Food and Drink at Old Course Hotel

Hello and welcome to the wine blog!

My name is Alan and I am the Head Sommelier at the Old Course Hotel, based in the Road Hole Restaurant. I am a long time reader, first time blogger! I am delighted to be able to talk to you all about two of my true passions- food and wine. I look forward to talking about new and interesting additions to the wine lists, food and wine matching and details about wine trips planned for the year ahead.

Since starting here at the Old Course Hotel I have tried to put my own mark on a very comprehensive list in the Road Hole Restaurant by working closely with our key suppliers. One wine in particular I am delighted to have introduced is the Domaine Castera  Jurançon Sec from Enotria Wines.

The wine is produced in small quantities on a tiny estate at the foothills of the Pyrenées from the Gros Manseng grape variety. This is a fabulous wine paired with cured meats and shellfish, particularly oysters. Lively and fresh on the palate with a pronounced green apple character. For me, this is a great alternative to Sauvignon Blanc (and gives you a chance to show off new wine knowledge).  I am already looking to somebody ordering it so I can taste it again!

Cheers!

Alan

This week I went to Daftmill Distillery in Fife where i meet with Francis Cuthbert, farmer, distiller and a great chap. Viv from Fife Food Network set up the meeting. A visit to one of Scotland newest distilling enterprises, I had expected to see something simple and perhaps not very professional to be honest, perhaps an assumption made because of this project being kept so low key! Well quite the opposite awaited me, it was far superior than I had expected, Francis is a multitasking farmer and no doubt an expert in that subject, the fact that he should also be an expert distiller excites me! I am always blamed for not being to multitask (a bit of a man’s problem I am told).  Well my hat off to Francis, I had a great time touring the distillery, listening to his expertise and passion and visiting the warehouse (surrounded by the Angels shares, the greatest place on earth) and of course nosing very closely the maturing spirit, I even had a small taste of the golden and also the amber nectar and at that time I wished I was not driving so that I could have stayed and tryied more!  Now I will want to stop every time I pass on the A91 near Cupar! (driving again!!!! So not drinking ;-()

A few days ago I met with Drew Mackenzie Smith the Owner of the Lindores Abbey,  where it is said a monk became famous for being named on the oldest recording for whisky in Scotland in the Scottish exchequer roll of Edinburgh: “eight bolls of malt for Friar John Cor wherewith to make Aquavitea” was assigned to in 1494. I have lived around Fife a large part of my life (20 plus years) and never took the time to go there, well now I have been! I didnt have time to visit the ruins but had a great chat with Drew about whisky history, that was lots of fun!  There are a number of ruins around that area – one could be mislead by thinking that the ruins of the Abbey are located in Lindores, they are in fact in Newburgh only a few miles from Lindores.

Well it was intersting for me, runing the Road Hole Bar in the home of golf, to hear whisky facts from the home of whisky!

Hope you enjoy the updates and intersting whisky facts!

Speak soon

Regis, Whisky Mad

Welcome back to the Road Hole Bar cocktail blog. The winter is over and spring has begun and already we are starting to see an increase in golfers flocking back to our resort. With our new menu just about to launch for the busy season ahead we thought we’d give you another cocktail recipe to try making yourselves at home. For those of you who are familiar with the classic Caipirinha cocktail this one is definitely for you!

Using freshest ingredients here is our modern twist on the famous classic…

Berry Caipirinha

50ml Cachaca

25ml Crème de Mure

2 bar spoons brown sugar

6 lime wedges

8 blueberries

Muddle lime wedges, blue berries, brown sugar in an old fashioned glass. Add crushed ice to glass then add Crème de Mure and Cachaca and mix with bar spoon. Top up with crushed ice and serve! Be warned these drinks are addictively tasty!

Et Voila!

Until next time, Regis

Hello and welcome back to this month’s blog,

I would love to introduce you to one of my local suppliers that I rely on a lot to help with the quality of the produce from the local area from my foraged herbs and flowers to the wild game that I like to use when they are in season.

