Whole Roasted Scottish Pheasant

 

Roast pheasant breast and leg portions with salad and potatoes

Whenever I am personally cleaning pheasants which have been shot and thereafter hung for several days to develop gamey flavour, I prefer to simply cut out the breast fillets and subsequently cut off the legs. This is not just because it is much quicker to clean a pheasant this way than to pluck it, I genuinely do believe that the meat tastes better in both instances when the different parts of the bird are cooked separately and by different methods. The pheasant roasted in this recipe, however, was actually given to me oven ready and I decided it would only be right that I roast it whole - and this is where I initially hit an unexpected problem.

Preparing whole pheasant for roasting

Although I have been cooking regularly since early childhood and cooking game almost as long as that, this was actually to be the first time I had ever roasted a whole pheasant. As mentioned previously, I always cook the breasts and legs separately. Thinking therefore that it would be a simple matter to perform an Internet search to determine cooking times, I input the necessary details to the Big G and couldn't believe what I found. No two recipe instructions bore any similarity to one another. Incredibly, suggested cooking times in the top ranking entries ranged from 25 minutes to 2 hours - and many of those instructions were from what I consider to be reputable sources! I have often found this to be a problem when searching online for recipes so what I decided to do was treat the pheasant as I would a chicken. I weighed it and determined that the cooking time would be 20 minutes per pound (450g) and an extra 20 minutes over. I am delighted to say this method worked pretty much to perfection. 

Cook Time

Prep time: 15 min, plus minimum 30 min resting time

Cook time: 20 min per pound (450g) and 20 min over

Ready in: 1 hour 30 min (approximately)

Yields: 2 servings

Ingredients

• 1 whole cleaned pheasant, skin on
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 whole lemon, cut into thin wedges
• 1/4 white onion, cut into thin wedges
• 3/4 white onion, sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 6 to 8 smoked streaky bacon strips (standard bacon, US)
• Boiled potatoes to serve
• 4 tablespoons pickled red cabbage to serve
• Simple salad to serve

Oven ready pheasant

Method

Put your oven on to preheat to 200C/Gas Mark 6/400F.

Weigh the pheasant and calculate the cooking time accordingly (20 minutes per pound/450g and 20 extra minutes).  Season the pheasant cavity with salt, pepper and dried thyme. Stuff with the lemon and onion wedges but be careful not to overstuff. Do not force in any more than can comfortably be accommodated or you risk adversely affecting the even cooking of the bird.

I decided to use a large ashet to cook this pheasant as it was the perfect size but you can use a suitable roasting dish. Scatter the sliced onions over the base of the dish and sit the stuffed pheasant on top, breasts up. Cover the breasts and thighs of the bird with slices of streaky bacon. When the oven is heated, sit the dish into it for the allotted cooking time.

Cooked pheasant is removed from oven

Take the cooked bird from the oven and use a metal skewer to pierce the thickest part of the thigh. Check that the juices run clear. Any sign of blood, cook for 5 further minutes and test again. When you are happy, turn it carefully over that the breasts are now underneath, cover with foil and rest for 30 minutes minimum. Turning it helps the juices congregate in the fleshiest parts of the bird. The free time can be used to boil the potatoes and prepare the salad.

Bacon is stripped away from rested pheasant

Uncover the rested pheasant and lift it to a chopping board. I find a carving fork inserted into the cavity and a large spatula to lift from underneath are the best tools for performing this task. The bacon strips should easily peel away from the bird. They can be served with the pheasant on the plates, discarded - or eaten immediately as cook's perks!

Carving the whole breasts from the pheasant

You can of course carve the pheasant any way you wish. In this instance, I began by removing the whole legs, then carefully slicing each breast fillet whole from the main body of the bird. I served one breast fillet and one whole leg on each plate.

Carved pheasant portions and bacon

When you have carved the pheasant, your potatoes may still require draining. They can then be returned to the empty pot before butter and some dried dill is added. Swirl the pot gently to evenly coat the potatoes in the herb butter.

Plated potatoes, salad and red cabbage

The salad I served is simply a combination of shredded lettuce leaves, tomato and cucumber wedges, all seasoned with salt and pepper before being tossed together. I arranged the salad on half of each serving plate with the potatoes and the red cabbage side by side on the other half. The pheasant portions were laid on top of the red cabbage last of all.

