Hot and Sticky Roast Quail

Okay people, stop, and say, "thank you, Pam." Did you stop? Did you say it? You are thanking me because I am sharing with you the most amazing flavored glaze ever! The last time I made quail, I overcooked it on the grill. I overcook a lot of things on the grill, it's a skill I've quite perfected. So, I knew I wanted to roast these, the oven is my friend. I searched my cookbooks, and then turned to my trusty friend, the internet. I found a recipe for Hot and Sticky Roast Quail by Nigel Slater. I have never made a Nigel Slater recipe before, but I will now do whatever this man tells me to do.

The glaze is unbelievably amazing. Staggeringly amazing. As I was making it (which I doubled so that I would have leftovers), I kept thinking the proportions seemed off. Too much cayenne pepper. Too much mustard. Shows how much I know! Don't question it, just do it. This was so good, that as I was wrapping up the leftovers, I actually was dragging my fingers through the glaze left in the pan and just slurping it up. I really could have licked the pan clean.

If you don't have quail, Nigel (don't you like how quickly I became on a first name basis with him) says that you can use chicken thighs. I think what is important here is the ratio of meat to glaze. You want lots of glaze, not so much meat. So, I'm thinking thighs or even wings. Oh, and see those roasted potatoes next to it. They are roasted in duck fat. OMG! Now, I understand what all the fuss is about. I could have made a meal of those potatoes. Seriously this whole meal was amazing and took about 10 minutes of prep. If I ever kill someone and go on death row, this is going to be my last meal, followed by something chocolate.

Nigel Slater's Hot and Sticky Roast Quail
Serves 2 (I recommend doubling or tripling, you're going to want lots of this)

Ingredients

4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp groundnut oil (I used canola)
1 tsp ground cayenne
juice from ½ lemon
2 tablespoons soy sauce
½ teaspoon salt
4 tsp grainy mustard
4 oven-ready quail

Preheat the oven to 425F. Peel and crush the garlic, then mix with the oil, cayenne, lemon juice, soy, salt and mustard. Place the quail in a small roasting tin - they should not touch. Pour over the basting mixture so that the birds are soaked in it and some of it drizzles into the pan.

Roast the quail for twenty to twenty-five minutes, basting once (I didn't baste). Serve with pan glaze spooned over.

As I had this bookmarked for several weeks, this will be my entry for Bookmarked Recipes hosted by Ruth at Ruth's Kitchen Experiments.

One of the challenges of belonging to a CSA is trying to decide what to do with the vegetables. Eating locally and in season, most likely, means eating the same things for several weeks in a row. We have been getting adorable little cabbages and I've used it every way imaginable. Truth be told, I was getting a little tired of the cabbages, I had all ready made larb, twice, and slaw at least a billion times. My go-to dish is always pasta. Really is there anything so malleable as pasta?

I had some spicy thai chicken sausage in my freezer. And for those of you who came here hoping that I was going to show you how to make spicy thai chicken sausage, I'm afraid, that it was purchased. But when it tastes as good as this sausage, I really can't be bothered to make it myself. Though I do have the handy dandy sausage attachment for my mixer and have cranked out a homemade sausage or two in the past.

This dish is so similar to my other pasta dishes it's embarrassing, but yet it came out totally different, since I took it in sort of an Asian slant. To add a little extra something at the end, I topped it with toasted sesame seeds. I have to say that I think they made a huge difference, kind of like a little fresh salsa or pesto really perks up a dish, the toasted sesame seeds added a lot of flavor. I have got to remember to add these final touches, sometimes they really make a dish.

Spicy Thai Sausage and Cabbage Pasta
Serves 4

½ pound linguine (or whatever you have in the pantry)
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb spicy thai chicken sausage (or your favorite kind of sausage)
3-4 cups thinly sliced cabbage (a mix of purple and green is pretty)
¼ cup chicken stock
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
salt and pepper to taste

Cook pasta in boiling salted water, per package directions.

In a large skillet brown the sausage, breaking it up as it browns over medium high heat. Remove to a bowl. Add onion and garlic to pan in the reserved sausage grease (if needed add a little canola oil, I didn't need to). Saute for about 3 minutes until onion starts to soften. Add cabbage to pan. Saute for about 2 minutes until cabbage becomes glossy, add chicken stock, cover and simmer for about 3-5 minutes until cabbage is crisp tender. Remove lid (be careful of the steam!) and add the sausage back in. Stir to combine.

While the flavors are blending, toast the sesame seeds in a dry skillet over medium high heat, until they turn golden. Add drained pasta to skillet (I like to just scoop it out, so that a little pasta water clings to it, and kind of thickens the sauce). Toss pasta with the cabbage sausage mixture. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve topped with toasted sesame seeds.

This was pretty taste and really quick and easy. The sausage is really well flavored so I didn't even have to add any extra seasonings, other than the garlic. This will be my entry for the weeks Presto Pasta Nights , hosted this week by Gay at A Scientist in the Kitchen.

