LOVE BIRDS:
HOW TO COOK GAME BIRDS
With Recipes For
Cornish Game Hen With Grape
Leaves
Squab Salad
Grilled Lime-Ancho
Marinated Game Birds
and
Tips on Taming the Game
On Valentine's Day you have two options.
You can jostle with 50,000 other people
trying to get a romantic table at a nice restaurant, hope for decent
service and pray that you'll get away for less than $100 a couple.
Or you can cook at home.
And to make that second option more
interesting, choose some love birds for your love bird.
Love birds are what I call small game
birds that can range from a four-ounce quail to a 1-1/2 pound woodcock.
They can be as wild as the film "9-1/2 Weeks" (not a bad rental
choice for the evening) or as tame as "The Way We Were" (one of
my favorite tear jerkers.) You've probably had love birds without knowing
it. The Cornish game hen falls into that category. It's been bred into
domesticity, but don't turn your nose up to it. It still holds up to
marinades, sauces and cooking techniques. And it's reasonably priced, so
it leaves you plenty for that oaky Chardonnay you've been wanting to try.
At my first restaurant, we stuffed a Cornish hen with pine nuts, raisins
and mushrooms and wrapped it in grape leaves. It was one of our most
popular entrees. At most supermarkets, the Cornish hen comes frozen, but
better stores have fresh ones. Look for the smallest you can find, about a
pound each.
My Favorite Love Birds
After cooking a flock of more legitimate
game birds recently, here are my observations:
- My favorite love bird is a squab. It
has all the qualities you'd want. It weighs about a pound, just right
for an individual portion. It's faintly gamy but not too. And it has
rich meat with enough fat so it won't dry out. (Fat, or lack thereof,
can be a problem with game birds. They don't just sit around and eat
like chickens do, so they're leaner. Healthful to be sure, but you've
got to roast or grill them on the rare side or it's Sawdust City. One
way to mitigate dryness is to strap a slice of bacon or pancetta
across the breast while it cooks.)
- Choice No. 2 is a quail. The only
drawback here is size. So buy four, for two people. In terms of
flavor, quail falls somewhere between Cornish hens and squab. If you
can buy them semiboneless -- that is, breast bones removed but legs
intact -- it makes it a lot easier to stuff and eat. Quails demand
hand eating, so don't even think about trying to be dainty. And
besides, eating with your hands can be pretty sensual. Ever see
"Tom Jones" (also a good rental choice)? Have a finger bowl
handy if you must. And a sturdy cloth napkin for sure.
- The partridge family is next. Also
faintly gamy, it has a lighter color than squab and is not quite as
rich. It's a good size at 12 to 14 ounces.
The squab, quail and partridge can all be
cooked simply, either roasted whole or split and grilled or broiled. Or
they can be braised with stock, vegetables, and wine. I made a fabulous
squab salad with mixed greens and garlic croutons and a hearty stew of
partridge and pink lentils.
Other Varieties of Love Birds
With most other game birds, you'll need
to doctor the gaminess a bit with marinades and sauces (see "Taming
the Game" at the end of this article.) Here are some possibilities.
- Woodcock: The strongest of the strong
-- too strong for me -- with dark meat that's almost like venison.
They weigh about one pound each.
- Red Eye Grouse: Slightly less heavy
duty. About 10 ounces.
- Hazel Grouse: Slightly more robust
than a quail. Because it weights only about eight ounces, one per
person probably won't be enough.
- Snow Grouse (sometimes called
Ptarmigan): Considered one of the finest game birds by connoisseurs,
it weighs just under a pound. It has a large breast with deep red
meat. The taste is faintly livery. Strong, but manageable with a good
marinade.
- Wood Pigeon: Quite meaty for its size
and has a pleasing game flavor.
Other birds to look out for are poussin
(chicken-like flavor) and guinea fowl (try to get young fowl that weigh
close to a pound each.)
What Do You Serve with Your Love
Birds?
Wild mushrooms are a good choice in any
form. I like a ragout of mixed mushrooms splashed with port or Madeira. Or
toss a few slices into some stir-fried seasonal green veggies. Try steamed
asparagus with thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms and scallions or snow peas
with some fresh ginger. And as long as we're staying on the wild side,
wild rice is a good choice. But not straight. Instead, combine it with an
equal amount of long grain white rice and cook both in chicken stock for
added flavor.
And what to drink? White with fowl is out
the window for most game birds (except Cornish game hens) unless you've
got a full-flavored Chardonnay. No, red wines are generally the choice
here. I'd go with a pinot noir for lighter birds such as squab and quail.
Move up with zinfandels and such as you go up the flavor ladder. Heck,
even a rock-solid Barolo isn't out of the question with a woodcock. All
the following recipes are for two. Happy Valentine's Day to you and your
love bird.