Pigeon and Garden Veg Summer Salad

 

Wood pigeon breasts and fresh garden veg salad

Wood pigeon is widely available fresh in Scotland at this time of year, as farmers find the birds are attacking the flourishing crops in their fields and take the necessary control methods. It may be that you will be able to pick them up fairly cheaply in your local area or even online from a wide variety of wild game suppliers. Alternatively, they can fairly easily be purchased frozen or vacuum packed all year round. While pigeons are often plucked and cooked/roasted whole, I have long since decided this is a lot of extra work for very little gain, with ninety-percent plus of the meat being found in the breast fillets.

Pigeon breasts are sliced from crowns

I obtained the pigeon that these breasts were taken from freshly shot, meaning of course I had to clean it myself from its natural state. While I will not be too graphic here in that particular respect, I begin this process by simply removing the crowns from the whole pigeons. I then rinse them off and use a filleting knife to quickly and easily remove the pigeon breast fillets from the central bone. If you are cleaning a number of pigeons in this respect, the crown bones can be used to make a very simple but tasty wild game stock which can subsequently used for soup or even frozen in batches for future use.

Cook Time

Prep time: 10 min

Cook time: 10 min

Ready in: 20 min

Yields: 1 serving

Accumulated salad ingredients

 Ingredients

• 1 duck egg, at least 7 days old, preferably 10*
• 2 skinless pigeon breast fillets
• Salt and pepper
• Vegetable oil for frying
• 1 medium tomato
• 4 angled slices from cucumber
• 4 slices from small, peeled chioggia beetroot
• Small piece of white turnip, peeled and coarsely grated
• Juice of half a lemon
• Malt vinegar
• 1 teaspoon hot horseradish sauce

*When hard boiling eggs of any type, they should be at least 7 days old, otherwise they will remain too acidic and be extremely difficult to peel. With duck eggs being slightly larger than chicken eggs, 10 days old is better if possible.

Starting to fry pigeon breasts

Method

Put the duck egg into a pot of cold water, ensuring it is comfortably submerged. Put the pot on to a high heat, just until the water starts to simmer. Reduce the heat to maintain a moderate simmer for precisely 6 minutes.

Pour a little oil into a small frying pan and put the pan on to reach a high heat. Season the pigeon breasts on both sides with salt and pepper and fry on the high heat for 2.5 minutes each side. If the breasts are particularly large, this can be increased to 3 minutes each side but no longer. Overcooked pigeon breasts will very quickly become tough and essentially inedible. Lift the breasts to a warmed plate, cover with foil and leave to rest for 5 minutes.

When the simmering time is up, lift the pot containing the duck egg to your sink and run cold water into it for a minute or so to cool the egg quickly.

Seeds are removed from tomato cups

It's not essential to present the tomato in this way and it can simply be cut in half in traditional fashion if desired. I think however that this adds a little bit extra to the presentation and it is very easy to do. Simply insert a very sharp knife point into the tomato at the circumference at an angle of 45 degrees. Go all the way through to the core but no further. Make your next cut at an opposite 45-degree angle and proceed in this way all around the tomato circumference. If you have done it correctly, a gentle twist should be sufficient to pull the two halves of the tomato apart. You can then either carefully cut the seeds from the tomato cups or scoop them out with a teaspoon.

Grated white turnip

Grate the piece of white turnip and squeeze over the lemon juice. This prevents it quickly oxidising and discolouring. Season with salt and pepper and carefully toss with your fingers to distribute the lemon juice and seasoning.

Sit one of the tomato cups in the centre of a square serving plate. The other can be used in any way desired, perhaps in a separate dish. Spoon enough white turnip into the tomato cup with a teaspoon to fill. Press down slightly as you do so that you may accommodate all of the turnip.

Basic salad ingredients are plated

Lay the cucumber slices flat on a chopping board and use a sharp knife to carefully cut around the seeds in the centre of each and remove. This should leave you with cucumber slices with a hole in the middle. Season the cucumber slices with a little salt and malt vinegar, if desired. Season the beetroot slices with salt, black pepper and malt vinegar. Lay a cucumber slice in each corner of the plate as shown and lay a beetroot slice in between each pair of cucumber slices.

