Roast grouse is a bit of a treat. But Husband and I were lucky because someone he knew gave him a brace – he came home a very happy chappy as grouse is his all time fave. So, I walked the dogs to the nearest blackberry bush, foraged a few and then returned home to knock up some bread sauce.

Although I find it hard to take game out of the oven before I think it is thoroughly cooked, grouse is definitely more tender if slightly under. The addition of pureed apple, blackberries, dark green veg and lashings of creamy bread sauce made this a pretty good supper even though I say so myself.

GROUSE WITH BLACKBERRIES AND SLOE GIN

Ingredients serves 2

2 grouse, oven ready, each cavity stuffed with half a lemon or a bunch of thyme

Pancetta or streaky bacon, two slices

Apple sauce

100g sugar

100ml red wine

100g blackberries

50ml sloe gin

Bread sauce (homemade is easy to make and pretty much essential unless you like eating cardboard!)

To prepare/serve

Preheat oven to 190 degrees. Put grouse in roasting dish, cover the breasts with the pancetta or bacon, season with salt and pepper and roast for 16 – 20 mins. Take out of oven and leave to rest loosely covered with foil. Put the blackberries and sloe gin into a small saucepan and heat through gently. Spoon a big dollop of apple sauce onto each warmed dinner plate, top with a grouse, add some blackberries and a big blob of bread sauce. Deglaze the roasting dish (ie scrape up all the delicious caramelised bits) and add the red wine, reheat and then  strain and drizzle over the grouse. Serve with vegetable of your choice – we had tenderstem broccoli.