Double-cooked teal | Massimiliano Alajmo

For the teals

• 4 teals (300 grams each)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 4 sprigs of rosemary
• 8 g orange zest
• 70 g lightly smoked fresh pancetta
• salt to taste
• Sarawak black pepper to taste
• 15 g delicate extra virgin olive oil

Procedure

Clean the teals, gut them (keeping the livers and hearts for the stuffing) and stuff them with the garlic, rosemary, and orange zest. Wrap them in the pancetta, season with salt and pepper, and cook them on a spit at a low temperature (as far away from the heat as possible) for about 20 minutes.

Remove the breasts and brown them in a pan with oil for a few minutes on both sides, keeping them slightly rare. Continue cooking the legs (leaving them attached to the carcass) on the spit for another 20-30 minutes, adjusting the heat until fully cooked. Remove the pancetta and cut the teal carcasses into small pieces.

For the teal juice

• 4 teals (300 grams each)
• 50 g white onion, chopped
• into regular pieces
• 60 g carrots, chopped into regular pieces
• 1 bay leaf
• 100 g semi-dry Marsala wine
• ½ liter natural mineral water
• 1.5 kg ice

Procedure

Clean the teals, gut them, cut them into regular pieces (keeping the livers and hearts to be used for the stuffing) and transfer them to a saucepan with the vegetables, bay leaf, Marsala, water, and ice.

Bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer gently for 2 hours, taking care to continuously remove the foam that forms on the surface.

Strain the broth through a fine mesh strainer, cool and skim off the fat. Reduce over moderate heat until you have 190 grams of juice.

For the teal sauce

• Teal carcasses cut into pieces from the spit
• 8 g delicate extra virgin olive oil
• 40 g semi-dry Marsala
• 100 g chicken broth
• 190 g teal juice

Procedure

Brown the carcasses with the oil in a pan, deglaze with the Marsala and broth.

Add the teal juice and reduce over low heat to the consistency of a sauce that coats the spoon.

Strain through a chinois.

For the wine reduction

• 50 g sweet passito wine
• 50 g semi-dry Marsala
• 50 g port

Procedure

Pour the wines into a small saucepan, place over low heat and gently reduce by 1/3.

For the liver and heart stuffing

• 75 g fresh lard, blended
• 10 g chopped shallots
• 1/4 clove of garlic
• 1 sprig of thyme
• 1 sprig of marjoram
• ½ bay leaf
• 125 g of livers and hearts (from quail, with the addition of chicken as needed)
• Blended
• Salt as needed
• Sarawak black pepper to taste
• 10 g wine reduction

Procedure

Melt the fresh lard in a sauté pan, add the shallot, garlic, herbs and offal, brown, season with salt and pepper. Add the wine reduction, cook gently for 5 minutes and strain through a fine mesh sieve.

Cool to 4°C and transfer to a pastry bag.

For the polenta

• 500 g natural mineral water
• 5 g salt
• 125 g stone-ground cornmeal
• extra virgin olive oil for frying

Procedure

Boil the water with the salt in a saucepan, add the cornmeal and cook for 40 minutes, stirring regularly. Cool on a baking sheet (15 x 15 cm), remove from the pan and cut into 4 pieces (7.5 x 2 cm high).

Fry the pieces of polenta on both sides in a pan, dry them on a sheet of paper towel and cut them in half lengthwise. Fill the center with the fresh chicken liver pâté.

For the bitter radicchio

• 300 g raw radicchio
• pancetta recovered from the skewer and cut into julienne strips with a knife
• Salt to taste
• Sarawak black pepper to taste
• 8 g garlic oil
• 12 raisins soaked in warm water

Procedure

Cook the radicchio in boiling salted water for 2 minutes, drain, squeeze and sauté in a pan with the pancetta. Season with salt and pepper, flavour with garlic oil and raisins.

For the pumpkin

• 350 g pumpkin

Procedure

Clean the pumpkin, leaving the skin on, and cut into 70 g wedges.

Wrap the wedges in aluminum foil and bake in the oven at 140°C for 40 minutes.

Dish composition

Arrange the teal breasts next to the legs and drizzle with the sauce. Garnish with bitter radicchio, stuffed polenta, and a slice of warm pumpkin.

Photo by Lido Vannucchi