish.

• 1 tin of anchovies (drained)
• 4 tbsp capers
• 150g of butter
• A few twists of black pepper
• A good pinch of cayenne pepper
• A pinch of nutmeg
• 1tsp Lemon Juice  

Melt the butter in a pan and add the spices and stir well, do not allow the butter to boil!

Place the spiced butter, anchovies, capers and lemon juice in a blender and whizz until all the ingredients are combined.

Pour the mixture into a ramekin dish and place in the fridge to set. Once set, use a knife to cut around the seal around the top, the relish should then drop out in a nice solid block.

 

Make some Toast or Melba toast (depending on how hungry you feel), and spread some of the relish on the hot toast, the butter will melt away leaving a glorious coating of fine spiced anchovy and capers.

Gentleman’s relish must be served on toasted WHITE bread; it is great with a Demi-sec champagne, a crisp dry white or cold Fino Sherry. So if you have friends popping over for drinks, why not pull this out of the bag and stake your claim as the true British gentleman (or gentlewoman)!

Mulled wine & Mince pies: Christmas preparation.

I do love this time of year. This is where Christmas really begins; the month of December brings with it a flurry of festive goings on. Despite the lack of snow and talk of people being more frugal than ever this year, on the streets of London there is still Christmas cheer in the air.

During this build up, and partly due to the lack of wild food around, I will be doing a bit of this and that to make my Christmas (and hopefully your’s too) as good, if not better, than any other. Over the next few weeks I will be putting together a series of things I feel make the ultimate Christmas feast, culminating in a huge 5-bird roast with all the trimmings for some lucky friends. My regular game donator Nick will be providing all the necessary birds. I must confess, of late I have been considering going for a 20-leg (number on each beast) roast which would include a squirrel, hare, rabbit and lamb (not a whole one) trussed up in a rolled sirloin…hmmm, despite the conflicting flavours it would be something to talk about!

Despite spending my days in the kitchens at various City law firms, Banks, Surveyors, Stock brokers, Insurance brokers and other companies that have far more money than they should have in present circumstances (they seem to be partying harder than ever!), I have been knocking out more mince pies and festive goodies for the stomach than ever before. It is surely testament to my Christmas goodwill that I still come home and make my own.

For now I am just concentrating on the staples for the festive season, mulled wine and mince pies. At almost every traditional Christmas party, much like the drunk and the random (sometimes the random drunk!), these two individuals are always present. Together they form a formidable pairing that, aided by a few seasonal tunes, can have people puckering up under the mistletoe in no time.

But why are these items so synonymous with Christmas? It seems both have become associated almost by accident. Mulled wine, also known through Europe as: Vin chaud, Gluvhein, Glogg, Vin Brule…the list goes on, my favourite being from our new Polish population: Grzaniec (meaning quite simply “heat thing”). In the olden days wine often went bad (due to lack of sanitisation or poor ingredients) by adding a few select spices, some honey and heating the dodgy brew, it was then made drinkable. That’s all there is to it, I suppose a warming alcoholic drink is always going to be more appealing in the winter months, hence it’s recognition as a festive drink.

Christmas is always a gluttonous mess of feasting and drinking and I think it only right to have a crack at putting together some of the components yourself, be it for the ooh’s and ahh’s of your guests at the sheer quality of your homemade fare (yes, you smug bugger, you love it!) or the satisfaction that you have built something hearty from scratch. Food is about sharing; if you have taken the time to make it yourself, you should show it off…

Mince meat recipe (using the proper stuff).

Obviously, my mincemeat wasn’t going to be the same as all the rest. So like any good Coach, I made a couple of tactical substitutions: Traditional Beef suet and whisky. Beef suet is the fat found around a cow’s kidney (pictured above) and a much more hearty addition than vegetable suet. This recipe is a hybrid of Delia, Mrs Beeton and a dash of me…what a combination!

• 225g apples (brae burn, Cox’s or Bramley finely diced)
• 110g shredded beef suet (ask your butcher to do this for you, or get out the magimix)
• 175g sultanas
• 110g currants
• 110g raisins
• 110g mixed candied peel
• 175g dark brown soft sugar
• Grated zest & juice of 1 lemon
• Grated zest & juice of 1 orange
• 2 tsp ground mixed spice
• A pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
• ¼ tbsp of ground cinnamon
• 6 tbsp of whisky (Famous Grouse is perfect)  

  

Mix all the ingredients well, APART FROM the whisky (add a couple of spoonfuls for good measure if you like).  Place in an ovenproof dish for 3 hours at 150C.

Remove from oven, add the whisky and keep stirring as it cools, this way the fat coats all the bits. Don’t worry if you have white bits of fat in the jar once it has cooled and you have potted it; it’s meant to look like that!

To turn your mincemeat into something a little more useful, a basic pastry and a bit of nip and tuck is all that is needed.

Whisky Mince pies

(Makes 12)

 

• 560g of mincemeat
• 350g of plain flour
• 150g of butter
• 1tsp salt 
• Milk & icing sugar for finishing touches

Make up the pastry by mixing together the flour, butter and salt in a bowl, mix until the flour and butter have formed a breadcrumb consistency. Preheat oven to 200C.

Add a little water and knead until you have a dough that leaves the bowl clean. Leave to rest for 20-30mins.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface to a thickness of 5mm. Use a 7.5cm (3”) pastry cutter to cut out 12 cases and a 6cm (2.5”) to cut out 12 lids. You may have some pastry left over to get creative with holly leaves, stars etc.

Grease the holes of a muffin tin and place in all the cases. Place a spoonful of the mincemeat into each pastry case, dampen the edges of the cases and cover with the lids. Seal the edges well. Make three small cuts in the middle of each pie and brush the tops with a little milk.

Bake in an oven at 200C for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Dress with a sprinkle of icing sugar and serve with some mulled wine.

 

  

Vin Chaud Champery (mulled wine).

This mulled wine recipe hails from the outer reaches of the Porte’s du Soleil on the Swiss side. Champery is a small mountain town nestled just below the dent du midi, a huge set of mountainous teeth that make themselves quite visible throughout the Alps. For me this is a nostalgic brew often produced when my family and I are in our Swiss residence. All I can say is that it beats the shins off any other mulled wine you have ever or will ever have, the smells this will create within the home is quite special and can only add to this merry time of year.

• 1 pint of water
• 8 whole cloves
• 2”stick of cinnamon splintered
• 3 X 2” strips of lemon peel
• 3 X 2” strips of orange peel
• 4tbsp dark brown soft sugar
• ½ tsp of ground black pepper
• 1tsp of ground mixed spice

If you haven’t had the chance to make this in advance, fear not it only takes about half an hour to make and can be used straight away.

Place all ingredients in a saucepan, bring to the boil and reduce by at least half.

Cool and strain into a bottle.

When making a batch of mulled wine, add at a rate of 8TSP mix/pint of wine. Add soft brown sugar to taste (you will need to…unless your weird). A small flask of this mix will keep well for quite some time.

So there are two staples for the holiday season done and dusted. If you do anything this Christmas, do this and you needn’t bother with anything else! Terrines, canapés and starters soon to follow…