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The shoot lunch conjures up scenes of steaming plates, cottage pies and treacle puddings but in fact a shoot lunch on the grouse moor in August should be very different from the shoot lunch in mid December. Here are some of the best shoot lunch ideas for the cook and host to embrace the changing seasons.
Think beautifully laid out platters of cold cured meats, game, pork pies and bowls of homemade coleslaw, slow-roasted tomato and mozzarella salad and delicious rice salads. Chilled beers, wine, Pimm’s and jugs of my own favourite – Crabbie’s ginger beer with an equal measure of ginger ale and a dash of angostura bitters – as well as cold soft drinks.
When it is bone-chillingly cold, the food should be wholesome and rib sticking. Here English food comes into its own. Bloody Marys with a splash of sherry never go amiss, and you can’t go wrong with shepherd’s pie, curry, chopped banana, tomatoes, desiccated coconut, peanuts, cucumber in yoghurt, mango chutney, mayonnaise and poppadoms. However, nothing beats an enormous roast – a rib of beef with mountainous Yorkshire puddings, eye-watering horseradish sauce, a leg of pork with fresh apple sauce and huge chunks of crackling are all guaranteed to have the shooting party swooning.
Traditionally, cheese is served with a fruitcake or a bowl of apples but ask any Gun and I think they would feel cheated if spotted dick, jam roly poly or apple crumble and custard were missing from the menu. Cold treacle tart and vanilla ice cream, rice pudding with strawberry jam or a summer pudding laced with fruit and thick double cream are perfect choices for a warm partridge or grouse day.
This article was originally published in 2017 and has been updated.
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