I was today berated for not having written since the Garden Pesto - over a month ago. As it is Spring, and the birds are a-laying, here is a post in celebration. For, nothing beats the joy of a good egg. Above, a Pheasant Egg Tart.
Seventeen Pheasants Eggs
A friend, pruning a Fig tree, put the Pheasant Hen off her nest where she had left seventeen beautiful pink/green eggs. Plenty for a tart. These, the first Watercress leaves, Wild Garlic, Land Cress and Nettle tops made a Springfilled quiche, mighty sustenance when rapidly wood-gathering before letting the forest be for the coming seasons.
The Forest
A Goose Egg
Here a Goose Egg. Lady Goose will lay one every other day for the next eighty days. It is enrobed in a Butterbur leaf - leaf once used to wrap butter, here wrapping an Egg. We ate one boiled. 'Twas a dream, cooked for ten minutes from boiling, and shared between two. I blew the second egg, for an omelette, and then wrapped it in Onion Skins, tied them with string and boiled the Egg shell thus, a mere ten, fifteen minutes. The Pheasant's Eggs, the Goose and the Aracana will be blown and filled with Chocolate for Easter...
There is much to be said on the Egg, and, for that matter, the feather. Gulls eggs are known to be a great delicacy - nowadays likely forage on the rooftops of local seaside towns - Lapwing eggs were once so sought after they were smuggled across borders. Songbirds used to be trapped in France using a spinning scintillating mirror, giving the term "miroir aux alouettes" for a decoy. As for other posts on Eggs and birdish musings, see these on Turkey Eggs and Welsummers, on Chickens in Kabul, and on other feathery treats favoured by the gourmands: Woodcock on Toast and Ortolan Bunting, not to mention that Bar Le Duc Jelly, the redcurrant pips removed using the quill of a goose...
