The Bay Horse is a dining pub & restaurant from Marcus Bennett & Jonathan Hall
Although The Bay Horse building dates back to the 1400's, an extensive refurbishment was completed in October 2008, with emphasis on the finer details of a real old English pub - dimpled pint glasses, side dishes served in copper pans, the open fire in the main bar and hand pulled local ales. All furnishings were carefully sourced from antique fayres around the country, including a late Victorian dining table which measures over 20ft in the private dining room.
As you would expect with the previous experience of its owners, the food served in The Bay Horse’s restaurant is exceptional. The restaurant menu is made up of classic English dishes with quality as its focus, with a variety of daily specials also available. Locally sourced produce is used wherever possible by the chefs to make the most of seasonal produce, and all bread is baked on site with a different selection every day.
We are pleased to announce that the head chef and co-owner of The Bay Horse now has a spot on the BBC Tees show with John Foster in the afternoons every two weeks at 3pm. Marcus discusses some of his dishes, the restaurant and is hoping to do a wine tasting session soon as well.
Marcus also has his food related column in the Gazette Monthly, 'Taste' in the What's On section. Marcus is the current holder of the prestigious Gastropub Chef of the Year Award and has a wealth of experience to help you create some of your own culinary delights at home.
Cooking & Presenting Grouse
Ask your butcher or game dealer to remove the feet and make sure all of the feathers have been removed rub the grouse with some softened butter and season with salt and pepper and place in a roasting dish in a oven pre heated to 200oc and cook for 20 minutes. Meanwhile remove the skin from a sausage and wrap it in streaky bacon and place it in the roasting dish with the grouse and cook together for the final 10 minutes remove from the oven and leave to rest for 10 minutes.
Place a small amount of spinach in a pan with a nob of butter and cook until it has wilted season with salt and pepper and squeeze out any excess water , place the spinach on a plate carve the legs and the breasts off the grouse and place on top of the spinach cut the sausage roll into 4 and place 1 roll on the plate put a mound of bread sauce to one side of the grouse drizzle with sauce and sprinkle with game crumbs finally serve with game chips, watercress and redcurrant jelly.
Cumberland sauce
- 2 tbsp cranberry jelly
- Zest and juice ½ large orange
- Zest and juice of ½ small lemon
- 1 tsp freshly grated root ginger
- 1 tsp English mustard
- 3 tbsp port
- 1 pint chicken stock
Place all the ingredients in a pan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. Leave to infuse for 1 hour. Bring back to the boil and simmer for 2 minutes. Pass through a fine sieve.
Bread Sauce
- 450ml / ¾ pint milk
- 75g / 3oz butter
- 12 cloves
- 1 bay leaf, crumbled
- 1 thyme sprig
- Good pinch of salt
- 1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
- 3 tbsp double cream
- 110g/ 4oz fresh white
- Breadcrumbs
- Pepper
Heat together the milk, butter, cloves, herbs, salt and onion, bringing the mixture to just below boiling point. Simmer extremely gently for 10 minutes, then remove from the heat, cover and leave to infuse. Strain the milk for the bread sauce into a clean pan. Reheat gently with the cream, and whisk in the breadcrumbs, Allow to thicken.
Game Crumbs
- 175g / 6oz butter
- 175g / 6oz fresh white
- Beadcrumbs
- 150ml / ¼ pint medium dry sherry
- Salt and pepper
Melt the butter in a large frying pan and heat until just turning to nut brown. Throw in the crumbs and stir-fry briskly. Continue stirring over a gentle heat until the crumbs are golden. Add the sherry to the crumbs and continue stirring over a gentle heat to evaporate the sherry out of the breadcrumbs. Whisk the breadcrumbs to break them up. The crumbs will return to being golden. Season with salt and pepper.
