Recipe: Gleneagles' roasted grouse with celeriac puree, game chips and blackberry jus
With lots of festive hosting on the horizon, you’ll need to have a few impressive recipes up your sleeve to impress dinner party guests this winter. Luckily, there’s plenty of fantastic seasonal Scottish produce to choose from.
We asked Simon Attridge, Executive Chef at Gleneagles, for his favourite game recipe: a delicious roasted grouse with celeriac puree, baby carrot, game chips, blackberry jus, watercress and bread sauce.
Roasted grouse with celeriac puree, game chips and blackberry jus recipe
Ingredients (serve 4):
4 young grouse, oven ready
Salt and pepper
8 sprigs of thyme
8 rashers of streaky bacon
Duck fat, for roasting
8 baby carrots
Watercress, to garnish
For the bread sauce:
500ml milk
1 white onion, studded with 4 cloves
5 slices white bread, as breadcrumbs
2 allspice berries
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper
For the celeriac puree:
400g celeriac, peeled and diced
100g butter
400ml milk, approximately
For the game chips:
1 Chippers Choice potato
Vegetable oil
Sea salt
For the blackberry jus:
1 banana shallot
2 cloves of garlic
200ml game stock (you can also use veal stock)
200ml red port
200ml red wine
1 punnet of blackberries
Method:
The bread sauce, celeriac puree, baby carrots, game chips and blackberry jus will need to be prepared in advance before the cooking of the grouse.
To make the bread sauce, bring the milk to the boil with the onion, spices and bay leaves, infuse for 15 minutes, then remove the onion and add the breadcrumbs, whisking and cooking out to a loose consistency that still holds. Season, set aside and keep warm.
Roast the celeriac off in foaming butter until it is golden brown and soft. Add the milk, cook and then using a hand blender, puree until smooth.
Peel and boil the baby carrots in lightly salted water until cooked, but they should still have some bite.
To make the game chips, peel the potato and slice very thinly on a mandolin. Wash the potato slices in cold water, bring to the boil and set to dry. Deep-fry in the vegetable oil until golden brown, then season with sea salt.
For the blackberry jus, roast the shallot and garlic off in a little oil, add the port and reduce by half. Add the red wine and reduce by half again, then add the stock and reduce to consistency of sauce. Leave the blackberries to one side.
To cook the grouse, preheat the oven to 200°C. Season the grouse inside and out, stuff with thyme and fold two rashers of streaky bacon over the crown of each grouse.
Colour the grouse in a roasting tray with the duck fat. Once seared and lightly coloured all over, roast for approximately 17 minutes. Remove from the oven, take out a baking tray and set aside somewhere warm, lightly covering the grouse in tin foil and resting it for 15 minutes. Add the reduced sauce to the baking tray and deglaze, simmer and strain, then add the blackberries.
Once rested, take the grouse breast and leg off the bone. To serve, warm the celeriac puree and spread it onto the middle of the plate. Build up the breast, leg and baby carrot, garnish with game chips and watercress, and spoon over the port wine and blackberry jus. Serve the bread sauce warm on the side in a sauce jug.