Forget Us Nicht: Small Birds and Bamberg

Hello everybody,

It started to snow today for the second time this year and as the wetter guy stated last week, we should be seeing more snow starting Monday due to the Russian arctic blast. Jean-Luc has been waiting all month for this ‘arctic blast’ he been like, “Dis is sheet, I’ve bin vearing my coat for months now. Merde!!!”

My thoughts exactly JL, but other than that things are great and this weekend we headed towards Bamberg and experimented cooking small birds…quail, just in case you started to picture L and I joining Jean-Luc in pouncing birds around our place.

We made blue cheese stuffed quail wrapped in bacon and garlic.

1. Take the little birdies and smoother them with good ol’ olive oil and garlic thyme love. Make sure they get a nice blanketing. Then set them in the fridge for about 1 and a half hours to 2 hours or so, well until they get well acquainted with the olive oil, garlic and thyme battery.

2. Then with some blue cheese, stuff the little guys with a nice helping of that goodness. After that make sure you seal them up sp not to let the cheese escape and proceed to wrap a nice pepper bacon tightly embracing the quail as if to say, “You think you can get away from me. You betta think again.”

While they get to know each other , sneak attack them like you’ve been living on Mt. Olympus way before Zeus and begin raining or reigning over them with the fury of olive oil, garlic, and thyme infusion.

Beer break…

Paulaner Helles from Munich

Light, with a nice hops after taste.

Back to cooking.

4. Now yous got to prepare heaven for the little guys, of course by making a bed of onion sage and carrot comfort … sheesh what did you think, these little guys have no idea. Words can’t describe where they’re headed.

5. Ok… Carrots quartered, chopped or however you chop carrots, whatever puts a smile on yo face. Next, chop onions and mix some sage, actually a lot of sage and sweat them over a nice heat. Add the carrots and brown. Now you have to activate heaven. With 1/4 cup of chicken broth mixed with 1/4 cup of some good pinot gringo, activate heaven, pour it into your carrot/sage/onion mix and cover until carrots are tender. Remember you’re activating heaven not hell, you don’t want carrot mash, so keep an eye on the carrots…tender not mash.

6. Cooking time…

Hopefully you preheated your oven to 500 degrees Celsius, come on keep up, sheesh. Second step to heaven for the birdies is a nice warm bathing of artificial heat, 15 to 18 minutes or 20 minutes, depending on your oven. Still working on that part, they’re so small, that they cook quick, so keep an eye on them.