Three Chimneys: Roast Crown of Grouse with Beetroot and Blackcurrant Gravy

First find your grouse. I suppose you could go and shoot it yourself, but I don't know of any shoots round here, and I'd probably miss anyway. No game dealers locally (well, none that I could find anyway), so I resorted to the internet. Shamefully, my grouse were English. I'll try to make my next ones a bit more local...
Having had my grouse arrive (along with a rabbit, which was supposed to be already jointed but wasn't - in the freezer to be dealt with another time), the first step in the recipe was to turn these little birds into crowns. The 'crown' is just the breasts attached to the bone, so you have to remove the legs and base bone. Luckily grouse bones seem to be quite small - I was able to achieve the task with just my big knife and a pair of scissors (and no loss of any important bits of me).
Having separated the legs, crown and base bone (binned), next start preparing the gravy. As with the lamb, the gravy involves lots of chopping, a long time simmering, straining and further heating. This time, I started well in advance of the time I planned dinner for, and didn't get into quite so bad a state. The gravy uses the grouse legs, various vegetables, and copious quantities of alcohol (red wine and port). The book also calls for game stock. Not having any, I substituted a combination of lamb and vegetable - I'm sure it gave a different taste, but it seemed to be acceptable.
I decided to do skirlie potato cakes with this, so prepared those while the gravy was having it's hours-long simmer.
With everything prepared - gravy done, grouse crowned and bacon-covered, potato cakes made - the dish comes together quite quickly. The grouse need browned in a frying pan, then 10 minutes roasting and another 10 minutes resting in the bottom of the oven. The potato cakes take 10 minutes in the oven, so they can be cooking while the grouse is resting.
Once everything is done, it's just a matter of making it look good on the plate - a task at which I still fail most of the time.

Three Chimneys: Rumbledethumps

Simple but good. Basically, mashed potatoes mixed with shredded cooked kale. Well, that's the Three Chimneys definition of it. I've seen other ones. Sue Lawrence in A Cook's Tour of Scotland includes turnip in her version. However, F. Marian McNeill in The Scots Kitchen agrees with the Three Chimneys version. We had this with haggis and turnip. One thing I can never get right is mashed turnip. I think I need a better masher.

Three Chimneys: Ham & Haddock Souffle

I made a soufflé. And it rose. Is there anything else I need to say?
I'm very pleased with this. Of course I was worried about making it - after all, soufflés have the reputation for being difficult things, tricky to get right, and liable to end up as pancakes if you get them wrong. But I had to have a go, and I'm glad I did.
After it had turned out, I went and read what McGee (On Food & Cooking) has to say about them. To quote:
"If you manage to get any air into the mix, an inexorable law of nature will raise it in the oven..."
So, no need to be worried about it rising then. Basic physics means it will (when air gets hotter, it takes up more space, so the air bubbles in the soufflé mix will expand and make it rise). Apparently this means they're a lot easier and more resilient than their reputation. Soufflé fallen a bit? Put it back in the oven!
Anyway, I'm sure it's not all quite that easy - it must still be possible for it to go wrong, or they wouldn't have that reputation, would they? However, this one turned out well, and I'll probably try at least one variation in future.

Three Chimneys: Warm Salad of Scallops and Venison

This was supposed to be a warm salad of scallops and duck, but the recipe did say that you could use many different combinations. I had hoped to use smoked duck, but ended up with smoked venison instead. The scallops unfortunately weren't fresh ones, but the frozen ones seemed to be fine. I did try to make sure they were well dried before being cooked.
I don't usually make dressings to go with my salads, but since this salad was acting as the whole meal, and the book required it, I used the orange, honey and grainy mustard dressing. It's mixed with hazelnut oil, and the whole combination is really delicious. Might have to start making dressings for salads in future.

