Roast Dales grouse fondant potato, beetroot, turnip, blackberry & sloe gin, red wine jus

Ingredients

Butter
Thyme
Garlic

Potato fondant
2 large potatoes
Butter
Thyme
Garlic

Blackberry & sloe gin purée
300g blackberry
Sloe gin

Garnish
1 large potato
8 baby red beetroot
8 baby golden beetroot
8 baby turnip
Red wine jus
1 large stripy beetroot

Leyburn, North Yorkshire
Head Chef: Tristan Prudden

Serves 2

Prepare the fondant potatoes by using a ring cutter to make each potato an even cylinder: slice off the top and bottom so they are flat and peel round the cut top edges to round off. Heat a frying pan with a drizzle of oil. Colour the fondants on both sides, then add the butter, thyme and garlic and cook slowly in the oven until cooked through (it helps to use a third potato as a guinea pig the first time you do this).

Cook the blackberries with a splash of water over a low heat until breaking down. Add a splash of sloe gin, blend, and pass, adding sugar to taste.

Slide a criss-cross mandolin blade down the potato for garnish, then turn through 90° and keep repeating for game chips. Fry at 160°C until coloured, then drain and season. Wrap each of the baby beetroots in foil with a pinch of salt and a drizzle of oil, then cover and seal the tray with a foil lid. Roast for 50 minutes at 180˚C until tender, then cool and peel. Blanch the turnips in salted water until just cooked. Peel and very thinly slice the raw stripy beetroot, then immediately immerse in iced water to keep fresh.

Set an oven pan over a high heat with a little oil. Season and colour the whole grouse in the oil. Add the garlic, thyme and butter, baste, then turn the birds onto their backbones and roast at 180°C for 8-10 minutes. While the grouse is in the oven place the beets and turnip in a pan of foaming butter to warm and glaze. Take the birds out of the oven and rest for 5 minutes. Carve off the breasts and legs, discarding the carcass. Start the plate with a few swipes of purée, arrange the fondant potato, beets and turnips around the grouse and drizzle with jus. Garnish with the game chips and stripy beetroot carpaccio.