Savouring the final flavours of summer

WITH the arrival of the Glorious Twelfth yesterday on Tuesday, the game season is now upon us with all that entails, including the new season for a great array of colourful shooting socks. On the culinary calendar, we have the cooler autumn months of game ahead of us, but let us savour some late summer flavours first, while we still can.

Wood pigeon would provide some good shooting practice and combined with new season cobnuts, russets and Yorkshire blue cheese from Shepherd’s Purse of Thirsk, makes for a very nice light salad as a starter or main course with a Waldorfesque-feel.

As a little tipple, we add the spritzer made from our homemade greengage gin and a little sparkling mineral water served in a shot glass, on ice. Very light, very nice.

The second recipe uses guinea fowl, so no shooting involved, although, as a child, I remember the racket they used to make in the mornings, when a 12-bore would have been useful. We make the Scotch eggs using black pudding trimmings with a little sausage meat to bind it together, which is then moulded around a soft-boiled quail egg and breadcrumbed. They are great as snacks in their own right.

The mirabelle plums have a short season around the end of August/beginning of September, so are very much of the moment. We lightly caramelise halves of each of the plums for presentation purposes and to counterbalance the slight acidity of the fruit.

Salad of wood pigeon with Yorkshire blue cheese, warm cobnut and russet dressing and greengage ‘spritzer’ (serves four)

Ingredients for the salad

4 wood pigeon breasts

A little oil for frying

150g Yorkshire blue cheese, crumbled

50g cobnuts (or hazelnuts), shelled

100g of mixed leaves and herbs

2 russet apples

50ml olive oil

10ml white wine vinegar

5g grain mustard

5g caster sugar

For the greengage gin:

6 greengage plums

25g caster sugar

50ml gin

(add 200ml of soda water to make the spritzer)

To garnish

A few fresh garden herbs

An extra wedge of cheese, if you wish

Method

For the greengage spritzer, first poach the plums in 200ml of water and the sugar. Bring to the boil and reduce by half. Leave to cool and infuse, then pass through a strainer. Add the gin, then soda water to the required strength.

To make the dressing, mix together the sugar and white wine vinegar until the sugar dissolves. Add a little mustard and the olive oil, then whisk to emulsify. Peel and chop the russet apples into small dice and add to the dressing. Heat the cobnuts in the oven and keep warm. Just before serving, mix the salad leaves, herbs and Yorkshire blue cheese in a bowl. Add the cobnuts to the dressing, then add the dressing to the bowl and combine with the leaves and cheese.

Heat a frying pan on a medium heat and add a little oil. Season the pigeon breasts and pan-fry for about a minute per side, turning as you go to colour on all sides. Once cooked, set aside to rest and keep warm.

To serve, place a handful of the salad into a small serving bowl or onto a small plate. Slice the pigeon breast and arrange on top. Serve with a wedge of cheese and a few herbs. Add the soda water to the greengage gin and serve the spritzer next to the salad.

NB: The gin can be done in bulk year upon year, using the same ratios, much the same as you would make sloe gin, depending upon availability and storage space (and gin).

Pan-fried breast of corn-fed guinea fowl with a black pudding Scotch egg, purée of Jerusalem artichoke and roasted mirabelle plum juices (serves four)

Ingredients

4 guinea fowl breasts

A little rapeseed oil

For the Scotch eggs:

150g black pudding

75g sausage meat

4 quail’s eggs

1 egg and a little milk

150g fresh breadcrumbs

50g flour

Seasoning

A little oil for frying

For the purée

200g Jerusalem artichokes

200ml milk

Seasoning

10g butter

For the plums:

6 plums

150ml reduced chicken stock

A knob of unsalted butter

1 tbsp redcurrant jelly

Method

First make the Scotch eggs, by blending together the black pudding, sausage meat and a little seasoning. Cook the quail’s eggs for two minutes in boiling water, then drain and refresh in iced water. Once cooled, peel off the egg shells, then encase the cooked eggs in the black pudding mix, forming small balls. Whisk the egg in a bowl with a little milk to make an egg wash, place flour in a second bowl and breadcrumbs in a third. Dip the scotch eggs, in turn, in the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs. Deep-fry the eggs for four minutes.

To make the Jerusalem artichoke purée, first peel the artichokes, then chop and place in a saucepan with milk, butter and seasoning. Bring to the boil and cook until soft, then drain off the milk. Blend the artichokes in a food processor until smooth and purée consistency.

For the plum juices, peel and de-stone the plums. Boil in the stock until the plums break down, and the liquid has reduced. Add the redcurrant jelly and stir in a little butter.

Pan-fry the guinea fowl breasts until golden brown and set aside to rest. To serve, spoon a little of the artichoke purée onto each plate, and place a black pudding scotch egg on top. Slice the breast onto the plate. Serve the plum sauce separately.