We were so pleased to get this write up from food critic Matthew Norman in his weekly Saturday Telegraph column “Your Table is Ready”. He came in for lunch with Anne Robinson (You are the weakest Link…). They both gave the pub , the food and the landlord a good  “working over ” and I think that his article speaks for itself .

Archie Orr-Ewing

Restaurant review: The Swan, Swinbrook, Burford

This week Matthew Norman heads to David Cameron’s gastropub of choice in Oxfordshire, The Swan Inn, Swinbrook, Burford.

The pub landlady was an absentee when we went to The Swan, but she may be excused for playing hookey. For one thing, she turns 92 next month, and lives far away in Derbyshire. For another, you’d hardly expect to find the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire – Deborah Mitford as long ago was, Debo to her pals as is – pulling pints like Bet Lynch, or screeching, “Right, thassit, get aht of my boozer. I said, AHT!” in the dulcets of the Queen Vic’s Peggy Mitchell.

For all that, the youngest and last surviving Mitford girl and former chatelaine of Chatsworth is a major presence in this inn – an inn so picturesque, with its wisteria-clad stone frontage that a Downton Abbey scene was shot outside the door.

This, as someone clever noted, is Britain’s unlikeliest theme pub. In each of its low-beamed rooms and in a new conservatory, the walls are bedecked with sepia snaps of the Mitford sisters, and lone brother Tom, during their famously miserable childhood here. Here in the village, that is: not here in the pub.

The Swan’s food impressed Matthew Norman.         Photo: Andrew Crowley

I, and the Cotswold-dwelling friend who joined me had heard mixed reports in the few years since the Duchess installed a youngish couple as her tenants. One account raved about both food and the rooms, praising the staff’s sweetness when her adolescent son regurgitated several vodkas on the bedroom floor. Others berated it for snotty service. Much as with Unity and Herr Hitler, however, I can only speak as I find; and I found this as good a gastropub meal as any in a long while.

Mitford snaps aside, the décor is exactly what you would expect in the part of rural Oxfordshire now known as Cameron Country (Sam’n’Dave are regulars): rickety furniture, log fires, antique lights and floorboards, a gentle off-white colour scheme. If it borders on shabby, that’s how them, as we call the quality, prefers it.

As for the à la carte menu, this follows the iron rule I’ve just invented, that any cuisine be closely matched to its environment. It always irritates to find a menu in a 16th-century inn such as this giving lazy nods to the Med and the Orient, purely because that is what the current edition of the Compleat Guide to Modish Culinary Cliché dictates. Chef Richard Burkett, an alumnus of the nearby and magnificent Sir Charles Napier, sticks to the locally sourced, the poncery-free and the traditional. Hurrah for that.

My friend, not a woman lightly given to being pleased, had initial reservations. She was irked by the weeny Diet Coke bottles, her wobbly chair (“too posh for comfort, I suppose”), and the ersatz canvasses on which Debo, Unity, Diana and co appear. “I don’t like the photographs,” she observed with a certain neo-Mitfordian hauteur, “but if they must show them, at least put them in proper frames.”

Thankfully, she was assuaged by a cream of cauliflower soup. “I’ll tell you why it’s good. It isn’t oversalted, as soup so often is. Perfectly seasoned.” It also had a fine velvety texture, though the kitchen might have broken its “no fancy foreign muck here, thank you very much”, rule by enriching the flavour with a dribble of truffle oil. I backed the winner with two crunchy balls of opinionated pig’s head, the potent taste enlivened by a tangy aioli and softened by quince jelly.

It was at this point that my friend, who would have made a more effective Soviet interrogator than George Smiley’s old enemy Karla, went to work on the Duchess’s tenant, whose floppy hair suggests a chap often mistaken for Hugh Grant by myopic Americans. Within three minutes, we knew him to be Archie Orr-Ewing, where he went to school, in which regiment he served, and that his grandfather was the minister for air in Edward Heath’s government.

Another three minutes, and he would have explained the bunny sewn to his shirt, and coughed to being the heir presumptive to a baronetcy (a detail that may or may not have endeared him to Debo). The main courses arrived, however, and more than compensated for the tantalising truncation. Both were presented with rustic plainness in white bowls, and both were excellent.

My friend liked the crispy sweetness of her belly of pork with savoy cabbage and apple sauce, though she found the olive oil-infused mash a touch bitter. My plaice came on the bone, as the Lord intended, with new potatoes. The fish was fresh and juicy, and topped with smoked salmon in a delicate, buttery chive sauce.

Archie popped back to inquire after puds, and displayed an ex-soldier’s obedience when my friend ordered him to ring her butcher. Her vanilla panna cotta was “not quite fluffy enough, but delicious”, and my sticky toffee sundae, elegantly served in a Martini glass, was predictably, life-shorteningly gorgeous.

Archie, who had taken on a shell-shocked look, was busy elsewhere now. When my friend turned to the Serbian manager, curiously asking if he was related to John Malkovich, it seemed time to request the bill. “Very, very good indeed,” she said as we left. “I’m coming back on Monday.”