Cornish
Game Hen With Grape Leaves
2 Cornish game hens
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons butter
1 ounce pine nuts
3 ounces sliced mushrooms
2 tablespoons raisins
1/4 cup flavored bread crumbs
Chicken stock
2 slices bacon
4 grape leaves
- Remove giblets, rinse, pat dry and
season hens with salt and pepper. Set aside.
- In a skillet over moderate heat, sauté
pine nuts in half the butter until golden brown. Put in a bowl.
- In the same skillet, heat remaining
butter over high heat. When butter stops sizzling, add mushrooms and
cook, stirring, until lightly browned. Add to pine nuts along with
raisins, bread crumbs and just enough stock so mixture comes together.
- Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Stuff
hens with stuffing mixture, put a slice of bacon on each breast and
truss birds. (To truss is to secure with string or pins or skewers so
the stuffing doesn't fall out and the bird keeps its shape during
cooking). Roast hens about 25 to 30 minutes or until just barely done,
about 150 degrees on an instant-read thermometer.
- Remove string or pins and wrap hens
with a grape leaf on top and bottom. Add some stock to the roasting
pan, cover hens with foil and return to the oven until heated through,
about 10 minutes.
Squab
Salad
1 squab (about 1 pound) or 2 partridge or
3 quail
Salt and pepper
3 sprigs of fresh thyme
10 cloves garlic, unpeeled
Olive oil
Eight 1/4 -inch slices from a French baguette
4 thin slices bacon
1 teaspoon minced shallot
1/2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 large handful of mixed salad greens, cleaned and dried
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Meanwhile, remove livers and gizzards from squab and set them aside.
Wash, pat dry and season squab with salt and pepper. Put thyme leaves
in cavity and truss (see above).
- Put squab in small baking dish. Toss
garlic with 1 teaspoon of oil and strew around squab. Roast squab
about 35 minutes or until breast is just firm to touch. Baste
periodically with juices.
- While squab is cooking, brush baguette
slices with 1 tablespoon oil and bake until lightly golden. Fry bacon
until crisp. Drain off fat and fry liver and gizzard (gizzard will
take longer); season with salt and pepper. Chop bacon, liver and
gizzard. Combine and set aside.
- When squab is done, pour pan juices
into a bowl. Combine remaining olive oil with shallot, vinegar and fat
that has risen to the top of the bowl of pan juices. Season with salt
and pepper. Toss lettuce with vinaigrette and reserved bacon, gizzard
and livers. Cut squab into serving pieces. Put lettuce on a serving
platter, top with squab and surround with croutons. Top croutons with
garlic cloves (for spreading on croutons). Spoon reserved juices over
meat and lettuce.
(Adapted from "Chez Panisse
Cooking" by Paul Bertolli with Alice Waters. Random House.)
Grilled
Lime-Ancho Marinated Game Birds
The following recipe from "New Game
Cuisine" by Janet Hazen (Chronicle Books) will tame the gamiest of
game birds.
2 or more game birds (depending on size)
such as grouse or wood pigeon
2 dried ancho peppers soaked in water overnight
1 small tomato, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Hot pepper sauce (optional)
- Wash, pat dry and split birds. Set
aside.
- Drain, stem and seed peppers and
combine with remaining ingredients in a food processor, adding a few
drops of liquid pepper sauce if you want an especially spicy marinade.
Puree until smooth.
- Lay birds flat in a shallow,
non-aluminum pan and pour marinade over them, turning to coat evenly.
Refrigerate 8 hours or overnight.
- Drain birds slightly before putting
them on a medium-hot charcoal grill. Cook about 5 to 7 minutes on each
side for birds 8 to 1 ounces, 7 to 10 minutes for larger birds.
Taming the Game
Depending upon how wild your love birds
are and how much of that wild taste you want, you'll probably employ
marinades and sauces in some fashion. Proportions aren't crucial. A simple
marinade, for example, can be made with equal parts red wine and olive oil
with some chopped garlic and black pepper. Some other ideas:
- Fresh herbs: Fresh springs of thyme
and rosemary are ideal companions for game. Also try sage, mint, and,
for Latin or Asian-style dishes, cilantro.
- Hot stuff: Chili peppers are perfect
for game. Fresh jalapeno and serrano are readily available. But also
try smoke chipotle (usually found dry or canned in tomato sauce). And
hot pepper sauces too, from habanero to sweet and Tabasco.
- Spirits: Believe it or not, gin makes
a great game marinade. So do vermouth (dry or sweet), sherry, and
almost any red wine. Try some dessert wines too, such as Muscat or
Port.
- Spices: Garlic, of course. Juniper
berries, especially with gin. Pomegranate seeds and juice give a
Persian accent to game birds. Mustard seeds can be used in marinades
and prepared Dijon can be slathered on before broiling. Also try
allspice, fennel seeds, bay leaves, peppercorns and cloves.