Well, the 90 degree days of summer means the end of our swiss chard. The past few weeks, I have used the kale and chard in pasta dishes, with some sausage and mushrooms, it's a fullproof one-pot dinner. But I wanted to try something different this week, a sort of last hurrah for the chard. I've had pizza before with spinach and cheese and thought..why not chard? It's greens, just like spinach. So, I thought of all the things I like on my pizza (I'm more of white pizza kind of girl, or woman, or old lady..wait I'm getting depressed), back to what I like on my pizza: garlic, olive oil, mozzarella cheese. It doesn't take much to please me.

The first thing I did was make the pizza dough in my bread machine. You can use your favorite pizza dough recipe, or just buy some from the store. While that was doing it's thing, I made the garlic oil. I simmered garlic cloves in olive oil (red pepper flakes would have been a good addition too). I made a little extra so that I would have some to spread on some bruschetta later. Don't you love it when I plan ahead? Sometimes I am so together, other times not so much so.

While the dough was resting and the garlic oil was steeping, I chopped and cooked the chard. If you haven't cooked much with greens before, I've included two pictures, a sort of before-and-after for you. See the big huge pot of greens, too much for one pizza, right? Wrong! See the tiny pile of greens? That's after about 2 minutes of sauteing.

Before:

After:

Swiss Chard Pizza
Serves ? (depends on how much you eat)

1 recipe (or bought) pizza dough
1 bunch swiss chard (stems removed, roughly chopped)
¼ cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 ball fresh mozarella cheese
¼ cup parmesan cheese
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 500.

Make or buy pizza dough. Pour olive oil in a small pot and add minced garlic. Heat over medium heat until bubbles appear around garlic. Reduce heat to low and let steep for about 30 minutes. Strain out garlic and pour oil into a jar.

Swirl a little olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and saute swiss chard until wilted, about 3 minutes.

Roll out pizza dough. Brush on garlic oil. If you wish (and I did) sprinkle on some of the strained garlic. Spread the swiss chard evenly over the pizza and season with salt and pepper. Top with parmesan cheese and break apart the mozzarella and dot over the pizza. Bake on a pizza stone (or on a baking sheet) for 10-12 minutes.

This was sooo good! The chard that was not covered by cheese got all brown and crunchy, and that under the cheese stayed all soft and green. I was so proud of myself, thinking that I finally came up with something new. Something that I hadn't read about, or saw a recipe for, and then guess what...a couple days after I made this, I was watching Jamie at Home , and he put swiss chard on a pizza!!! At first I was bummed because apparently my idea was not a new one, but then I got all stoked because I had the same idea as Jamie!!!! How cool is that?

Okay, people, do not judge me. I bought another food magazine. It was not even a full day since I bought the last one. You know how serial killers, as they progress, there gets to be less time between each murder (hey, I watch CSI and Criminal Minds, I know these things), well, I think that's what's happening to me. But really, it had Emeril and Martha on the cover, could I refuse? I think not!

So, anyway, this was a grilling issue, and it was filled with simple recipes using fresh herbs. Right away, my eagle eye zeroed in on Buttermilk and Herb Chicken, and because I had all the ingredients in my well-stocked freezer, pantry, fridge, and herb garden, because it fit the new rules for Weekend Herb Blogging, and let's be honest here, it only had 5 ingredients (and one of those is oil for the grill grates)!

Buttermilk and Herb Chicken
Serves 4

1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
Coarse salt and ground pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (6 to 8 ounces each)
Vegetable oil, for grates

In a large bowl, combine buttermilk, rosemary, 1 teaspoon salt, and a teaspoon of pepper. Add chicken to marinade, turning to coat. Marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes (or refrigerate, up to overnight). I marinated it for about 6 hours.

Heat grill to medium; lightly oil grates. Lift chicken from marinade, shaking off excess; discard marinade. Grill until an instant-read thermometer inserted in thickest part of chicken registers 165 degrees, 5 to 8 minutes per side. Remove from grill. Tent loosely with aluminum foil; let rest 5 minutes before serving.

This was amazing! The flavor of the rosemary totally permeated the chicken. Really, it was the most flavorful chicken I have ever cooked! The only thing is that I always, always overcook boneless chicken breasts on the grill. I can't help it. So, I think next time I'll probably just saute this in a pan, where I know I can keep it moist.

And guess what folks? This is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by .... me!! Yep, I'm hosting this week. So please send your entries to morefromscraps at comcast dot net. And also be sure and check out the link above because, as I said, Kalyn has posted some new rules. These rules don't actually take effect until July 20th, but we might as well start thinking about them now. They can be summed up in this line "I would like to see WHB entries be limited to recipes or informative posts where people can learn about cooking with herbs or unusual plant ingredients." See, easy peasy.