She was right to be impressed. The Swan is hereby awarded not just the numeral you see above my left shoulder, but also the suitably Mitfordian rating of U.

Three Courses with wine and coffee, £40-£50.
Winter Warmer set menu: two courses for £15, three for £18.50
Bar food also available

BURGER-OMETER
We put the best patties through the mincer

WHAT ‘N’ WHERE
Aberdeen Angus burger at The Swan Inn, Swinbrook, Oxfordshire; theswanswinbrook.co.uk

PRICE
£12.50, including crispy side salad and skinny chips.

IN BRIEF
The succulent Aberdeen Angus beef is reared down the road by the pub owner’s uncle and hung for 28 days. A meaty aroma heralds the arrival of this fine burger and the flavour is robust, offset by the accompanying tangy brown sauce. It packs a punch too, with coriander, red onion, chillies and Cajan spice mixed into the meat to give the X factor in spades. In contrast, the bun is a sightly sweet white burger bun with sesame seeds. For these burgers we’ll be back.

Beef Quality 95%
Side Rating 87%
Value For Money 67%
Chargrill Aroma 100%
X Factor 95%
Cheese Hit 80%
Juiciness 85%
Bun Appeal 75%

Overall Score 86%

You may have had problems accessing the village of Swinbrook on Thursday the 7th July as the crew of Downton Abbey were filming a scene at The Swan Inn our pub near Burford.

Downton Abbey is a ITV period Drama set in the early 1900′s which is now filming a second series.

The scene: Two actresses try to wake the landlord by constant banging on the front door – after about 20 retakes from various angles they were happy, the film crew and various neighbours felt it was time for bed. This production always looks wonderful so we are sure it will be worth their efforts.

Unfortunately there was no sign of the famed actress Dame Maggie Smith but keep an eye out for us on the next series.

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After selecting the dates that you wish to check availability for this will take you through to the main booking engine which will show you which rooms are available, to enlarge the pictures of our six rooms just click the small thumbnail to enlarge. Simply then select the room you wish to stay in and fill in your details, an account will then be created enabling you to adjust your details, you may then fill in any notes for our staff to read for any special requirements for your stay.

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We are fortunate in the Cotswolds with so many high quality farms and producers around us, with whom we have built up strong relationships.

This dish is a great case in point…the goats cheese comes from the highly acclaimed Windrush Valley Goat Dairy.

The milk comes from Windrush Valley Dairy’s own herd of pedigree British Saanen goats. Produced ‘on the estate’ using only traditional cheese-making methods.

Shallow Fried Windrush Dairy’s Goats Cheese with marinated beetroot,
baby salad leaves and honey and walnut dressing:

10 windrush goats cheese (cut into 1/6ths)
pane egg, flour and breadcrumbs

1. Remould the goats cheese into even size disc’s
2. Pane them in seasoned flour, egg wash and breadcrumbs
3. Keep them on a tray with greaseproof in the fridge

Walnut dressing
50g crushed walnuts
100ml walnut oil
20ml sherry vinegar
2tsp grain mustard
2tsp honey

1. Whisk all the ingredients except the walnuts together, then add the walnuts and season washed mescaline

Beetroot
2kg purple beetroot
1. Cook beetroots in salted water till cooked (knife to pierce)
2. Allow to chill, then peel
3. Slice thinly on a mandoline

4tblsp demerara sugar
sherry vinegar
1. Mix, sherry vinegar and sugar together
2. Add to the sliced beetroots

to plate…….

Place the sliced beetroot over laping each one on the plate, dress the leaves in the centre, meanwhile deep fry three goats cheese disc`s and drizzle the walnut dressing over, serve!!

The video was recorded ‘on site’ at The Swan Inn. You’ll find the video below plus the written recipe. Enjoy!

Windrush Crayfish sautéed in coriander, garlic and lemon with fresh horseradish & saffron butter with fresh bread:

Fresh bread
Saffron butter
Large pan with lid
1kg fresh crayfish
3-5 tblsp olive oil
2 shallots, finely diced
1 lemon
3 cloves garlic, finely sliced
300ml white wine
Handful of mixed herbs

1. Bring the pan up to an intense heat, (need to be quick in the next step).
2. Add your shallots and sliced garlic, sweat off for 1 minute.
3. Add the crayfish and sauté off, keep stirring for 4 minutes, add the wine and put on the lid.
4. Keep checking and stirring till all the crayfish are cooked through, add more wine or water to keep the steam.
5. Remove from the heat, squeeze in juice from half a lemon and return the lid.
6. Leave to stand for 5 minutes.
7. Mix in the chopped herbs and check seasoning.
8. Spoon into serving bowls, rip some fresh bread and serve the saffron butter on the side.

Saffron Butter
1g saffron threads
250ml white wine
1 shallot finely diced
1 clove of garlic, finely diced
500g softened unsalted butter

Seasoning
1. Put the chopped shallots, garlic, saffron and white wine into a pan and let it reduce down slowly, till you reach 2 tblsp, let chill.
2. Add the saffron to the butter and mix well, check seasoning, leave to set in a butter dish.
3. Use when needed.