Recipe: Boned Quail with Juniper

An amalgamation from some of my favourite sources, this recipe is effectively Paul Bocuse (for the bird, boned, stuffed under its skin, and roast) meets Bruno Loubet (for the sauce using quail stock, mixed with soy and verjus) meets Paula Wolfert (for the juniper berries, coriander seed, and sage as flavour elements in the stuffing, and the idea of green grapes, which I've translated into verjus instead, and used in the sauce).

The only tricky bit is boning the quail. The process is exactly the same as for boning chicken, but made slightly more complicated because of the size of the birds; make sure you have a very sharp, small knife, and don't become impatient along the way and start to snap the bones rather than working round them with the point of the knife. Once you've completed the first one, it goes quite quickly.

Excellent for a dinner party, as the entire dish can be done in advance, and the birds are then roast at the last minute and kept warm as you deal with the first course. This dish presents well, with a complete bird per serving, on top - for example - of a crisp and delicious potato galette.

For two.

Ingredients: 2 Quail; 1 large Shallot, finely chopped; 4 Sage leaves, finely chopped; 5 Juniper berries and 6 Coriander seeds, either crushed together with pestle & mortar, or else ground in an electric grinder; 1 oz Butter; Salt & Pepper; 2 tablespoons Soy Sauce; 20 green, seedless Grapes, whizzed in the processor, and then sieved, to give 4 or 5 tablespoons of Verjus.

Method:

1. Following the procedure for boning a chicken, remove the rib cages from the Quail (don't bother about the wing and leg bones - life's too short!). Put the rib cages in a small saucepan, cover with water and simmer for half an hour or so to make some stock.

2. Combine the Butter, crushed spices, chopped Shallot and Sage, and seasoning. Divide this mixture in two, and use it to stuff the Quail under their skins. Leave a little of the mixture to press as a poultice on top of each bird, as this will effectively baste the Quail as it roasts, and should produce a nice crisp skin. Put the birds aside until it's time to roast them.

3. Carry on gently reducing the stock until you have about half a cup of liquid. Set this aside until you're ready to roast the birds.

4. Heat the oven to 180 degrees C, then - about ten minutes before you're ready to sit - put the prepared Quail in the oven. Bring the reserved stock to a simmer, then add to it the Soy Sauce and Verjus; continue to simmer this mixture until it is starting to thicken (if it goes too far, just add a slug of white wine and keep on going). After ten minutes, the Quail should be done. Either serve it immediately, or else leave it to rest for up to twenty minutes in a warm oven.

Serve: one bird per person, with a spoonful of sauce over the top.

Stuck in London...

We were supposed to be here only for a couple of days, just to race through some chores, and take delivery of a lot of roses for the garden in Santa Caterina. And then, of course, British hopelessness in the face of an inch and a half of snow took over, and we arrived at Gatwick yesterday morning to be told that the airport was closed. Difficult to know why, since it hadn't been closed an hour before, and all that had happened in the meantime was a light dusting of drizzle-force snow, which looked more worthy of the attention of a feather duster than a snow plough. Still, ours not to reason why...although I can't help but feel that if the people who run the airports and airlines were self employed and it was their own revenue that was involved, they'd make rather more of an effort!

With great irritation, we trudged back home once more, only to find that an alternative flight wouldn't be possible until the end of the week - or, not without paying the equivalent of the national debt for a couple of tickets, at any rate, and there just wasn't a compelling enough reason to do so.

Several phone calls to Italy later, cancelling some house guests and a dinner party for Thursday, and letting Arianna know she had the four-footeds for another couple of days (all that daytime TV must be doing their italian a power of good!) and we were left twiddling our thumbs. Bags packed, boxes sealed, chores all done-and-dusted...all dressed up and nowhere to go!

Tonight's dinner:

Asparagus Mousse.

Sole with Marsala & Parmesan; Green Beans, dressed with Lemon & Almonds.

Apple & Vanilla Tarts.

Recipe: Ricotta & Ham Tart

Light and creamy, this tart is a superior form of Quiche Lorraine, where the texture of the cheese is much more unctuous than you find with its country cousin. Since the ricotta generally available these days is sadly lacking in flavour, however, in this recipe it really acts a vehicle for the other ingredients - hence, the quantity of garlic and parmesan, without which the end result risks being rather insipid.
Excellent as a lunch dish, or a starter.

