Benromach partners with MasterChef star to create exclusive menu
Sarah Rankin, a MasterChef 2022 finalist hailing from Kinross, has partnered with Benromach Distillery to create a unique collection of recipes celebrating the art of cooking using locally-sourced, high-quality ingredients.
As well as giving viewers a firsthand insight into how she handcrafts her recipes, foodies can now access and recreate Sarah’s Benromach menu, which features several easy-to-replicate dishes featuring two of the distillery’s most popular expressions: Benromach 15 Year Old and Benromach Peat Smoke.
Benromach Distillery is one of few in Scotland to have retained a traditional handmade approach to whisky making and its partnership with Sarah celebrates how personal care and attention can deliver mouth-watering results of the highest quality.
Using the best of Scotland’s natural larder, those with a savoury palate will love her take on trout cured with Benromach Peat Smoke and her Arbroath Smokie croquettes. Meanwhile, those with a sweet tooth can indulge in a lemon posset with white chocolate crumb or a classic chocolate cherry pot with a splash of award-winning Benromach 15 Year OId.
Sarah Rankin said: “I am so thrilled to be working with Benromach. The Peat Smoke and 15 Year Old expressions inspired me to create a range of dishes that celebrate not just the flavours, but also everything they do. We both have an ethos centred firmly around people and place, and for me food is about creating something delicious from quality, raw ingredients and to bring joy to others. I think Benromach do the same and it was wonderful to have an opportunity to work together.”
The collaboration between Sarah and Benromach is a natural pairing, with the MasterChef alumni previously working as a demonstrator at the distillery when it was reopened by Gordon & MacPhail in 1998. Today, Sarah celebrates Scotland’s artisan producers in her food writing, chef demonstrations, private dining and food festival appearances.
Keith Cruickshank, Distillery Manager at Benromach Distillery, said: “Sarah shares our passion for her craft and truly makes the most of the high-quality ingredients available on her doorstep. The recipes are fantastic and it will be interesting to discover how others use our whisky to complement and enhance their own menus.”
Watch Sarah discuss the inspiration for her recipes at www.benromach.com/sarah-rankin. For more information and all of Sarah’s six recipes, please visit: www.benromach.com
Recipes
15 Year Old Benromach
Arbroath Smokie Croquettes
1 Arbroath Smokie – picked and flaked (make sure all bones are removed)
150g grated Smoked Connage Dunlop (or another smoked cheddar)
Whole Milk
Plain flour
Butter
Salt and pepper
Egg
Panko
Vegetable oil
Small jar gherkins in dill vinegar
Dill
Parsley
3 tsp Benromach 15 Year Old
Make a very thick roux with the flour and butter using a 2:1 ratio. Add enough milk to loosen, but make sure the mixture is still very thick. Add the grated cheese and chill for at least an hour, and ideally overnight. Add the flaked fish, chopped herbs, Benromach 15 Year Old and some salt and pepper. Shape into lozenges and chill again. Meanwhile, heat through all the contents of the pickle until the liquid has reduced by half. Whizz in a blender until smooth and add to a dipping bowl.
Set up three bowls with seasoned plain flour, a beaten egg and panko breadcrumbs. Dip each croquette in the flour and egg and repeat. Then coat well in panko. Deep fry in vegetable oil heated to 180 degrees and drain on kitchen paper. Serve immediately with the gherkin ketchup.
Pork Belly with Burnt Apple Puree
500g pork belly
500ml chicken stock
1 onion
1 stick celery
1 carrot
1 fennel bulb
Bay leaf
Thyme
2 Bramley apples
100ml apple juice
1 Granny Smith apple
Honey
3 tbsp Benromach 15 Year Old
Score the skin of your pork belly and scald the skin side two or three times with boiling water then salt and leave overnight. Rinse off the salt and roughly chop the carrot, fennel, celery and onion. Add the pork to a deep baking tray with the chicken stock, veg, thyme and bay leaf. Make sure the skin is covered. Cook at 140 degrees (Fan 120 degrees/Gas mark 1) for up to 3.5 hours. Remove from oven and leave in the stock for 20 minutes or so until cool enough to handle. Drain the stock and use for a soup base or freeze in a freezer bag for a future recipe. Line another tray with baking paper and place the belly skin side down, Cover with another sheet of parchment and add a kitchen weight or heavy tins on top. Chill and press in the fridge overnight. The following day, cut the belly into equal sized portions and chill until needed.
Peel and chop the Bramley apples, add to a pan with butter and 2 tpsb honey. Cook until well coloured and a little charred. Cool, blitz, and season with salt if needed.
Slice the Granny Smith very finely using a very sharp knife or a mandoline. Lay on parchment and place in the oven and 110 degrees for 20 minutes or until crisp but not coloured. Set aside.
