LOOKING FORWARD TO HOGMANAY

Oh well the time has come to once again look forward to the end of the year and with this in mind we have been putting our heads together to plan our menus for the New Years dinners which reflect not only the season but also a cursor for the coming year. I have been spending some time with the smoker cutting up pieces of whisky barrels to add the the Alder that I use for smoking. I have been able to get both
Spanish and American oak barrels and the difference is quite marked with the American being slightly stronger. Any way we have decided to start the three day festive menus starting on the 30th  December  and they run as follows;

Friday 30th December

Seafood Chowder
Creamy potato and local shellfish soup served with freshly baked bread

Smoked Pheasant Salad
Home smoked Scottish Pheasant on an apple and hazelnut salad with cranberry dressing

Fresh orange Sorbet

Locally Landed Monkfish Medallion Wrapped in Serrano Ham
stir fried mange tout and a lemon butter sauce

Roasted Pork Belly
Crispy topped tender sweet pork on a grain mustard mash

Lemon Syllabub
served in a chocolate wafer cup

Selection of Highland Cheese
with oatcakes, celery and homemade chutney

Filter coffee or Tea

SATURDAY 31

SERVED AT YOUR TABLE:

THE OLD INN TRIO PLATTER COMPRISING OF:

OUR OWN HOT CURE SMOKED SALMON

CHICKEN LIVER PATE WITH PLUM AND RED ONION MARMALADE

POTTED HAM HOCK

FROM THE BUFFET:

HOT ROASTED RIB OF BEEF

YORKSHIRE PUDDING AND PAN JUS

ROAST POTATOES, HORSERADISH SAUCE

TAJINE OF ARTICHOKE AND CHICKPEAS

IN AN AROMATIC APRICOT SAUCE

OUR OWN WINTER SPICED ROASTED GAMMON

WHOLE DECORATED SALMON WITH A DILL MAYONNAISE

COLD TURKEY BREAST WITH CRANBERRY CHUTNEY

RAISED PORK PIE

LANGOUSTINE AND RICE SALAD

MINTED COUSCOUS SALAD

TOSSED MIXED SALAD

MIXED BEAN SALAD

NEW POTATO SALAD

RED CABBAGE COLESLAW

CHOICE OF DRESSINGS

SERVED AT YOUR TABLE:

A TRIO OF HOME MADE DESSERTS:

STRAWBERRY AND KIWI FRUIT TART

BAILEY’S IRISH CREAM CHEESECAKE

DARK CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

 

TEA/COFFEE

7 Course Gourmet “Taster Style”

Dinner Menu

Sunday 1 January 2012

Mushroom Consommé

A clear wild mushroom soup laced with port,

served with a homemade scone and butter

**

Scallops Ceviche Salad Nicoise

Citrus cured scallops on a green bean and black olive salad

**

Fresh Grapefruit Sorbet

**

Ciopino

A spicy seafood stew with langoustines, calamari and mussels slowly cooked with tomatoes

**

Venison Shank Steak

Braised in red wine and served on a puy lentil broth

**

Millionaire’s Ricotta Flan

Served with vanilla pod ice cream

**

Highland Cheese

Served with oatcakes and chutney

**

Filter Coffee/Tea

autumnal thoughts

This Summer seems to have flown by and already the leaves are turning and the chanterelles are poking their orange heads up through the earth. Still it is lovely weather to explore the walks around the area with the cooler fresh air leaving one feeling refreshed and revitalised. With the cooler evenings now upon us I enjoy a lovely warm pudding and my favourite is the traditional Clootie Dumpling for which I include a recipe. We have also held the first of our Hog Roasts , this entailed the overnight roasting of a whole pig on a spit. Unfortunately the weather was not very kind to me for the night was raining on and off , at least the spit roast was enclosed and it was just me that got wet tending it. At 10;30 next morning the sun appeared and kept dry for the rest of the day. The results were mouth watering the pork was like butter with crispy crackling and was served with jacket potatoes, ciabatta roll , mustard sauce and salad.