Wild Tastes is a food niche product procurement business with ranges of quality food from around the globe as well as the finest that the UK has to offer.  This enables Wild Tastes to supply the finest freshest and highest quality product.  Wild Tastes has at its disposal several farms which it can call on to satisfy my requirements and this freshest of produce goes from soil to plate within twenty four hours!  To ensure product reaches myself in the peak of condition Wild Tastes vehicles are all thermostatically chill controlled and are driven by qualified chefs who have a thorough knowledge of product care and indeed are better informed to be able to understand our requirements.  Their distinctive dress code; country check shirts and knee high socks with tweed breeks has become recognised as a trademark of quality and high standards to which we share.

Wild Tastes also has extensive ranges of cheeses with much focus on Scottish, also Italian and Spanish ambient ranges, fresh truffles and wild and exotic mushrooms, wild Scottish game and are renowned for our guaranteed Wild Scottish venison and its quality which is second to none.  I have moved on to wild garlic and leeks just recently which Ken supplies me twice a week.  I also use his kale, sprouts, mixed coloured carrots, micro cress, cured hams and his selection of oils.  We have a very close working relationship with wild taste I feel that it is important to work with your suppliers to insure that you get the best possible product gets to our guest plates – a true taste of wild Scotland!

In other news!… Would you believe it, we’re ready for Christmas!  We’ve just finalized our menus for the festive season and you can take a sneak peek now on the website at the restaurant’s Festive menus and details of our Christmas party nights!  First day of spring is barely past and we’re already thinking about mince pies!

Speak soon.

Ross

Hello and welcome to the blog for early March!

We have started to see the morning and nights becoming brighter and after a very mild winter the birds and starting to sing and the feeling of spring is just around the corner!

At the end of last week I took the team on a visit to the farms at Easter Kellie Farm, Anstruther.  We have been developing over the winter a  new concept for the Road Hole Restaurant with a Scottish theme, using predominantly foods from Fife when they are at their best.  As part of the steering team on Fife Food Network, working with Toby,  Jimmy and Viv,  we have set up a co operative of local suppliers we are working with to get the best ingredients with as few food miles as possible to use on our menus.  Part of the education for our staff front of house and kitchen, is to develop their knowledge of the produce we use and have a greater understanding of how the cattle are reared, the vegetables are grown and production of what we use in our dishes. We were fortunate to be hosted by Toby Anstruther who with his staff Sam and Dave gave us a real insight into their day to day business and how hard you have to work and plan to get the best produce for us.

I also felt it was a great exercise as it takes you into another part of the community you don’t see or know anything about and how, working together, we can do so much to help the area and region benefit and get on the map for the quality of it’s ingredients and ultimately what we produce on the plate for our customers.  We can then take this to younger children through such wonderful organizations as FutureChef and inspire them to use ingredients on their door steps as they move forward in their careers.

So we are starting to get into the exciting spring season, the first of the purple sprouting broccoli, wild garlic leaves and diver caught scallops come into season. This time of the year can be so exciting, shellfish has had the cold months to fatten in the sea, the animals have their thick coats and layers of fat which helps the meat marble and improves the flavor on cooking and the flowers start to push through.

Diver scallops are great; they come in their shells, tightly closed and fresh still alive and bursting with freshness. We prefer to get them alive and in the shell.  We then, just before service, shock them out of the shell, sliding in a plate knife, close to the flat shell, keeping the knife as close to the shell as possible. Repeat the action on the half rounded side of the shell, remove the muscle and membrane and the white meat is ready to use. Fresh and bursting with a unique delicate flavour.

The purple broccoli is excellent passed through a beer batter and deep fried- yes not recommended by the doctor!!! The florets have lots of flavor and the colour can brighten any plate.  Ideal gently steamed with a delicate fish or stir-fried with ginger, garlic and a little chili they can add to a meat dish.

The spring menu for Sands Grill is now live on the website along with seasonal menus coming up later in the year.  With three courses for just £18.00 and delicious dishes from Perthshire lamb and North Sea trout to gingernut parfait and lemon and raspberry cheesecake…. mmm, is it lunch time yet?!

