Roast Grouse with Braised leg sausage roll, Butternut squash puree, Butternut Dauphinoise and Grouse jus.
Grouse could well be my favorite meat ever. A rocket fueled deep gamey flavour which if cooked correctly can send me into a foodie trance every time. I remember my first taste of proper grouse last year at St Johns and I've been salivating for it ever since. So the other week I ordered it from my local Butcher.
To accompany the grouse I thought I'd go all seasonal. Butternut squash was at peak season so I ventured down to waitrose to buy myself some beautiful british squash, something considering their commitment to seasonal british produce you could be assured they would have in abundance. Butternut squash was in abundance but unfortunately it was only available from either Greece or Italy... disappointing but no matter. Still ,shame on you Waitrose.
I wanted to cook the breasts on the crown simply and traditionally as per my St John's cookbook. Browning the crown it in the pan then transferring it to the oven to roast for 6 minutes at a high (220oC) heat and then letting it rest for another 6 minutes. The meat should be a deep pinky purple colour, like all game if you over cook it it tastes all livery and nasty.
The legs I cooked sous vide but it could easily have been done in the oven or the stove at a low temperature. I prefer to cook all my braises in a waterbath for no other reason than great temperature control. I'm moving away form sous vide for a lot of my fish dishes and tender meats but I simply adore it for slow cooking. I cooked them for about 5 hours at 68oC in some chicken stock with some thyme, a bay leaf and a few pepper corns and a pinch of salt. The result was a tender leg where the meat easily pulled of the bone. Because it was cooked under vacuum the meat was still fully flavored and amazingly gamey.
The stock left in the bag was even more intensely flavored. I sieved it though a j-cloth and added it to a reduction of creme de cassis, port and red wine (go easy on the cassis, think a shot of cassis for a glass of red wine and about half a glass of port) and reduced it further until it ran in a steady stream of a spoon. Watch your reduction here. If you reduce it to far and then need to heat it though later you could over reduce the final sauce. Leave it with some reducing to go then put it back on the heat when your close to serving.
The meat I pulled I simply mixed with a little of the stock and some seasoning and cooked in some puff pastry (shop bought is fine but try and get the all butter stuff if you can) rolled up like a sausage roll. I sealed both ends to seal in the flavour then simply slice the ends of before serving. Cook on a high heat until the pastry rises and looks evenly browned. Usually about 15 mins at 220oC.
With the butternut squash you can pretty much do anything you like. Make a salad, a puree or even just roast some with a little olive oil and some herbs. I decided to make a simple puree by just sweating some cubed squash until soft and then adding some milk to cover and cooking until falling apart. I then sieved the squash reserving the milk and purred it in a blender adding some of the milk if necessary and seasoning to taste.
To add to this I also made the remainder of the squash into a simple dauphinoise. I infused some single cream with garlic and thyme and seasoned it up. I then thinly sliced the squash on a mandolin and layered it into a roasting tin then poured in the cream mixture. This was baked until tender which should take only ten minutes or so if you slice the squash thin enough.
The result was remarkable. I would change the dauphinoise by maybe making it into a crispy gratin or something to add a bit of texture, but grouse itself was near perfect and really didn't need much else on the plate. The sausage rolls being something I could have enjoyed easily by themselves if only there was more meat to make them more substantial.
