This is a delicious grouse recipe, courtesy of Plowden Arm’s resident chef Matt Woodley , who has worked for many top named chefs including Gordon Ramsay, Matt only fills his kitchen with only the most seasonal and local of ingredients to create the historical dishes that bring his menu to life.

The red grouse is unique to Britain and is most commonly served roasted with game chips and bread sauce. This recipe is a take on this using additional seasonal ingredients.

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Serves 4

Grouse

4 Young Red Grouse (including livers)

50g Butter for livers en croute 50g for basting the birds

½ tsp Chopped thyme

4 cloves of garlic, 4 sprigs of thyme, 8 bruised juniper berries for stuffing the grouse with

2 slices white bread

Salt, pepper and a splash (25 ml) Brandy

Cooking oil

For the Purée

6 Slices stale/dry white bread

200 ml Milk

½ Onion diced

3 Cloves

5 Black peppercorns

1 sprig of thyme

1 Clove of garlic

1 Bay leaf

 Garnish

Young watercress leafs

200g water

200g sugar

200g blackberries

To make the livers en croute

Sauté the livers in a little oil, the chopped thyme, salt, pepper and brandy for one minute on each side. Place in a food processor with 50g diced butter and blitz until a smooth paste

Use a 6cm diameter cutter to cut four rings out of the two slices of white bread. Fry in oil to crisp up on either side, like fried bread, and put to one side

To Roast the Grouse

Pre-heat oven to 230c.

Season the grouse with salt and pepper inside and out, fill the cavities with thyme, garlic and juniper berries. Add oil to a medium-hot pan place the grouse in the pan breast side down, turning when coloured (circa 2 minutes) until the entire bird is coloured all over. Add butter to the pan, allowing it to melt and then spoon over the birds before placing in the oven for 15 minutes. When the time’s up, remove from the oven, place on a cooling rack, pour over the cooking juices and allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

To make the bread puree

Heat the milk with the onion, garlic, thyme, bay leaf and peppercorns, when the milk comes to the boil remove the pan from the heat and leave to infuse for ten minutes. Meanwhile remove the crust from the bread and place the bread in a food processer to make crumbs. Pass the milk though a fine sieve and add to the bread a little at a time until you have a puree consistency,  set the food processor to high power to make the puree smooth.

Poached blackberries

Bring the sugar and water to the boil, leave to simmer for five minutes. Remove from the heat, allow to cool a little then add the blackberries.  Leave the blackberries in the poaching liquor until ready to serve.

To serve

Spoon the bread puree on the plate, spread the croute with the liver mousse and sit on top of the puree. Remove the breasts from the breast bones of the grouse and place onto the croute, garnish the plate with the watercress and the poached blackberries.