This week marks British Game Week and Moray-based chef, Ollie Wilson, has three recipes which feature some of the best produce to mark the occasion.
Running until Sunday (November 28), the annual celebration of British game, which is in its fifth year, is held across the UK and aims to promote wild game and all it has to offer.
The now head chef of Tulchan Estate in Moray, Ollie has an impressive CV having worked as the head chef in Marcus Wareing’s The Gilbert Scott and as senior sous chef at both Scott’s and J Sheekey.
These seasonal recipes featuring venison, duck and pheasant are comforting and perfect for these dark autumnal evenings.
While some may take a few hours to prepare and cook, the wait is well worth it.
Venison loin, roast cauliflower puree, pickled cauliflower, hazelnuts and blackberry sauce
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 4 x 180-200g venison loin portions trimmed of all sinew
- 150g whole blanched hazelnuts
For the cauliflower puree:
- 2 heads of cauliflower, florets removed
- 100g butter
Pickled cauliflower:
- 200ml white wine vinegar
- 100ml water
- 50g sugar
- 10g salt
- 1tsp fennel seeds
- 1tsp coriander seeds
- 1tsp black peppercorns
Blackberry sauce:
- 4 cloves of garlic, bashed
- ½ bunch of thyme
- 20 juniper berries crushed
- 2 shallots roughly chopped200ml red wine
- 500ml good beef stock / veal jus1 punnet blackberries
- Knob of butter
- Vegetable oil
- Salt and pepper, to season
Method
- Take 4 or 5 florets of cauliflower and cut them through the stem into thin slices for the pickled cauliflower garnish. Keep any trimmings for the puree.
- Bring the pickling ingredients to the boil in a pan and pour over the sliced cauliflower in a small bowl and leave to cool.
- Chop all remaining cauliflower into small pieces. Heat a heavy pan over a moderate to high heat and add the butter to the pan. The butter should melt and foam up, turning slightly brown. Add the chopped cauliflower to the butter before the butter stops foaming, otherwise it could burn the butter. Keep stirring the cauliflower over the high heat until it starts to soften and breakdown 5 to 10 minutes, then lower the heat and continue to cook, stirring regularly. The cauliflower will start to gradually darken in colour and puree down within 15 to 20 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper and leave to one side.
- Toast the hazelnuts in the oven or a dry frying pan and chop roughly. Keep to one side.
- Have all the ingredients of the blackberry sauce ready before cooking the venison. Slice 5 or 6 blackberries and reserve them to finish the sauce.
- Heat a heavy based frying pan with a little vegetable oil until smoking. Season the venison generously with salt and pepper and brown on all sides in the hot pan. Turn down the heat and add a knob of butter, the garlic, shallots, thyme, juniper. Continue to cook the venison with the shallots etc. basting with the butter and turning regularly until cooked to your liking, 5 to 8 minutes.
- Remove the venison and place on a plate in a warm spot to rest while you finish the sauce. Turn the heat up under the pan and add the red wine and reduce by three-quarters. Add the beef stock and blackberries and reduce. The sauce0 should start to thicken up as it reduces. When the sauce has thickened, pass through a sieve and add sliced blackberries.
- Warm the cauliflower puree if necessary and slice each portion of venison into 4 or 5 slices. Plate the cauliflower puree, place venison next to the puree ,scatter the hazelnuts on top and finish with the drained pickled cauliflower and blackberry sauce.
Breast of wild mallard, confit leg, fondant potato with roasted shallots
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 2 x wild mallard, breasts and legs removed, carcass chopped
- 500g duck fat
- ½ bunch of thyme
- 1 tsp juniper berries
- 1 tsp black pepper corns
- 1 head of garlic cut in half across the cloves
- 4 bay leaf
- Rock salt
Fondant potatoes:
- 2-4 large potatoes
- 150g butter
- ½ bunch of thyme
- 6 cloves of garlic, lightly crushed
- 750ml good chicken stock
- Salt and pepper
Shallots:
- 4 long shallots
- Few sprigs of thyme
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 50g butter
- Vegetable oil
- Salt and pepper
Duck sauce:
- Chopped duck bones
- 4 shallots sliced
- 1 carrot roughly chopped
- 1 stick of celery roughly chopped1 small leek, chopped and washed
Thyme:
- 4 cloves garlic, lightly crushed
- 1tsp juniper seeds
- 1tsp peppercorns
- 2 bay leaf
- Knob of butter
- 200ml red wine
- 500ml good chicken stock
- 500ml good beef stock or veal jus
Method
- For the confit duck leg, generously coat the legs in coarse sea salt and leave for an hour in the fridge. Meanwhile place the thyme, garlic, juniper, peppercorns and bay leaf in a pan or oven proof dish with the duck fat. The dish needs to be small enough that the duck fat will cover the legs completely when melted. Place over a low heat to melt. Pre heat the oven to 100C Fan/120C/212F/Gas Mark. When the duck legs have had an hour or so in the salt, wash off under running water for a few minutes and pat dry. Add to the melted duck fat and put in the low oven for 2 to 3 hours, or until the thigh bone can be easily pulled from the leg. This can be done the day before and left to cool in the fridge overnight.