Duck egg halves and pigeon breasts are plated

Lift the duck egg from the cold water, crack the shell by moderately gently tapping it all over on a hard surface and carefully peel. Cut in half down through the centre and lay one half on opposite cucumber slices. Lay a rested pigeon breast on the remaining cucumber slices and garnish each pigeon breast with half a teaspoon of horseradish sauce before service.

Pheasant Leg Chilli Puff Pastry Pie

 

Pheasant chilli puff pastry pie and chips

A puff pastry topped pie like this one in Scotland will usually mean a steak pie. This is where chunks of tender steak and beef link sausages in gravy are topped with puff pastry and served generally with boiled or mashed potatoes and veg. This dish is very different in that it firstly sees slow cooked pheasant legs made into a hot and delicious chilli before some of the creation is added to a pie dish, topped with puff pastry and baked in the oven. In this instance, I have served the pie with oven chips and sweetcorn but these accompaniments are of course infinitely variable depending upon taste and choice.

Cook Time

The cook and prep times for this particular dish are a little bit complex and spread out. Essentially, the pheasant legs were cooked overnight in the slow cooker for 10 hours and allowed to cool. The chilli was made the following day (takes about an hour) and the pie the day after the chilli (takes about 45 minutes). If you wish to prepare the chilli and freeze it in batches, you could then defrost enough of it at a later time to make the pie and accompaniments.

A pie this size should serve 4 people and you will have some chilli leftover which is ideally suited to freezing in batches for later consumption.

Ingredients

• 6 whole, skinless pheasant legs
• Salt
• 2 medium white onions, peeled and finely sliced
• 1/2 bulb garlic, split into cloves, peeled and finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons vegetable or sunflower oil
• 3 bell peppers, cored and sliced
• 4 14-ounce/400g cans chopped tomatoes in tomato juice
• 6 birds' eye chillies, stalk removed and finely sliced
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• Black pepper
• 2 14-ounce/400g cans red kidney beans in water, drained and rinsed
• 2 tablespoons freshly chopped coriander (cilantro)
• 1/2-pound/225g premade puff pastry
• 1 beaten egg for glazing
• Oven chips as required
• Canned and drained sweetcorn, as required

Cooked pheasant legs removed from slow cooker

Method

Put the pheasant legs into your slow cooker and season with salt. Pour in enough cold water to ensure they are comfortable covered and cook at low setting for 10 hours. This was done overnight in this instance.

Remove the pheasant legs from the slow cooker to a deep plate, cover and leave to cool completely. Pick all the meat from the pheasant legs in reasonably small pieces. This is a little bit fiddly and it is important to take your time so as not to inadvertently incorporate any small pieces of bone in the chilli.

Onion and garlic are added to hot cooking oil

Pour the vegetable or sunflower oil into a large soup or stock pot and bring it up to a medium to high heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute over a medium heat for 5 minutes or so, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon, until the onion strands are softened.

Bell peppers are added to softened onions

Add the sliced bell peppers to the softened onion and garlic and saute for a further couple of minutes, just until the strips of pepper start to soften.

Tomatoes and seasonings are added to onions and peppers

Pour the canned tomatoes into the pot. Season with the cumin, around a teaspoon of salt, black pepper to taste and the finely sliced chilli peppers. Stir very well and bring to a simmer for 10 minutes.

Pheasant leg meat is added to chilli sauce

It's more than worth having a final, careful check of the pheasant leg meat pieces to ensure there are no bits of bone present before adding them to the spicy chilli sauce and stirring them through. Stir well and simmer for 5 more minutes to heat them all through.

Red kidney beans are added to the chilli

If you wish, you can simply drain the red kidney beans before adding them to the chilli but I like to rinse them in a colander under cold, running water. This removes many of the chemical canning impurities. They can then be added to the chilli and stirred through before 5 final minutes of simmering.

Chopped coriander is added to the chilli

Add the chopped coriander (cilantro) to the pot and stir it carefully through. Carefully taste the dish and adjust the seasoning with salt and/or black pepper if required. Turn off the heat, cover and leave to cool completely. Refrigerate overnight if not making the pie the same day.

Ashet pie dish is used as pastry cutting template

I fondly remember homemade steak pies as a child, when my Mum or my Gran would make them in what is called an ashet pie dish. I am lucky to have a set of these enamel dishes - exactly like the ones I remember from childhood - in various sizes and the one I selected for making this pie was 10 inches by 8 inches (circa 25cm by 20cm).

