April: Our recommendations on the menu this month

What we’ve been eating: Smoked ham hock and black pudding terrine

On our lunch menu, we’ve got a gorgeous smoked ham hock and black pudding terrine with homemade piccalilli.

To make the terrine, we boil the ham hock until it’s falling off the bone. We then bloom gelatine in warm stock before adding the ham, which soaks up all the delicious liquid, and roll this into a ballotine with fresh carrots and logs of black pudding running through the centre, which we chill to set.

We plate each dish to order, serving a fresh slice of terrine with our house-pickled cauliflower and cucumber and smooth piccalilli, and a piece of toasted sourdough with the terrine to finish.

One to try when you’re next with us!

What we’ve been drinking: 2016 Côte Rotie, Clusel-Roch ‘Les Schistes’, Rhône, France

Located on the steeply sloping right bank of the Rhône, Côte Rôtie translates as ‘roasted slope’. This organic wine is aged for two years in 15% new French oak barrels to produce a fine and elegant wine, a classic example of a Syrah from the Côte Rotie appellation.

It displays savoury and intense aromatics with a slow, brooding power that will build as it ages. It erupts with intense flavours of blue and purple fruits, smoked meat, olive tapenade, wild herbs, a touch of black pepper, and dominating fresh flower blossoms, particularly violets.

We recommend pairing with our pan-roasted quail with truffle-stuffed legs, crosnes and calçot.