Last week my boyfriend was staying in the UK for working. For my comfort I bought a new cookbook, which caught my eye in an instant in my favourite book store. To celebrate the occasion, that he was coming home, I wanted to cook roasted quail cold and warm from Michel Roux Ofenfrisch or in english Pastry. In the end I wasn’t as far as I wanted, when he came home. Additionally it was more laborious than I thought. So he helped me a lot, although I wanted to cook for him.
The thighs of the quails were wrapped with Filo dough. The breast are coming along with some fat greek/turkish yoghurt, spring onions, orange filets and a little bit of a thick sweet sauce with honey in it. In the end it was worth the work and delicious! As the filo is more crunchy than puff pastry, I think that would fit as well and next time I will try that.
As Roux didn’t mentioned any side dish, I made polenta and it went very well together!
Roasted quail cold and warm
from Pastry by Michel Roux
The recipe is for four persons. But the two of us ate it alone and the rest of some polenta and quail breast for lunch the next day. Take care: if you want to cool down the quails before dividing them, it takes more time in the meantime. I just skipped that in the recipe and so I divided them hot.
Ingredients:
- filo dough (about 40x20cm)
- 2 oranges
- 2 Tbsp. oil, like sunflower or peanut
- 30 g butter
- 4 quails, ready to cook
- 2 Tbsp. liquid honey
- 2 star anise
- salt, pepper
- 80 g butter, melted and cooled down
- 200 g greek/turkish yoghurt
- 4 spring onions
- some mint leaves
First peel the oranges, including the inner white skin and cut out the filets. Cut the filets into pieces. Keep the inner rest (skins) of the oranges! Throw the outer away.
Heat up oil and 30g butter in a deep pan. Brown the quails in it for 2-3 minutes on every side. After that take out the quails and pour the fat off. Brush the quails with the honey and place them into the pan, with the inner skins of the oranges (not the filets), the star anise and a little bit water. Salt and pepper it and cook it 12 minutes covered. Pour some cooking liquid over the quails from time to time. After that take them out of the pan for cooling.
Sieve the sauce. That just yields 3-4 tablespoons.
When the quails are cold, seperate the thighs and the breasts with a knife. Remove the skin vom the breasts (I removed it from the thighs too, because for me the skin was to soft). Cut every breast into three pieces. Put it aside.
Preheat the oven to 190°C.
Cut the filo into stripes with 2 cm width. Brush them with the melted butter on both sides. Wrap them round the thights beginning on the thicker end. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake the thights (according to Roux it takes 8 minutes, but after that mines were totally pale. So I baked them about 15 minutes. Upper rack may be recommendable.).
Cut the spring onions into pieces. Warm up the sauce (did it in the microwave, because of the small portion). Portion the yoghurt in bowls. Place the spring onions, the orange filets and some (minced) mint on the yoghurt. Dribble some sauce over the breasts and place the thights besides.
Roux takes blood oranges instead of oranges. But I did’t get some. But it was fine with “normal” ones.
Roasted Polenta
Ingredients:
- 150 g polenta (instant)
- 500 ml water
- butter to taste
- salt to taste
Boil up the water with the butter and salt in a pot. Add the polenta. Keep stirring at low heat, until the polenta get’s a firmer texture, but is soft and creamy when you taste it. Afterwards you give it into a rectangular buttered casserole and smooth the polenta out. Let it cool out. Cut the polenta into diamonds and roast them in a buttered pan until they’re crispy and golden-brown.
I love the plate! Never ate quail before – what is it like? And don't say “just like chicken” 😉
I love them too :-).
Quail is between duck and chicken. Much more wilder than chicken (thankfully), but not as much as duck.