entree or light meal

Grilled quail with raspberry vinegar marinated berries

~ Eloise Emmett ~ Leave a comment

Today we visited the Rannoch quail farm on the Nubeena back road, the views all the way over the back road from Koonya, of the ocean, bush and pasture are spectacular. Bruce at the quail farm is happy to sell his quail at the farm gate to the public, but keep in mind it is a working farm, so call ahead to see if he is about and not to busy (0362502387). If your lucky like I was today, he might have some seconds, which basically have not been boned properly, like one leg unattached or a small nick in the breast meat, not suitable for a restaurant but perfect for me on a Tuesday night for $3 each. They also sell them in other sizes, smoked quail and whole birds with the bone in.

I cooked it on the flat grill of the barbie with a very simple salad using the beautiful fresh berries which soon wont be availabe.

DPP_73

Bruce and a couple of his quails.

 

4 partially boned quail (leg and wing bone in)
Oil
Salt and pepper

60 ml oil
30 ml raspberry vinegar
teaspoon sugar

2 punnets berries (a mix of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries or blueberries)

2 cup salad leaves

 

Bring sugar and vinegar to boil in a pot and dissolve sugar. Add oil and cool

Cut berries and marinate in raspberry vinegar mix.

To cook quail season with the salt and pepper and seal skin side down in a hot pan, finish cooking in moderate oven about 10 minutes. Or skin side down on a medium heat on the BBQ with the lid closed for about 10 minutes.

Serve immediately on the berries tossed with the salad leaves

DPP_79

 

Lamb, lentil and tomato soup, part 4-side of lamb

~ Eloise Emmett ~ 2 Comments

This is part four of the side of lamb. I will use the neck, when cooked you end up with about 400 grams of beautiful tender lamb meat. Sorell fine meats still has the side of lamb for $45 (ask if the signs not up), I still have two roasts (both with enough cold meat leftovers for a family of four for lunches for the family, for one or two days) and 2 chop meals to go. So eight meals plus some leftovers and lunches at 5.60 a meal for lamb.

About 700 grams lamb neck
1 onion
5 sprigs Thyme
2 Bay leaf
½ cup celery leaf
2 tablespoons four
2 onions
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon oregano
1 teaspoon basil
2 carrots
2 sticks celery
500 grams tomatoes
½ cup lentils
1 cup pasta
80 grams fetta

Roll the neck in the flour and brown on all sides in a pan. Put in the slow cooker with one litre of water, the onion, bay leaf, celery leaf and cook on high for about 4 hour or until the meat is falling for the bone.
Soak the lentils overnight and cook until tender in boiling water, about 15 minutes. Cook the pasta in boiling water for about 10 minutes.
Dice the onion, carrot, celery and crush the garlic, sauté this in a large heavy base pot with the oil. Strain the stock into the pot with the sautéed vegetables and pull the meat off the neck and add this to the pot too. Puree the tomatoes and add this to the pot and the basil and oregano and simmer for 20 minutes then add the cooked lentils and pasta and serve with the fetta crumbled on top.