Name: Partridges with white beans and chocolate sauce
Yield: Serves 2
Cuisine: United Kingdom
Ingredients: 1 bay leaf; 125 ml red wine; 1 bouquet garni; strip of orange peel; 30 g cubed pancetta or lardons; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 2 partridges, split in two arid backbone removed; 200 g haricot beans, soaked overnight, or use tinned; 4 cloves garlic, chopped; salt and freshly ground black pepper; 15 g good-quality bitter chocolate

Preparation info

Serves
2

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Winter Food

By Jill Norman

Published 2005

About

In Mexico, the home of the cocoa bean, chocolate is used to spice and thicken moles — sauces for the indigenous turkey and other poultry. The inspiration for this dish comes from there, but this sauce is much less complex than a mole.

Ingredients

200 g haricot beans, soaked overnight, or use tinned
1 bouquet garni
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Drain the beans, put them into a pan with the bouquet garni and about 1 litre of water. Bring to the boil, skim the surface if necessary, then cover and simmer for 1 hour or more until the beans are just tender. Add salt 5 minutes before the end of the cooking time. Remove from the heat and keep warm in a little of the cooking water.

Heat the oil in a heavy pan and brown the part