Venison, fondant potatoes, sloe and wild berry jus, parsnip crisp & Tuna dish

I know, the potato fondants are over done!  I was experimenting with just cooking in butter and not finishing off in stock. Needs more practise. 

Martin WIshart Cookikng Competition

I've been accepted onto the Martin Wishart competition for my Venison dish which is very exciting.  Needless to say, I'll be practicing this a few more times before I have to cook on the 6th November.

Scottish Venison with port and sloe sauce, fondant potatoes, venison haggis, pea puree, parsnip crisp, curly kale and foraged pink purslane.

Baked Monkfish, with Truffle Risotto, Pea Puree

Fillet of Venison with Parsnip Puree

Clams with Thai Noodles

It has been such a long time again and  I've forgotten what exactly what these all were.

It's Been a Long Time

I cannot believe its been early April since I last blogged. I briefly saw Tim Anderson (MasterChef winner 2011) in Edinburgh on Sunday.  I just glanced into the door of Mellis in Stockbridge (as I usually do when passing) and saw a glimpse of someone sniffing some produce, wandering on, I thought that looked a bit like Tim but thought nothing of it.  A few minutes later I met my sister-in-law who said she had just seen him.  That is a pity, I was routing for him all the way through the last show. It would have been a great photo for the blog.  Well below it's not exactly hamburger and chips three ways but hey ho.

Thai Stuffed Squid 
Dice the tentacles and some prawn and mix with some finely chopped garlic and fresh ginger that has been softened in a frying pan. Add some fish sauce, coriander, chili and a squeeze of lime or some grated lime rind.  I used some of the squid ink to darken the rice as an experiment, it came out a strange grey colour but worth a try.

GastroTastic
Pesto spaghetti and stars, with chicken,  tomato and basil.  When I say pesto spaghetti, the spaghetti is made of pesto not pasta (courtesy of my new gastro purchases). The stars are also made of pesto, one course with pine nuts still visible and the other was put through a strainer to remover the bits.

Venison
Scottish Venison with spinach and walnuts, mash potato, a herb polenta and a sweet potato and a butternut squash puree with venison jus. The walnuts were to give it a bit of texture otherwise with the mash and purees it would be a bit mushy. Beautifully pink venison can't be beaten. 

Venison fillet encrusted with fennel and cumin, pea puree boulangere potatoes end sweet potato mash

Thai Scallops then Pepper and Cranberry encrusted Venison Fillet

Delicately flavoured Thais sauce using home make fish stock, ginger, lemon rind, tamarind, garlic and garnished with coriander. Should have more colour on the scallops but I turned the wrong pan down, doh!

Venison encrusted with crushed black pepper and cranberry with a garlic puree, dauphinoise potato and kale. I smeared the venison with Dijon mustard to help the crust stick.

Venison with Roast Potatoes

Venison from the Farmers Market with Port and Cranberry Sauce, roasted sweet potatoes and potatoes.

40th Birthday Dinner

I finally reached 40 and I decided to roll-out the red carpet for some of the family. Below is my menu from 10th Sept 2010.

Home cured Gravlax infused with coriander

& ginger with a Hovmästarås dressing

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Sea Bass fillet with boulangere potatoes

arrowleaf spinach & a herb velouté

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Elderflower ginger strawberry

amuse bouche

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Galloway venison fillet with potato &

sweet potato mash in a red wine sauce

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Mint and Strawberry Ying & Yang sorbets

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I cured the Gravlax at home and used ginger and coriander as well as dill and served it with a Swedish sauce.

The Seabass herb velouté and potatoes were made with my own fish stock which I made after popping into Eddies Seafood Market in Marchmont, Edinburgh. They gave me the bones of five or six lemon sole which I boiled up with some onion, fennel and thyme. The herbs all came from my little garden.

The venison I bought on line from Blackface.co.uk, it arrived in one long sliver loin fillet and it was gorgeous meat. It went down very well and was served pink.

The sorbets were a bit of a giggle, rather psychedelic but a bit of fun. I just broke up the mixes in the freezer with a fork. They didn't exactly come out very smooth so since then I have bought my own ice cream machine.

Oddly enough the amuse bouche almost stole the show. I used the St Germain Elderflower liqueur, with ginger beer and frozen mashed strawberry ice droplets.

As for my birthday presents, all cooking (food or drink) related; some new kitchen knives, a tamis, mondolin, chinois, a Martin Wishart cooking lesson, a pestle and morter, silicone spatulas, magic and thanks all.

Venison with Red Wine Sauce and Rosemary Herb Oil

I'm gutted this picture didn't come out well as this a cracking plate of food. I bought the venison from the farmer's market in Edinburgh and it was very tender. Nothing too complex, just leeks, mashed potatoes and venison in a thick red wine sauce.
There are two schools of thought to a red wine sauce, one where you sweat the onions in oil/butter first(then add pepper corns, garlic and bay leaves) and then skim off the fat when it is reducing. The other one is those that don't use butter as the sauce is said to split. Either way you can get the same result and you need to cook for at least 45mins to reduce the wine, then sieve off the onions etc. The rosemary herb oil just completed the dish.


The above picture didn't come out well and I just happened to find another venison dish I did but haven't posted, venison in a beetroot and caper jus, and sweat potato and potato mash.