Take the block of puff pastry from the fridge 20 to 30 minutes before use to let it soften slightly. Roll it out on a dry, floured surface to a rectangle slightly bigger than your pie dish. Use the upturned pie dish as a template around which to cut the pastry to size.

Chilli is ladled into the pie dish

Spoon or ladle enough cooled pheasant chilli into the pie dish to fill it to around half an inch/1cm from the top. Carefully lay the pastry on top and press it down gently round the edges with your thumbs. Let the pie sit for the pastry to rest while you preheat your oven to 220C/Gas Mark 8/450F.

Glazed pheasant chilli pie is oven ready

When the oven is preheated, brush the pie all over with beaten egg and cut a small "+" shaped steam vent in the centre. It is best to sit the pie on a baking tray or sheet for baking to contain any potential spillages. Put it into the oven for 10 minutes at the high temperature before reducing the temperature to 200C/Gas Mark 6/400F for the final 30 to 35 minutes of cooking.

Pheasant chilli pie removed from the oven

When the pie is beautifully golden, take it from the oven and allow it to rest while you prepare your accompaniments of choice. The pie can then be cut into quarters and plated for service.

Scottish Hot Smoked Trout and Salad

 

Hot smoked trout fillet with salad and potatoes

This recipe is about as Scottish as you could actually get. Every single item on the plate (bar the seasonings!) is fresh produce from Scotland. Trout and salmon, as fish, are very often forgotten when we think of wild game but they very much fall into the wider category. This rainbow trout was rod and line caught in Central Scotland before being taken home, cleaned, filleted and home hot smoked. Smoked trout and salmon can of course be bought from most supermarkets or in more traditional form from a wide variety of farm shops, or smokehouses direct. The lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and spring onion are fresh from the garden while the egg is from a local farm. The potatoes were supermarket bought but are from Ayrshire.

Cook Time

Prep time: 10 min (plus cooling times for egg and potatoes)

Cook time: 20 min

Ready in: 30 min

Yields: 1 serving

Hot smoked rainbow trout fillet

Ingredients

• 6 baby new Ayrshire potatoes
• Salt
• 1 chicken egg, at least 7 to 10 days old*
• Little bit of butter
• Dried dill
• 1 hot smoked rainbow trout fillet
• 2 or 3 large lettuce leaves, washed, rolled and roughly shredded
• 4 small tomatoes, red or yellow, halved
• 2 inch (5cm) piece of cucumber, halved through the core and cut into crescents
• 2 spring onion green stalks, trimmed and very finely sliced
• Black pepper

*Eggs less than 7 days old do not hard boil well. The albumen is too acidic and tends to stick to the inner membrane. This means that when you try to peel them, large pieces of the white is likely to come away with the shell, however careful you may be.

Simple salad ingredients

Method

Put the potatoes into a pot of cold, salted water and bring to a simmer for 20 minutes. Put the egg into a separate pot of cold water and bring to a simmer for 5 minutes.

Take the pot with the egg in it to your sink and run cold water into it for a minute or two. Leave the egg in the cold water for 5 to 10 minutes to cool quickly. This prevents the blue/grey discolouration around the yolk from forming.

Drain the potatoes and return to the empty pot. Add some butter and a generous pinch of dried dill. Gently swirl the pot to evenly coat the potatoes in the butter and dill. Cover and leave to cool.

Crack the egg shell on a hard surface and carefully peel, starting at the broader end. Set aside in a covered dish until required.

Skin is peeled from smoked trout fillet

Lay the trout skin side up on a square serving plate. The skin should easily peel away in one piece and should be discarded. Carefully turn the trout fillet over and present diagonally.

Cut the egg in half and sit one half on each corner of the plate not incorporating the trout.

Put the lettuce, tomato and cucumber into a deep plate or small bowl. Season with salt and pepper and carefully turn or toss to combine. Spoon on to diagonally opposite parts of the plate.

Arrange the potatoes on the empty parts of the plate.

Trout salad is ready to be garnished and served

Garnish the egg halves with a little more dried dill and the trout fillet with the shredded spring onion leaves.

