Recipe - Braised Squab In A Mold Of Vegetables

SQUABS AND SAUCE
4 Squabs, wings and neck
removed, reserved
Salt
Pepper
1 pound Butter, clarified
1 md Onion, chopped
4 sl Bacon, minced
4 small Cabbages, quartered
cored, and cut or sliced up OR
2 lg Cabbages, quartered
cored, and cut or sliced up
One half qt Stock, veal, thickened
with cornstarch

VEGETABLES AND MOLDS
3 pound Turnips, large, peeled
2 pound Carrots, large, peeled
1 Broccoli, flower, per mold
Salt

Squabs and Sauce:
=================

Brown pigeon wings and neck in the oven and reserve. This will tend
to darken the sauce and bring out the flavor of the squab bones.

Salt and pepper the squab inside and out. In a large saute pan, heat
butter (do not use too much butter or birds will deep fry). Add the squabs
and brown carefully on every side. Place the birds in warm spot.

Discard the used butter from the pan, and add four tablespoons of
fresh clarified butter.

Add bacon and onions to the pan and saute to a blond color.

Add cabbages. Cook over low heat for twenty minutes, stirring
occasionally.

Add veal stock to cover the contents of the pan and adjust the
seasonings. Bring to a boil.

Place the squabs on the cabbage in the saute pan then brush with
clarified butter, and cook in a 450 F for 10 minutes.

Remove the squabs from the pan, bone them and put the bones in the
saucepan with the previously cut wings and necks. Reserve the squab meat.

Into the saucepan with the necks, wings and bones, strain the juice
from the cabbage mixture. Add veal stock if liquid is needed. Reserve the
cabbage.

Over medium heat, cook the strained cabbage juice and bones for at
least onehalf hour, then strain through chinois and reserve the sauce.

Vegetables and Molds:
=====================

Cook the carrots, turnips, and broccoli in heavily salted water until
crisp. Cool the vegetables in a bowl placed in ice water.

Select the largest turnip, slice it at its widest part into 4 slices,
about an 1/8inch thick and about 3 One half inches in diameter. In the middle
of each of these turnip slices, cut a round hole about the size of a
quarter or slightly larger.

Cut the remaining turnips and carrots into 40 rectangular slices about
1 One half inch by 1 inch by 1/8 inch.

On the bottom of 4 buttered 4inch souffle molds, place one each of
the large turnip slices. Arrange the remaining vegetables slices around
the inside edge of the molds, alternating carrot and turnip slices.

Place a broccoli flower, stem off and head down, into the hole in the
bottom of each mold. This will be the centerpiece of your mold when
unmolded later.

Cover the broccoli with one layer of cabbage packed well over and
between the broccoli and vegetables. Top this cabbage layer with a layer
of squab meat.

Add more cabbage, pressing hard to form the mixture at the top of the
mold.

Place the molds of squab and cabbage onto a small sheet pan. Surround
the molds with a little water (a 1/4inch in depth or a little more). Put a
small sheet of buttered parchment paper on each mold (butter side down).
Reheat for 20 minutes in your oven at 450 F.

(Note: If molds are not to be cooked until a later time, they should
remain in the oven about 20 minutes on low heat before being cooled and
stored away in a refrigerator.)

Unmold on serving plates. Spoon warmed sauce around molds and serve.

Source: Great Chefs of San Francisco, Avon Books, 1984

Chef: Jacky Robert, Ernie's, San Francisco, CA

File ftp://ftp.idiscover.co.uk/pub/food/mealmaster/recipes/mmgcsf.zip