Darts Farm

Topsham, Devon
EX3 0QH
Tel: 01392 878 200
Email: [email protected]

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November on The Farm

November on The Farm

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There's a moment each autumn when The Farm Table kitchen changes gear. Salads step aside, and by midday on a Sunday the smell of roast beef is drifting across the restaurant. It’s been a while, but Sunday Roast season is finally here...

We take our roast very seriously, with insane attention to detail at every stage, from farm to table. We roast whole sirloins of beef from our own herd of Ruby Red Devon cattle. They're a rare breed, prized for richly flavoured, tender meat. We select young stock on Exmoor (often from our butcher’s brothers farm), graze them on pasture across our wetlands, then fatten them up a little on surplus potatoes from the farm. Rare breeds only survive if people keep choosing them, so every roast is a small vote for a special breed of cattle that shaped Devon farming.

Only when ready, each animal is hand selected by our butchers, then locally slaughtered & dry aged here at Darts for a minimum of 40 days in whole carcass form. Attention to detail at every stage sounds like a cliché until you taste it.

Game season has returned too, with local pheasant & partridge coming in weekly. Wild, seasonal and good value, it deserves far more space on our tables than it gets. We often turn pheasant into schnitzel, crisp and golden, and spatchcock the partridge so it cooks fast with crackling skin. Partridge loves a partner of seasonal hero quince, which turns fragrant, rosy and gently tart after slow cooking, and cuts through the richness beautifully.

November Recipe: Creedy Carver duck breast, warm salad, turnip, kale, pickled apple and Sandford orchards cider dressing.

Difficulty:
Prep time: 40 mins
Cook time: 45 mins
Serves: 2 main courses or 4 starters
Creedy Carver duck breast warm salad, turnip, kale, pickled apple and Sandford orchards cider dressing. Image 1
Creedy Carver duck breast warm salad, turnip, kale, pickled apple and Sandford orchards cider dressing. Image 2

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Duck Seasonality

Ingredients

  • 2x Creedy Carver Duck breasts
  • 200g of kale
  • 1x large eating apple (cider pickling liquid: 200ml of cider, 200ml of cider vinegar, 100g sugar
  • Salt, Bay leaf, Star anise)
  • 4x larger turnips
  • Olive oil
  • Salt
  • Black pepper
  • 2x bottles of Sandford orchards the general cider.
  • 80g of Dijon mustard
  • 100ml of cider vinegar
  • 200-300ml of rapeseed oil

(food processor or hand blender)

(Food temperature probe)

Method

Reduce the two bottles of cider in a large saucepan to a syrup, then let cool.

With the duck breasts, trim off any excess fat and lightly score the fat.

Put all the ingredients for the pickling liquid in to a sauce pan, bring up to a boil then remove from the heat and leave to cool. Once cool slice the apple, removing the core, and putting it into the pickling liquid.

Pick the leaves of kale away from the stem and wash them. Then rub them with olive oil and salt, massaging the seasoning into the leaves to help soften them.

Wash the turnips and cut into large wedges, roast in a 180oc oven with oil, salt and a splash of water for 20 minutes or until soft and golden.

For the cider dressing in a food processor add the cider syrup, cider vinegar, Dijon mustard and blend. Now, while the machine is on, slowly add rapeseed oil till it thickens, add cold water if it gets too thick or begins to split out, stop once it has taken all the oil or is thick.

For the cooking of the duck breast, in a heave bottomed pan or cast-iron pan, salt the duck breast both sides then place fat side down in to the pan, ideally do this straight away, it doesn’t need to be a hot pan. Once the fat starts to render, put a 6-minute timer on and keep the heat at a medium flame. We are looking for a crispy skin and a core temp of 50oc before flipping over to the flesh side for 20-30 seconds. Then remove and rest for 8 minutes, this should rest the meat up to 56oc. After resting slice thinly, season with more salt if needed.

To build the salad, put a bit of cider dressing in the bottom of the bowl, then in a mixing bowl, toss your raw kale and your warm roasted turnips together with a good spoonful of cider dressing, put a good handful of this in the bowl. Then place the pickled apple and duck slices over the top.

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