Spring chicken

I cook a lot at home, yet I usually blog about restaurants I dine at... enough... here comes the food I love to cook...

Lemon zest grilled spatchcock with Spring vegetable gnocchi

Spatchcock, it's one of those restauranty words that you rarely see at the market, that's because it is actually the preparation of the chicken, or any poultry. I believe, the term comes from the shortening of 'dispatch cock', where essentially the backbone is removed so that the bird can be cooked quicker. I figure that if I'm going to get a chopping board dirty to do this, I may as well take the ribcage out as well and make it easier to eat, just like in a restaurant. Last night when I prepared this, I used baby chickens or poussins (size 5 birds are a perfect size for a main course).

Lemon zest grilled spatchcock

Rub lemon zest and a generous amount of salt and pepper over an olive oiled spatchcock. Leave to marinate for an hour or two.

Spring vegetable gnocchi

For me its all about what looks best at the market, what I brought yesterday was:

~Asparagus with gorgeous purple tips

~Broadbeans

~Peas

~Baby fennel

~bocconcini

~gnocchi (mine was Alligator pasta from Per Tutti in Prahran)

My garden pesto

I wouldn't usually put parsley in pesto but it's going crazy in the garden so PDC gave it a 'trim'

~Basil

~Parsley

~Pinenuts

~Parmesan (not the plastic Australian fake)

~Garlic (Australian, not the bleached Chinese stuff)

~Extra virgin olive oil

~Salt (I love the pink Murray river flakes)

Pound together a large handful of basil and some parsley if you want, with a couple of cloves of garlic and salt. Once broken down, add a sprinkling of pinenuts and parmesan shavings and pound again with a little olive oil.

I like it a bit rough looking, so stop here, otherwise keep pounding until you have a dark green paste, if the paste looks creamy you have probably gone a bit crazy with the nuts or cheese, but don't worry it will still taste great.

To cook the spatchcocks, I popped them skin side down on a smoking hot barbeque, until the the skin caramelised, then I finished them skin side up in the oven with some extra salt to keep the skin crunchy. When the gnoochi was ready to go, I squeezed on some lemon juice while they rested.

Gnocchi cooks best in a huge pot of boiling salty water, once it floats work fast otherwise you will get squishy watery mash potato balls.

I pre-blanched all the vegetables so they could just be tossed with the gnocchi, pesto and bocconcini while the spatchcock was resting and the plates heating. I also added the liquid that dropped from the chicken as it rested, no point wasting flavour. Be generous with the olive oil here (and even perhaps a bit of butter) as this is what stops it all sticking together.

To eat

On to some warm plates I served the gnocchi, vegetable, bocconcini and pesto combo and then shaved over some fennel.

I cut the baby spatchcocks down the center so I could stack them on the diagonal on the plate, and drizzled with any extra chicken/lemon pan juices, and some more extra virgin olive oil.

My 'Quince Caramel'

I had to share this photo of our cheese, the feature being my accidentally amazing 'quince caramel' as I have christened it.

It's the translucent pink blob on the right and was made from the left over poaching juices form some very long cooked quinces. I couldn't bring myself to through the left over syrup down the sink so I tried reducing it to make a jam and ended up with this headingly strong 'quince caramel'. The texture is like a firm stretchy caramel yet it is perfectly clear and florially fragrant still from the quince. I am really savouring this concoction as I doubt I can ever make it again... Oh yeah, it was perfect with the Saint Vernier cheese and pistachio nuts.

Jack