For 1 x 8" tart.

Ingredients: Shortcrust pastry, made with 110g frozen butter, 135g '00' flour, approx 20 ml cold water, and a generous pinch of salt; 500g Ricotta; 4 Eggs; 100g diced Pancetta; 2 large Garlic cloves; 30g grated Parmesan; Salt & Pepper, to taste.

Method:

1. Heat the 0ven to 200 degrees C. Roll out and blind-bake the tart shell (ten minutes with weights inside, and a further ten minutes after the weights have been removed). Reduce the oven to 180 degrees C after the shell has been removed.

2. In a small skillet, brown the diced Pancetta over high heat. Add to the skillet the minced Garlic cloves and heat for a further minute, until the Garlic just begins to colour (if the Pancetta hasn't thrown off enough fat to fry the minced Garlic, then add either a little oil or butter to the skillet before you add the Garlic). Remove from heat.

3. In a food processor, combine the Ricotta, Eggs, and grated Parmesan, and season to taste.

4. Over the base of the baked pastry shell, distribute the Pancetta and Garlic, and then pour the Ricotta mixture evenly over the surface. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees C for about twenty five minutes, or until the surface just begins to colour.

Allow to cool slightly before serving, or else let the tart cool completely and serve it cold.

Hmmm...

Optimistically, we went to check on the Arno this afternoon. After two days without (significant) downpours, and an afternoon spent gardening in almost spring-like sunshine, I'd expected the water level to have dropped to something like normal. Not a bit of it. Just as high as before, and if anything the current much stronger than it had been, with some rather impressive flotsam being carried forcefully downstream. The forecast isn't too promising either - tomorrow looks fine, but then we're due for more torrential downpours on Friday. Hmmm...

Tonight's Dinner:

Oeufs Comtoise.

Pork in diavolo sauce; mushrooms sautéed with shallots.

Andalusian Tarts.

The Arno...

...is worryingly high. It seems as though it's been raining forever - although, in fact, it can only have been since Christmas Day, as I distinctly remember wheeling the terracotta pots from the garden up to Santa Caterina on the afternoon of the 25th, through eerily deserted (and dry) streets.

We went to take a look yesterday at the river level, and - despite the fact that it was a good three metres higher than normal - there seemed little cause for concern, as there was still another three metres to go before it would reach danger point. And still it rained. I went to check again, this morning, having been to the butcher for some fegatini, and saw that two of those three metres have now also gone, and the river bank was dotted with people peering anxiously over at the muddy torrent below. I imagine the more elderly amongst them have clear memories of the floods of '66, when the Solferino bridge was swept away, and this entire quartiera was apparently waist-deep in water. On the news, they've announced that the Serchio has burst its banks at Nodica, about four miles away, and that they've opened the relief canal towards Livorno, which ought to drain off a lot of the flood waters in the Arno. Whether it's enough, remains to be seen - the powers-that-be are announcing a disaster averted - but frankly it seems a little premature of them. The river level here always rises for several days after there's been rain upstream...and there's still more rain forecast (even though today we actually have sun for the first time in ages!)

Time for another cappuccino, and a slice of fruit cake...while we still can!

Tonight's Dinner:

Walnut & Roquefort Sformato.

Chicken Involtini, in cabbage leaves.

Panettone Bread & Butter Pudding.

Christmas Week...

One present a day from under the tree keeps Christmas more or less under control...as well as stretching the whole thing out in a fairly agreeable way. For some reason, while the puppy is fascinated by the whole process, the senior four-footed appears to be deeply antipathetic towards Christmas presents this year - he dutifully comes along to be there for the daily exchange of gifts, but manages to communicate very effectively that he really wishes that we wouldn't do it...looking resolutely the other way, and heaving deep sighs of disapproval throughout.

