Our last night in Yorkshire we always dine at our lovely JUDGES Country House and as usual, Sue & Steve joined us for dinner to celebrate their mini-moon as they were married just the Saturday before. The evening always begins with cocktails in the lounge(living rooms) which is what you do in a country house and they brought yummy cucumber and mint shooters with the most delicious pork balls which were like confit meat creamy and breaded!! Sam was in heaven.
We chose our wines as we always love the 2017 St. Veran Vers le Mont from Domaine Roger Luquet which works with everything and our first red was an excellent Bordeaux 2012 Chateau Jean Voisin Fagouet St. Emilion Grand Cru that was divine with all four of our lamb mains!
Starters were Beef Tartare(double order for Sam) that was as spicy as the English ever made with Nasturtium, Egg Yolk(mixed in--we like it on top!), pickled vegetables(carrot,radish) & Mushroom Powder. A real winner if you can handle the spice. The Duo of Park brought back that delish Pork Ball as Pork Belly Croquette & Glazed Cheek, Burnt Apple Puree with Pickled MustardSeed
The Slow Cooked Salmon was with red Cabbage Puree, Smoked Herring roe, grapefruit & fennel, which I couldn't taste due to grapefruit(and am not a fennel fan), but got raves.
Four of us chose lamb with two on the Twice Cooked Lamb Shoulder and a Colcannon Mash, Roasted Shallot, confit tomato, tenderstem broccoli and lamb jus. The Lamb Loin came with Belly and Cannelloni of Zucchini wrapped around a ground lamb. Sundried Cherry Tomatoes, a yoghurt with mint and lots of small veggies: Courgetti, asparagus, potatoes and more made this a truly winning prize dish.
We rested for a while and ordered a second red 2009 Les Artemes from Domaine de la Citadelle in Cotes du Luberon which was ideal with the cheese. We have always loved the cheese at Judges, but now they just offer three small pieces rather than a choice from a trolley and while good it was not as stellar. Farmhouse White Cheddar, Morden Ruddy(red cheddar) and Morden Blue were all yummy local cheeses served with lavoche, quince paste, truffle honey(YUM) and malt loaf.
The desserts are wonderful from the amazing Sticky Toffee Pudding with Banana Ice Cream and Candied Walnuts to the Vanilla Panna Cotta with Butterscotch Sauce, Strawberries, Tarragon & White Chocolate.
Of course, mignardises arrived on a Congratulations Plate for the newlyweds with Coconut Balls, Baileys Fudge and Fruit Gelees...
what an amazing end to a 5+ week vacation that took us to so many wonderful places with so much wonderful food!!
