2011 Cooking Club Week 43: Roasted Quail et all

nice1franko

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).

Mellor

Most of the pics aren't showing for me, importanly the last ones

Also, id the a reason why you don't joint the quail before cooking?
I might try this with a spatchcock (the small chicken, not the other name for butterflying) as i haven't seen quail for sale near me

nice1franko

Are you on a mobile connection? Maybe the page was too large and it timed out or something. The images are hosted on imgur.com. Actually, I think O2 might have that site blocked for some reason (see also http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055956534). Anyway, I've put the last pic up on tinypic... see here. If there are more probs I can post the rest up there too.

You could joint the bird before roasting... it's not going to make much difference I don't think. I'd cook the breasts as a crown though to help with the moisture and flavour.

A small chicken/poussin would work fine here too.

Mellor

It was about have the pics, so not the site, and its office internet
Even stranger, the pics are all showing today, dame connection. Looks great.

Little Alex

What's the reason for sawing the egg shells, franko?

nice1franko

It's just easier than trying to crack them without breaking the yoke.

BaZmO*

I'd imagine it's because it's difficult to crack a quail's egg on the side of a pot?

neuro-praxis

I have been trying and failing to source quails. Any advice?

BaZmO*

neuro-praxis wrote: »

I have been trying and failing to source quails. Any advice?

I've seen them in Dunnes

ChewChew

Definitely in the Tesco Extra's that I've been in.

nice1franko

neuro-praxis wrote: »

I have been trying and failing to source quails. Any advice?

Where in the country are you?

I've seen them in Dunnes and in some Asian supermarkets

CodeMonkey

neuro-praxis wrote: »

I have been trying and failing to source quails. Any advice?

Fallon and byrnes have them regularly for the past couple of months.

neuro-praxis

Lovely. Thanks all.

Faith

I've just spotted this recipe after scanning the recipe lists for something else. I've been looking for a quail recipe for ages! If I can source quail soon, I'll be all over this

oscarBravo

Aldi had four quail for under a tenner last time I was in. (I know that's probably no good to you, Faith, but might help someone else out.)

Faith

oscarBravo wrote: »

Aldi had four quail for under a tenner last time I was in. (I know that's probably no good to you, Faith, but might help someone else out.)

I was in aldi yesterday! Although it was mobbed so I couldn't see even the obvious stuff. I'll have a look in waitrose, I've seen quail eggs there so they might have the birds

oscarBravo

Waitrose would be one of the first places I'd look, although their stocked range varies widely between stores. If you're in Aldi again, check the freezers.

MadsL

Love the recipe and quail, I now have the frustration of wild quail running all over my property but I'm not allowed to shoot them because of the proximity of other houses I need to get good with a catapult.

A strong suggestion though. Quail are a bugger to eat without boning them first, and you can adjust timing to give the breasts slightly longer than the legs and avoid burning. Deboned breasts are one bite yummy, you can pick them up by the wing and just tear off the breast.

There are a number of ways to debone Quail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42SKrRkFk7Y

MadsL

^Video did a weird thing there in embedding. I'll just link these.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78bMQ9VTgek

Deboned and Stuffed quail

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoqaArIP_Pk

Faith

oscarBravo wrote: »

Waitrose would be one of the first places I'd look, although their stocked range varies widely between stores. If you're in Aldi again, check the freezers.

Got it in Aldi today \o/