We've eaten too much - although I'm not quite sure why, since we haven't been entertaining - and already there are murmurs about going on a diet and going on the wagon, once we get beyond Twelfth Night. There's probably much to be said for both! Respectable inroads have been made into the Wolfert oeuvre: rabbit stuffed with salami & fennel; quail, with sage & white grapes; chicken, with orange & cardamom; ricotta ice-cream, with fresh pears; apple croustade. Then there have been a few experiments of my own , such as duck & orange ravioli ...and an emergency batch of lattice-topped mince pies in exchange for a yule log that Massimo dropped round (where the implication was that it had been fata in casa, but we rather concluded otherwise, having tasted it). And we spent Sunday afternoon producing a batch of banana and walnut chocolates as a dinner party offering for that evening, where we'd been invited over the river to Via Mazzini.

No gardening, since the past week has been nothing but rain. Every so often we take the four-footeds to Santa Caterina, for them to run around and get soaked, while we check indoors on the Brazilians' progress. Which is slow. And regular effort is needed to prevent them from wandering off mid-task in order to go and start a completely different job in another part of the house, and thus spread builder-chaos over as broad an area as possible.So far (cautiously) so good...

Against the background of the rain, I've read Colm Toibin's 'Brooklyn' ( and savoured every last page)...as well as traipsed the length of Italy in James Holland's 'Italy's Sorrow', which covers the Italian campaign of 1944 in all its awfulness.

Tonight's Dinner:

Ricotta & Garlic Tart.

Beef, roast in Oil & Dijon Mustard; Potato Gratin.

Orange & Lemon Sorbet with chilled Basil Cream.

Recipe: Chicken and Artichoke 'Pie'

This pastry-less 'pie' is excellent as a way of using up leftover bird (chicken, in this instance, but just as easily duck, or guinea fowl, or turkey) - which I often find lurking in the fridge, as a two-person household tends only ever to get through half a beast in the course of one dinner. The 'pie' is best eaten once it has cooled for half an hour or so after coming out of the oven, or even cold, on the following day - while it's still hot, the thing will collapse into a heap if you try to slice it, whilst the process of cooling down allows the collagen to firm, and neat slices then become possible. The flavours are better too, once they've been left to mature for a while.

For simplicity's sake, you can make this in a pie dish, covering the top with foil for the first phase of cooking, which you then remove in order to allow the top to brown. For a more finished presentation, as shown above, I use two identical pyrex casserole lids, removing the top one half way through, and then replacing it and inverting the whole thing at the end of cooking - thus achieving a perfectly smooth surface - and then browning the newly-exposed top under the grill for several minutes.

For one 8"diameter 'Pie'.

Ingredients: the meat from two previously cooked chicken legs, cut into 1 cm dice; half a medium-sized aubergine; a cup of artichoke hearts (frozen is fine); 3 oz Butter; 1 tsp dried Thyme; 2 minced Garlic cloves; grated rind from 1 Lemon; 6 medium Potatoes; Salt & Pepper.

Method:

1. Cut the aubergine and artichokes into approx 1 cm dice. Melt half the butter in a heavy frying pan , and soften the diced vegetables in Butter for five minutes, until they just begin to colour. Season lightly, and combine in a mixing bowl with the diced Chicken.

2. Stir into this mixture the Thyme, Garlic, and Lemon rind.

3. Heat the oven to 220 degrees C.

4. Peel the potatoes and slice thinly on a mandolin. Melt the remaining Butter in the frying pan, and toss the Potato slices in Butter, then cover with a lid and leave to cook gently for a few minutes - this is really just to make them soft and malleable, so they shouldn't begin to colour at this stage. Season the slices with Salt & Pepper.

5. In a greased pan (or the greased, upturned lid of a pyrex casserole) use two-thirds of the Potato slices to make a complete layer in the base, and then line the sides - use the longer narrower slices for this, and leave the top of the slices sticking up, as you'll want to bend these over the 'pie' filling once it's in place in order to start to form the top of the 'pie'.

6. Over the Potato base, pile the chicken-artichoke-aubergine mixture, then bend the side slices of Potato over the filling, and use the remaining slices to cover the top of the 'pie'.

7. Either cover the 'pie' with aluminium foil, greased on the underside, or else place a second greased pyrex lid over the top. Bake in the oven for twenty five minutes, and then remove the foil or lid and bake until thoroughly browned for a further twenty minutes or so. Remove form the oven If you've used a Pyrex lid, then at this stage put it back in place and invert the 'pie', so that you have a perfect surface which should then be placed under a hot grill for a minute or so in order to brown.

Leave to cool either partially or completely before serving.