Rosemary Shrager
Feuilletes of Langoustines
If you use frozen pastry this dish works out, but if you go to the trouble of making your own, it's magnificent. It can be prepared well in advance.
Serves 4, either as a generous first course, or as a light lunch.
Ingredients:
1 lb. (450g) puff pastry
8 large scallops, shelled, washed and cleaned
8 large langoustines or prawns, shelled
1lb. (450g) fresh spinach, washed and prepared
2 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 egg yolk
Handful of fresh tarragon leaves
1 tbsp. chopped chives
For the sauce:
1 shallot, chopped
1 cup fish stock
½ cup dry vermouth
2 pieces of preserved gingerroot, chopped, syrup reserved
Good pinch of saffron
1 cup (200ml) heavy cream
Seasoning
Oven: 400ºF / 200ºC
Method:
Roll out the pastry to ½ inch (1 cm) thickness then cut into four rectangles. Using a sharp knife, score the pastry ½ inch (1 cm) inside the edge, like a picture-frame, taking care not to cut it all the way through. Put the squares onto a baking tray and brush them with egg-yolk, making sure you don't go outside the frame or the pastry will not rise evenly. Bake for 15 minutes, until golden brown. While it's still hot, remove the inner squares (which are going to be lids) and discard the stodgy insides, so that you have 4 clean boxes.
Blanch and refresh the spinach in a bowl of ice water. Drain it and squeeze all the water from it.
Make the sauce by softening the shallot in the vermouth and reducing it, before adding the fish-stock and reducing it again to 1/3. Add the ginger, the saffron and the cream and simmer for two minutes. Season and add a little ginger-syrup to taste. Keep it warm.
To finish the dish, make sure the scallops are dry, then slice them in half horizontally and turn them, with the langoustines, in the olive oil and a pinch of salt. Sear them quickly on both sides in a very hot, dry frying pan.
Turn the spinach in the butter over a gentle heat and assemble the feuilletes by putting a spoonful of spinach in the bottom of each pastry-box and filling it with shellfish and some sauce. Sprinkle with chives and tarragon and put the lid on top.
Extras:
Puff Pastry
Makes approx. 5lbs. (2.5kg)
Ingredients:
7¾ cups all-purpose flour
10 tbsp. well-softened unsalted butter
2 tbsp. salt
4 egg yolks
2 ¼ cups water
9 ½ cups unsalted butter
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
Method:
In a large mixing bowl mix the flour, salt, egg yolks and water into a dough. Make the dough into two equal size balls, cut a cross half way down in the top and then place into the fridge. Now soften the butter, either on a table or in a mixer (not food-processor) with the 3 ½ cups of flour and blend in to one large cake before refrigerating.
At this stage it is important to have the pastry and butter at more or less the same stage of suppleness when rolling out. Roll out the dough to form a clover shape, rolling each clover leaf out separately. Place the butter on the top of the dough. Bring the sides up over the butter so there are no gaps and it is well sealed. Carefully roll the dough into a rectangle shape, place on a tray and place into the fridge for 30 minutes.
Afterwards, roll gently into a thinner rectangle about 1/8 inch thick, each time rolling from the center out to each end. Fold the dough back to two thirds up the rectangle and fold the final third back onto the dough. Place this in the fridge for a further 20 minutes. Place the folded dough open side facing you and roll out again. Then fold again and repeat one more time. Put into the fridge for a further 3 hours. Finally, cut up in to the required sizes, and freeze or refrigerate.
Blanching and Refreshing
This means it's been plunged into boiling water and lightly cooked; then plunged into very cold water, which quickly cools it and stops it cooking. Blanching and refreshing cooks vegetables but doesn't make them soggy. Blanching also removes some very strong tastes - like cabbage or onions. They still have flavor, but won't overwhelm the delicate flavors of the dish.
How to prepare scallops
You can buy scallops that have been already prepared by a fishmonger - but if you can get them fresh in the shells, this is how to open them!
Hold the scallop, flat side up in a thick cloth. Put the point of a small, strong knife, into the gap near the hinge and twist it sharply to open. Then take a long-bladed knife, and slide it right across, just inside the flatter shell, severing the connecting muscle that automatically opens the whole thing up. Scoop it from the other half, with a similar action, keeping the contents intact. On a board, cut off the frill (which is really the scallops' eyes) and keep it for sauces. Discard everything except the pink roe and the white meat.
Where to get scallops
If you can, buy the scallops that have been gathered by hand. This is not just to do with the quality of the scallops themselves, because divers can find them in places where dredgers cannot reach, but dredgers do considerable harm to the ecology of the sea bed.
Cooking scallops
Never over-cook them - they need the briefest time imaginable, and are even perfectly delicious eaten raw, finely sliced and dressed with olive oil, pepper and lemon juice.
How to peel langoustine
Remove the two large claws, then the legs. Cut them in half lengthwise, firmly, with a large knife - you want to keep the shell intact. Identify, remove and discard the stomach sack from around the meat in the tail. Do the same with the tiny, black thread-like intestine and then find the greenish meat (the tomalley) near the head and reserve it for future use in pasta or sauces. Take all the meat out of the claws and pack it into the head.
Loin of Venison with Red Cabbage
Don't waste this scrumptious dish on anyone but your very best friends. This cut of venison comes from a saddle and is tastier than the very best fillet steak. Ask your butcher if you can have the bones for stock (for 4).
Ingredients:
1 strip of venison loin, weighing about 1½ lbs. (700g), cut into two pieces.
