FIRST MEAL
FIRST HOME, FIRST MEAL
Richard Craven, Head Chef of the One Michelin-starred The Royal Oak, creates this mouthwatering recipe
PETE’S TROUT, FRESH PEAS AND LAST YEAR’S ELDERFLOWER
“We regularly get amazingly super fresh trout from one of our neighbours Pete. We barter with him for real ale which he understandably quite likes, but I think we de nitely get the better end of the deal. The trout is always stunning or "a good sh" as Pete would say. “We have done quite a few different dishes with the trout but I have found myself coming back to this particular avour combination every year. This is a relatively simple dish that is great when friends and family visit and allows a beautiful natural avour of both the trout and peas to shine. “We infuse a Champagne vinegar with elder ower picked in the village that allows us to get this beautiful avour on the menu a little before the season gets underway and this balances with the sweet fresh peas beautifully. You can buy elder ower vinegar online if you can’t wait a year!”
Richard Craven, known as The Rural Cook, is the award-winning countryside chef elevating wild and foraged local ingredients at his Warwickshire Michelin- starred pub, The Royal Oak. Born in Marsden, Hudders eld, on the Yorkshire Dales, Richard has always lived and worked in the countryside, most notably around the Cotswolds. After studying in Chipping Campden, Richard started pot washing in a local hotel before joining The Seymour Hotel working his way up from breakfast chef to Chef De Partie, becoming Sous Chef at just 21. It was while working with Emily Watkins (ex Sous Chef at The Fat Duck) at The Kingham Plough that Richard found his love for re ned pub food using only the best seasonal ingredients. The regularly changing menu allowed a creativity that he fell in love with. After meeting his South African girlfriend Solanche, now wife, they spent a brief year in her home country working at The Tasting Room, Cape Town. Richard was quickly made Sous Chef under Margot Janse and was cooking with game including wildebeest and warthog. While Richard was there, the restaurant scored 31 in the San Pellegrino’s 50 Best and was voted the number one restaurant in South Africa and the Middle East. On returning to the UK, Richard and Solanche opened the Chef’s Dozen, a 24-cover restaurant, in 2011. Eventually they needed larger premises and scoured the Cotswolds for the perfect location and it wasn’t long before one of their suppliers, Paddock Farm, told them about an 800-year-old pub on the market, The Royal Oak in Whatcote, on the edge of the Cotswolds. The pub had been closed for three years and in 2017 Solanche and Richard moved in, opening as The Royal Oak pub and dining room. Within two years, the pub had won a Michelin star. The Royal Oak serves modern, re ned country food with a strong emphasis on game (80% of the menu is wild or foraged). Richard runs the small kitchen brigade and Solanche oversees the front of house and the South African-leaning wine list. The 28-cover, dog-friendly pub boasts a relaxed atmosphere with a pool table, dart board, chess, board games and a roaring re. When not in the kitchen, Richard enjoys spending time with his wife and Portuguese sheepdog Hamilton and is a proli c reader and Leeds United fan.
INGREDIENTS
Elder ower vinegar: 500ml Champagne
vinegar or chardonnay vinegar instead 15 elder ower umbels (heads) – you can buy these from a health shop Apple balls: 3 Granny Smith apples 200ml apple juice Juice of half a lemon Trout: 400ml oil 6 x 100g trout llets 400g fresh peas 200ml water 10ml elder ower vinegar 75g diced butter 20g broom owers (or alternatively 20g shredded garden mint) Remove the stalks from the elder ower and place in a bowl. In the meantime, bring the vinegar to a simmer in a pan then pour over the elder ower, leave to steep at room temperature for two days. Strain through a muslin cloth or J Cloth to remove all of the bits and keep in sterile bottles in a cool, dark place until it is needed.
Place the peas in a pan and just cover them with water. Boil for 4 minutes until the water has reduced down by three quarters and the peas are starting to cook. Take off the heat. Add the elder ower vinegar to the existing pea water. Now add the diced butter a little at a time and stir until it emulsi es together keeping it off the heat. Spoon the pea and butter sauce on to the centre of the plate. Peel the skin off the trout and season with sea salt. Place the trout on top of the peas and add the fresh apple and owers to serve.
with a small Parisienne scoop/ melon baller or alternately dice. Place the apple in apple juice with a little lemon juice to stop from oxidising.
ELDERFLOWER VINEGAR 1
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METHOD 1
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Gently heat the oil in a thick bottomed pan on the stove top until it reaches approximately 50C (if you don’t have a thermometer it’s similar to a hot bath, so under a simmer), take the pan off the heat and add the trout directly to the oil and leave for approximately 10 minutes until a skewer passes through the esh easily, without resistance.
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APPLE BALLS 1
theroyaloakwhatcote.co.uk
Peel the apples and portion
116 First Time Buyer June/July 2024
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