Mix together honey, Benromach 15 Year Old and a little apple juice and heat until syrupy.
Cook pork belly in a hot pan skin side down until well crisped. Plate skin-side up and baste with the glaze.
Serve with apple puree and apple crisp and nasturtium leaves, or black garlic puree.
Chocolate Cherry Pot
100g dark chocolate (at least 70%)
200ml double cream
50g golden granulated sugar
250g cherries
125g jam sugar
Lemon juice
2 tbsp dried sour cherries or barberries
100ml water
3 tbsp Benromach 15 Year Old
Warm cream and sugar until sugar has dissolved. Pour over broken chocolate and whisk until smooth. Pour into glasses or ramekins and allow to set in the fridge for at least two hours. Stone cherries and place in a pan with water, jam sugar and lemon juice until the liquid has thickened and the cherries have broken up. Chill.
Soak sour cherries in Benromach 15 Year Old and two tbsp hot water for around an hour. Stir into compote. Serve in glasses with cherry compote on top and a splash of raw Benromach 15 Year Old.
Benromach Peat Smoke
Whisky Cured Trout with Beetroot Mascarpone
400g sea trout
100g caster sugar
100g fine sea salt
Dill
Juniper berries
Mustard seeds
Fennel seeds
2 medium purple beetroot
1/2 tub mascarpone
3 tbsp Benromach Peat Smoke
Pat trout dry and place in a snug fitting dish. Pour over the Benromach Peat Smoke one tablespoon at a time, until all the liquid has been absorbed (this may take a few minutes). Mix together salt, sugar, chopped dill and the crushed spices. Spread the cure over the fish and cover tightly with cling film. Chill for 24 hours. Remove fish and wipe off the cure, or gently rinse if needed. Peel and cook beetroot in water and a little salt until tender.
Drain the beetroot and add to a blender. Blend until smooth then add mascarpone and pulse until combined. Do not blend too long or the mascarpone will split. Check for seasoning. Cut the fish on a diagonal and serve with the beetroot puree and olive oil.
Smoked Duck Breast, carrot, white pudding crumb
Duck breast fillets
Woodchips
Butter
1 shallot
1 garlic clove
1 small white pudding
Handful rolled oats
Small carrots
Chicken stock
Thyme
1 tbsp Benromach Peat Smoke
Pat dry the duck and smoke over wood chips for 10 minutes in a smokebox on a barbecue or in a deep pan with a wire rack. Chop the shallot and garlic and sauté in butter with crumbled white pudding and the rolled oats. Trim and wash the carrots but do not peel unless they are really dirty. Place them in deep-sided frying pan with butter, chicken stock and thyme. Cook them gently with a lid for 20 minutes or until tender. Turn up the heat to reduce the liquid until about 5tbsp of liquid remains. Add 1 tbsp Peat Smoke Benromach and remove from the heat. In a cold pan, place the salted duck fillets skin side down and bring up to a medium heat until the skin is crisp and the fillets are cooked medium. Rest for 5 minutes and add cooking juices to carrot sauce. Cut duck fillet in half and serve with the carrots, oat and white pudding crumb and the reduced sauce.
Lemon Posset, caramelised white chocolate crumble
600ml double cream
200g golden caster sugar
Juice and zest of 3 lemons
100g white chocolate
50g rolled oats
2tbsp caster sugar
2tbsp butter
1 meringue nest
Dram of Benromach Peat Smoke
Heat the cream and golden caster sugar together until the sugar has melted. Add in the lemon juice and zest and heat until thickened. It should coat the back of a wooden spoon. Pour into glasses or ramekins and chill.
Mix the oats, caster sugar and butter together and spread on to greaseproof in a tray in the oven at 160 degrees for 10 to 20 minutes until golden and crisp and the butter and sugar have melted.
Place the white chocolate on a silicone mat on the oven at 110 degrees. Stir every 10 minutes until the chocolate has become chalky and crumbly. This could take up to 50 minutes so be patient.
Mix the cooled caramelised chocolate with the toasted oat mixture and add the crushed meringue. Serve with a dram of Benromach Peat Smoke.
About Benromach Distillery
Originally built in 1898, Benromach Distillery was brought back to life when the Urquhart family realised a lifelong dream to own a distillery in 1993. The distillery was extensively re-equipped over a five-year period before it was officially opened by HRH Prince Charles, The Duke of Rothesay in 1998.
In reopening Benromach Distillery, the Urquhart family wanted to create a single malt whisky that has a classic Speyside character: beautifully balanced with a light touch of smoke.
Benromach Distillery is located on the outskirts of the ancient market town of Forres. A five-star visitor centre is open to the public throughout the year for tours and tastings. Benromach Distillery is a member of the world-famous Malt Whisky Trail.
For more information, visit: www.benromach.com