Uncategorized

Our new April menu is fully underway. On the 1st of April the staff & chefs sat down and did a tasting of  the menu alongside the wine pairings we’d matched allowing us to do any tweaks we felt necessary, resulting in a April menu full of spring delights for your pleasure. Below are some pictures of the dishes you can expect to be sampling.

To see the full menu please look at our Food & Drink page. To book a table please call on 01275 396888, email [email protected] or use the contact form on the contact us page.

 

Photography by Zac Gates. For enquiries contact [email protected]

Asparagus

At the pub we know spring has finally arrived when Tom from Reg the Veg starts bringing in the first of the years Wye Valley asparagus. Hopefully like us you’ll have avoided all temptation to buy imported asparagus through the rest of the year so once spring comes around we appreciate the native green spears that bit more.

While asparagus is in season it doesn’t leave our menu, and why should it? It’s utterly delicious and the relatively short season encourages us to enjoy it in as many different ways as possible.

There is so much you can do with asparagus, especially when there is a glut in the height of the season although we prefer it in its simplest form, briefly boiled in salted water with a poached egg or shaved and tossed through a salad.

Currently on our menu we are serving chargrilled asparagus with homemade ricotta, hazelnuts and mint. Below are our recipes and methods to create this dish:

Preparing Asparagus:

Firstly, snap the stems at the natural point of breaking to remove any fibrous woody sections of stalk. Secondly, blanch stems in salted boiling water for 2 minutes until tender. To give the stems a smoky barbequed taste place spears on a smoking hot chargrill or griddle pan.

To make our Ricotta:

1L Whole milk

250g Double cream

30g Lemon Juice

Salt

Digital Probe

Weigh cream, milk and a pinch of salt into a pan and bring up to 87®C, then add lemon juice. Cover the pan with a lid and leave at room temperature for 3 hours to allow the creamy mixture to split and coagulate. Pour the mixture through muslin or a fine meshed sieve and collect the ricotta. Store this in the fridge until required.

Hazelnut Dressing:

2 diced shallot

100g sherry vinegar

100g hazelnut oil

300g rapeseed oil

100g toasted chopped hazelnuts

Method:

Put shallots and rapeseed oil in a pan and cook very slowly until shallots are tender. Add sherry vinegar, hazelnut oil and chopped hazelnuts. Finish by finally adding salt and lemon juice to taste. Dress the warm chargrilled asparagus with this dressing before serving.

Over the last week or so we have been working on an aperitif list for the spring months. Using various spirits, including some we made ourselves we’ve come up with 5 different drinks to suit all different tastes.

An aperitif is a pre meal drink, that is often alcoholic.  Classic aperitifs include champagne, vermouth, gin & dry sherry . These drinks are normally dry as drinks with a high sugar content can limit your appetite, however we’ve included a few sweeter ones for those of you with a sweet tooth.

Below is our aperitif list and a recipe for our spring negroni included.

 

Aperitifs

Morello cherry fix

(prosecco, Morello cherry liqueur)

 

Marmalade & grapefruit julep

(Marmalade vodka, grapefruit, Cointreau & mint)  

 

Lime gimlet

(Sipsmith gin & lime)

 

Ginger spritz

(Homemade ginger cordial, soda, mint & lime)

 

Hibiscus & Rhubarb Negroni  

(Rhubarb & Hibiscus gin, campari & sweet vermouth)

Rhubarb & hibiscus gin recipe

 The hibiscus isn’t essential but adds good colour and flavour. Available online.

70cl bottle of gin (nothing too expensive)

300g rhubarb

3 dried hibiscus flowers

100g sugar

juice of 1 lemon

Roughly chop the rhubarb and macerate with the sugar and lemon juice. After an hour pour over the gin, give it a good mix and put into sterilised kilner jars. Give it a little shake every few days. After 2 weeks pass through muslin and bottle up. Keep hold on to your rhubarb – you can use this as a garnish.

To make  a Rhubarb and Hibiscus negroni;

You will need;

Homemade Rhubarb Gin

Campari

Martini Rosso

1 rocks glass

1 spoon

Ice

Fill your glass with ice and add your spirits one by one, stirring for 10 seconds after each spirit is added. To garnish add a slice of orange and a couple of pieces of rhubarb. Voila!

The last of the root vegetables are coming through the kitchen and we say goodbye to braised and hearty, warming winter food. Come April our menu will feature English asparagus, spring lamb, jersey royal new potatoes, St Georges mushrooms and artichokes. Needless to say, we cant wait.

However one of the first ingredients that signifies the end of winter for us is wild garlic. As you walk through the woods at the bottom of the road, the unmistakable smell hits you. It appears as soon as the days start to warm and covers the floor of whole swathes of woodland. It’s free and easy to identify. So there’s no excuses. Get out and about.

It’s grassy pungent flavour works beautifully with beef, lamb, chicken, cod, mushrooms (especially morels) and many other things. It’s great thrown into a sauce at the last second to wilt gently and infuse. Its flavour mellows as it is cooked and produces a fantastic soup or puree. Just blanched in salted water and served alongside a peice of meaty cod its a vegetable in itself.  The list goes on…

We’ve had numerous requests for our wild garlic risotto recipe and so here it is, as well as a few other things we do with this brilliant leaf.