The season also signals the arrival of local autumn fruit and the start of chutney making. This activity keeps us busy getting enough prepare and stored away for the next season. On the seafood side we managed to get hold of a large langouste or crawfish as it is also known, this lovely and expensive crustacean is very like a lobster but a brilliant orange in colour before cooking, with extremely long antennae and no Claws ,

Vladi serving up the Hog Roast

The lovely sunshine has brought the visitors out in number and who can blame them.
perhaps it was the article in the Telegraph newspaper naming us one of the top ten seasinde pubs in Britain and the only one for Scotland. Still, walking along the beach or sitting out front on the picnic tables one could remeber the summers of childhood when it was always hot and sunny and trips to the seaside were the equivalent to a present day trip to Disney land. This week on the menu we have featured corn fed chicken breast in a truffle cream and paupiettes of lemon sole with our hot smoked salmon mousseline and for starters a salmon and monkfish terrine, and for desert lime tart and a chocolate hazelnut meringue roulade and a warm chocoolate tart with chocolate sorbet.

SUMMER VISITORS

We have been visited for the past week by a pair of dolphins in the bay at Charleston, gracefully diving and riding the bow waves of boats entering and leaving the harbour, it has been a truly magnificent sight and provided a an unforgetable sight for many of our visitors who have wandered onto the pier.
Back in the kitchen we have been busy dressing the brown crabs and serving them up as a crab salad platters at lunch time and on the sefood platter in the evenings.

a Summer Recipe

The weather has picked up and the sunshine has finally brought on the summer.  Shorts are starting to appear on the beach and the heat in the kitchen is starting to rise, still it has also brought on an abundance of lovely fresh fruit and salad.  The local raspberries and strawberries have a flavour and scent that I had almost forgotten . One of my favourite ways to serve the fruit up is by cutting the strawberries in half and lightly crushing the raspberries , sprinkle with a tsp of sugar and a tsp of orange liqueur, next I cover it with vanilla low fat yougut and top with a sprinkling of  one of the strawberry or raspberry crisp cereals such as jordans. a large bowl in the centre of the table after a bar b q or garden picnic goes down a treat and only takes a few minutes to prepare, and also is a lovely way to get one of your five a day.

At last some nice weather and with the heat in the kitchen is rising, still managed to make a trio of home made ice creams and a lovely tipsy cake with local soft fruit served with a baileys ice cream . For starters we had a pheasant terrine and for mains a seafood crepe with langoustine, scallops, mussels, crab and salmon served with lemon potatoes another dish that has received a lot of good comments is the lemon and lime syllubub with chocolate chip shortbread.

Once again we have been trying out new dishes with homemade pappadelle and roasted italian vegetables bound with a wild garlic pesto, a lovely creamy crowdie cheesecake with local raspberries and a balsamic syrup, for our chocolate lovers we have had a dark chocolate trio with a chocolate meringue tart, a chocolate and sweet chilli sorbet and chocolate mousse. Our pan fried scallops are served on a chorizo and butter bean stew with spinach and goats cheese.

Trying out some new dishes this week we started off with some lovely calves liver on a creamy mash with fine green beans and a red onoin and balsamic jus. I must say the liver was exceptional, next qwe tried a braised shin of beef pan fried (like the twice cooked lamb) topped with a rich oxtail reduction and then wild hare two ways, pan fried tournedos of the saddle served on a potato galette with a ragout of the legs, add to this a strawberry trio in time for Wimbledon of homemade strawberry sorbet, a light cointreau sponge and strawberry mousse and finally a fresh strawberry tart . so its back to the drawing board for some more ideas.

Been busy trying out new items on the menu shin of beef and oxtail pan fried with a rich beef jus and grilled calves liver with balsamic and red onion jus not to mentiion a lovely citric lemon tart, light and sharp on a shortbread base. Managed to get a lovely lobster for a guest the other night.Also a nice run of fresh herring served with a wild garlic gremolata.

lovely apricot bread pudding made with double cream and croissants laced with peach liqueur and grilled whiting served on a crab risotto