Foodie Friday: Lostock Farm Squab

Each week, we’re joined by cookbook author and president and founder of The Gourmet Warehouse Caren McSherry with a recipe to help you up your game in the kitchen and wow your dinner party guests.

This week, Caren was unable to make it on The Simi Sara Show. Instead, Owner of Burnaby’s Pear Tree Restaurant and Captain of Culinary Team Canada for the IKA Culinary Olympics Scott Jaeger filled the spot and talked about his Lostock Farm Squad recipe.

Pastrami Brine

What you need

• 1 L water
• 100 g brown sugar
• 75 g kosher salt
• 7 g peppercorn
• 5 g thyme (fresh)
• 3 g bay leaf (fresh)
• 6 g clove
• 4 g garlic cloves
• 2 g juniper

Bring all ingredients to a boil, then chill. Keep it refrigerated until needed.

Poultry Cure

What you need

• 4 tbsp coarse salt (pickling salt)
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 orange rind
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 star anise
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp black peppercorn

Mix all ingredients together

You will also need three whole squabs.

How to do it

1. Remove legs from body, remove breasts and trim excess fat and sinew. Remove excess fat from carcass
2. Liberally season legs with poultry cure. Leave for 24 hrs, rinse well. Pat dry. Cook (confit) for 4 hrs at 270⁰ F in duck fat.
3. Brine breasts for 1 hour in pastrami brine. Cold smoke for 10 minutes
4. Roast squab carcasses in 425⁰F oven until evenly browned. Remove from pan; add 1 onion, 1 celery and 1 carrot (all diced). Roast vegetables until brown. Add 1 tbsp tomato paste, stir and roast for 5 more minutes. Deglaze pan with red wine, return squab bones, cover with chicken stock and simmer for 2-3 hours. Strain through a fine mesh sieve and reduce till sauce consistency.
5. To Serve: Roast Legs skin side down until crisp
6. Roast breast skin side down 6-8 minutes, flip over and allow heat to penetrate, core temperature should reach 52⁰C. Allow to rest
7. Rechaud breast skin side down in duck fat until re-crisp. About 2 minutes
8. Reheat sauce, add 1 sprig of thyme for 1 minute. Remove from heat , whisk in 1 tbsp of cold butter, a small cube at a time
9. Serve with braised radish, pickled ramps, beets and fresh fava beans

Squash Puree

What you need

• 300g squash ( approximately 1)
• 15g butter
• 1 shallot (emince)
• nutmeg
• salt and pepper
• 15g heavy cream

How to do it

1. Begin by peeling, seeding and coring the squash, removing any green fibrous portions
2. Next break down the squash into a large dice. Add flesh to a sauce pan along with butter, shallot and seasoning
3. Add enough water to come half way up the squash, cover and simmer until very tender
4. Blend in a high speed blender, incorporate your cream while running: strain and season to taste

Chanterelles

1. Begin by lightly brushing the mushrooms of visible dirt/impurities (stem may be scraped if desired)
2. Next heat a pan with a small amount of neutral oil. Sautee the mushrooms on medium high heat to attain initial colour, once browned reduce heat slightly and add a small amount of shallot compound butter. Season Liberally with salt and pepper.
3. Once tender, mushrooms can be finished with a small amount of poultry glace and chopped fine herbs

Spatzle

What you need

• 5 eggs
• 500 ml 2% milk
• 3 tbsp Dijon
• 3 tbsp grainy mustard
• Salt and pepper
• nutmeg
• 1 L flour
• Clarified butter

Mix it well.

How to do it

1. Begin by heating a pot of heavily salted water to a simmer
2. Place a fitting perforated tray over the water and begin pressing through the batter with a bowl scrapper to form noodles. Once in the water cook for 2-3 minutes, ensuring the water does not surpass a gentle simmer or the noodles will become tough
3. Shock the noodles in cold water and dry either in the fridge or with paper towel
4. To serve: brown noodle (spatzle) in clarified butter
5. Serve on the side with the leg confit