Skomer Cooking

 I dug these recipes out of the library on Skomer this summer. All due credit must go to the author, one Roger Gershon, who wrote these in 1986. They were discovered at the back of one of the photograph albums...

 

PUFFIN A LA CREME

An ideal main course for those who enjoy colourful seafood dishes

 

Ingredients

1 Puffin per person

11 lb carrots

2 onions

8oz button mushrooms

1 red and 1 green pepper

1 chilli

12 leeks

1 aubergine

1 courgette

1 lb tomatoes (skinned)

10 tbsp oil ("Fulmar" brand will bring out the worst in this dish)

2pts Magpie stock

2oz flour

 

Heat oil and add chopped vegetables, frying for 20 mins. Add stock and bring to boil. Simmer for 30 mins and allow to cool.

Detach puffin bills carefully and retain for future use. Remove all feathers from bird but do not remove flippers. Place puffins in marinade, FEET UP, for 48 hours. Remove birds from marinade and drain. Liquidise marinade and retain. Halve birds and place open side down onto an oven-proof tray in a pre-heated oven (190 celsius) for 45 mins.

Re-heat marinade, add flour to thicken, season to taste and add four bottles of Tabasco. Remove birds from oven and pour thickened marinade over them.

Serve hot on a rice bed with cormorant on the cob and a grebe salad. The puffin beaks should be used to decorate the salad or may be used to eat the cormorant on the cob.

 

A more earthy recipe using puffins can be found on P79 (Puffin in the Hole)

This course should be followed by a fresh fruitbat salad.

 

VOLE-A-VENT

 

This makes a crunchy starter, simple to prepare, using readily available ingredients (if you know where to look!), with just a hint of garlic.

 

Ingredients

Frozen vole-a-vent cases Metric 100 Imperial 12

Skomer Voles Metric 50 Imperial 6

Wild Pembrokeshire Garlic Metric 1 metric tonne Imperial 144 heads

Butter Metric 2g Imperial 1oz

Onion, chopped Metric 10 Imperial 12

Bay Leaf Metric 1 Imperial 1

Water* Metric 750ml Imperial half pint

* You should not use tap, bottled, mineral, distilled, hot or cold but the fresh Manx Shear

 

Defrost pastry cases

Cube voles and wash thoroughly, leaving the fur on the carcass as this adds to the combination of textures for which this dish is famous.

Melt the butter in a heavy based saucepan, fry the onion and garlic until brown.

Add the minced vole and cook for a further 5 mins. Then add the bay leaf and season to taste.

Add water, bring to the boil and allow to simmer for 35 mins.

Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Place mixture in pastry cases.

Serve cold with toothpicks.

 

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