Yorkshire on a plate

Should we ever need to become self-sufficient, we’d probably do OK in Yorkshire. From world famous rhubarb to award-winning meat and cheese, we pretty much have it all and in a new series for the Yorkshire Post our chefs pick their favourite recipes using the best of the county’s produce.

James Mackenzie,
The Pipe and Glass

Stuffed roast breast of chicken with braised peas and broad beans, crispy smoked bacon and garden thyme

This is a great dish served in the summer months when the peas and broad beans are in abundance.

Serves 4

Ingredients

5 free range chicken breasts

Pigs caul fat (any good butchers should have this)

1 ham hock, boiled

400ml double cream

Few sprigs fresh thyme

250g Yorkshire peas

250g broad beans

8 rashers of smoked streaky bacon

1 little gem lettuce

500ml chicken stock

Handful pea shoots

100g baby onions

50g butter

50g flour

Method

To make the stuffing, which is really a kind of mousse, remove the meat from the cooked ham hock. Dice one of the chicken breasts and place in a food processor, season with a little salt and pepper and blitz until smooth. Pour in half the double cream while the processor is still going and continue until it has all been incorporated. Remove the chicken mixture into a bowl and add the picked ham hock and some fresh chopped thyme.

Divide the mix on top of the four chicken breast and wrap in the caul fat to make a parcel. Place in the fridge until needed.

Place the streaky bacon in individual strips flat on a greased baking sheet and bake in the oven until crispy. Bring a pan of water to the boil and blanch the peas and broad beans separately and refresh in ice water. Remove the outer shell of the broad beans as this makes for a much more refined dish.

Sear the peeled baby onions in a frying pan until golden brown. Place 200ml of chicken stock in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Mix the butter and flour together and whisk into the boiling stock, then remove from the heat. Reduce the rest of the chicken stock by two thirds, add the remaining double cream and boil until a sauce consistency. Cook the chicken by browning in a frying pan in a little rapeseed oil and then transfer to a baking tray and cook in the oven for about 20 minutes. When cooked, remove from the oven and rest for 5–10 minutes.

To finish the braised peas, shred the lettuce and chop four of the crispy bacon rashers. Bring the thickened chicken stock back to the boil and add the peas, broad beans, baby onions, bacon and lettuce and simmer for two minutes. Finish with some chopped thyme and a knob of butter. Serve the chicken with a pot of the braised peas and broad beans, a piece of crispy bacon, some pea shoots and some of the sauce.

Andrew Pern, The Star Inn, Harome

Soft-boiled village duck egg with a toasted white Whitby crab ‘sandwich’, North Sea brown shrimp and mace butter and celery salt

Serves 2

Ingredients

100g unsalted butter

5g ground mace

50g brown shrimp, peeled

5g dill, chopped

2 slices brown bread

50g white Whitby crabmeat

Zest half a lime

10g cucumber, finely diced

2tbsp mayonnaise

2 duck eggs

Sprinkling of celery salt

Seasoning

Method

First make the crab sandwich, by adding the lime zest and cucumber to the crabmeat and binding together with the mayonnaise. Toast the bread and cut into rectangular shapes. Season the crab mixture to taste.

Add the mace and butter to a pan and clarify by melting gently. Skim off all the froth from the surface. You will then see a clear yellow layer on top of a milky layer. It’s the clear fat you want, so carefully pour it into a bowl or jug, adding the shrimps at the last minute along with the dill.

Drop the duck eggs into boiling water and then turn the heat to low, simmering for approximately eight minutes. Remove from the water and serve with the sandwich, shrimp butter and celery salt.

Mehdi Boukemachi,
Fodder in Harrogate

Herb crusted rack of lamb

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 butchery prepared racks of lamb

2tbsp rapeseed oil

4tbsp Dijon mustard

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped

2tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped

2tbsp fresh parslely, finely chopped

Salt and pepper to season

200g fresh breadcrumbs

Method

Place the racks flesh side up in a roasting tin and score the flesh 
(a butcher will do this for you, just ask). Mix together the oil, mustard, garlic, herbs, salt and pepper, spread and rub in the mixture evenly between all four racks and if possible leave in the fridge overnight.

When ready sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the top. Place the roasting tin in a pre-heated 200C oven for 15 to 25 minutes depending on whether you like your lamb pink or medium.

Leave to rest for 10 minutes before serving on a bed of creamy mash potatoes and seasonal greens.

Especially divine served with lightly blanched local asparagus with a splash of lemon juice.

Dan Field of the Devonshire Brasserie and Bar, Bolton Abbey

Beetroot salad with Yorkshire blue cheese dressing

To serve as few or as many as you need

Ingredients

Salad leaf selection (I like to use lollo rosso, radicchio, red chard and frissée)

Beetroot, leeks, carrot, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, red onion

200g Yorkshire blue cheese (we use Shepherds Purse)

2tbsp mayonnaise

2 sprigs fresh tarragon

Method

Thinly slice the beetroot. Blanch the leeks for 5 minutes and then cool in cold water. Create carrot shavings with a peeler, blanch for 1 minute and immediately cool in cold water. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and slice the cucumber, finely slice the red onion and mix in with the salad leaf selection. In a blender blitz the fresh tarragon, Yorkshire blue cheese and mayonnaise and add to salad. Serve with warm bread from your local baker.

Share your favourite Yorkshire recipes

Now it’s over to you. Whether it be the ingredients for the perfect Yorkshire pudding or a recipe for parkin handed down the generations we want to hear from you. As part of the Yorkshire Kitchen series we want to collect reader’s favourite dishes inspired by God’s own county and taking part couldn’t be easier. There are three ways to submit your recipes – email [email protected], log onto our website at www.yorkshirepost.co.uk and add as a comment once today’s recipes go online or write to Yorkshire Post, Features Department, No 1 Leeds, 26 Whitehall Road, Leeds LS12 1BE.