Poussin & Pink Peppercorns

In the grand tradition of the Great Whitecollar Hunter, last night I trekked over the vast expanses of the mega-market before locating, capturing and bring back my prey: two lovely little poussin. What is it about small birds that raises the predatory instinct? I'm unsure, but I always want to purr when I see one on my plate. . .

Due to the hour's lateness and hunger I prepared one of the birds quickly, putting it in an oven pan with slices of red onion and baby plum tomatoes, all drizzled with basil-infused olive oil and seasoned with pink peppercorns. 50 minutes later and accompanied by leafs of organic Little Gem lettuce, tasty tender little bird was on the dinnertable. Yum.

Pink peppercorns go very nicely with baby chicken. I'm particularly fond of their scent and odd, slightly resinous flavor. Loot from my trip to Hediard in Paris, the ones I have are large, yielding and loose-skinned with an ethereal sweet aroma and beautiful rose-pink sheen. Sadly all the jars I've bought in supermarkets previously have been small, hard and flatly-flavored, doing this lovely spice no justice at all, so I recommend only buying them at spice specialists or quality food stores (I must admit to being highly prejudiced against buying spices in ordinary British supermarkets, but history has supported my opinion).

Sometimes known as Peppertree or Peruvian Pepper, calling it a 'peppercorn' is a misnomer, as they're not actually a pepper at all but the berry of the Baies Rose (Schinus molle) plant, a South American tree totally unrelated to Piper Nigrum (the producer of white, green and black peppercorns) or any other member of the pepper family. It's actually more closely related to ragweed!