Supreme of guinea fowl with broad beans, fresh morels and herb gnocchi

A smashing recipe from Chris and Jeff Galvin's Galvin: a Cookbook de Luxe which you could make to impress on Father's Day. It's one of those books that teaches you to cook like a Michelin-starred chef - so also a great present for any Dad who fancies himself in the kitchen.

Chris and Jeff write: This is one of those delightful dishes where all the ingredients come into season at the same time. If you can't get fresh morels, use any good wild mushrooms in season

Serves 4

2 guinea fowl crowns (the main body with the legs taken off)
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 quantity of Herb Gnocchi (see below)
3 tablespoons olive oil
40 small fresh morel mushrooms
160g shelled broad beans, blanched and thin outer skin removed
sea salt and freshly ground white pepper

For the herb paste
90g softened unsalted butter
80g curly parsley, chopped
100g fresh white breadcrumbs

For the sauce
1/2 garlic clove
50ml white wine
1 sprig of thyme
300ml Brown Chicken Stock (see the book or substitute your own home-made stock)
1/2 lemon

First, make the herb paste to go under the guinea fowl skin. Put the butter, parsley and breadcrumbs in a blender or food processor and blitz until they combine. Transfer to a piping bag.

Prepare the guinea fowl. Remove the wishbone and wings from the birds (these are used in the sauce later), then push your fingers between the skin and breasts to loosen. Pipe the herb paste into this cavity on both birds and spread it out evenly.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large, ovenproof frying pan until smoking hot. Seal the guinea fowl on both breasts in the pan until golden brown. Transfer the pan to an oven preheated to 200°C/Gas Mark 6 and cook for 25 minutes, basting regularly. Remove from the oven and leave to rest for 15 minutes. Once rested, remove the breasts from the crowns and keep warm.

Meanwhile, to make the sauce, chop the wing bones into very small pieces. Heat a heavy-based saucepan, just big enough to hold the bones in a single layer, until it is very hot. Add the chopped bones to the pan with the garlic and reduce the heat slightly. There is no need to add any oil as the wings will start to release fat as they cook.

Cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, ensuring the pan is hot enough to roast the bones but not so hot that they burn. You are looking for the wing pieces to turn a deep golden yellow colour. Add the white wine and thyme and cook until reduced by three-quarters. Add the chicken stock and cook for 10–15 minutes or until the mixture has reduced to a light coating consistency. Season with salt, if necessary, and finish with 1 or 2 drops of lemon juice. Pass the sauce through a piece of muslin or a fine sieve.

Just before serving, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a frying pan, add the gnocchi and sauté for 2–3 minutes or until golden all over. Season with salt and pepper and keep warm.

Heat another tablespoon of the olive oil in a small saucepan, add the morels and sauté gently for 2–3 minutes or until tender. Season with a little salt. At the same time, reheat the broad beans in a pan of boiling salted water. Drain, then sauté the beans in the remaining olive oil for 30 seconds and season with salt.

To serve, slice each guinea fowl breast into 3 and place in the centre of each serving plate. Surround with the gnocchi, morels and broad beans. Finally spoon over a little sauce and serve immediately.

What to drink: This is the perfect dish to pair with a fine red burgundy or other top Pinot Noir. Premier cru Chablis or another subtly oaked Chardonnay would also be a good match.

Herb Gnocchi
Makes 20

1 large Desiree potato, weighing about 400g
100g fine sea salt
1 small free-range egg
35g Parmesan cheese, finely grated
50g Italian ‘00’ flour
1 tablespoon of chopped mixed herbs (chervil, parsley and tarragon)
8g sea salt
freshly ground white pepper

Wash the potato well and prick it with a fork. Place the fine salt on a small baking tray, put the potato on top and place in an oven preheated to 190°C/Gas Mark 5. Bake for about 11/2 hours, until tender. Remove from the oven, cut the potato in half and use a spoon to scoop out the flesh. Pass it through a fine sieve into a bowl; you should have about 200g sieved potato.

Lightly beat the egg with the Parmesan, them work this mixture into the potato with a spatula or wooden spoon. Make sure the mixture is well combined but be careful not to overwork it. Add the flour, herbs and salt and a few twists of pepper and mix together to make a dough. Turn the dough out on to a work surface and shape into a long sausage, about 1.5cm thick. Cut it into 20 pieces.

Add the gnocchi to a large pan of boiling salted water. They will sink to the bottom initially but when they rise to the top, they are cooked. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon, refresh in iced water and then drain well.

