At Sycamore we use as many local ingredients as possible in the preparation of food as we can. Here are some of the dishes we cook.
A leg of lamb from Revel in The Kamberg is a wonder, deeply coloured & barely fatty, we de-bone it, & lightly score the flesh on the inside then stuff with mint, coriander, lightly fried onion & garlic bread. Then tie it into a neat parcel with string, place on a bed of bay & thyme & roast gently under bacon ,surrounded with little onions, & yellow sweet potatoes until brown & succulent, & almost pink in the middle, served with tender Broccoli, Glazed cinnamon carrots, & Basmati rice ,this is a dish to seduce even a vegetarian.
Unashamedly carnivorous is a roll of beef produced in the nearby Lowlands valley, red & perfectly matured with tightly tied , yellow fat outside, lightly marbled inside, we roast this rolled in seasoned flour on a bed of sliced onions & Rosemary, adding now & then a slosh of red wine, left to stand a while & served with runner beans & sweet pumpkin from our garden, the thickly sliced beef combines wonderfully with roast potatoes & horseradish sauce, flooded of course with lashings of rich brown gravy to mop up with wedges of home baked bread.
We can hardly bear to cook one of Ron Gold's free range chickens I'm sure he knows them all by name and pretends he is a tough guy & denies this (how else could he kill them?) While the going's good & before his sensitive nature kicks in, we get as many of these fine plump & tender fowl as possible. We stuff them under them between skin & flesh with garlic & fresh green coriander paste then roast on a bed of coriander stalks onion, Garlic greens & the giblets, which contribute to the gravy. This we like to serve with lentil brown rice & seasonal vegetables.
Vegetarians don't despair! For you we go to special lengths & prepare garden salads of lettuce, crisp green peas, celery , fennel, wild asparagus, water cress from the stream ,garnished with local goats cheese & free range eggs. You won't have to exist only on salad however, as we combine seasonal vegetables in many ways using nuts, lentils, beans ,rice, maize ,peas, mushrooms (both wild & cultivated) & of course aubergines & sweet cherry tomatoes from our garden. We bake fresh bread white & brown enriched & flavoured with sesame ,linseed caraway & aniseed. Fresh trout comes from the nearby mountains & is popular with many almost vegetarians. We make our own pasta & bottle & preserve the excess fruits & vegetables from the garden.
Breakfast is on the balcony with a view over rolling farmland with Giants Castle in the background, always fresh fruits, yogurt, & cereals. We rely heavily on Gail's yellow yolked, free range eggs. Her hens are a delight to behold, pecking happily away in the sun & chomping on fresh green cabbage,& bundles of Lucerne (this makes the yolks yellow). These eggs we fry, poach, scramble, boil or make omelett's from. Our specialty is a scromlette, which is a combination of scrambled & omelett & is made with parsley, & pecorino cheese, with the merest hint of peppadew, utterly scrumptious. Eaten with fried Rosemary potatoes, bacon, grilled tomato & either home baked scones or caraway rolls, Sometimes as a treat we accompany breakfast with wild mushrooms or spicy little sausages. Fresh coffee or tea ,toast & jam or marmalade & honey completes the meal.
Gloria is the magician who conjures up desserts, apple pies & crumbles using apples from our own trees, tipsy tarts tasting faintly of Brandy, steamed puddings bursting with sultanas, bread & butter puddings which come to the table bubbling like small volcanoes & waiting to be drenched with custard or farm cream. She makes tarts & flans of strawberries, gooseberries, and jiggi-jolos, a wild bramble that grows here in profusion. Trifles & slightly boozy, fruity jellies & of course locally made ice cream. Yum.