Week-end on the Farm... continued

Some day, Mike Davis will part with his guidance on the wonderful things to do with the GFF birds (I heard that he was pretty busy in Maine, roasting a pig and grilling a paella over an open fire). When he is back from his culinary adventures and sends me his notes, I will post them right here. Until then, I can only tempt you with pictures of the main courses and the menus from our week-end at Green Fence Farm.

Menu for Friday Night's Dinner

Pan-Roasted Quail with Port Reduction Sauce

Mahogany Rice

Sauteed Haricots Vert with Shallots

Green Salad with Peaches, Blackberries, and Roasted Walnuts

Plum Tarte Tatin

Menu for Saturday's Dinner:

Roast Duck with Plums

Pan-Roasted Partridge with Bacon

Grilled Quail and Chicken

Roasted Beet Salad with Fried Chickpeas and Goat Cheese

Corn on the Cob

Cornmeal Shortcakes with Peaches, Blackberries, and Mint

Plum Sorbet

On Friday, Mike prepared Pan-Roasted Quail in a Port Reduction Sauce. On the side, he served Mahogany Rice, which is a black, flavorful rice (it is unmilled so cooks for 45 to 50 minutes and is very good for you). I did a quick saute of shallots and Kate's thin green beans. I made a green salad, using GFF lettuce, peaches from the nearby orchard, blackberries that we had picked that day, toasted walnuts, and a balsamic vinaigrette.

If you are nervous about the port-reduction sauce, you can try simply grilling the quail, which is what we did on Saturday night, along with grilled chicken. It was a mystery to me what we seasoned the chicken and the quail with--I think that I saw Mike walk out to the herbs and take his pick. He was particularly enamored with the lemon thyme. Here is the thing with the GFF poultry--because it is so good, you don't really need to do much with it. Salt and pepper and grilling works just fine. Add a few herbs of your choice (rosemary under the skin is always good or thyme or whatever you have that is fresh). Just remember for the quail, Because of their size, grilling does not take very long.

Saturday night's dinner was a display of the GFF bounty. In addition to the grilled quail and chicken, Mike prepared a Roast Duck with plums (pictured below) and Pan-Roasted Partridge with Bacon. I can only post the pictures and attest to how wonderful they both were. The Roasted Duck was so delicious that it made Nick admit that they were almost worth all the work that goes into raising them.

I made two vegetable side dishes on Saturday, both of which were based on the Sunday Suppers at Lucques (which I discussed below). One for lunch, first of the season succotash salad, I will post separately. Below is the beet salad.

Roasted Beet Salad with Fried Chickpeas and Goat Cheese

First, if you are ever wondering what to do with the beautiful beets that you get in your CSA, just roast them. They are so sweet and delicious all by themselves. Cut off the tops, clean well, and toss with olive oil and salt (Suzanne Goin uses 2T of extra virgin olive oil and 1 tsp salt for 3 bunches of beets). Place in roasting pan with a bit of water and roast at 400 degrees until tender (around 40 minutes, depending on the size). After cooling, remove the skins and quarter. Look at those beets--aren't they beautiful. We should just stop here.

I loosely followed the rest of the recipe. First of all, the fried chickpeas were okay--I don't think that I cooked them long enough and I don't think that they were completely necessary here since everything else was so great. Just remember, if you are doing this recipe to start the chickpeas first, since they have to cook for quite a while (originally this was going to be a side dish for Thursday, but I didn't start the chickpeas until late).

Using what we had, I made a vinaigrette of 2+ T red wine vinegar, 1 T lemon juice, pinch of cumin, salt, pepper, and 1/2 c (maybe less) of extra virgin olive oil. I used some of the GFF lettuce, tossing it in a bit of vinaigrette, and using it to line the plate. I tossed the beets and 1/4 c thinly sliced shallots in some of the vinaigrette. Added to the plate.

Then, crumbled goat cheese, the fried chickpeas, and flat leaf parsley over the salad to finish it up. As you can see, it was quite a beautiful display and a wonderful tasting salad. The goat cheese combination with the beets was terrific. The recipe calls for roasted cumin seeds and I can see that it would add an additional depth to the salad. Using what we had in the pantry seemed to go well here.