Quail Breasts with Wine and Rosemary

Friday, 21st June 2013

I had got hold of 10 quail breasts, which was just right for two, and found this recipe.
The wine sauce came out a little sour, possibly because I used a Pinot Gris instead of Chardonnay, but the meat was perfectly cooked, tender and flavourful. The roast potatoes were cooked just right, but a little dry for my taste. More sauce was needed. Salad of Lambs Lettuce, Bacon and different type of cherry tomatoes.

Roast Duck

Friday, 4th November

This time of year German supermarkets have lots of Duck and Goose in stock, for St Martin's Day feasts and I was able to get a nicely sized Duck for 2 people, about 4 lbs.
I salted the skin overnight and wrapped it loosely in paper to let it dry as much as possible. I made a stuffing of bread, onion, the flesh of an orange and some finely chopped smoked sausage. For trimmings there was the duck liver quickly fried with a little onion and server on a crouton, and little sausages wrapped in bacon. For veggies roast potatoes and roast pumpkin with coriander seeds and a little chili pepper.
The duck was pricked all over and then roasted for about an hour and a half first breast up then breast down, then finally up again and painted with a glaze made from sugar syrup, honey, soy sauce, fresh orange juice and a dash of hot pepper sauce.
The skin did not come out as crispy as I hoped but was still totally delicious. The meat was succulent and very favourful. The potatoes were unfortunately over-boiled and under-browned, but still good. The pumpkin needed less roasting time and a more even distribution of chilli(!), but was also good. Overall very successful.

Roast Pigeon

Monday, 27th June

Rubbed the pigeon with olive oil, roasted it simply and had it with roast potatoes with bacon and creamy leeks.
The pigeon looks very bony in this picture but there was a good portion of breast meat too. The flavour was quite strong, but good. Maybe a little dry though.
The cream sauce for the leeks curdled. No idea why though.

Crispy Roast Duck with a Confit of Sour Cherries

Saturday, 29th January

Crispy Roast Duck with a Confit of Sour Cherries (Delia), tiny roasted new potatoes (ala Nigella), broccoli with almonds and rasberry vinegar - Sainsbury's Delicious Vegetables p12.  Salad of lambs lettuce, fennel salami and goats cheese.  Première Bulle Premium Crémant de Limoux 2007.

I like stuffing with my roast dinners, so I added a homemade sage, onion and salami stuffing to Delia recipe.  I got the duck at the local market (not from the supermarket, so it was not wrapped in cling-film) and the skin was nicely dry and came up beautifully crispy.  It was a little smaller than the recipe called for (enough for 3 probably) and I think 2 hours roasting was a little bit too long, although being stuffed it would have taken a bit longer than otherwise anyway.  It was certainly well cooked when it came out but was still lovely and moist without being too greasy.  The sour cheery confit was a delicious accompaniment to the meat.

The salad was a variation on one I did a couple of weeks ago with a different goats cheese and a different salami.  In this case the cheese was marinated in oil and thyme and is fabulous, but perhaps a little too intense for the salad.  The broccoli cooked for a little longer than I planned while I carved the duck, but turned out just right in the end.  The idea of adding flour to the potatoes to make them extra crispy was new to me, but worked very well.  I had no semolina so I used what I did have - chapati flour.