I am constantly raiding my store cupboards to bolster flavour in things I cook. This recipe uses that wonderfully aromatic and intense spice blend ras el hanout, along with quince paste or jelly (either is suitable) or apricot jam to give a gratifyingly sticky finish. Now, the only thing you really might find
difficult is to decide whether to be sensible and have just half a poussin each or to go the whole hog (or bird!) and enjoy a whole one to yourself.
Ras el Hanout Sticky Spatchcock Poussin
Serves 2–4
Ingredients
2 whole poussins
olive oil
2tsp ras el hanout
2tbsp quince paste or jelly or apricot jam
Maldon sea salt flakes
Method
Preheat the oven to 220°C (200°C fan)/Gas Mark 7. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
To spatchcock each poussin, place it breast-side down on a chopping board. Using a good, sturdy pair of kitchen scissors, cut down either side of the backbone and then remove the bone. Turn the poussin over breast-side up and gently press down on it with both hands to flatten it as best you can.
Place the poussins, spaced out, on the lined tray. Drizzle each generously with olive oil and sprinkle with the ras el hanout, then use your hands to rub the oil and spice mix all over the top of each poussin.
Season generously with salt and roast for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, brush the quince jelly or apricot jam over the top of the poussins and roast for a further 10 minutes until cooked through. Remove from the oven, cover loosely with a piece of foil and leave the birds to rest for 10 minutes.
Gentle reader… let it be known that I don’t do well with downtime. Having time on my hands leaves me feeling restless and anxious and sometimes I find it too much. I often spend my year wishing and longing for downtime, only to get some and then immediately find something intensely laborious to pass the time and August is just such a month for me.
The great save this month is that my ninth book, Persiana One, is released on August 13, which does give me some tasks to manage. Mostly remotely recorded radio and media interviews and the like, plus a lot of recipe filming from home.
Aside from that, if the weather holds this month, getting out and about around Yorkshire is high on my list. Working away means that exploration has become a rare privilege and one that I haven’t indulged in properly since pre-Covid.
What I do love about August is the garden and watching all the fruity goodness of it come to life. We will no doubt get a few early apples, damsons, plums and pears, and just to spend time without a schedule will be rather indulgent. But the idiot ‘worker bee’ in me is always leagues ahead, plotting the path ahead and busy soldering on and so the record is really a broken one as I’ll have the time to rest but most likely not manage to do much of it at all.
The privilege of this time of year is that summer has done its job on the landscape and we have the last month of its food bounty at our fingertips. Driving around my house, corn fields surround us as a reminder that soon it will be all change as we get ready to knuckle down for autumn.
And so this month’s recipe celebrates the last of the barbecue season and given that we are a meat-loving pocket of the nation, I feel obliged to share a lovely recipe that is made in the oven but can most definitely be done on the barbecue too.
My Ras el Hanout sticky spiced poussin are so delicious and if you were wondering what ras el hanout is (a wonderful blend of Moroccan spices) then head to Ripon-based spice wizards Steenbergs, who stock my favourite Ras el Hanout blend online and can send it straight to your door, along with lots of other goodies too! steenbergs.co.uk
Taken from Flavour by Sabrina Ghayour, £26. Published by Mitchell Beazley
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