He's not a pheasant plucker, lies & mince pies!

Oh dear!  Oh dear!  Doesn’t the time fly?  I have left it a little too long. Since I last updated the goings on of the Bath Priory kitchens things seem to have swung from cold to FFFFFREEZING! and from "We've got loads of that and @ a good price" to "NO!  No can't get you any of those!" and from "coffee & petit fours" to "coffee and mince pies". 
Mince pies already!  Where has the year gone?  It has been hard work this last month but we have cooked some cracking food, as always.

First thing first.  Thank you to

http://www.thestaffcanteen.com/

Mr Mark Morris.  He came to The Bath Priory back in October and interviewed me.  We had a great chat.  Now it’s on line for all to read.  A good job!  He’s made me sound like I knew what I talked about.  A true writer Mr Morris!  And, great to see he’s included some pictures of the boys, Niall and Jauca hard at work - a rare, seldom witnessed sight!  He assures me my payment will be through in time for the Christmas sales!  The Staff Canteen website is a perfect way to spend your afternoon break... 

So what has been going on at the Bath Priory?

Matt deep in thought,
"mmm Duck fat!"

 As my mate Matt says, “Creedy Carver ducklings.  The tastiest and second fattest thing ever to leave Crediton.”

And how happy we are having them, once again, at the Bath Priory.  These are magical birds.  La Chasse, a small and relatively new fine food purveyors, first introduced me to them.  Charlie uses the ducks as their opening selling point, like a foot in the door.  And why wouldn't they?  Their ducklings are fantastic. 

They are reared at Merrifield Farm, a family run poultry farm in Crediton, Devon - so not super local to us but it's always worth a bit of travelling to get something this good!

  

We’re cooking the breast in a bag and then the legs confit.  The legs get mixed with Puy lentils and glazed onion.  Then they're gently warmed up in duck jus and finished with chopped P.  As they are dry-plucked, we we quickly fry the breast and the skin crisps up beautifully.   It's simply Simple Simon but what a cracking lunch dish!

 I had a quick chat with the farm this afternoon.  After that dreaded C word has passed, we’ll be down to  meet these lovely ducks and James the farmer, of course.  Any excuse to get out tp the Devon countryside!

We seem to have been so flat out at the hotel I hardly noticed the snow until I realised Douglas hadn’t rung all week.  I thought I’d better check in on the keeper of our beautiful Kale leaves.

Please note this lettuce was not
actually grown by Douglas!

  “Hi Sam, no no, everything’s fine, it’s just that it has all frozen solid. It’s all stuck in the ground!”
  "Aahh!   I didn’t think of that.  What a horrible game to be in."
So we’ve had none of Douglas’s vegetables for 2 or so weeks now but today he’s out his organic hair drier (the sun) and so hopes to have us something by the weekend.

David Hammerson has done a fantastic job with his turkeys this year.  Everything we get of him is pretty special.  Venison stalked off Salisbury Plain and the partridge have come into their own now that the cold weather has forced them to fatten up.  I think it’s almost a shame we have turkey on the menu for the whole of December, but that’s what the guests want.  So on this week’s lunch menu it’s Turkey vs. Creedy Carver.
There can be only one winner!  Day 1 and turkey took it 15 to 11.  We’ll see.   The last time Duck was on, we sold out on day 2.  Pressure's on Creedy!

     Mr B has dropped off the second lot of pheasants and, as ever, we’re more than happy to take them although stopping to hang 70 pheasants in the middle of a Friday night dinner service is always a bit tricky.  Craig loves it.   So they hang overnight in our “refrigerated” outbuilding.  We then send them down to our always polite and ever so helpful butcher, Dave, at Bartlett and Sons.  They skin them, hang them and then send them back to us when they're ready to cook.

    We’re making Pheasant Boudin for the Carte and serving it with sauté foie, apple compote and consommé.  The same dish proved worthy of a few Gidleigh Park menus when I first put it together there, way back when I was the CDP on hot starters.  I’s a really good example of Bath Priory meets MC‘s food - loads and loads of flavour!   

     Then, last week’s lunch menu saw us stuffing pheasants with a rather lovely mousse flavoured with tarragon, foie gras and truffle.  That was the first batch taken care of and now we’re waiting on the second. They should just be ready in time for next week’s lunch menu - Stuffed Breast of Waddeton Court pheasant, Squash and Cumin puree, braised lentils and game jus.

Thank you for the pic Radovan 

I have a new favourite fish.  Phil B has been getting us some fantastic Red Gurnard.  A bit of a pain to pin bone but wow! what great texture and flavour!  I really can’t believe I’ve gone so long without ever trying it.  Must be something to do with a certain fishing trip with the Bonnici family many many years ago but that’s another story!

    We treat the Red Gurnard like we treat Bass.  A fair lot of our guests think it is bass.  Pan fired Brixham gurnard, parsnip and ginger puree, chicken jus roti.  Beautiful!

Four weeks has turned into another month passed.  The seasons roll on and the nights are still getting longer but we’re still here pushing on together, tighter and harder and more determined with more focus than ever.  "Good night, Mr Gill! x"


 http://www.thestaffcanteen.com/heroes-of-the-hot-plate/sam-moody-head-chef-bath-priory-hotel/