Three Chimneys: Grilled Lamb with Barley Risotto

Well, this one was a lot more hassle than it needed to be. Let's start with ingredients. Most of them, just fine. The lamb? Getting a piece of trimmed off-the-bone loin of lamb is no problem - if you can get to a butcher, and he has it, and he's willing to accept your I-don't-really-know-what-I'm-asking-for-ness. Which I couldn't. So, nearest available substitute from the supermarket then - lamb loin chops.
Next problem - wild garlic. The title of the dish is actually supposed to be grilled loin of lamb with barley risotto and wild garlic gravy. I wouldn't know wild garlic if I tripped over it, and I don't think it's in season now anyway. So, since the book does say that it's possible to substitute, I went for a red wine and redcurrant one, rather than wild garlic and Madeira.
The theory of how to put the dish together seemed simple enough. Start the lamb marinading. Make the gravy. Make the risotto. Grill the lamb. Assemble on plate. The detail got a bit more complicated for me - much more than it needed to be.
I think that half my problem was that I didn't give myself enough time. With all of the chopping of various things for the gravy and the risotto, and various steps involved in making them, I think I underestimated the time it would take for each thing, and overestimated the amount I could do in parallel. Lesson? When doing something this complicated for the first time, study the recipe in detail, get all your stuff chopped and ready to go before you start, and always give yourself more time that you think you'll need.
Will I make this again? Probably. But without the gravy.

Three Chimneys: Cod, in Saffron Mussel Sauce with Skirlie Mash

I have never been able to eat mussels. Well, I did once manage to eat one, but that was with my eyes closed, and before I actually looked at them. They just look so, well, alien I suppose. Or like little mouths - as if they might bite back.
I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to get the fresh mussels I needed for this recipe. I did have an idea for a backup - although it would have changed the recipe somewhat. Luckily, D managed to find some fresh mussels at the supermarket fish counter.
Having never eaten mussels, it's hardly surprising I've never cooked them before either. Yes, I know the theory - discard any that are open, or have cracked shells, before you cook them, and discard any that are closed after you cook them. So, with D's help in the preparation (i.e. he did all the cleaning and discarding), we got the mussels cooked. It was actually stupidly amazing - all these closed shells tipped into the bubbling wine/stock/onion/parsley in the frying pan, lid on, leave for a few minutes. Take the lid off and wow, they've all opened! Yummy smells, and yes, I did actually eat one then. Fresh out of the shell.
Once the mussels are done, the rest of the dish is fairly easy, it just all needs to come together at once. I'd already prepared the skirlie bit of the skirlie mash a bit in advance. What is it? Well, basically it's finely chopped onion and oatmeal fried together in butter. While the potatoes were cooking, reduced the liquid the mussels had been cooked in, and added the (again, prepared in advance) fennel and onion and a pinch of saffron. While the cod was grilling, added some cream and the mussels into the sauce, and finished of the skirlie mash - basically as it sounds, mash the skirlie into the potatoes (with a bit more butter). It just gives a bit more texture and flavour to the mash.
Not being a restaurant kitchen, plating was nothing fancy. But it tasted good. Will I eat mussels again? Well, there's another recipe with them in...

Beer Bere Bread

When I was in Orkney on holiday this summer, I finally managed to pay a visit to Barony Mills. This is the only remaining working water mill in Orkney. The grain ground at this mill is a very old variety of barley, called bere. It's usually used to make bannocks - there'll usually be one in the breadbasket in Orcadian restaurants.
Anyway, while at the mill I picked up the recipe leaflet and a bag of beremeal. The leaflet contains recipes for everything from the traditional bannocks (multiple variations) to beremeal chapatis. However, I never really got round to trying anything.
Until I came across a recipe for beer bread on Farmgirl Fare. Now, bere also used to be used to brew ale, so what could be more appropriate? I believe there are some beers still being brewed from bere (one for sure on Shetland, and one possibly on Orkney), but being unable to get hold of any, I had to make do with what I could get get. On my partner's recommendation, I used Hoegaarden.
So how did the bread turn out? Well, not too bad, but I'm not entirely happy with it. I think it'll take a few more tries before I come up with something I'm happy with. But I've got most of a bag of bere left to play with.

