{"id":13770,"date":"2017-08-12T18:33:23","date_gmt":"2017-08-12T18:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=13770"},"modified":"2017-08-12T18:33:23","modified_gmt":"2017-08-12T18:33:23","slug":"quail-balsamic-reduction-sauce-grilled-fennel-chard-garlic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=13770","title":{"rendered":"quail, balsamic reduction sauce; grilled fennel; chard, garlic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13773\" src=\"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/quail_fennel_chard.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n<p>They were the largest and plumpest quail\u00a0we have ever enjoyed. They turned out to be the tastiest as well, so we didn&#8217;t complain about the usual delicate carving operation required\u00a0with tiny whole birds.<\/p>\n<p>I could have flattened and pan-grilled them of course, saving some labor\u00a0at the table and also avoiding a hot oven on a warm summer evening, but I was looking forward to seeing the little roasts arranged on the plates, and by\u00a0using the air conditioning in the &#8216;breakfast room&#8217;, we were able to\u00a0keep the dining table area cool.<\/p>\n<p>We normally share\u00a04 smaller quail between us for a main course, but these two approximated the weight of\u00a04\u00a0of those\u00a0raised in Georgia, so last night a single bird was enough for\u00a0one serving.<\/p>\n<p>The recipe had to be right, so I went looking for something suitable for roasting what I expected would be a special bird. I found <a href=\"http:\/\/www.simplyrecipes.com\/recipes\/roast_quail_with_balsamic_reduction\/\">this one<\/a> on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.simplyrecipes.com\/\">Simply Recipes<\/a>, and, except for a few adjustments, I pretty much ran with it.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>after\u00a0turning on the oven, and while waiting for it to heat to 400\u00b0F, two whole unboned (8+ ounce) pasture-raised certified organic quail from\u00a0Abra Morawiec&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/feistyacres.com\/\">Feisty Acres Farm<\/a> in Jamesport, Long Island, were washed and dried inside and out before\u00a0each cavity was stuffed with\u00a0a quarter of an organic lemon from Whole Foods Market and half of the following mix: 4\u00a0garlic cloves from Norwich Meadows Farm, peeled and bruised a little, the leaves of 2 sprigs of fresh thyme sprigs from Stokes Farm, the leaves of one sprig of fresh rosemary from\u00a0Keith&#8217;s Farm, and one\u00a0and a half tablespoons of Sicilian olive oil from Whole Foods Market, the quail then rubbed with olive oil and sea salt, trussed with string (holding legs together and wings against the breasts), the birds set aside and allowed to come to room temperature (allowing at least 20 minutes from the refrigerator), at which time they were quickly browned on all sides inside a small heavy enameled cast iron oval pan and, using sections of\u00a0fennel stems to keep the birds breast-upright while they roasted (or celery stalks, or whatever suitable vegetable might be available), for about 20 minutes, but most importantly, until an instant-read thermometer registered 150\u00ba (the meat should also feel slightly firm, and the juices\u00a0run\u00a0pale pink when the bird is punctured with a skewer), adding half way through almost half a cup of white wine,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/us.nakedwines.com\/wines\/miriam-alexandra-chenin-blanc-california-2016.htm\">Miriam Alexandra Chenin Blanc California 2016<\/a> (a very good chicken stock\u00a0would be an alternative), the birds removed from the pan when done and set aside on a wooden plank or warm plate to rest for about 10 minutes, loosely tented with foil, while\u00a0the\u00a0sauce was\u00a0assembled, beginning with discarding the fennel stems and placing the roasting pan on a burner above medium heat, adding a little chicken\u00a0stock or wine (I used a sherry,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sherry-lehmann.com\/white-wine\/1472\/Lustau-Papirusa-Light-Manzanilla-Sherry\">Lustau, \u2018Papirusa\u2019 Light Manzanilla Sherry<\/a>, from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sherry-lehmann.com\/\">Sherry Lehmann<\/a>), deglazing the pan by scraping\u00a0any browned bits off the bottom, bringing the liquid to a simmer, pouring it into a small pot or saut\u00e9 pan\u00a0with about half a cup of a (hopefully inexpensive) balsamic vinegar, increasing\u00a0the heat to high and boiling the liquid down to a syrup, or until it is able to coat the back of a spoon, the\u00a0quail served on the plates with the sauce drizzled over everything and the birds garnished with micro nasturtium leaves from Two Guys from Woodbridge<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13792\" src=\"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/fennel_bulb.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>one small fennel bulb from\u00a0Lucky Dog Organic Farm, sliced in half, then into wedges, saut\u00e9ed in olive oil\u00a0, along with some of the more tender stems, along with a little chopped garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm, sea salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, served garnished with chopped fennel fronds<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13793\" src=\"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/red_Swiss_chard.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>red Swiss chard from Willow Wisp Farm,\u00a0wilted in a little olive oil in which 2 halved garlic cloves from Norwich Meadows Farm had been heated, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, arranged on the plates and drizzled with a little olive oil<\/li>\n<li>the wine was a California (Amador) red, using 2 Portuguese grapes (Touriga and Tempranillo), from <a href=\"https:\/\/us.nakedwines.com\/\">Naked Wines<\/a><\/li>\n<li>the music was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discogs.com\/Rameau-William-Christie-Les-Arts-Florissants-Zoroastre\/release\/8506706\">Jean-Philippe Rameau&#8217;s 1749-1756 opera,\u00a0&#8216;Zoroastre&#8217;<\/a>, the last of the composer&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Trag%C3%A9die_en_musique\"><em>trag\u00e9dies en musique <\/em><\/a>to be performed in his lifetime, William Christie conducting Les Arts Florissants \u200e<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They were the largest and plumpest quail\u00a0we have ever enjoyed. They turned out to be the tastiest as well, so we didn&#8217;t complain about the usual delicate carving operation required\u00a0with tiny whole birds. I could have flattened and pan-grilled them of course, saving some labor\u00a0at the table and also avoiding a hot oven on a &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meals-at-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13770\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}