Ayrshire grown to your dining table
Michael Shedden, a 30- year- old from Cumnock, has for four years served as a chef at Woodlands on Dumfries House estate, where he works under head chef Tom Scoble.
“The restaurant is totally different to anything else in Ayrshire,” explains Michael.
“Everything is fresh, many of the ingredients are sourced from within a mile of the restaurant elsewhere on the estate, and everything is made in the kitchen.”
The team at Woodlands will regularly share with Ayrshire Post readers a selection of seasonal, make- at- home recipes. Here, Michael describes how to make venison with summer vegetable navarin. The Dish He explained: “We added a light venison dish to the menu at Woodlands in summer and it proved very popular. When we serve it in the restaurant, everything is fresh and sourced locally to reduce food miles. The baby turnips come from a farm at Turnberry and the venison comes from the estate itself. Working in this way offers great experience for the chefs and I really enjoy the process of preparing and cooking venison for visitors.
“To make a similar dish at home, start by searing four 200g venison loins in a hot pan before finishing them in the oven at 180 until they are cooked to your liking.
“Next, blanch your chosen selection of vegetables in a pot filled with slightly salted boiling water until they are al dente before adding 50g butter and seasoning them with salt and pepper. For the vegetables, I would recommend using eight baby carrots, four halved baby turnips, 100g podded broad beans, 100g peeled silverskin onions and eight trimmed asparagus spears to give the dish a variation of flavour and colour.
“You should then peel and cube four maris piper potatoes before blanching them in salted boiling water then coating them in olive oil and roasting them in the oven at 180 for 15- 20 minutes. You should also roast 12 cherry tomatoes with oil, salt and pepper until the skins start to burst.
“Finally, thinly slice two large peeled carrots and cook them in salted water until they are tender, then purée them in a food processor with 75g butter. You will know it’s ready when the mixture is smooth and creamy.
“This dish would work well for when you have guests for dinner as it is very tasty but quite unusual. For dessert, I would recommend something that contains zesty lemon as this is refreshing and acts as a palate cleanser.”