Inn makes the most of good food on its doorstep

The Buchanan family bought the inn 30 years ago with Marion and Victor Buchanan taking over in 1996.

Head chef Darren Clemmitt has been in charge of the White Swan kitchen for 21 years and specialises in "sourced from the doorstep" English cuisine.

"We're delighted with the debut entry. We've been cooking with great local produce for over 21 years, and it's great to be recognised for what we do well. Luckily, we've the best ingredients on our doorstep," explains Clemmitt.

"At the White Swan, we cook seasonally and locally, but it's not a marketing gimmick, it's just the right way to run a kitchen. We're spoilt for choice of great ingredients.

"The grouse moors are in spitting distance. The coast is just a few miles away bringing an abundance of seafood. Terrific beef, lamb and pork are farmed nearby. Yorkshire is the pantry of England."

DARREN CLEMMIT'S GAME RECIPES

Roast grouse with game chips, bread sauce, stewed redcurrants and watercress

Serves 2

2 grouse (oven ready)

Handful of chopped thyme

Salt and pepper

20ml port

100ml chicken stock

1 shallot chopped

Sprigs of watercress

1 cup of redcurrants

2 tablespoons of sugar

For the game chips

600g potato

oil for deep frying

sea salt

For the bread sauce

One-day-old loaf unsliced white bread

1 litre/2 pints full-fat milk

1 onion, peeled and quartered

4 cloves

2 fresh bay leaves

1 tsp white peppercorns

2 blades fresh mace or heaped tsp ground mace

2 tsp salt

30g/1oz butter

2 tbsp double cream, optional

1 fresh nutmeg, for grating

Roll the grouse in the chopped thyme and season well. Pan fry grouse in a knob of butter for one minute until brown and place in oven for 12 minutes and let the birds rest for six minutes in foil.

Add shallots to the pan you browned the grouse in and soften, add port and stock and reduce to a thickened sauce. Wilt the redcurrants with the sugar and cook until soft. Set aside.

To make the bread sauce, remove the crust from the bread and tear the stripped loaf into a mound of rough chunks or cubes about 2cm/in in size. You should end up with 175-200g (6-7oz) of cubes. If the bread is not slightly stale already, leave the pieces out on a wire rack to dry out.

Pour the milk into a saucepan. Press a clove into each quarter of the onion.

Add the onion quarters, bay leaves, peppercorns and the blades of mace (or sprinkle the ground mace into the pan) along with the salt and bring to the mixture almost to its boiling point.

Remove the pan from the heat. Cover the pan with a lid and let the ingredients infuse for at least half-an-hour, though you can leave it for a few hours if that helps with your cooking schedule.

After the mixture has infused, place the pan back on a very low heat. Using a slotted spoon, remove the onions, peppercorns, cloves, bay leaves and the blades of mace.

Add the bread to the saucepan and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring every now and then, by which time the sauce should have become thick and warm.

Just before serving the bread sauce, add the butter to the saucepan and stir until the butter has melted and combined with the

sauce and season, to taste, with salt.

Add the cream (if using). Grate over quite a bit of nutmeg, adding more once you have poured the bread sauce into a warmed bowl

or gravy boat.

To make the game chips, peel the potatoes and slice them wafer thin with a mandolin, Japanese vegetable slicer, or by hand.

Place them in a bowl of water for 20 minutes (this is to remove the starch). Heat the oil in a deep fryer or wok to 190 C.

Dry the potato slices thoroughly and fry them in the oil in batches for a couple of minutes each so that they are crisp and golden.

Drain them on paper towelling and sprinkle a little salt over them. Keep warm until ready to serve. This can be done 30 minutes in advance.

Assemble the dish.

Remove the grouse from bone and arrange on plate. Serve with a teaspoon of redcurrant stew on side with game chips and bread sauce. Spoon sauce over grouse and serve with watercress.

Seared pigeon breast with parsnip pure, red cabbage and pan juices

Serves 2

2 pigeon breasts – seasoned with salt & pepper

1 parsnip

20ml cream

Salt and pepper to season

25ml red wine

clove garlic chopped

100ml chicken stock

1 teaspoon of red currant jelly

To make the pure, boil the parsnip until tender and drain and pure. Add the cream and season to taste and set aside in a warm place.

Pan fry the pigeon breasts for 30 seconds each side and remove from the pan and keep warm – they should be pink and tender. Add the red wine garlic and chicken stock to the pan and reduce, adding a teaspoon of redcurrant jelly to give the sauce some depth.

For the red cabbage

red cabbage,

3 teaspoons of sugar

Glass of red wine

Pinch of fresh thyme

bay leaf

Cook together slowly for an hour Slice the pigeon breasts thinly and plate up the pure and arrange slices over the parsnip and cabbage and drizzle over the sauce and serve warm.