 

Wild garlic risotto

1 small onion, finely diced

1 clove of garlic

200g risotto rice (we use arborio)

1 glass of white wine

500g vegetable stock

2 big handfuls of wild garlic

50g parmesan, grated

2 large knobs of wild garlic butter (see below)

 

Warm the stock, In a separate pan sweat the onion, garlic and seasoning in a large knob of butter until soft and sweet but not coloured, add the rice and cook, stirring, for a minute or so, when all the grains are coated with butter and the rice smells slightly toasted add the wine and let it boil away to almost nothing. Now start adding the vegetable stock one large ladleful at a time constantly stirring the risotto. You want it to cook on a steady simmer so adjust the heat appropriately and when the pan starts getting dry, add more stock. When all the stock has been added, check the rice is cooked, you may have to add a little more stock or water. When you’re happy your rice is cooked remove it from the heat. Add your wild garlic, wild garlic butter and grated Parmesan and beat with a wooden spoon until the garlic wilts into the risotto and the butter and parmesan melt. Add a squeeze of lemon juice, season, taste and serve.

It is wonderful topped with morels or St Georges mushrooms lightly fried in butter.

 

Wild garlic butter

4 big handfuls of wild garlic, roughly chopped

250g unsalted butter, room temperature

salt and lemon juice

Add the butter and garlic to a food processor and blitz to a pastel green. Season to taste with salt and lemon juice.

We serve this with a rare onglet steak.

 

Wild garlic and potato soup

Butter

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 leek white, thinly sliced

2 potatoes, peeled and roughly diced

1 litre of vegetable stock

8 big hanfuls of wild garlic

cream (if desired)

Sweat the onions and leek in the butter with seasoning until soft and sweet, but without colour. Add the potatoes and cook for a few more minutes then add the stock and bring the boil, cook until the poatoes are tender. Whilst still at a rolling boil add your garlic and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat, Blitz until totally smooth then pass into bowl sat in ice water. Whisking at regular intervals. This is important as it cools the soup quickly and is necessary to retain the vibrant green colour. Add some cream when you reheat the soup, season to taste with salt and lemon juice.

 

 

 

 

 

Bird. In. Hand. 

Would you like the good news or bad news first?? Okay then, bad it is…

From the 16th March there will be road closures and diversions getting into Newford Green for 7 weeks due to road resurfacing.. Don’t fear, you will still be able to get us, it will just take you slightly longer than usual – so please be aware upon making reservations to factor in a little longer travelling time. However parking in front of the Pub will still be available apart from the weekend of the 28th where a stretch of road in front of the pub will be impassable.

 

The good news? At least after works are complete your journey to us will be a lot smoother and your cars a lot happier!

 

As soon it’s on the council website we will post a link to that also.

 

 

 

Mains: All £10

Chicken & pig’s trotter pie

Beef cheek & kidney suet pudding

Smoked haddock & shellfish pie

Field mushroom, leek barley & blue cheese pie

 

 

Desserts: All £5

Sticky toffee pudding

Apple pie & cider brandy custard

Sussex pond pudding

Chocolate pudding & stout ice cream

Every Wednesday we are going to be posting an image of something related to our name. To kick things off we have chosen this image of Lucipher  a male juvenile Gyp/Peregrine Hybrid Falcon. Great name, great photo.

With the rise in popularity of craft beer, on the 12th November we have decided to serve up a 7 course tasting menu in conjunction with Bath Ales. Rather than your usual wine & food pairings we have carefully matched a beer to each course – ranging from blonde beers to stout, with the aim for the food & the beer to bring out the best in each other.

Please call or email to book a space. A £10ph deposit will be required.

Bath Ales Food & Beer Tasting menu

12.11.14

 

£40 per person

 

£20 per person drinks flight

 

 

Smoked venison & beetroot

Beerd ‘Monocle’ English pale ale

 

 

Mackerel, fennel & pink grapefruit

Beerd ‘Silvertip’ New Zealand hops pale ale

 

 

Slow cooked egg, Jerusalem artichoke, cobnut crisp

Bath Ales ‘Barnsey’ bitter

 

 

Walnut crusted hake, leeks, mussels, barley & wheat beer

Steen Brugge blond bier

 

 

Mallard, celeriac, kale & quince

Bath Ales ‘Wild Hare’ organic pale ale

 

 

Cheesecake, pear & gingerbread

Bath Ales ‘Ginger Hare’ spiced ale

 

 

Dark chocolate tart & malt ice cream

Bath Ales ‘Darkside’ stout

 

 

 

All food is hand made on the premises from locally sourced ingredients.

All food may contain some traces of nuts.

 

 

 

 

 

 Spring at the Bird In Hand.

We had a great evening on the 16th, hosting our tasting evening. It certainly got everyone here at the Bird, hopefully our guests also, in the swing of spring.

However we didn’t want to leave out those that couldn’t make it on the 16th…

Zac Gates, the great photographer & official gin taster, came down & assisted us in our mission to share our seasonal antics in the form of pictures.

 

Wye Valley asparagus, westcombe ricotta, mint & hazelnut vinigarette

 

Beef Onglet & short rib, onion, pearl barley & wild garlic

 

Olive crusted cod, white bean, pepper & clams

Duck liver parfait, gizzards, smoked hearts, radish & orange

Rhubarb Eton mess

 

Tempting…?