Goose Breast and Bacon Forfar Bridies

 

Goose and bacon bridie with potato wedges and sauteed cabbage and onion

A bridie in Scotland - originally referred to as a Forfar bridie, after the East Coast town near to which they are believed to have been first created - is a meat-filled pasty, similar in appearance and at first glance to the much more widely recognised Cornish pasty. The most significant difference between the two is that a bridie contains no potato or Swede but traditionally only minced (ground) beef and onion. The pastry originally used was also probably shortcrust. The bridie I have created here is pretty different in all of those respects in that it firstly uses the far more appetising puff pastry rather than shortcrust and the filling is comprised of coarsely diced goose breast and bacon, as well as the more traditional onion. Note that there are a few different types of geese hunted in Scotland and while any of them would be suited to this recipe, it is a greylag breast that is used in this instance.

I'll begin today's post by describing how to make the bridies and will include a couple of serving suggestions at the end.

Cook Time

Prep time: 45 min (includes resting time for bridies, before and after cooking)

Cook time: 35 minutes, approximately

Ready in: 1 hour 20 min, approximately

Yields: 4 medium sized bridies

Skinless greylag goose breast fillet

Ingredients

• 1 skinless goose breast fillet, moderately finely diced
• 4 strips smoked streaky bacon (standard US bacon), finely chopped
• 1/4 small white onion, finely diced
• 1/2 teaspoon dried sage
• Salt and pepper
• 1 pound/450g buff pastry
• Flour for rolling pastry
• 1 small, beaten egg for glazing pastry
• Little bit of oil for greasing baking tray or sheet

Traditional Scottish puff pastry

Method

The first thing to do is to remove your puff pastry from the fridge and allow it 20 to 30 minutes to come up to room temperature, depending upon the temperature in your kitchen. This simply makes it easier to shape and roll.

Goose, bacon and onion are added to bowl and seasoned

The goose meat was not chopped too finely here as I wanted a bit of a coarse texture in the finished bridies. If you wish, you can of course chop it more finely or even mince it. Add the goose meat to a large glass or stone mixing bowl along with the bacon and onion. Season with the sage as well as some black pepper. A very little salt can be added if desired but do remember that the bacon will add significant salt seasoning to the filling.

Goose and bacon bridie filling is ready

Mixing these ingredients is very much a time for getting your sleeves rolled up. You will simply not get anything like the required mix and texture by using a spoon. It doesn't take long to mix by hand and ensure the ingredients are fully combined. Roughly separate your filling in to four equal portions.

Filling is added to rolled out pastry circle

Cut the pastry block(s) in to four equal pieces. Lightly flour a suitably clean and dry surface and, one at a time, roll out the pastry pieces with a rolling pin, large enough that you can use an 8-inch (20cm) diameter plate as a template to cut from each one a circle. Arrange a quarter of the filling on half of each circle as shown above, leaving a border around the edge for crimping. Lightly brush this border with beaten egg before folding the empty half of the pastry over the top and crimping either with thumb and forefinger or perhaps the handle end of a fork or dessert spoon. 

Let your assembled bridies rest while your oven preheats to 200C/Gas Mark 6/400F.

Bridies are glazed and oven ready

Rub a baking tray or sheet lightly with a little oil on kitchen roll. It may be that you, like me, have to cook the bridies in two batches due to the size of your tray. Brush the bridies all over with beaten egg and cut a small steam vent in the centre. Place the tray in the oven for about 35 minutes until the pastry is beautifully golden.

Goose and bacon bridies

Take the bridies from the oven, lift them from the baking tray with a spatula to a wire rack and allow to rest for a minimum 15 minutes before serving.

Serving Suggestion 1 - Goose and Bacon Bridie with Crispy Garlic Wedges, Cabbage and Onion

Goose and bacon bridie with wedges, cabbage and onion

Cut 4 or 5 small to medium potatoes in half lengthways then each half in half again. Add to a pot of cold, salted water and bring to a simmer for 10 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool and steam off before refrigerating for a minimum 2 hours (overnight is fine).

Put your oven on to preheat to 200C/Gas Mark 6/400F. 

Potato wedges ready for baking

Pour a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil into a large, glass bowl. Season with a little salt and pepper and a generous pinch of dried sage. Peel 2 large garlic cloves and grate into the bowl. Stir very well.

