Northumberland hotel and restaurant Battlesteads, near Wark, is Brexit-proofing its new eight-course tasting menu, with a focus on home-grown produce and UK seasonality.
To ensure the availability of all dishes on the hotel’s tasting menu, which aims to offer guests a true taste of Northumberland, Battlesteads has specifically designed the new autumn/winter menu to have no reliance on ingredients or products from the EU, in case a ‘no deal’ scenario results in food and drink shortages.
The award-winning eco hotel grows much of the green vegetables, salads and herbs on the menu in its onsite gardens and polytunnels. Last year Battlesteads also introduced a temperature and humidity-controlled mushroom farm to grow oyster and shitake mushrooms all year round, and head chef Eddie Shilton also home-smokes meats, fish and cheese sourced locally.
Dishes on the new menu include a selection of in-house produced charcuterie, including Wark forest ham, saucisson sec, smoked duck, smoked brie and speck, with pickled courgettes from the garden; semi freddo and carpaccio of beetroot, with micro-herbs grown under LED lights; home-smoked salmon with lemon jelly; duck breast with savoury granola, black pudding 'prune', charred cauliflower floret and cassis jelly; a regularly changing dessert and Northumbrian cheeseboard.
The menu can also be accompanied by a flight of wines, sourced from outside the EU, and finishing with Battlesteads owner Dee Slade’s homegrown and homemade sloe gin.
Head chef at Battlesteads, Eddie Shilton, said: "Our focus has always been on showcasing the very best local and home-grown produce, and our tasting menu offers the perfect opportunity to show diners just how fantastic seasonal UK food can be. Our gardening team, grows an amazing range of vegetables, herbs and fruit, and we are lucky to have some of the best producers in the country right here on our doorstep. UK-wide, 28% of what we eat comes from the EU, but our tasting menu is a true taste of Northumberland that won’t be impacted by Brexit or our relationship with Europe."
