2011 Cooking Club Week 43: Roasted Quail et all

Roasted Quail with Chorizo, Red Onion, Cranberry Jelly & Balsamic Dressing

This looks fancy but is actually very easy to make. A lot of it can be prepared in advance too so ideal if you're having anyone over. I recently went to a cooking class in Bón Appétite (excellent by the the way, would highly recommend) and this was one of the dishes he did.

I ended up doing a few of dishes from the class yesterday. Half because I wanted to do them all while they were fresh in my head and half because I wasn't sure what to do for my week.

I'll post up the other ones I did onto the Random recipe thread or something if anyone's interested (warms goats cheese and shallot tart with rocket and balsamic dressing; apple tart with chantilly cream and butterscotch sauce). I'll also post up a canapé recipe so to use up the quail eggs you'll have left over (edit:- here it is: Bacon & Eggs).

Ingredients:

4 Quails               (€4.99 pack of 2, Dunnes Stores) 
4 Quail Eggs           (€1.99 pack of 12, Dunnes; cheaper in Asian shops) 
3 Tbls Duck/Goose Fat  (€3.99 in most supermarkets)
1 Chorizo Sausage      
4 Tsps Cranberry Sauce
2 Red Onions
1 Large Carrot
1 Large Potato
200g Rocket Salad
1 Bottle Balsamic Vinegar

Method:
1) To make the balsamic dressing, reduce a bottle of cheap balsamic vinegar by about 75%. Allow to cool and pour back into the bottle (this is handy to have for other dishes too).


2) Cut the onions in half and place on a baking tray with some olive oil and bake at 180c until soft. Remove from the oven and let cool a bit before cutting out 4 rings. Keep warm.

3) Gently saw the top off the large end of the quail eggs and place back in the tray. The hole must be big enough for the yoke to fit through.

4) In a large, lightly oiled pan, brown the outside of the quails and transfer to a pre-heated oven 200c for 10-12 minutes. Don't burn the leg like I did

5) Add the fat to the hot pan. Dice the carrot, potato and chorizo in equal quantities and as equal size as you can (good opportunity to work on your knife skills!).

notes:
i) Cut your veg into blocks first. There'll be some waste but you need it all the same size or you'll end up with some burnt bits and some raw. The appearance will suffer too. Plus, you can always keep the waste bits for soup/stock.
ii) You can go bigger with the dice than I did. I was in a rush and needed it to cook quickly.

Add the veg to the pan and cook til crispy on the outside.

notes:
i) You can do this step the day before and reheat by flash-frying on a hot pan for 30 secs or so.


When veg is crispy add the chorizo for 30 seconds or so and keep warm.


6) Joint the quails (like this).
"French" the leg bones (in this case French means scrape the ends of the bones til clean and does not mean rioting, cheating in football or kissing with the tongue).
Keep warm.

7) Bring a pot of water to the boil. Add 2 tbls vinegar. Gently swirl and add the quail eggs and poach for 30 seconds or so.


8) To serve, arrange the rocket salad in stars. Place the onion ring in the middle with a tsp of cranberry sauce. e.g.:



Pile the dice on top (if your dice is bigger you can be more creative arranging the hash e.g. alternating the cubes around the salad). Arrange the quail over the top of this. Place the quail egg on the quail. Drizzle balsamic dressing around the plate.


Sorry this pic doesn't have the balsamic dressing....the one I took after is too blurry to use (didn't check how it came out because was rushing).