It’s the best time of the year for cod, and we’re also making our own braised venison croquettes

This week’s specials

31st January – 2nd February, 2025

Battered North Sea cod served with hand-cut chips, minted peas and homemade tartare sauce  £13.95

Ever since I started at The Rhynd last summer, I have been keen to get fish and chips on the menu. And the time has come! This is a great time of year for cod as they move inshore to feed and spawn during the winter months.

You also catch the best cod after a storm, such as the recent Storm Eowyn. It’s obviously a Catch-22 as if it’s too big, the boats can’t get out. However, when they can, the cod is amazing, and I’ve ordered ours from my fish man David Lowrie. The bulk of their white fish comes from Peterhead market and the fish all goes through a grading process so that he only delivers the best. He’s also an advocate of sustainable fishing methods, which suits us perfectly.

David Lowrie with Monica Galetti

On the side of the battered cod, I’m doing hand-cut chips made from Maris Piper potatoes from Ivan Wood, minted peas and homemade tartare sauce. Tartare sauce doesn’t have that many ingredients, but the difference between fresh and bought is massive, so it’s always worth making your own.

I’m not a big fisherman, but I did go out with my mate Neil a while ago. He took me out in the middle of winter, when it was four degrees below freezing, and we were out for six hours. It was not the most pleasant of experiences and, while he caught loads, I caught nothing. He did give me a cod he’d caught, though, and that was enormous, so it wasn’t all bad! I feel like my talents lie in a warm kitchen, not on the open sea, but it was great to see how much effort and hard work goes into catching fish properly.

Cod is such a versatile fish and it’s gone up in price a lot recently. It used to be quite cheap, and in many cultures it’s the staple, cheap food, but it’s becoming much more of a delicacy here in the UK. You can poach it, salt it, fry it, even put it in a curry, so there’s a lot of ways to prepare it. A delicious batter is one of my favourites, though, and it deserves to be one of the more expensive fish.

Braised venison croquettes with crispy shallots and a Drambuie sauce £9.95

I made some pork croquettes for our supper club recently, and these are a version of those with our own roedeer. It’s interesting using our own venison as it’s very unpredictable in terms of supply! If you want to put venison on the menu, you’ll go out to try and find some roedeer and you won’t get any for weeks. Then, when you don’t need it, you see them everywhere!

Using our own roedeer at our wine safari and forest feast in the summer

The venison I am using is from the shoulder and I braise that in lots of red wine and tomatoes on a base of carrots, celery and onions (what we like to call the ‘Holy Trinity!’). You then add mashed potato and béchamel sauce to bind it together, as well as some dill and chives from the herb garden here. Covered in panko breadcrumbs, they’re delicious!

The braised venison I made for our forest feast