28 FOODSERVICE JUNE 2011 AS THE TEMPERATURE DROPS WE CHECK IN WITH SOME OF THE BEST CHEFS IN THE COUNTRY TO SEE WHAT BIRDS THEY’LL HAVE ON THE MENU THIS WINTER. 29 POULTRY BIRD IS THE WORD QUAIL with a lentil dressing; it’s a rustic dish I’ve been to add that textural contrast, and that’s served with Joe Pavlovich – head chef, Glass Brasserie playing with and trying out.” some stuffing balls.” Quail with dukkah, jamon, pear, agresto “Our quail dish is pretty light for a quail dish and we Colin Fassnidge – chef/owner, Colin Fassnidge – chef/owner, are serving it with an agresto sauce, which I guess is Four in Hand Dining Room Four in Hand Dining Room like a pesto without cheese, and it has verjuice in it “We serve quail with confit plums, and we have this “We usually do like a really strong double chicken so it is quite light and fresh. It gets jamon, fresh pear, coarse herb polenta at the moment, with some stock, brown stock. We roast the chicken off and a little crumbed eschallot ring, some game jus and grilled leeks, sorrel and the confit plum. We just serve it in that stock. You know how you make your celery cream. We pan fry the quail and then we put a roast the quail on the bone to order, and then take it chicken stock and then you add your bones and bit of mustard dukkah crust on top and the spices off the bone just a little bit under pink.” then you make your brown chicken stock, so you are real nice. We have played around with a lot of roast off your whole bird and all the bones you get quail dishes here and this one seems to sell the best. CHICKEN when you take it off the bone, you re-fresh that sauce Some quail dishes you think are great but they don’t Joe Pavlovich – head chef, Glass Basserie again. So it’s like a really rich roast gravy. We serve it end up selling, but this one is very popular.” Roasted salt-crusted baby chicken, leek, bacon and with artichokes, and some baby carrots that we dried fig stuffing, Jerusalem artichoke puree, zucchini cook in ginger beer. The ginger brings out the Nino Zoccali – owner, Pendolino “I have a salt-crusted baby chicken on the menu. We flavour in the carrot a little bit more.” Medium-rare char-grilled quail with slow cooked bake that in pastry. We silver serve that at the table. thyme and garlic potato, sautéed spinach with dried We tear it off, put a leek, dried fig and liver stuffing black olive and Mediterranean herb sauce, olive ‘pasta in the centre, put it back so it looks like a baby sfoglia’ grissino chicken, put the salt crust over it and then we bake it “It’s a classic dish for us. It’s barbecued on the and we serve that with an Jerusalem artichoke charcoal grill with a dried black olive sauce, spinach puree, zucchini and some ginger.” and potato fondant and it is served with beautiful new season oils. Early-harvest, fruit-driven extra Adam Humphrey – co-owner, virgin olive oils work with anything that is char- Restaurant Arras grilled basically. This is a very Tuscan kind of dish. Chicken or fish We do use modern technology though in this dish. “At the end of the day I like serving fish and meat We steam the quails, de-bone them, wrap them in together, that’s my thing. It is a real light refreshing lardo then we par-cook them and then blast-chill dish, and it’s basically a play on a chicken dinner. them which relaxes them. So we pre-cook them to Basically we make a double chicken consomme, and pink and then we finish them by cooking them all you have there is a really clear and bold flavoured again on the char grill and it tastes like a freshly chicken stock. We get a load of chicken skin and dry it grilled quail, only better.” like a chicken crisp and then we get a real meaty fish like a bass groper and we marinate that in lemon zest Adam Humphrey – co-owner, and salt and pepper and lightly cook it. We serve it Restaurant Arras with really nice seasonal vegetables – baby turnips or Quail or the egg nice cabbage. Originally we wrapped the chicken skin “I’ve done this dish in the past and basically what we around the fish, but as is often the case with what we do is get a whole tunnel-boned quail and I put a do we look at it and say, ‘well that’s a nice way to do it poached chicken egg inside it and I roast it. So it but let’s try this way’. We removed the chicken skin to looks like a whole quail, but basically when you cut clean up the dish and then crisp up the chicken skin into the quail the egg runs out. And we serve that otherwise everything is soft on the dish, so it was nice MAIN IMAGE: JOE PAVLOVIch’S PHEASANT brEAST WITH MINT farCE, CROMESQUIS OF LEG, CELERIAC PUREE, WITLOF, WHITE ASparagUS, brUSSELS SprOUTS, daTE SAUCE. RIGHT: JOE PAVLOVIch’S QUAIL WITH DUKKah, JAMON, PEar, agrESTO. 