My second week at Leiths just about kept me fed for the rest of the week! I had quail with peas for dinner both Wednesday and Thursday night and then took the cake to a friend’s dinner party last night.

Chocolate and ginger roulade

In the kitchen we started with dessert - a chocolate and ginger roulade. Also called a swiss roll, this is basically a cake layered with cream and other fillings and then rolled to make a log. We used whipped cream and ginger jam for the centre but the beauty of the recipe is that you can use anything - jam, fresh berries, chestnut cream - so the varieties are endless. The other nice thing is that it doesn’t include any flour - the cake is just eggs and chocolate and sugar - so it’s suitable for people on a gluten-free diet (though not a weight-loss diet unfortunately!).

To make the roulade, we melted chocolate and water over low heat. Apparently if you use a high temperature then the chocolate can acquire a bitter flavour or worse, separate. The only thing we needed to separate was the eggs - five of them. The Leiths teachers are full of useful tricks - for example, cracking the eggs on the bench rather than the side of the bowl helps prevent leakage of yolk into the whites or vice versa. You carefully transfer the yolk back and forth between the two halves of shell, letting the white run out into the bowl. The key is to make sure you don’t get any yolk in the egg white, though a bit of egg white in the yolk is not the end of the world.

We blended the yolk and sugar and then added the chocolate to make a lovely mousse. Separately we whisked the egg whites until they had stiff peaks and then gently folded the whites into the mousse, trying not to lose all the air. We spread the mixture out on a paper-lined tray and baked it in the oven, meanwhile whipping the cream and mixing it with ginger jam. When it was done we tipped it upside down on a rack to cool and covered it with a damp tea towel to prevent cracking. The final part, which we actually did at the end when we were done with the quails, was to spread it with cream and then use another sheet of paper to roll it, similar to the method for rolling sushi and taking care not to roll the paper up in the cake! Voila! It was very tasty too.

Quails with peas

The main was quails cooked with peas and pancetta. We used thick, old-fashioned pancetta so we had to cut the rind off and then dice it, but it would probably work with other varieties or with bacon. We browned the pancetta, the onions and garlic, and the quails (all separately) and then cooked it with sage and garden peas in stock and white wine. It was a little bit fiddly but it would be great for a small dinner party as the result was quite impressive - the meat was tender and juicy and the pea and pancetta sauce was incredibly flavourful.

I’m excited about next week - we’re making a Sri Lankan red chicken curry and Indian dhal.