Wednesday 23 April 2014

No Food in April?

April is almost finished and you would think that we haven't eaten at all this month since I haven't yet posted anything!  Alas food has been a bit staid this month.  The reason?  Well life has been very busy... it is spring and along with planting of veggies and cutting grass there has been rearing of goslings and chicks... most of our meals have been on the run so to speak.  There was one....


Picantones with old fashioned stuffing.

Picantones are poussins to you and me.  They are fairly inexpensive here in Spain and make a very special treat if you get a whole one to yourself.  I was a bit unsure what to do with them and then remembered that in days gone by a chicken  was often stuffed with a bread and herb stuffing... well why not, I thought.


Ingredients for stuffing:  One onion finely chopped; a bowl of breadcrumbs (? how much?  I don't know, how big is your chicken?); a handful of herbs finely chopped - sage or thyme is good; salt and pepper and one egg... oh and some warm milk.


Mix all the above ingredients together adding the little bit of warm milk only if the egg isn't enough to bind everything together.

Stuff the chicken or poussins with the bread mixture and then rub some oil and salt and pepper on the outside of the birds and pop them in a hot oven for an hour or so.  Always test the meat by sticking a skewer into the fleshy bit of the thigh and watch to see that the juices run clear.


We had one each (how decadent) with a medley of vegetables (just what was in the fridge drawer sauteed gently for a bit) ...


and some boiled potatoes... and jolly delicious it was too!

Oh and just a another thing that was a little interesting... related to food.  The other day I went to the hen house for the eggs... and found a really tiny white egg...


Here you can see it beside the normal sized eggs that we usually get.


I cracked it open and what was inside?  Nothing special... just a tiny watery looking yolk... we didn't use it for anything.  But this kind of thing happens from time to time... the next day all the eggs were the correct size!