Ingredients
4 young grouse
Sauce
100ml olive oil
Related
100g butter
2 shallots peeled and sliced
4 sprigs of thyme
2 flat mushrooms
Content from our partners
2 cloves of garlic peeled and sliced
300ml veal jus
200ml chicken stock
200ml port
Garnish
500ml duck fat
1 Savoy cabbage
24 blackberries
Potato galette
Hearts and livers from bird
Thigh meat from birds
3 large potatoes baked in oven and centres removed
200g bread crumbs
2 eggs whisked
100g seasoned flour
Method
1. Remove legs and wings from birds.
2. Separate thigh from drumstick by cutting through joint.
3. Place thighs into a pan with some duck fat and confit slowly until soft.
4. Remove meat from thigh, making sure there is no bone or lead shot, and flake up.
5. Remove intestines, reserving hearts and livers.
6. Cut across spine where legs have been removed and put to one side.
7. Remove crop and wish bone.
8. To make the sauce, put olive oil and butter into a pan. When it starts to foam, add the drumsticks, winglets and spine bone from the bird and slowly caramelise.
9. When the bones are caramelised, add the sliced shallots and garlic; cook until soft.
10. Then add the sliced mushrooms; cook until water is cooked out of them and they start to caramelise.
11. Then drain the fat from the pan and deglaze with the port. Add the bones back to the pan with the thyme and fresh blackberries and boil until the bones become glazed, then add the chicken stock and jus. Bring up to the boil and skim cook slowly for 20 mins.
12. Pass through fine chinoise and then four layers of muslin cloth.
13. Put back into a pan, bring up to the boil and reduce until a light syrupy consistency, skimming all of the time.
14. To make the galette, bake some potatoes until soft, scoop the centres out and put to one side.
15. Saute the livers and hearts and then chop to a smooth paste along with the confit thigh meat.
16. Mix the potato into the paste meat a little at a time until you get the taste you require (it can be quite strong), season with salt and pepper then form into four round discs approx 1 cm thick, then set in the fridge.
17. When the potato mix is set, put through flour, egg and breadcrumbs and put to one side.
18. For the Savoy cabbage, remove the dark green outer leaves and discard; use the nice light tender green leaves, removing stalk and slicing very thinly, then place into boiling salted water until tender and then straight into iced water,
19. To cook the dish, seal the grouse all over in a hot pan with olive oil and butter until golden brown, then place into a hot oven (180C) for 4-8 minutes depending upon size of bird.
20. When the bird is cooked, rest it in a warm place.
21. In the meantime, cook the potato galette in a deep fryer until golden brown and crispy; reheat the cabbage in a little butter and season with a little salt and pepper.
22. Place the blackberries into the sauce at the last minute just to warm through.
23. Then remove breasts from bird and keep them warm.
24. To assemble the dish, place cabbage into the centre of the dish, place the galette on top of the cabbage then place the grouse breasts on top of the galette, one on top of another.
25. Place the blackberries around the cabbage, bring the sauce back up to the boil, check for consistency (you may want to whisk a little bit of butter into your sauce at this point just to smooth it out and make it shine), pour the sauce over and around grouse and serve.
Click here to read William Drabble on what inspires him
Read more recipes from Spear’s
Tweet
Follow @spearsmagazine
