Working with suppliers

Hyden Farms guinea fowl and foie gras terrine set in its consomme,

Muscat grapes, bourban spiced almonds and butterscotch

At the hotel, we have just started working with a new farm named Hyden Organics(http://www.hydenorganics.co.uk/). They have fantastic produce such as Longhorn beef, Hampshire Down lamb, saddleback pigs, Indian game chickens, Aylesbury ducks and guinea fowl, plus guinea fowl eggs when we're lucky. After visting the farm and meeting Richard Jones and his team we were very impressed. They farm in traditional methods which means slower breeding. We have tried their chickens, guinea fowl, lamb and pork so far and the quality is fantastic. So good in fact was the guinea fowl that i wasted no time in getting a terrine ready to go onto the a la carte menu. Here's the dish explanation;

The guinea fowl legs are confit in duck fat, along with the breasts which are kept on the crown. The foie gras is cleaned, wrapped in cheese cloth and confit in the duck fat also for about 15 minutes at 60C. The trimmings from the fowl are used to make the consomme. The almonds are boiled with bourban, bitters and sugar and left to marinade. They are then roasted through the oven and then tossed in a spice mix of salt, cumin, cayenne. The Muscat grapes have just arrived at our doorstep(first of the season), so i peeled them and kept the skin. I dried both the grapes and the skin for two days. I removed the pips from the dried grapes, then roughly chopped the skin and rolled the grapes through the skin. A kind of deconstructed - reconstructed (god i hate those words) grape. The butterscotch is just sugar, dry caramelised, then monte with butter and cream, then i add lemon juice to unsweeten slightly.