Wild Mushroom Recipe, Indian Street Food Takeaway & Christmas Gifts
We’ve been busy bees at High Grange! Our BBQ Shack at Millers Farm Shop has been serving up smiles and salt beef sandwiches, we’ve been catering Private Suppers and serving up delicious Takeaways to locals and holidaymakers alike, and we’ve finally had our first staff party since we opened, at the gorgeous Glebe House. We are blessed with the best staff in Devon and we can’t thank them enough!
At High Grange itself, we’ve been wintering. We’ve been building a new structured rose bed overlooking the marquee lawn, mulching up the veggie patches, and watching with delight as June’s chick gave its first cockerel crow. Our Woodland Bar is ready to serve its first cocktails at our Christmas Feasts, and we’ve been expanding our car park and adding woodland paths to save your best shoes from the mud. We will soon have exciting news about our first Woodland Cabin and a new improved toilet and shower block.
This week, we are getting festive with foraged garlands of holly, ivy and eucalyptus (we have the most beautiful non-native tree planted in the 1960s), twinkly fairy lights and candles, looking forward to next week’s festive Christmas Wreath Workshop (sold out), while Sara and Luke try to juggle three children and almost constant requests for angel costumes, tombola prizes and Christmas fairs!
RECIPE: Wild Mushrooms, Garlic, Oregano & Pine Nuts on Crisp Polenta
Last weekend our friend Steve gave us some amazing Chanterelles that he foraged from his local woods not far from High Grange. We ate a few of them with lots of butter and garlic and Luke took the rest to a private dinner Luke catered at. If you don’t forage mushrooms (and be VERY careful if you do) then you can pick them up at specialist shops and even at Axminster market, luckily for us.
Below is a simple recipe - you can use your Vulcanus grill if you have one or you can use a frying pan.
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
600g wild mushrooms
100g butter
200ml double cream
2 tbsp pine nuts
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp chopped oregano
150g polenta
1 tsp ground nutmeg
25g unsalted butter
30g parmesan, grated
1 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
Method
Bring a pan of 500ml water to the boil. Add the polenta and cook and whisk for 2 minutes. Add the parmesan, nutmeg, butter and salt and pepper to taste. Remove from the heat, stir in the chives and set aside for 5 minutes. Pour into a baking tray on greaseproof paper and allow to set in the fridge. Cut into rectangles and set aside.
Put the wild mushrooms on a well seasoned, hot Vulcanus plancha. As they start to cook, introduce the butter in small knobs so that it starts to melt and fry the mushrooms. Try not to move the mushrooms too much at this stage. Cook for 10 minutes and turn and add the pine nuts, garlic and oregano - cook together for another 5 minutes. Add the cream and give the mushrooms a stir - you want the cream to reduce and almost glaze the mushrooms. Whilst the mushrooms are cooking, place the polenta on the plancha and fry until golden and crisp. Serve the mushrooms on the polenta.
THIS WEEK’S TAKEAWAY + MILLERS BBQ SHACK
On Friday nights our Takeaways are flying out the door and we are now offering Bar Buoy’s award-winning Cocktails to enjoy alongside. This week’s takeaway is Indian Street Food inspired by Luke’s many chef friends in London who cook all kinds of Indian cuisine.
The menu this Friday is:
Ember-roast Chicken Biryani
Goan Kofte Curry
Yellow Dhal with Crispy Mushrooms and Kachumber Salad
It’s great value at £40 for 2 people and we’ve added Bar Buoy’s delicious Devon Stormy cocktail - with Two Drifters Dark Rum, orange bitters, agave syrup and ginger. This week it’s for pick up at High Grange and we’re trialling a collection in Lyme Regis too, and you can buy it here.
Our BBQ SHACK up at Millers in Kilmington is going great guns. We would love to see you there! Its open Weds-Saturday lunch times from 12-2pm. This week we’re doing:
Chicken Shawarma
Millers veg Lebanese salad
Hummus & Flat Bread
THE FESTIVE SEASON APPROACHES
There are only 2 spaces left for next Saturday night’s Christmas Feast but you can still book for the Feast next Friday Night. And don’t forget that Vouchers make a great Christmas gift - Food Magazine has just called them one of the top 5 gifts for hard-to-buy-for foodies - we promise they will be THRILLED!
If you’re looking for something to fire you up at the start of 2024, our Burns Night has only 3 tickets left so get in quick - I can hear Jean tuning up her bagpipes now!
And Sara is curating an amazing set of Wellbeing Workshops and talks for the New Year - including nutrition, time management and work/life balancing, parenting, kinesiology and a beautiful Vision Board workshop. Keep tuned or have a look at our Wellbeing page for more news…
We hope you have a lovely pre-Christmas season, and let us know if you want any raffle tickets…
See you soon, Sara and Luke and Team High Grange xxx