As tonight is a special night I thought I'd do a special olde worlde type dish to help it along. While not pretending to cook as people did in pre-Christian times I have tried to avoid ingrediants that were not avaliable to people then like spuds or tomatoes.

As fortune has it those nice folks at Waitrose do a pack of chopped up pigeon, partridge, pheasant and wild mallard and I thought that would make the basis of a great stew.

To start fry off some chopped onions, garlic and leek in a pan until they go translucent. Chuck in the meat and seal it off, chuck in some chopped root veg like carrots and parsnips and add some spices. I am going to use ground black pepper, nutmeg, cloves, mace, rosemary, sage, thyme and parsley. Top up the pan with a dark ale or stout (I used Fullers London Pride this time) and leave it to simmer along for an hour or so.

Bung on the Bobby Boris Picket and a bit of Screaming Jay Hawkins, drink the rest of the ale and serve up with mashed turnip, more ale and mead.

To start try some smoked venison on toast with horseraddish