Fat of the Land

A weekend away to the countryside in the middle of the game season could only lead to one thing: lots of eating and drinking.

A gourmet game  evening on Friday night – 6 beautifully prepared courses with 8 different glasses of wine, carefully selected to go with each course.   The portions were small to middling but by the time we’d worked through grouse mouselline, pheasant stew, roast partridge…(actually I can’t quite remember what everything was, except delicious) and ended up with the most amazing brioche & butter pudding (light, fluffy with a gorgeous caramelly sauce) it’s probably safe to say that a large number of gourmet calories had been consumed.

Saturday night was a different kettle of fish entirely.  Slabs of wood balanced on straw bales in a pole barn usually used for lambing.  Whole breads baked with locally grown and foraged walnuts, mushrooms and nettles.  Half partridges and chops of lamb (raised in the next field) stuck onto long spears and barbequed by ourselves over a bonfire.  A massive vat of pheasant stew.  A cauldron of spicy pumpkin soup.  A mass of stewed pears and quince with cream.  Hand caught pike with wild mushroom sauce.  Local cider and apple juice.  Bucolic, farming life indeed.  The fat of the land without a doubt.  Lovely stuff.