I have a nice and spicy recipe for your to try – a main with chorizo mash – enjoy!  Please do share any of your super spring menus too!

The team are looking forward to preparing dinners for our competitors in our first pre-season opener The Belhaven Best Spring Cup, which is played over The Duke’s and Kingsbarns.  We’ll have some traditional and hearty pub grub in The Jigger Inn and a stunning feast for the prize giving dinner in the Road Hole Restaurant, overlooking the world-famous Old Course, a golfers dream dining location!  We’ll update you next time on the competition and winning team and this sounds like a great weekend of golf to you, there’s still time to book a team and compete!

Happy cooking until next time.

Chef Simon

Diver Scallops and Chorizo Mash

Ingredients:

Scallops – 3 each

Spinach- 30g

Salt – 1g

Pepper – 1g

Nutmeg – ½g

Fish Stock – 2dcl

Mashed Potatoes – 30g

Scallion -  ½ roughly chopped

Cream

Rosemary Chopped – 1g

Chorizo Sauce -  ½ dried, ½ deep fried circles

Garlic

Butter

Method:

1)    Sear Scallops

2)    Make Mash

3)    Make Scallion Sauce; boil ½ onions, cream and fish stock season and blend to form sauce.

4)    Use circles of chorizo to garnish dish.

5)    Place Quenelle of mash, Spinach, Scallops in shells x3

6)    Pour sauce over and garnish with deep fried chorizo.

Hello I hope this blog finds everyone in good spirits and glad to see the back of January.

We have been busy at the Old Course Hotel planning for the coming year, finalizing the menus and planning our recruitment evening on the 9^th February 2012 if you would like to join us.

During our planning I have just had a meeting with Vivienne Collie regarding the pending fife food network  meeting in which we are looking to raise awareness of our local foods, training,  developing staff knowledge and again planning some great ideas for the year ahead. We are also looking to develop the food in the Road Hole Restaurant under this umbrella, a strong Fife strain.

We have celebrated Burns at the Old Course with our usual address to the haggis, but we also helped it to be celebrated in our sister hotel, The American Club, in Kohler, Wisconsin.  Ross, the Road Hole Restaurant chef went out to Stockholm and Gothenburg to help the Scandinavians enjoy some Scottish hospitality too!  Click here to watch the video of our Burns Supper at the St Jorgen Park Resort in Gothenburg.  Slainthe!

Back to the food!  We are starting to see lighter nights, 10 minutes or so, if it’s been mild the birds have been singing and at times a spring feel!! Not long to go and the first forced rhubarb will start to be ready, a special time of the year. We have chicory which is great in salads, a particular favorite is the salad I have a recipe for below, a little different but great for those of us still watching our waste line, but not be too careful!

As well as warm salads at this time of the year I always find Rabbit is a great meat, very little fat, healthy but not too many in the UK enjoy to eat it. We are fortunate to have rabbit at the Old Course Hotel and one of my favorite ways to cook it is in the pot, slow roasted with some great winter vegetable so it melt in your mouth.  We have an abundance of the animal from our Craigton – Dukes Golf course.

I will leave you for now, happy cooking!

Simon

ENDIVE SALAD WITH ROASTED LAMB FILLET

 Ingredients

Endive- trimmed

Grain mustard dressing- see recipe

Lamb fillet

Spice mix- see recipe

Salt

Pepper

Olive oil

Lamb jus

Picked herbs- chives, chervil, coriander

Method

1) Cut the bottom of the endive and cut down the centre of each spear from point to base. Wash well and drain.

2) Make the dressing and rest in the fridge.

3) Roll the lamb in a little of the spice mix, season and heat up a pan with the oil in. Seal the lamb on all sides and cook pink.

4) Heat the lamb jus gently

5) Pile the endive on top of each other, 3 spire change angle, 3 spires to build a tower 6 high. Slice the lamb lengthways and fan to one side and dribble around the plate the lamb jus. Garnish with picked herbs.