Add the cooled wedges to the seasoned oil and carefully and gently turn them around with a wooden spoon until all are carefully coated. Spread on a baking tray or sheet in a single layer and place into the heated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, turning with a spatula half way through cooking.

When the wedges are 5 minutes short of being ready, cut the core from 2 moderately large cabbage leaves, roll and shred. Finely slice a quarter onion. Pour a tablespoon of vegetable oil into a large saucepan, add the cabbage and onion and season with salt, pepper and sage. Saute over a very high heat for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon, until the strands are just softened.

Goose and bacon bridie plated with cabbage and onion

Spoon the cabbage and onion on to one quarter of a square plate as shown. Cut a bridie in half and arrange on top of the cabbage and onion, covering the inside edge only. Arrange the wedges along either side and serve.

Serving Suggestion 2 - Goose and Bacon Bridie with Salsa

Goose and bacon bridie with salsa

This serving suggestion sees the goose and bacon bridie served cold with a simple salsa. It makes a perfect lunch dish, perhaps for the day after you have made the bridies. If the bridie has been refrigerated overnight, let it sit at room temperature for a minimum half hour before serving.

Combining ingredients for simple salsa

This is an incredibly simple salsa recipe but you can be as adventurous or keep it as simple as you wish. Pour a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil into a large glass or stone bowl. Grate in 2 large, peeled garlic cloves Season with salt, pepper and a generous pinch of dried basil. Stir well with a wooden spoon.

Cut 4 medium tomatoes in half and scoop out the seeds. Moderately finely dice. Cut a 3-inch (8cm) piece of cucumber in half, scoop out the seeds and also finely dice. Add the tomato and cucumber to the seasoned oil and stir well.

Spoon some salsa on to your serving plate, cut the bridie in half and arrange on top to serve.

Venison Backstrap and Stilton Oatcakes

 

Venison backstrap and Stilton cheese oatcakes

It's an absolute scorcher today here in North Lanarkshire and I hope the weather is equally good wherever you may be reading this article. For this reason, I decided to show you an incredibly simple sharing dish that you can enjoy outdoors with a nice glass of something cold and refreshing. The only cooking involved is the quick flash frying of the piece of venison backstrap which is subsequently allowed to cool completely before being served on Scottish oatcakes, with Stilton cheese and redcurrant sauce.

Cook Time

Prep time: 5 min (plus resting/cooling time for venison)

Cook time: 5 min

Ready in: 10 min

Yields: 4 servings

Scottish oatcake

Ingredients

• 2 inch/5cm piece of roe deer venison backstrap
• Salt and pepper
• Little oil for frying
• 4 Scottish oatcakes
• 4 triangular slices from block of Stilton cheese
• 4 teaspoons redcurrant sauce, or as required (bought in glass jar from supermarket)
• Freshly chopped parsley to garnish
• Simple side salad of choice to serve (this salad is mixed green salad leaves, mini carrot batons and thin slices of red bell pepper, combined in a bowl and seasoned with salt and pepper)

Venison backstrap is added to very hot frying pan

Method

Pour a little oil into a frying pan or skillet and bring it up to a pretty high heat. Season the venison backstrap on both sides with salt and pepper and fry for 2.5 minutes each side on full heat. Note that if you are using the backstrap from a larger deer than a roe, you will have to increase this cooking time accordingly. Lift to a plate, cover with foil and allow to rest for a minimum 5 minutes. Longer is fine as you will be serving it cold anyway.

Lift the cooled and rested backstrap to a chopping board and slice at a 45-degree angle to 8 - as evenly sized as possible - slices.

Venison and Stilton are added to oatcake

Scottish oatcakes essentially serve the same purpose in the serving of food as crackers but they are very different in terms of the recipe, the texture and the flavour. They are made from oats, water, salt and fat of some type, can be very crumbly and are sold in different levels of coarseness.

Lay 2 slices of venison, slightly overlapping, on each oatcake and top with a triangle of Stilton cheese.

Redcurrant sauce and parsley top the Stilton and venison oatcakes

Spoon some redcurrant sauce over each piece of Stilton cheese and garnish with the chopped parsley.

Biting in to a venison and Stilton Scottish oatcake

Lift the oatcake assemblies to the 4 corners of a square plate as shown and serve with the simple salad arranged in the centre of the plate.