Celebrate grouse season with this tasty recipe

If you’re looking to try cooking game for the first time, then you can’t do much better than learn from a master.

Neil McGown, the chef/patron of East Haugh House Hotel near Pitlochry, was chosen as Scottish Game Chef of the Year 2018.

Now that the grouse season is upon us, Neil suggests a delicious recipe for pan-seared breasts of grouse with caramelised shallots, game chips, sauteed buttered spinach and girolle mushrooms.

He said: ‘It’s one of my favourite meals of the year because it shows that you can be inventive and innovative when you’re cooking game.

‘It also means I have an excuse to spend vast amounts of time experimenting in the kitchen, trying everything as I go!’

So what tips does he have for people who want to cook game at home?

‘Not to overcook, everything should be pink,’ he says. ’A grouse needs no more than ten minutes, tops, in a very hot oven. But, most of all, that practise makes perfect.’

• Click HERE for more recipes from Scottish Field