Hello my name is Eddie Grant and I’m Head Mixologist and Cocktail Bartender at the Road Hole Bar. A very warm welcome to the Road Hole Bar blog.

The team and I have been working closely together to come up with a fresh and inviting cocktail menu for the year ahead introducing many new creative drinks as well as some of the old time classics!  For the first time ever we are going to introduce a super premium range of cocktails to our famous list but I’ll go on to talk about that later.

I’m not going to list all of our new drinks because that’d give some of the secrets away but I will leave you with a sneak preview into what you can expect from the Road Hole Bar in the year to come…

Arnold Palmer

With the addition of vodka this is a slight variation on the original drink but I decided that the Arnold Palmer was a “must” for the Road Hole Bar! With Mr. Palmer being one of the greatest golfers of his, or infact any generation it seemed rude not to let his famous drink have its well deserved place on our menu.  Here’s our twist on it…

• 50ml Kettle one vodka
• 25ml iced tea
• 10ml lemon juice
• 10ml Gomme syrup

Add all ingredients into a Boston shaker and shake for 5-8 seconds.

Strain into a highball glass over crushed ice.

Top up with lemonade and garnish with lemon wedge.

Old “course” Fashioned

My very own twist on the old time classic Old Fashioned!  With the use of the 1993 Tullibardine old course single malt from our good friends in Perthshire we have adapted this historic drink into our own.  This drink takes a little more time to prepare than your average cocktail so please be patient when ordering (and making at home!) – you will not be disappointed with the outcome!

• 50ml OCH Tullibardine single malt
• Dash Angostura Bitters
• Dash Orange Bitters
• 1 Bar spoon of brown sugar
• Spash soda

Start of by adding the sugar, both bitters and splash soda to an old fashioned glass.  Mix up with bar spoon to create a “paste” then fill the glass with ice and half of the whisky.  Stir with bar spoon for 15-20 seconds.  This is a key stage in making sure the drink is freezing cold and mixed properly.  Now top up with ice and add the final half of whisky, again stirring for 15-20 seconds.  Finish off by adding a cocktail cherry and an orange wedge to garnish.

Hope you enjoy trying these at home and that we’ll see you soon to sample some new cocktails at the Road Hole Bar soon.

Slainthe!

Eddie

Here at The Old Course Hotel we are getting ready for the forthcoming season, looking at some interesting new concepts for our restaurants both here at the hotel and for the launch of Hamilton’s Hole at Hamilton Grand – which we are all particularly excited about!

From an ingredient point of view the winter months can be challenging,  especially as we have overindulged over Christmas and New Year.    At this time of year I love to experiment with winter salads -  I had a great one last night in London at the Arbutus Restaurant, where a I am attending the Master Innholders conference.

We like to use this time of year to look and review what is happening in the market place and are very fortunate and lucky to enjoy critiquing and learning from our piers in the restaurant industry.

Winter Salads

As much as we would always like to source on our doorsteps at this time of year we have to look further afield for our ingredients.  Continental Europe and Middle East and further afield supply the majority of leaves to the UK market at this time of year.  We can supplement these with some beautiful citrus fruits (oranges, clementines, lemons and limes) as well as our home grown apples and pears and locally produced cheeses.

For dressings we can still use local rape seed oil and Scottish mustard to make enticing and interesting dressings.  For the more adventurous we can introduce vegetables from further afield, Diakon (Japanese white radish), bean sprouts, water chestnuts and nuts.

Using your imagination and by experimenting you can make some exciting and refreshing salads, warm or cold to help you control the waistline but still be enthused by the foods you are eating.

Try this one and let me know what you think, I’d be very interested to hear any of your wonderful creations too!  Who knows we may even use them in one of our restaurants… how about that, the first dish to be served in Hamilton’s Hole at Hamilton Grand could be yours!

