The four quail I bought earlier are now cooking on the oven. It is another recipe from the Ottolenghi book – quail with tamarind and apricots. I started by rubbing them down with a mixture of ground cumin and fennel, dried chilli, salt and pepper and putting them in the fridge for a couple of hours whilst I made supper for the rest of the family

For this I used the last of the spinach from the garden. It looked a bit straggly but having picked what I needed there may be enough left for something else next week. I had to give it a good soaking in cold water to get rid of all the bugs and soil splashed up by the rain. I then cooked it in the water that was left. Once it had collapsed I refreshed it in cold water again and then squeezed it out until I was left with a tennis ball size ball of green. This was finely chopped then mixed into ricotta cheese and mozzarella, salt and pepper and an egg and stuffed into cannelloni. These were all laid into a shallow dish and covered with tomato sauce.

The only tamarind I had was some paste in the fridge in the basement. I brought that upstairs together with the quail. The quail were browned off in olive oil for 15 minutes and then put to one side to rest for a while. The recipe said raisins but we didn’t have any so I used some dried dates instead. These were thrown into the hot pan with some dried apricots and thyme which had a few seconds to take before I seethed it all with water and half a glass of white wine. A teaspoon of the tamarind paste went in and it all tasted raw and uncouth. The quail went back in and a lid put on and it was turned down to a simmer.

By the time it was done it was delicious. With quail it is difficult to get away from them being small birds not much bigger, and who knows how much tastier, than those that strut around the garden, but there is meat on them. I started with knives and forks but only lasted a few minutes before my fingers were delving in pulling leg and wing from breast and dipping into the gravy which by now had become a deep, velvety and good. There was the sweetness of the dates and apricot, tempered by the heat of the chilli and all held together somewhat unexpectedly by the tamarind. It all made for very good finger food.

There was another strange John Peel moment on the drive from The Farmer’s Market and Andy’s Aquatics. The ipod was on shuffle again and as we left the house the song from the Six by Seven came to an end and John’s voice was in the car again. 

At Andy’s Aquatics we bought gravel for Galen’s new second hand fish tank and talked fish in a dad way with the man behind the counter. “Yes if its bigger see you will need a new pump and a new heater, you need to keep them warm. Bring it in and we’ll have a look at it and we will see what we can do.” God I am so stupid when it comes to tropical fish. Why is that? It all sounds expensive but Galen’s baby fish are getting bigger and they need a new home and if they get a new home then he will need some new Cardinal Tetras as company for the sole survivor of the last lot that we bought.

Reluctantly Galen came into The Farmer’s Market with me as every good son should who has just had £10 worth of gravel bought for him. We got a chicken for lunch tomorrow, 4 quail for me to eat tonight, two minute steaks for lunch and a pack of ox-tails for stew later in the week. I assured Galen that he would like them but I am not sure he was convinced. We also bought bags of dirty carrots and potatoes.

On the way back a new song came on with unpleasant detuned guitars, drum machines and shouty vocals about the lot of ‘the workers’ and suddenly we were listening to The Three Johns and it was 1985 all over again. What was that doing on the ipod?

The steak sandwich was good but chewy.

A long time ago I shared house in Oxford on Green Street with Sue Sharpe. Sue had spent time living in Italy and complained that there was no point going out for an Italian meal in Oxford as it would only be a cruel disappointment after the food she had eaten there.

I think she may have enjoyed the meal we had at Da Piero last night. It was the third year we had eaten there on 10 January courtesy of Mum & Dad’s wedding anniversary. In the discussion after the meal there some who thought there last night had been the best meal ever and for others the thought there had been a slight slip in the quality. Whatever slips there might have been it was still by far the best food to be had on the Wirral, simple and true.

My starter was a crab salad. A great ball of crab meat mixed with mayonnaise wrapped up in two leaves of red radicchio, the bitterness in the leaves cut through the sweetness of the crab. I could have licked the plate if there had been anything left to eat.

Main course was duck with a sweet red onion marmalade. If there was a slip up it perhaps came with the meats. Although they were good they did not bounce off the tongue shouting out just how good they were. But it must be difficult getting that right, as there were only a few people in there and making sure it was all perfect on a quiet night would require some dexterity. The side dishes could have been the highlight, a mix of sauteed mushrooms, chopped white endives with dressing, peas with pancetta and herbs, lentils and spinach. There was not much left.

Not all of us had pudding. I just about managed a cold chocolate dessert and a small glass of grappa.

I am looking forward to going there again in a few weeks time.

Slightly strange experience driving home this evening. As always the ipod was on shuffle and I was waiting for something suitably loud and unpleasant to show up up to drive away the prospect of a meeting next week to discuss strategy and direction. Suddenly the voice of the sainted John Peel was talking to me and telling me about the next session that was to come from Maida Vale. Six by Seven were in the studio and he was asking if any one them were Nottingham Forrest fans because if they were he was going to have to take them up on the something of a thrashing they had delivered to Ipswich Town the previous week.

It was a session I had downloaded from the Six by Seven website some months ago and of course completely forgotten about. There was the usual confusion as to whether the song they were about to play was from their latest or their first album and if that made a difference. After the introductions were dealt with he said “…lets bossa nova…” and they started on their song.

It was good to hear his voice again.