Haggis, Neeps and Tatties

The dining room, or Garden Room as they like to call it, at the Glenesk Hotel is large spacious and well lit. It gives lovely views over the gardens and the multiple bird tables with their seed holders and balls of fat.

The young chef here, Richard Nair, was Sous Chef under his predecessor, and has given the menu his own spin with a mix of opulent modern dishes alongside some of the old favourites. Indeed the menu is split between six or seven of the modern dishes and four or five 'Old Time Favorites' for each course. The chef states his philosophy on the menu:

The menu offers seasonal contemporary classical dishes using the finest ingredients found within Scotland. 

The menu then goes on to state its suppliers and notes that its fish and vegetables are delivered daily from local suppliers. Very much a place where the food is rooted in the location (or terroir as the French would call it).

The excitement of dinner began before the first course. As people who drink a lot of sparkling bottled water you get to know the taste of a large variety. Some, for example Ty Nant, Decantae, Speyside Glenlivet, have a lovely flavour where the minerals work well with the fizz to make a refreshing balance on the palate. Others (I'd better not name them) taste like someone had taken water, removed all the taste and blasted it with carbon dioxide, the taste is more metallic than water. That being the case it is often interesting to find what water we are having on an evening. Imagine my astonishment then to find that the restaurant at the Glenesk has a sparking water menu - yes a choice of three sparking waters we could choose from each with a little background  on the menu as if they were fine wines. I wonder why nowhere else has thought of this. The choices were between our favorite of this holiday the Speyside Glenlivit water; a Strathmore water and a Vichy Catalan water, the later one we have tried in Spain which has a particularly acquired taste given its high sulphur content. It was no choice for us and we opted for the Speyside.

I opted for the all-time favorites bit of the menu for my starter having the Lamb Scotch Broth. This simple sounding dish was full of flavour and textures than were much richer and more satisfying than a simply reading of the menu would imply. The bowl was packed full of pearl barley and a range of soft succulent vegetables in a warm lamb broth. This was topped by a generous proportion of slices of fresh lamb. If I was making this at home the lamb would be mixed in with the veg, but by putting the lamb on top of the dish the chef manages to showcase this excellent and well cooked ingredient while addressing all the comfort of a traditional dish like this. Well done him, it was excellent. Drew, who sometimes eats the Heinz version of Scotch Broth, said: "It looks nothing like the tinned version" - which it certainly didn't - it was much more special than that.

Drew opted for Wild Garlic Pancakes served with asparagus and pea ragout and a poached quails egg. This was served on a circular slate plate and lived up to the billing as modern cooking. The quails egg, cooked to perfection oozed with yolk when broken and completed the creamy texture of the asparagus and pea ragout. Nicely the pea and asparagus were not only a flavour here, but each vegetable's own flavour enhanced the whole dish lovely crunchy al dente bits of both the pea and the asparagus throughout the dish. 

As the title of this post hints, my main course was also from the all-time favorites selection on the menu, how could I resist something so Scottish as Haggis, Neeps and Tatties (swede and potatoes for the uninitiated). This was a remarkable dish as the chef had resisted being to chefy over it, but had taken excellent products and cooked them very well indeed. The spicy haggis with its rich liver flavour were tempered by the smooth mashed potato and the sweet swede making for a combination which is pure comfort food, and delicious.

Drew's main was Lamb shank with wild garlic and pea risotto and sorrel oil. The lamb was perfectly cooked, juicy and falling off the bone. It hardly needed a folk to be able to eat the juicy meat. The chef had made the risotto in such a way that each grain of rice had distinctive texture. To often a risotto can become gloppy or claggy, but not here, the rice was crisp yet moist filled with fresh garden vegetable flavour and with the rich lamb jus running through it, thus making it a perfect compliment to the meat itself.

Drew struggled with the selection for dessert, would it be the rhubarb and pear cobbler, the cranberry bread and butter pudding or the chocolate and caramel cheesecake. No, it was the Rocky Road Sundae that won the selection. This was chocolate, marshmallow, nuts, cream and a chocolate ice-cream. Drew reports that this was sweet and delicious, it got eaten so quickly that he didn't have time for any other details.

Life was easier for me. I opted for the cheese selection and got a choice of five Scottish cheeses of which I opted for four: a Connage Smoked Dunlop which is a chedder style cheese and was tasty; a Lanark Blue with rich, sharp veins of blue; a Scottish Brie which had a strong flavour, like being bitten back and a wonderfully textured goats cheese with lots of flavour. A perfect end to an excellent meal.

We had coffee in the lounge and this was served with Glencadam Chocolate Fudge which is made locally.

Breakfast

After such a wonderful meal last night we weren't disappointed when we came down for Breakfast at 7.00 am. Breakfast was in the same room as we ate last night and the birds were very busy on their bird table and feeders. 

The breakfast was as good as expected with cumberland sausage, bacon, mushrooms, tomato, black pudding, potato scone and yes, haggis. So having not had haggis at all since arriving in Scotland I have it twice in one 24 hours. But I don't object both the haggis and the black pudding were deeply flavoured and superb. A delightful way to start the day.


After breakfast we packed the car and headed off for our next day of adventures at five past eight.