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© BRUICHLADDICH DISTILLERY, ISLAY.
follow us
© BRUICHLADDICH DISTILLERY, ISLAY.
The Scots call New Year’s Eve Hogmanay. It involves the best traditions of hospitality within the home. Chef Craig Grozier has us making ham for a small gathering. He’s a chef we’ve worked with since 2015 who takes Scottish dishes and humble ingredients to a new level. You can spoil yourself with some fabulous paired Botanist cocktails too by our bartender-in-the-team, Willie Tombe.
Happy New Year all.
Starter – Morangie Brie and Pickled Walnut Buns
Serves 4
Ingredients Buns
90g unsalted Butter
250ml water pinch salt
200g plain flour 6 large eggs
140g parmesan, 90g for the mixture and 50g to finish
100g Morangie Brie
Pickled Walnut Ketchup
2 jars of pickled walnuts, such as Opies
Agar agar
Caster sugar
Sherry vinegar
Soy sauce
Specialist Equipment? Blender + 2 Piping bags
These canapes are perfect for serving with a Botanist martini with a meal or at a party; in the classic tradition of serving snacks with punchy booze, you should always have something that is slightly salty and kickstarts the palette; these little umami bombs deliver on that and pair perfectly with the biscuity and herbal tones of the Nutty Fig Martini.
A classic in French cuisine, the buns are baked savoury choux pastries. This is the same pastry that you would use to make profiteroles, and with a bit of practice, it is a great skill to have. They are moreish and light; I always make a few extra as they will always get eaten up! The recipe will give you more buns than you need, but this dough freezes nicely. Alternatively, bake them all, then freeze once they have cooked and cooled, then defrost and reheat in the oven before you wish to serve.
Pickled walnuts are a classic British store cupboard ingredient that dates back to medieval times. A particularly popular Victorian pickle, as noted by Dickens himself, this ketchup will be a great addition to your festive cheeseboard! It also pairs well with slow-cooked beef and the likes, and you can use it as a condiment in sandwiches.
Agar agar is a vegetarian gelling agent that can be purchased at health food shops or online. Ensure you buy the powdered version.
Walnut Ketchup
See our recipe for Nutty Fig Martini. [Did you know that fig leaves have a great flavour?]
Main Course – Glazed Ham Hock, Quince, Scott’s Lovage, Pork Fat Hash Browns
Serves 4
Ingredients Ham Hocks
2 small ham hocks
1 large onion, peeled 1 large carrot, peeled 1 leek, trimmed
1 celery stick, trimmed 4 garlic cloves, peeled 1 thyme sprig
6 white peppercorns
Glaze
40g Ooh La La Mustard, but English will do
40g French mustard
1 tbsp honey
100g demerara sugar
Handful of cloves
Handful of rosemary needles
Ham Hock Velouté
50g Lard from potatoes
50g Plain flour
500ml Ham hock cooking stock
250ml Water 50ml cream
Scots Lovage Oil
50g lovage
350g neutral oil, such as vegetable or grape-seed
Specialist Equipment? Blender + Greaseproof paper + 9” x 13” rectangular baking pan + Thermometer + Grater
Ham hocks are a brilliantly versatile cut of meat, and dishes like these are great to feed a crowd. Serve this with a long, refreshing drink made with The Botanist to compliment the slow-cooked, succulent meat.
Reserve the stock from cooking the hams to make the velouté. This stock will also make a great base for a pea and ham soup.
This is the same process as making a béchamel sauce or gravy and you can use it with any stock.
Scots lovage is a member of the carrot family and has a celery-like flavour but is less aggressive. We tend to pick it on beaches on Islay. You can find it in many coastal areas in Britain and North America. [For more on Scots Lovage see wikipedia >] If you can’t find it, you can replace it with domestic lovage or flat-leaf parsley. There will be leftovers from this recipe that you can use to dress salads, finish soups and make mayonnaise with, replacing the regular vegetable oil.
The technique of refreshing the greens with iced water is transferable to any green vegetable. Try it on your sprouts! It sets the chlorophyll so you keep the vibrant green colours.
Poached Quince
1750g water
200g sugar
150g honey
Lemon, cut in half
Vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1 cinnamon stick optional
6 large or 8 medium quince
Hash Browns
2 large Albert Bartlett rooster potatoes peeled
1 litre pork lard (or enough to fill your fryer or pan)
5g finely chopped rosemary
1g fine sea salt, plus more to taste if needed
Maldon salt to finish
We use the quince here in a savoury dish, but they are equally great with some good ice cream, baked into frangipane, or tossed with some caramel. Think similar to a poached pear.
You can serve the quince warm or at room temperature. To store, pour the quince and their liquid into a storage container and refrigerate for up to one week. The quinces can be prepared in advance then just removed from the fridge to come to room temperature before serving.
Once you have portioned the hash browns, they freeze down pretty well and can be cooked from frozen. As you can imagine, they go deliciously with eggs but can also be cut into small squares and used as little canapés with some smoked fish and crème fraîche or served with garlic mayonnaise. The possibilities are endless!
See our recipe for a Crab Apple Collins. Fresh, crisp and really drinkable to accompany this big main.
Dessert – Islands Chocolate 75% Cremeaux, Beetroot, Rose
Ingredients Cremeaux
200g 70-75% islands chocolate buttons
700g firm tofu
40g glucose 50g sugar Small pinch salt
Granita
45g pickled rosehip
350g beetroot juice
5g rosehip vinegar (reserved from your pickling liquid)
5g sugar
15g lemon juice
15g The Botanist Gin
Pinch salt
Chantilly cream
200g cream
20g caster sugar
The clean, foraged flavours in The Botanist enhance the slightly off-piste combination of chocolate, beetroot and rosehip here, complementing the refreshing final note of the granita, showing the versatility of the gin.
You can purchase pickled rosehip online, or you can make your own in the summertime to preserve for the rest of the year with our recipe below. These also work very well with rich wild game, such as mallard or well-farmed duck, or could be used as an alternative to an onion garnish in a Gibson martini.
Try to get the best chocolate you can here; it really will make the difference. If the chocolate isn’t available in button shapes, make sure you break it up into small, even-sized pieces before adding it to the mixture.
These need to be gathered around July in the UK. When pickled like this, a magical thing happens. The rosehips are related to the red fruits of summer, they’re the same plant family as raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, sloes… The flavour transfers from the traditional heady, pot puree to a beautiful, clean, floral, almost raspberry type flavour.
See our recipe for Raspberry sherry martini – a complementary simple martini