Name: La Mancha
Yield: Serve 1 per head
Cuisine: Spanish
Ingredients: 4 partridges; 1 cup strong red wine (Spanish red wine of course); 1 ounce unsmoked bacon, chopped (about ¼ cup); 1 tablespoon oil; 1 head garlic, cloves peeled; thyme; ½ cinnamon stick; 8 peppercorns, crushed; 1 bouquet garni or 2 whole cloves; 3½ ounces raw Spanish ham, sliced (about 1 cup); 2 slices bread, fried in olive oil; salt

Preparation info

Serve
1
per head

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Game Cookbook

By Clarissa Dickson Wright and Johnny Scott

Published 2004

About

The plains of La Mancha are home to thousands of Spanish partridge. I like to think of Don Quixote sitting by his fire eating partridge done in the same manner. The earthenware dish of water causes the juries inside the dish to rise and fall back, moistening the braise to give a good flavor. The method of cooking, and the fried bread accompaniment, gives the recipe a date of four hundred years, and it has survived the test of time.