GRILLED PRAWN SALAD AND SPICY HOLANDAISE

Ingredients

• Prawns- raw 20/30 count   (6 on three skewers/2 per skewer) (9 on three skewers/2 per skewer)
• Carrot- peeled, fine julienne}  10g or 15g
• Diakon- peeled, fine julienne } 10g or 15g
• Mango- peeled, fine julienne} 15g or 20g
• Plums- fine julienne} 5g or 10g
• Chinese leaves- cut fine} 5g
• Chilli dressing) 1 or 2 teaspoons (you can make your own using olive oil, chilli and lime)
• Coriander- fine julienne} ½ or 1 teaspoon
• Mint- fine julienne} ½ or 1 teaspoon
• Chilli- chopped fine} ¼or½ teaspoon
• Lemongrass- chopped fine}  ¼ or½ teaspoon
• Nam Pla
• Salt
• Pepper
• Chilli paste}  1 teaspoon
• Hollandaise} 2 tablespoons

Method

1.Skewer the prawns, season and grill on a preheated char grill on both sides.

2.Put the carrot, diakon, mango, plum and Chinese leaves in a bowl. Add the coriander, mint, chili and lemongrass and mix well. Season with the salt, pepper and Nam Pla.

3.Place piled on the plate, pour some of the hollandaise with the spice paste in on top, and the skewers around coming to a point.

Happy cooking!  See you next time,  until then, look forward to receiving your recipes and delicious pics of how you get on with this one.

Keep an eye out for a sneak peak at a fresh new cocktail menu from the Road Hole bar today!

Simon

Welcome back.

 The party season is here so it’s the perfect time to invite friends and family round to have a catch up, and show off some new skills in the kitchen!

One recipe that is sure to have your guests struck with amazement is a soufflé. Here at the Road Hole Restaurant we serve a delicious Lime and Ginger Soufflé served with a Pink Lemonade Sorbet on our a la carte menu. People believe that they are really hard to master but all it takes is a little practice and patience. To keep you right I have shared my top 5 tips to making a towering soufflé…

1. Pre heat your oven to ensure that the soufflé goes into the right temperature – for this recipe you will need  180°
2. Your bowls must be spotless; any residue may mean that the eggs will not whip properly.
3. Your panade (see the recipe below) must be cool before you add it to the egg whites.
4. Make the soufflé mix and pour it into moulds before your guests arrive. It can be stored in the freezer, ideally no more than 12 hours; they will just need an extra couple of minutes in the oven.
5. Be patient and do not open the door until the time is up. You don’t want them collapsing!

Don’t be scared of them, and they will reward you.

Here is my recipe for a really simple but absolutely delicious Apple Soufflé, you’re best to watch my demonstration on YouTube to get a really good understanding.

Apple Soufflé – 4 portions

Preheat your oven to 180°C.

• 200g apple puree
• 1 tblsp water
• 50g castor sugar
• 8g corn flour
• ½  lemon juiced and zest
• 15 g calvados (apple brandy)

First, make the panade.

Warm the apple puree, calvados and castor sugar in a pot. Add the water to the corn flour and mix, ensuring that there are no lumps. Add the corn flour to the heated mixture and cook out for three minutes.  Add lemon juice to taste, remember it should be sharp and strong. Pour the heated mix into a clean container, cover and cool.

Next, using a pastry brush line the soufflé moulds with soft butter, remember to keep all the butter brush strokes, even and vertical. Add the sugar, coat and empty any excess.

• 60g sugar
• 120g egg whites
• 180g apple panade

Whisk the egg whites and sugar until they form stiff peaks.

Take one spoonful and add it to the apple panade, mix vigorously, then add the rest of the whites. Fold these through gently.

Carefully spoon the mix equally between the medium-sized moulds, gently knock them on the work surface to get rid of any air bubbles then smooth the top with a pallet knife. Using your thumb, make a small rim on the inside of the soufflé. Bake at 180°c for 8-10 min.

If you do have any questions or if you find that the recipe is still not working for you then do get in touch, I’m happy to help!

Remember I will be cooking with the winner’s of my cooking competition at the Christmas Emporium this weekend at the Hotel. Visit our website for more information on the event.

Happy cooking

Ross