Marking the Glorious Twelfth of August, start of the four-month shooting season for red grouse, we asked celebrated chef, Cyrus Todiwala to share his recipe from Café Spice Namaste for boned grouse, slow-cooked in seasoned milk, fried in batter, then served with fresh leafy salad with blue cheese. ‘This method of cooking game birds was particularly a favourite of the Maharanas of Oudh, or better-known as Avadh and later Rajputana when the cuisine spread,’ says sage Cyrus.
Ingredients:
- 2 grouse, jointed and boned (ask your butcher for assistance)
- 500ml milk
- 6 black peppercorns, broken not crushed
- 1tsp fennel seeds
- 6-8 green cardamoms
- 1” ginger piece, cut into small pieces
- 1-2 bay leafs
- Few strands, saffron
- 1, 1” cinnamon stick
- Salt to taste
- Oil to deep fry
For the batter:
- 50g chickpea flour
- 1/4tsp fennel powder, finely crushed in mortar
- 1/4tsp chilli powder
- Salt as required
- 1tsp sugar
- 100-150ml reduced milk (after cooking grouse pieces remove and reduce milk on a gentle flame until you get 150ml – use this for the batter)
- 15ml lemon juice
- Few threads, saffron, for flavouring
- 2 eggs
Method:
- Once grouse is boned clean, check for loose feathers.
- Cut off wing tips and along with the bones, you may wish to wash in cold water then drain and roast until browned and make a nice stock for soup with vegetables like carrot, onion, celery and leeks thrown in for flavour.
- Crush peppercorns roughly.
- Put milk in a deep pan – not too wide – and add all ingredients and bring to the boil.
- Add grouse pieces, arranging them so the milk covers all meat and cook gently until done.
- When cooked, remove from the milk and allow to cool.
- Reduce milk as mentioned above, strain and cool. Discard spices (you may need to scrape sides of the pan first with a spatula).
- Prepare batter by gently whisking in all ingredients to fritter consistency.
- If eating straight after frying it would be better to prepare a salad to go with the fried grouse. Preferably mixed green leafy salad with pieces of blue Stilton or Cornish Blue.
To fry:
- Heat the fat.
- Cut the grouse into smaller pieces.
- Check for seasoning.
- Dip pieces into batter and fry until golden brown. Do not allow to brown too much – this hardens and destroys the meat making it too dry. Remove on a paper kitchen towel.
- Serve hot with the salad.
