Over Turkey? Bring on the Red-leg Partridge
One of the most memorable things about having worked for three years at Picholine in the late 1990s—besides having countless intimate encounters with so many wonderful artisanal cheeses—was the staggering variety of wild game chef Terrance Brennan and then sous-chef Dave Pasternack used to cook up there.
The way Pasternack used to ‘fire’ Wild Scottish Grouse—the most, let’s say, ‘aromatic’ of all the game birds served at Picholine—in his trademark gravelly, Long Beach-inflected baritone, is ringing in my ears to this day:
“Pick up two risotto, one salmon, one halibut, and one dirty bird!”
I never much liked grouse when I had the opportunity to taste it but I loved partridge, Wild Scottish Red-leg Partridge, to be more precise, and a bird not quite as ‘dirty’ as the grouse, which even sounds kind of over-the-top wild. Like all of Picholine’s game, the partridge came from local New York purveyor, D’Artagnan, who sells them to the public as well.
As much as I loved Thanksgiving turkey this year (and the turkey soup my mom made the day after T-day), I don’t think I’m much interested in an encore performance at Christmas dinner. Partridge is a game staple all over Spain and, as far as I can tell, in La Rioja especially, where it’s usually prepared as an escabeche. So, to break the turkey monotony and as a tribute to the country I’ve ’served’ these past four years, I am planning to try my hand at game cookery this holiday season.
And since what grows (or rather flies) together often goes together, I am also going to crack open a few special bottles of Rioja I have been hoarding for the past few years.
Scottish Red-leg Partridges are available online from D’Artagnan for $16.99 each. Each bird weighs about 8-10 ounces, essentially a single serving, so it might work best as a dinner for two at home rather than as part of a giant buffet for 20 of your closest friends and family.