Recipe:
Although it didn't turn out quite right for me, I'll still include the recipe I used this time.

250 grams plain white flour
120 grams beremeal
50 grams white bread flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
330 ml beer
30 ml water

Preheat the oven to 190C.
Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Slowly stir in the beer and water, and mix until just combined.
Spread the dough in a 1 pound (8 inch by 4 inch) loaf pan.
Bake for around 60 minutes.

Corn Muffins/Chocolate Chip Cookies

Two lots of baking done this week, one savoury and one sweet. Both of them seem to have turned out well; they certainly met with approval.
The corn muffins first. This is corn as in cornmeal - polenta. Now, I've made cornbread before, a long time ago, and I no longer have the recipe I used. So when I came across a recipe for these (fairly low calorie) cornmeal muffins in a book, I wanted to give them a go. Of course, the recipe called for one thing I've never been able to find - buttermilk. Normally, I'd substitute yogurt, but here I thought I'd try a tip I came across, and use the same quantity of milk mixed with a bit of lemon juice (1 tablespoon lemon juice made up to 1 cup with milk is, I believe, the suggested mix). It seemed to work, although I didn't use exactly that mix.
The mix seemed OK, although the muffins didn't rise quite as much as I'd hoped - maybe I did overwork it. They also stuck to the muffin cases a bit, so if (when) I do this again, I think I'll bake it in a cake pan lined with non-stick parchment, and cut it into pieces. They certainly went very well, still warm out of the oven, with the lunchtime soup.

This isn't the first time I've made these chocolate chip cookies, and if my experience with them so far is anything to go by, it's a very forgiving recipe. Cookie recipes that make more than can be fitted on a single tray need to get baked in multiple batches in my oven. Last time, the first batch turned out pretty perfectly. Luckily, as they were destined for my Dad. However, the second trayful weren't so lucky. After taking the first lot out, I'd done my usual thing of turning the oven up to a higher temperature than is required for the baking, so that when I open the door to put the tray in, it falls down to the correct temperature. I must have been distracted, because I turned it up more than usual. And forgot to turn it down again when the cookies went in. Oh dear. Well, they got whipped out of the oven a bit before their time was up, a bit browner that they should have been. And they still tasted OK. Some of them were on the verge of being singed, but nothing too bad. These went to a different set of recipients, who were apparently quite happy with them.
Nothing so dramatic with this lot. I made another change to the original recipe, besides my original substitution of golden syrup for corn syrup; the use of part wholemeal and part plain flour. I thought it might give an extra bit of texture and flavour to the cookes. It seemed to work. Another thing I'm trying with this recipe is freezing half the mix to be baked later. No idea if it will work or not, but I wanted to give it a go.

Recipes:
Corn Muffins (from 'The 1200 Calorie a Day Menu Cookbook, Nancy Hughes)
2/3 cup plain flour
1/2 cup cornmeal (I used quick-cook polenta)
2 teaspoons caster sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup skim milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 egg white
2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 450F/230C. Put 8 muffin cases in a muffin tin.
Place the milk and lemon juice together in a bowl. Note: you can use 3/4 cup plus one tablespoon fat-free buttermilk instead of the milk and lemon juice.
In a mixing bowl combine the flour, polenta, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
Whisk the egg white and oil into the milk.
Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Pour in the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
Divide the mixture between the 8 muffin cases.
Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the tray immediately.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (based on one from One Smart Cookie, Julie van Rosendaal)
50 grams unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
70 grams dark chocolate, chopped (I used Green & Black's)

Preheat oven to 350F/175C. Line two baking sheets with non-stick baking parchment.
In a large bowl beat butter and sugar together until well combined - the mixture will end up with the consistency of wet sand.
Add the vanilla, syrup, and egg. Beat together until smooth.
In another bowl combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Add the flour mixture and chocolate chips, a third at a time, to the sugar mixture, stirring after each addition until well combined.
Drop spoonfuls of the dough, well spaced, onto the baking sheets. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes, until golden and the outside is set but the middle is still slightly soft.