- For the sauce, melt the butter in a heavy saucepan and add the chopped duck bones and cook on a medium to high heat until the bones are nicely browned all over. Add the chopped shallots, carrot, leek and celery and continue to cook until the vegetables start to brown. Add the thyme, juniper, bay leaf and garlic and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the wine and reduce by half, then add the beef and chicken stocks to the pan and simmer until reduced and starting to thicken. Pass through a fine sieve and reserve. This can also be done a day in advance and kept in the fridge.
- Peel the potatoes and cut into 4cm thick slices, then use a round cutter to cut 4 cylinders from the slices. You may need four potatoes for this or two if they are large enough. Heat the oven to 160C Fan/180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Heat a frying pan over a moderate to high heat with a drizzle of vegetable oil. Pan fry the flat sides of the potatoes until golden brown. Add the butter, thyme and garlic to the pan and season with salt and pepper, allow the butter to melt and foam up. Add the chicken stock until it comes three-quarters of the way up the sides of the potatoes and bring to the boil. Place in the oven and cook until tender.
- Cut the shallots in half with the skin on, removing any loose skin that may befalling off, leave the root on the shallot but clean up any excess root. Fry cut side down with a little veg oil in a very hot pan until almost black, remove from the heat and add the butter, thyme and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 10 minutes at 160C Fan/180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.
- To serve, season and pan fry the duck breast skin side down for 2 to 3 minutes and turn, place the confit legs in the pan with the duck and place in the oven for 5 to 6 minutes depending on size of the duck, and how you like it cooked. Rest the duck once out of the oven and re heat the sauce if necessary. Cut the duck breast in half lengthways, plate with the potato, shallots and leg, and pour over the sauce.
Pheasant and bacon fricassee with smoked mashed potato
Serves 2
Ingredients
- 1 whole pheasant, legs and breast removed
- 3 large shallots
- 3 bulbs of garlic
- 8 sprigs of thyme, leaves stripped and chopped
- 100g good quality smoked bacon lardons
- 50g flour
- 100g butter
- 200ml white wine
- 500ml of chicken stock
- Vegetable oil
- Salt and pepper
- Chopped parsley to finish
Smoked mash
- 2-3 large potatoes
- 150g butter
- 150 ml double cream
- Salt and pepper
Method
- To smoke the butter, you need to cold smoke whole blocks of butter for 5 to 6 hours. Be sure not to let it get too hot for obvious reasons. Smoke more than you need as it is amazing on fresh warm bread. If you don’t have a smoker you can buy it, or just make normal mash.
- Heat a heavy saucepan over a medium heat with a little veg oil. Season the pheasant with salt and pepper and sear in the saucepan until well browned. Remove and set aside.
- Add the butter to the pan to melt and add the shallots. Cook for a couple of minutes until soft, add the garlic and chopped thyme and cook again until softened. Stir in the flour and cook for a further 3 minutes, stirring regularly.
- Add the white wine and simmer while stirring constantly until the flour has cooked and thickened the sauce. Add the chicken stock and double cream and bring to a simmer. Add the legs of the pheasant and the bacon lardons to the sauce and simmer gently until the legs are tender, approximately 40 minutes.
- Peel and chop the potatoes and cook in boiling salted water. Drain and leave to steam dry. Bring the cream and butter to a simmer. Mash the potatoes and add the cream mixture. Season to taste.
- While the potatoes are cooking, add the pheasant breasts to the fricassee and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Finish with the chopped parsley and serve.