Quail (and their eggs)

You definitely need green asparagus for these – white would be pale and uninteresting. The mousses are lightly set with gelatine and inside each lurks a lightly boiled quails’ egg. Turn them out over a little nest of spring salad leaves dressed with a smattering of vinaigrette.  

Serves 8
6 leaves of gelatine or 1 packet powdered gelatine
1kg/2 lbs green asparagus
8 quails’ eggs
150ml/ 2/3 cup crème fraîche
150g low-fat cream cheese with herbs (e.g. Boursin, Tartare)
salt and pepper
some salad leaves and chervil sprigs to garnish
vinaigrette

• Put leaf gelatine in a bowl, cover with cold water and soak for 10 minutes or until floppy; or sprinkle powdered gelatine onto 3 tablespoons water in a cup and leave till soft and spongy
• Snap the woody ends off the asparagus. Bring a pan of salted water to a boil and cook the asparagus for 10-12 minutes or until tender
• Bring another pan of water to a boil, dump in the eggs and boil for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat, tip away the water and replace with cold to stop the cooking. Shell the eggs under cold running water
• When the asparagus is ready, lift it out and reserve 250ml (1 cup) of the cooking water. Keep 8 asparagus tips for the garnish. Roughly chop the rest and put it in the liquidizer
• Add the squeezed out gelatine sheets to the reserved cooking water (still hot) and stir till dissolved [or pour hot cooking water onto sponged up gelatine and stir till dissolved]
• Add the hot melted gelatine, crème fraiche and cream cheese to the asparagus in the liquidizer and blend till smooth
• Lightly brush some ramekins or dariole moulds with oil, divide the asparagus mixture between them and add a quails’ egg to each one; refrigerate till firm [the mousses can be done a day ahead]
• To serve, arrange some dressed salad leaves on plates. Run a small knife around the mousses and smack them down rather firmly onto your (cupped) hand until you hear a noise like a Wellington boot coming out of a muddy bog – a sign that they’re ready to emerge. Help them out onto the salad leaves and stick the tips in the top at a jaunty angle. Some chervil sprigs don’t go amiss either
  

PASTA WITH GREEN SAUCE AND QUAILS’ EGGS

A beautiful pasta dish for spring, nice for a light lunch or supper, or as a starter. As a general rule, allow 50g dried pasta per person for a starter, 100g per person for a main course. Double these quantities if using fresh pasta.

Serves 6-8 as a starter, 4-6 as a main course
a good handful of greenery, about 100g, trimmed
(e.g. wild garlic, sorrel, flat-leaf parsley, or spinach)
250ml whipping cream (crème fraîche liquide)
2 tsp cornflour (Maizena)
salt and pepper
500g dried pasta, as fine as possible, e.g. fettucine, spaghettini
salt
olive oil
20 quails’ eggs
optional: 100g bacon bits (lardons)
chervil or parsley sprigs to garnish

• For the sauce, boil a cupful of water in a pan and blanch the greenery for 5 minutes. (Sorrel will immediately go sludge green, others will stay bright green.)
• Sprinkle the cornflour onto 2 tablespoons of water in a small cup and stir till smooth
• Remove the pan from the heat, add the cream and slaked cornflour and blend till smooth (either use a hand-held blender, or tip it all into the liquidizer)
• You should have a brilliant green purée (unless you’ve used sorrel)
• Return it to the pan, season with salt and pepper and bring briefly to a boil - it must boil, otherwise the starch won’t thicken it, but don’t overdo it or you will lose the lovely green colour. (If you have used sorrel, remove sauce from heat and blend in another 5-6 leaves raw sorrel. Do not boil again.)
• Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling salted water with a little oil according to the instructions on the packet
• Boil the quails’ eggs for exactly 3 minutes, drain, refresh with cold water and peel
• Fry the bacon (if using) without extra fat in a small pan till the fat runs
• Discard the fat, put the bacon on paper towels.
• To assemble, heat the sauce in the pan or microwave, pour a puddle of sauce into heated soup bowls
• Top with a ‘nest’ of pasta, arrange eggs in the middle of the ‘nest’, scatter bacon bits on top
• Garnish with chervil or parsley sprigs and serve at once

GRILLED QUAIL WITH POLENTA

Once, in Bergamo (northern Italy), we fell upon a simple place on the main square. Quaglie con polenta - quail with polenta - were the day’s special. It’s great fast food which can be accomplished inside half an hour, provided you use quick-cooking polenta. The quail are split, flattened, seasoned, anointed with a flavourful oil and - perhaps - a sprig of rosemary, then grilled to perfection. It’s pointless to serve quail to people who don't relish eating with their fingers. You (and they, probably even more) will suffer agonies as they pick over the dish with their knife and fork, then leave most of it.  

Serves 2
2 quail
salt and pepper, rosemary
a little olive or herb-flavoured oil (see page 00)
125g quick-cooking polenta
350ml water
250ml milk
salt
a knob of butter

• Using scissors or game shears, cut the quail open along the backbone.
• Put them on a board and press down hard on the breast bone with the flat of your hand to flatten them slightly.
• Put them in a lightly oiled, shallow enamelled cast iron dish, season the birds lightly, brush with a little oil.
• Heat the grill to maximum and grill the birds for 3-4 minutes on each side.
• Meanwhile mix the polenta with the water, milk and salt in a heavy based saucepan.
• Bring to the boil, stirring. Keep a lid handy - it plops about rather volcanically.
• Cook for 2 minutes, by which time it should resemble a golden porridge.
• Lift the quails out of their dish when they are ready and spoon the polenta into it.
• Re-arrange the quails on top and serve.

LEMON-MARINATED GRILLED QUAIL SALAD

A great recipe for a spring buffet, the quail are bathed in a lemon marinade, then grilled, halved and served over a selection of salad leaves, sprinkled with edible flowers and set about with quails’ eggs. A combination grill/fan oven works very well for the quail: they brown nicely at the same time as cooking through.

Serves 12 (more, if part of a buffet)
12 oven-ready quail
juice 2 lemons
4 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
1 red onion, finely chopped
3-4 sprigs thyme, pulled apart
12 quails’ eggs
 Dressing
6 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp wine vinegar
1 tsp mustard
a pinch of sugar
selected salad leaves (oak leaf, red oak leaf, lollo, rocket etc.)
some edible flowers (e.g. heartsease, chives, calendula)

• Wipe the quail with a damp cloth and remove any extraneous heads, wing pinions, feathers etc.
• Put them in a large roasting pan which will accommodate them in a single layer.
• Mix together the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, onion and thyme.
• Sprinkle this over the quail. Leave them to marinate for a few hours or overnight in the fridge.
• If you have a combination oven, switch it to grill plus fan heat, and set the temperature at 240oC; otherwise simply heat the grill to maximum.
• Grill/roast the quail for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown and only just cooked. (If you do not have a combination oven, turn the birds once.)
• Remove from the oven, cut the birds in half and return them to the roasting pan to cool off in their juices.
• Plunge the quails’ eggs in rapidly boiling water for 3 minutes.
• Drain, refresh, peel and halve them.
• Mix together the ingredients for the dressing and stir in any juices from the quail
• Arrange the salad leaves on a large shallow dish and dress lightly
• Set the halved quails on top and spoon a little more dressing onto them. Intersperse with quails’ eggs and flowers.