Galvin: a Cookbook de Luxe is published by Absolute Press at £25. Photograph ©Lara Holmes. For more about the Galvins' restaurants see www.galvinrestaurants.com

 

 

Balthazar's Coq au Vin

It might seem bizarre turning to an American cookbook for a classic French recipe but this version from the Balthazar Cookbook is hard to beat.

Though we might be inclined to use a tender young chicken, Coq au Vin was originally made by braising the meat from a sinewy old rooster in cheap red wine for a long period of time.

Serves 4

4 large stewing hen legs
1 large yellow onion, cut into 1cm dice
1 large carrot, cut into 1cm dice
2 celery stalks, cut into medium dice
1 head of garlic, halved horizontally
1 bottle of red wine*
1 bouquet garni
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 tablespoons plain flour
750ml veal stock (for which there is a recipe in the book) or homemade chicken stock
250g pearl onions, peeled
225g smoked streaky bacon in one piece, diced
450g small button mushrooms
3 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

In a large bowl, combine the legs, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, wine and bouquet garni. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours.

Strain the legs and the vegetables from the marinade, reserving the liquid and separating the chicken and vegetables. Season the legs with salt and pepper.

Heat the olive oil in a large casserole. When it begins to smoke, add the legs, in batches if necessary, being sure not to crowd the pan. Brown evenly and deeply on all sides, about 8 minutes per side. Set the finished legs to the side and discard the oil; replenish it between batches.

When finished browning the legs, reduce the heat to medium and add the reserved vegetables to the pot. Cook until they soften and begin to brown, about 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for about 2 minutes, then add the flour, stirring again for about 2 minutes. Add the reserved wine marinade and, as it bubbles up, use a wooden spoon to scrape the bottom of the pot and incorporate any flavourful bits into the broth. Simmer until the liquid has reduced by half, about 20 to 25 minutes, then add the stock. As it reaches the boil, reduce the heat to low and maintain a slow and gentle simmer for 1 hour, at which point the meat should be meltingly tender.

Meanwhile, prepare the rest of the ingredients: blanch the pearl onions in boiling water for 5 to 7 minutes, until tender. Drain and set aside. Cook the bacon in a dry frying pan over a medium heat until brown, about 10 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon. Add the mushrooms to the pan and the now very hot rendered bacon fat, cook until brown, about 5 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon. Add the blanched pearl onions to the pan, sauting until they too are brown, about 5 minutes.

Remove the legs from the braising liquid and strain the contents of the pot, reserving the liquid and discarding the vegetables. Bring to a strong simmer and skim the surface of the sauce as it bubbles, removing any visible fat. When the sauce has reduced by half, return the legs to the pot along with the bacon, onions and mushrooms and simmer for an additional 15 minutes. Just prior to serving, add the chopped parsley.

Serve with French-style pomme purée (creamy mashed potato)

From The Balthazar Cookbook by Keith McNally, Riad Nasr & Lee Hanson, published in the UK by Absolute Press, price £25.

What to drink*:
The tradition with this types of recipe is to drink a slightly better version of the wine you've used to cook it - a Nuits-St-Georges when you've used a basic burgundy for example but a less well-known appellation like Aloxe-Corton or Fixin would be less costly and rather more interesting. Or you could perfectly well use an inexpensive southern French red

Porc à la moutarde

This typically Burgundian dish of pork with a wine, cream and mustard-based sauce is quick, easy and versatile. You could equally well use it for chicken.

Serves 2
1 tbsp olive oil
15g butter
2 boneless pork loin steaks (about 300g), preferably organic
125g chestnut mushrooms, rinsed, trimmed and thickly sliced
1 level tsp flour
100ml white burgundy or other dry white wine
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
2 tbsp creme fraiche
2 rounded tsp Dijon grain mustard or other grain mustard
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Some scissor snipped chives

Heat a medium sized frying pan and add the oil. When it's hot add the butter, then lay the pork steaks in the pan. Brown for about 3 minutes on each side, then turn the heat down and cook for a further 2-3 minutes on each side depending on the thickness of the steaks.

Remove the steaks from the pan and keep warm. Cook the mushrooms in the remaining oil and butter until lightly browned. Scoop them out with a slotted spoon and add to the pork.

Stir the flour into the pan then add the white wine and thyme and bubble up until reduced by about two thirds. Turn the heat right down and stir in the creme fraiche then add the mustard and warm through taking care not to boil the sauce which will make the mustard taste bitter.

Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper then return the pork, the mushrooms and any juices to the pan. Heat through very gently. Put a pork steak on each plate, spoon over the mushrooms and sauce and snip a few chives over the top. Serve with new potatoes and a green salad

Wine match
A young Chablis or Maçon-Villages would be ideal with this dish or any cool climate, unoaked Chardonnay. A modest red burgundy would also work well.