Neil Hitchen, head chef at The Berkeley Arms in Wymondham, kindly provided us with his recipe for Chargrilled Wood Pigeon (featured in our previous blog article) as part of the National Taste of Game Fortnight.  The National Taste of Game Fortnight highlights the benefits of game meat as a local, wild and nutritious food, encouraging the public to discover the great taste of game - values reflected in the quality of game recipes served by Neil at The Berkeley Arms.

To mark the end of National taste of Game Fortnight, Neil has provided another of his mouth-watering game recipes: The Berkeley Arms' exclusive recipe for Roast Mallard Duck.

 

Roast Mallard Duck

with Blackberries

Serves 4 Main Course Size

 

 

Ingredients

 

2 plump wild ducks

1 small onion - roughly chopped

1 carrot - roughly chopped

2 celery sticks - roughly chopped

A few sprigs of thyme and bay leaves

Knob of butter

Salt & pepper

½ tablespoon of flour

175ml red wine

½ teaspoon redcurrant jelly

500ml chicken stock

100g blackberries

 

Method

 

Preheat the oven 230C/Gas mark 8

Brush the ducks with butter and season with salt and pepper

Place the vegetables and thyme in a roasting tray and place the ducks on top of the vegetables.  Roast the birds for 30 minutes then remove from the roasting tray and leave to rest.

Add the flour to the roasting tray and stir well over a medium heat for 1 minute. Pour in the wine and redcurrant jelly and whisk, gradually adding the chicken stock. Simmer for 10 minutes until the sauce is reduced by half.

 

Sieve the sauce into a saucepan, add the blackberries and any juice from the duck, keep warm.

 

To serve the duck - remove the legs and cut the breasts away from the bone, slice and serve with the sauce.

 

Ideally serve the duck with buttered savoy cabbage and roasted parsnips.

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The Berkeley Arms is proud to use locally sourced game in their recipes. Below are some photographs of ducks being delivered directly to the pub from the shoot at nearby Stapleford by host Vernon Moore, and his son Max.

 

These photographs and recipes was kindly provided for us by Neil and Louise Hitchen, owners of the Berkeley Arms, photographed below.

For further information on The Berkeley Arms call Louise Hitchen on: 01572 787587 email: info@theberkeleyarms.co.uk or visit www.theberkeleyarms.co.uk