Poussins with black grapes, juniper and saba
Saba – also called vincotto – is grape must. You can buy it online from www.melburyandappleton.co.uk, or in Italian delicatessens. You know those rainy November days we get? Make this. You’ll be reminded of what is good about autumn.
Ingrediënten
- 4 poussins
- 12 juniper berries lightly crushed
- 15 g ½oz unsalted butter, slightly softened
- salt and pepper
- 1 large onion sliced
- 2 celery sticks finely chopped
- olive oil
- 600 g 1lb 5oz seedless black grapes, half on their stalks in small bunches, half off their stalks
- 4 bay leaves
- 6 sprigs of thyme
- 250 ml 9fl oz red wine
- 75 ml 2½fl oz saba
Instructies
- Gently ease the skin off the breasts of the poussins at the cavity openings (see technique for Roast chicken with mushrooms and sage butter under the skin).
- Mash half of the juniper berries into the butter, season with pepper and gently spread it under the skin (without tearing the skin).
- Season the birds inside.
- Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5.
- Put the onion and celery in an ovenproof dish that will hold the grapes and poussins snugly in a single layer.
- Season and stir in 2 tbsp of olive oil.
- Using a wooden spoon (or a mortar and pestle), roughly crush the grapes that are off their stalks so the juice starts to come out.
- Lay the poussins and the little bunches of grapes on the vegetables and spoon the crushed grapes around them.
- Tuck in the bay leaves and thyme.
- Season, sprinkle with the rest of the crushed juniper and drizzle a little olive oil over the grapes and poussins.
- Mix the wine with the saba and pour it around the poussins.
- Put into the hot oven and roast for 45–50 minutes, or until the grapes are slightly shrunken in places and the poussins are cooked.
- You need to baste the birds every so often.
- Test they are ready: when pierced with a sharp knife between the thigh and the body, the juices that run out should be clear, with no trace of pink.
- Serve, preferably in the dish in which the poussins have been cooked, with buttered cabbage.
- Spelt, farro or barley, or olive oil-roasted potatoes, are all good on the side.
