In Season | 99 Station Street

Archive for the ‘In Season’ Category

Oh Deer, a Seasonal Dilemna

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

This is an interesting problem, we think we have discovered that venison has an invisible off season. What this translates to is that deer hunting has a quirk in availability. At this time of year, all male deer are available for shooting, but none of the females are. If you have a herd of mixed breeds, there is another complication as Roe bucks have a different season to the other deer species. What this adds up to is a nightmare for the gamekeeper, as they often cannot take a clean shot at one animal amongst the rest of the herd.

Follow this link for our homemade Game Season chart.

This is not a problem for our local grey squirrel population though !!!

Tags: deer, game season, season, venison
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October – In Season

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

What a great month for food. This is an especially busy period for collecting fruit and vegetables, blackberries come in to prime condition about now and apple will continue to ripen. Nuts and tree rats (squirrels) are also in abundance, with the latter trying to reduce the former.

Wild mushrooms are at their best in October and go very nicely with the game that is available at this time of year. Fresh garlic, horseradish and delicious root vegetables complete these robust dishes.

Some of the finest seafood is to include coastal squid and gorgeous plump scallops.

The Autumn months do not offer the subtlest flavours of the year, but certainly provide hearty dishes running upto the cold season.

If you are lucky, you may witness some of the last goose migrating, you will certainly hear them. Some have already starting flying over the last week and one commentator remarked that this could signal a cold snap on it’s way.

Tags: blackberries, In Season, scallops, seasonal food
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September – In season

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

The early Autumn delivers some great treats, even though it’s only one day in. Some of our favourites are wood pigeon, scallops and beetroot. That just covers some of the starters on our new dinner menu. There is also delicious Brixham crab in plaice, sweetcorn and fennel. To finish, some of our first batches of home made ice cream.

Autumn is full of strong flavours growing on bushes and falling off trees. This is the part of the year that produces the food that gets stored up for those long nights ahead. Walnuts will be ready in a few weeks and the last of the apples will have dropped by then. Plums get picked for jam and wine, which will be at it’s best in the Spring.

Tags: beetroot, In Season, scallops, seasonal food, september, wood pigeon
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Rabbit

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

The rabbit is almost a byproduct of farming and country life. To many it is the scurge of crops and can spread, if uncontrolled to cause major problems with food production. An upside to this is that the countryside does tend to react well to this problem. When you have crops, shooters and something tasty to shoot at, the problem can be kept to a minimum.

Rabbit is a lean meat and can very quickly be overcooked. Due to this it is easy to slow cook, whether as a stew or roasted. While rabbit is classed as game, it has a more delicate flavour and can be easily overpowered by strong flavours, subtlety is the key.

Our own take on this is to use another great seasonal ingredient, wild mushrooms, stuff the rabbit and then sear before quickly finishing it in the oven. For extra goodness this is served on a salad of freshly picked watercress dressed with sherry and gorgeous local rapeseed oil.

Tags: game, rabbit, wild
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Asparagus

Monday, May 11th, 2009

The season for English green asparagus is only about 10 weeks. It’s a gentle vegetable with rich flavour and very prone to abusive treatment.

Alongside meats, cheeses, tomatoes and some seawoods, asparagus has the fifth taste, umami. It is also a great source of water soluble vitamins, A & C. To bring out the great flavours and to preserve the nutrional content, the best way of cooking is to gently and briefly cook in unsalted butter. A tiny sprinkle of sea salt before serving adds to the crunch.

Select your asparagus by looking for firm stalks, not too firm, with a strong colour and a closed head. Imported, overgrown or aged stems will loose something from the above. They should snap easily when you are preparing them without leaving a stringy mass.

Tags: asparagus, In Season, seasonal food
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