1 medium red cabbage
7 tbsp. butter
1 large onion, chopped very small
4 slices bacon, chopped very small
2 apples peeled and diced
4 tbsp. red wine vinegar
4 tbsp. clear honey
3 tsp. salt
Pepper
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 rounded tbsp. orange marmalade
½ lb. (225g) blueberries (optional)
For the sauce:
1 slice smoked bacon, chopped
1 leek finely-chopped
½ bottle red wine
1¼ cups venison or game stock
1 tsp. Rowan jelly (see below) or sour cherry preserves
½ cup port wine
8 tbsp. butter
Oven: 450ºF / 230ºC
Method:
Start with the cabbage. Over a low heat melt the butter and add the onions. After a minute or two, add the bacon, followed by the cabbage, apples, honey and vinegar. Set it over a low heat for an hour, stirring occasionally. Finally add the salt, pepper, marmalade and blueberries.
Then prepare the sauce. Soften the bacon and leek in 7 tbsp. of the butter and cook it gently for 15 minutes. Add red wine and reduce to 1/3 then add the stock and the rowan jelly and reduce it again, this time to half so that the sauce develops a thicker consistency. Pass it through a fine sieve into a clean pan. Add the port and salt and pepper to taste.
Prepare the venison by removing any trace of fat or sinew, then sear it in hot oil. Roast for eight minutes, while you finish off the sauce by beating the remaining 1 tbsp. butter into it. Slice the meat and serve it on a bed of red cabbage, ideally with baby onions and potato puree. If you really want to impress, you could scatter a few blueberries around the plates.
Extras:
Good venison
The season for stags runs from August to mid-October, and the season for hinds follows on over the winter, until February 15th. The venison we eat at the Castle comes from the red deer that roam freely over the estate. The meat is sweet and tender, with very little fat. We don't hang our venison for very long - rarely more than three days. I like to cook the saddle mostly - which compromises the fillets and loins - but the haunch is good for slow roasting and casseroles, while meat from the shoulder or flank makes an unusual terrine. Although there isn't much red deer available outside Scotland, other varieties, such as the fallow and the sika, are becoming more widely farmed and their meat is also delicious.
Recipe for stock
Ingredients:
Carcasses from game birds
Venison bones
2 large onions, quartered
2 large carrots
The tops from 2 leeks
4 stalks celery
Bunch parsley
1 tsp. black peppercorns
1 tbsp. juniper leaves
4 bay leaves
Oven: 450ºF / 230ºC
Method:
Roast the bones for half an hour then put them with all the other ingredients into a large pot, cover with water, bring it to the boil and simmer it for 4 hours. Finally, strain.
Sieve everything
Sieving is something that makes everything taste that little bit more special. Sieve sauces, mousses, even things like mashed potato - to make them extra smooth.
Lime Mousse
Ingredients:
1 recipe biscuit base mixture
1 cup milk
4 eggs
2 tbsp. sugar
Zest of 3 limes
Juice of 3 limes
Juice of 1 lemon
3 tsp. gelatin powder
4 tbsp. cold water
2/3 cup whipping cream
Italian Meringue
Equipment:
1 x 10" (25 cm) stainless steel ring, 2" (5 cm) high
1 cake board
Method:
Soak the gelatin in the 4 tsp. water and leave for about 15 minutes to soften. Place the ring onto the cake board and line with the cooked soft biscuit base.
Whisk the egg yolks and sugar, boil the milk and whisking all the time add to the egg mixture. Put back into a clean pan and carefully heat, stirring continuously until it starts to thicken. Be careful not to make lumps.
Remove the pan from the heat and add the softened gelatin and stir until completely dissolved. Now add the zest of the lime and add the strained lemon and lime juice. Cool down till you can see the custard thickening.
To make the meringue put two tablespoons of cold water into a small heavy saucepan and add the sugar. Heat it gently and steadily (have a bowl of cold water and pastry brush handy in case crystals begin to form in which case brush around the inside of the pan to disperse them). When it has reached 250ºF (120ºC), set it aside, and start whisking the egg whites. When they have just reached soft peaks, add the syrup slowly and whisk continuously for five minutes until very smooth and the mixture has cooled down. Now whisk a third of the meringue mixture into the lemon and lime custard then fold in the rest followed by the cream.
Pour into the prepared ring with the biscuit bas and put into the fridge for at least four hours. Serve with lime sorbet.
Extras:
Recipe for base
Ingredients:
Carcasses from game birds
Venison bones
2 large onions, quartered
2 large carrots
The tops from 2 leeks
4 stalks celery
Bunch parsley
1 tsp. black peppercorns
1 tbsp. juniper leaves
4 bay leaves
Oven: 450ºF / 230ºC
Method:
Roast the bones for half an hour then put them with all the other ingredients into a large pot, cover with water, bring it to the boil and simmer it for 4 hours.
Finally, strain.
Recipe for lime sorbet
Ingredients:
Juice of 10 limes
Zest of 6 limes
1 1/8 cups approximately sugar syrup
Syrup:
1 ½ cups sugar
1 cup water
1/3 cup glucose
Method:
Have the syrup mix made up. Grate the zest of the 6 limes then squeeze the juice of the 10 limes. Strain through a juice sieve. Mix the syrup to taste. Put into ice-cream machine.
If you don't have a stainless steel ring to set the mousse in
Use a loose-bottomed cake-tin, but line it with cling film, this will stop the metal reacting badly with the fruit.
Don't overwhip your egg whites
If you overwhip your egg whites, you'll beat the air out of them. You want soft peaks - not hard ones. You can hold a bowl of correctly whipped meringue over your head without it falling out - but don't do this unless you're REALLY confident it's at the right consistency (or if wearing clothes that need dry cleaning).
What is Rowan Jelly?
The Rowan is a small deciduous tree, also known as the mountain ash, native to much of England and Scotland. It produces a large number of edible berries that are traditionally made into a jelly served as a condiment with game. It is a tart/sweet jelly with a slight bitter finish.
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