Tastes of the Forest – A weekend of foodie heaven in the Royal Forest of Dean – 18th & 19th November 2011

We are very excited about our next event which is taking place on 18th & 19th November.

We have teamed up with Harts Barn Cookery School and Kingstone Brewery to present a weekend of foodie treats.

 Starting on Friday evening with a tasting of local ales from award winning local brewers Kingstone Brewery.  Edward Biggs from Kingstone will give an informal tasting of his delicious local ales followed by a mouth-watering three course meal prepared by our head-chef Blaine Reed.

Following breakfast on Saturday morning, guests will head off to the Forest of Dean’s newest attraction, Harts Barn Cookery School, for a half day cookery lesson and demonstrations with lots of ideas of what to cook with brilliant local produce (lunch is included).

After breakfast on Sunday morning, you will be taken on a guided walk with a local  expert starting at 10am, the walk, of approximately 5 to 6 miles, will finish back at the hotel at 1pm, where a hearty Sunday lunch will be waiting.

 Price for a two people is £450, single occupancy of a double room £300

To book please call 01594 833046

FROM THE KITCHEN – SEPTEMBER 2011

This September is unusual because we are losing so many of our team to university.  Whilst we are excited for them leaving home and starting on their new lives as students we are sad to see them go and will miss them all.  Best wishes to Annie, Daisy, Joe,  Julia, Lizzie and  Ryan and we hope to see you again during the holidays.

Blaine and the team have been working hard all summer using our kitchen garden for inspiration.  As Autumn draws in and the crop of vegetables from our plot diminishes we are lucky to have a whole range of wild and foraged fungi and herbs just coming into season. We’re also looking forward to the game season when we’ll be adding game and venison sourced from our neighbours at Lydney Park Estate.

In the meantime we have added organic lamb to the menu from Crooked End Farm just down the road.  Click the link below to read the blog about their amazing organic farm.

http://crookedendfarm.wordpress.com/

11TH SEPTEMBER 2011 – WINES OF THE RHONE VALLEY – WINE DINNER

We are looking forward to welcoming Michael Altur from Southern France specialists Yapp Brothers wine merchants as host of our next wine dinner in September.  Awarded Rhône and Loire specialist merchant of the year  in the International Wine Challenge in 2010, Yapp brothers will show some of the wines that made their reputation over the last 40 years. We will travel from the Northern to the Southern Rhône and taste wines from the most popular and the lesser-known appellations on the night.

Tickets £60per person, Five course dinner with matching wines, Aperitif from 7pm – Dinner 7.30pm

This wine dinner will take place in our Garden Room on a table accommodating a maximum of 20 people.  Couples or groups will be seated next to each other.

Special Sunday and Monday
Night Rates: If you’d like to make the most of this enjoyable evening there are special rates for those attending from only £75 per bedroom (including full English breakfast) for the Sunday night. You might be tempted to stay Monday night as well in which case we can offer dinner, a glass of bubbly, bed and full English breakfast from only £145 per room for the Monday evening. Special room rates are only available to those attending the Yapp Brothers wine evening and are based on two sharing.

Trencherman’s Guide Listing for Tudor Farmhouse Hotel

We are delighted to have been listed in the presitigous Trencherman’s restaurant guide for 2011.

Trencherman’s is a “who’s who” of restaurants in the South West featuring the likes of Rick Stein’s Seafood Restaurant in Padstow and the exclusive Gidleigh Park. Inclusion represents a significant acheivement for our small team at the Tudor Farmhouse and is largely down to the hard work and dedication put in by everyone over the last couple of years.

Hari and I would like to thank all the staff in recognition of their commitment to providing the best possible experience for our guests.

Local Jams & Honey

We have just started serving a new local jam at breakfast from Kitchen Garden. We have gone for their organic marmalade and strawberry jam.

In addition we have started serving Hudnalls Apiaries’ Forest of Dean Honey. Hudnalls Apiaries is based in St Briavels, about 3 miles away from the hotel and Kitchen Garden are based in Stroud. Both are available to buy from reception.

You can find more information from their websites:
www.kitchengardenpreserves.co.uk
www.hudnallsapiaries.co.uk

Goats Cheese Panacotta

We had guests in for lunch this week who enjoyed the Goats Cheese Panacotta so much that we gave them the recipe. Like many people, they had never had a savoury panacotta. So I thought I would share the recipe with everyone. Here it is. Let us know how you get on with it if you make it. It is yummy!

250g Goats Cheese
250ml Cream
250ml Milk
1 sprig Thyme
1 sprig Rosemary
Salt & Black Pepper
2 and a half leaves of Gelatine (softened in cold water)

Place ingredients in heavy bottomed pan (except gelatine). Melt the Goats Cheese into the liquid over a low hear. Bring to the boil and boil for 1 minute. Remove from the heat, add the gelatine and pass the mixture through a sieve. Place in your moulds and chill.

Kitchen Garden

We have for the past few years had our own vegetable plot here at the hotel. Gordon has been in charge of producing fruit and vegetables for the kitchen. We are now hoping to expand on his past success, and I have started doing a NVQ in Horticulture and have recently completed a City & Guilds Growing Fruit course. I started this year growing a few additional vegetables in pots. Partly to give me some experience of growing, albeit on a very small scale (traditionally I have struggled to keep house plants alive!), but also so that Matthew, now 2, could get involved in the garden and see how things grow. We planted a few tomato plants – some of which I killed by putting them outside before the last frost (I blame Colin for this, as he was fed up of having them on the draining board!) – three potato bags and flat leaf parsley. The potatoes certainly did the best. The slugs have enjoyed the flat leaf parsley! We have now harvested all the potatoes and here is a photo of Matthew taking the last lot to the kitchen:

Matthew and his wheelbarrow

Next year we hope to harvest a lot more. First of all we need to buy a greenhouse, and then we will be digging a lot of raised beds in our paddock. We intend to fence off an area for this so that we can still keep sheep on the rest of the land. I will keep you posted on developments.

Wine Evening

Enjoy a glass of Chateau Cantemerle

Colin has been working on a new wine list for the past few months. His emphasis has been on excellent quality, whilst also providing value for money. He has tried to source smaller producers.

Colin is now also working with Tom Innes of Fingal-Rock to bring an Evening of Rare and Exciting Wines to the Tudor Farmhouse. On Friday 25th September Tom will host a wine dinner of rare and fascinating wines.  Tom is the director of Fingal Rock, a Monmouth-based wine merchant that specialises in sourcing thrilling wines from small-scale producers around the world with an emphasis on Burgundy.

 The evening will comprise of a 7pm reception with an apéritif followed by a five course dinner specially designed to complement each wine.

This evening is not to be missed and thanks to Fingal-Rock we are able to offer tickets for this event for just £50 per person. Please call the hotel on 01594 833046 if you would like to book.

Refurbishment

We have finally got our new photos in preparation for a new brochure, which you can see through our flickr account. We shut for 2 weeks  in January to do some refurbishment to our front of house areas and kitchen. We replaced our conservatory, put a new wood floor in reception and the conservatory, redecorated throughout and bought new furniture. We are really pleased with the results. Here are a couple of our new photos to show the work we have done.

We used suppliers from Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire and we are more than happy to recommend them:

Conservatory – Spa Conservatory

Wooden Floor – ATC Floor

Kitchen – Space Catering Equipment

Furniture – OKA Direct and Lyndon Design