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October 2006 |
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Whilst wandering along some back lanes west of Aberdeen we came across some beautiful wood blewits. As Richard Maby says, you could mistake them for fallen leaves, as the cap is a tawny brown. However, as is obvious, the gills and stem are an astonishing lilac. You would might be thought cautious to avoid these psychedelic fellas but I'm with Antonio Carluccio, and rate them pretty highly, maybe a notch below ceps? |
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Oli is an even lankier get with an even bigger
appetite than me. He is also a man who knocks up his own pasta just for
himself in the musty hospital accommodation. His excessive altitude
enables vast sheets of pasta to unfold, as can be seen. His beautiful
assistant is Carolyn, another ED doc with an budding second career as a
jazz karaoke-ist. My plan had been to make some mushroom ravioli,
thinking that Oli had invested in the ravioli accessory. He hadn't, so
we had tagliatelle with wood blewitts/ onion and cream. A bit of parsley
on top. Awesome.
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I asked Dugie, of
Wark Farm to reserve
us a duck. I was not prepared for the beast that had been set
aside- 3.3kg!! Some of their geese are sold at that weight. Apparently,
if you have to leave them to moult, you have to wait until they have
finished, or else the feathers are impossible to deal with. No problem,
other than needing to invite some worthy fat appreciators. Actually, it
didn't haemorrhage fat in the way that a goose does, and there was a
good amount of meat on the breast.
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As usual I poured over a kettle of boiled water days
before the event. I had kept the duck in the folding bbq in the shed,
which has been fridge cold this week. Deciding what to do with the duck
was troubling me. I really fancied chinese style, Peking or one of
Kenneth Lo's huge quantity of suggestions, including one that was
steamed then deep fried, but it would be a big
gamble. I also had lots of veg picked up from the farm shop near
Collieston, a superb Aladdin's cave in a portakabin, the aroma of fresh
veg blowing you away as you walk in. So, taditional it was to be. I shredded some red cabbage and
stewed that with some sweated onion, some sauerkraut, and a bouquet garni of cinnamon, juniper berries and bay leaves. I also added some
jellied pork stock for richness. Roast potatoes naturally an
accompaniment.
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Glen Carlou SAfrican Pinot Noir- an old
favourite Chalk Hill- Cab Franc And a Californian Pinot |
I made a small amount of stuffing, sweating some
finely chopped onion, exploding some chestnuts under the grill
(forgetting the wee hole affair), mincing
up the giblets, chopped parsley, breadcrumbs and egg whites. I
retrospect I should have lined the breast side of the cavity with the
stuffing to slow its
cooking whilst allowing the legs to cook through, starting the roast
upside down. Next time.
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| Having faffed around for some time with red cabbage and stuffing, I was onto the pud. A 200g bar of Valrhona had SH's chocolate tart written all over it. It requires a ridiculous rich pastry which I had to repeat since the first was too sticky and slumped at the edges, very stressful. The pastry chef had taken ill, hence the stress. If I had just stuck to my normal shortcrust recipe, i.e. double the flour to butter and a bit of sugar for a sweet tart. Shona's genius take on the recipe was the addition of garam masala to the pastry, first done back in Oz. The filling itself is super rich, 6oz butter to 200g chocolate, melted gently together. In another bowl, two egg yolks and 2 eggs whisked with 40g sugar to which the warm chocolate mixture is added. It goes magically fluffy. Fill the just cooked pastry base and bake for another 5mins. Some non-vinatge port to wash this down. | |
