Description
RR12 Heritage puddings follow breakfast
As chef presented us with honey nut cornflakes crowned with kumquat and molasses, we finished dipping bacon-wrapped croissants in wheat beer. On the palate, cinnamon toffee apples were served with farmhouse cider, a pecan danish and toasted coconut chips dipped in chocolate, all washed down with a glass of apple juice. Water offered a rustic nose, evocative of heritage puddings swimming in condensed milk and topped with chantilly cream. The palate by now was bread and butter pudding, orange zest, bay leaf, and vanilla and cinnamon custard.
Using burnt twigs we stirred coal tar and beech wood-smoked nectarines into a medicinal potion of chamomile and syrup. Then to the mix came figs infused with hickory smoke, sweet mustard and orange segments, before in went barbecued brisket to simmer. A dash of water caused the flames from burning heather to tickle the rind of bacon dipped in treacle as the skin of juicy pineapples bubbled and popped. Our attention now turned to sticky ginger cake and walnuts in brioche buns, fresh from the oven and finished with bramble jam, coffee beans and sprigs of thyme. The starting point for this small batch was two bourbon hogsheads of single malt Scotch whisky. One cask was transferred at 11 years old years old to a first fill American oak PX hogshead, and the other at 10 years old to a refill Spanish oak oloroso hogshead. The casks were then married together before bottling.
RR55 Rhubarb and fig crumble
We imagined making delicious orange and kumquat marmalade as we cooked pork loin in cider and poured ourselves a pint of heather ale. The taste was floral, with a full malt body and plenty of herbal spice, as well as cracked black pepper on tinned fruit salad. Following reduction, the fruity aroma of ripe red apples arrived ahead of the scent of toasted almond flakes, rhubarb and fig crumble before a freshly brewed cup of rosehip and cranberry tea emerged. On the palate, the tea changed to a sweet hibiscus accompanied by milk chocolate and pear mille feuille, preceding churros in the finish.