30 FOODSERVICE JUNE 2011 POULTRY WE THrow IN soME dried OLive AS THE ASH, so IT LooKS LIKE A ciGAR IN AN ASHTRAY. WE PUT A CLocHE over IT, SMOKE IT AND seND IT OUT TO THE resTAURANT, TAKE THE CLocHE off AND ALL THE Nice SMOKE coMes OUT of IT. “We have a duck Maryland: it’s a slow-cooked sous PHEASANT vide in olive oil. It’s an Italian version of a confit I Joe Pavlovich – head chef, Glass Basserie guess and it’s kind of like slow braising really. We do Pheasant breast with mint farce, cromesquis of leg, that with a bit of dried fennel, garlic, juniper berries. celeriac puree, witlof, white asparagus, brussels We crisp that up at service to order, so it is a sprouts, date sauce twice-cooked duck leg and we serve that with “It’s the perfect season for game birds and we are Roman gnocchi, which is a baked semolina tortina doing a mint stuffing underneath the breast and we with Parmesan, and a lentil sauce. A little winter cook that on 52° for 28 minutes. There is bone salad of red onion and curly endive, or as some marrow in the stuffing just to make it a little bit people call it frisée.” richer because pheasant can be quite lean. We mince the leg meat with pork fat and pork mince, Adam Humphrey – co-owner, mustard fruits and we make balls and then make Restaurant Arras cromesquis, so it’s crumbed and it gets served with Smoking Peking duck celeriac puree, because it goes so well with game, “We take all the elements of Peking duck. We make caramelised witlof, and served with a game sauce.” a blood plum puree. We start with confit duck leg meat and some finely sliced spring onions and Adam Humphrey – co-owner, wrap that in some brick pastry into a cigar shape Restaurant Arras and then we slow-cook a duck breast which has Pheasant, creamed cabbage, bacon been marinated in some star anise, cinnamon and “I often find that pheasant is one of those birds that serve that roasted pink. We make a little ashtray can go really dry so you have to be mindful of that out of some ribbons of cucumber and we throw in when you are cooking with it. I like serving bigger some dried olive as the ash, so it looks like a cigar flavours with it. I know it sounds really kitsch but I in an ashtray. We put a cloche over it, smoke it and like to serve it with creamed cabbage and bacon. I’m send it out to the restaurant, take the cloche off pretty sort of basic in that regard. At the end of the and all the nice smoke comes out of it. It’s a bit of day if you have a decent pheasant then why mess ADAM HUMphREY’S SMOKING PEKING DUCK. fun and then the plum and duck gravy goes over around with it? I know it sounds a bit daft but I like the top of the ashtray to put out the fire. All the to serve it with spiced nuts too, or poached cherries flavours work nicely and I think you need to look at or cranberries. Pheasant is quite lean – my brother DUCK food and say, ‘well what can I do that’s a bit goes out shooting a lot and he says I have all these Joe Pavlovich – head chef, Glass Brasserie different and interesting that works’?” pheasants and I have no idea what to do with them. Duck breast with maple and lavender, I said the problem is when you cook them at home almond puree, pea agnolotti Colin Fassnidge – chef/owner, everyone tends to over-cook them and they aren’t “This is a combined dish by Luke (Mangan) and I. Four in Hand Dining Room serving the right garnish.” It’s based on a dish that he had at Salt, but I have “We roast the duck and take the meat off the bone. re-worked it and adapted it to the sort of food we Then we make a stock with fresh orange juice, Colin Fassnidge – chef/owner, are doing now.