This conventional French preparation makes quail the star of a creamy garlic sauce
A French fricassee is a stew wherein meat is braised in white sauce. Hen with 40 cloves of garlic is conventional. Sure, you learn that proper: actually 40 cloves of garlic. This equates to about 4 entire heads of garlic. That’s a whole lot of garlic in a single dish, and as you may think about, might style fairly pungent if the allium isn’t adequately cooked to mellow out its sharp, spicy taste. Herein lies the small downside with this quail-based dish: these small birds don’t take lengthy to prepare dinner.
James Beard’s well-known recipe requires steaming 16 rooster legs for 1 hour and half-hour with aromatics in a 6-quart casserole. Right here, we’re introduced with one other downside: the probability {that a} quail hunter would have 16 birds to prepare dinner at one time is low. The rooster doesn’t overcook on this dish as a result of, one, it’s rooster, and two, it’s tightly stuffed in a dish, maintaining every thing moist. A bag restrict of six Nebraska quail would swim within the pan and probably dry out earlier than the garlic might quit its edge. To get round this, I roasted the garlic beforehand. Doing so yielded a candy, delicate white sauce and loads of it to eat over mashed potatoes, rice, or crusty bread.
This was a kind of occasions that made me surprise why I don’t prepare dinner with roasted garlic extra typically. It’s tasty in nearly every thing. For those who roast additional heads, smash the cloves with butter, unfold it on bread, and prime with a bit ending salt. Heaven.
Outdoors of roasting the garlic, which may very well be executed forward and refrigerated, this can be a pretty fast dish to arrange. I used nearer to 30 cloves of garlic as a result of I believed 40 could be overkill with simply six birds, however after all you possibly can double the recipe as wanted.
I listed entire quail and photographed them so for presentation, however this recipe would additionally work effectively with quail breasts, legs, thighs, or all three. Boned-out quail will take much less time to prepare dinner, and they’d be simpler to eat than entire quail with a fork and knife. You can additionally do that recipe with boneless pheasant breasts.
Quail and “40” Cloves of Garlic
A conventional French preparation of roasted quail in a creamy garlic sauce
- 6 quail entire, or breasts and legs
- Kosher salt to style
- Freshly cracked pepper to style
- 3 heads garlic
- Olive oil
- ½ cup dry sherry
- 1 cup low-sodium rooster inventory
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 sprig thyme
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp water
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Preheat your oven to 375° Fahrenheit. Slice off the tops of the heads of garlic to reveal the cloves. Wrap them individually, lower facet up, in items of foil with a splash of olive oil. Place wrapped garlic on a cookie sheet and roast on the center oven rack for 45 minutes. The garlic cloves must be comfortable and barely browned; don’t enable them to burn as a result of they are going to change into bitter. When cool sufficient to deal with, squeeze out the garlic pulp; I exploit a small paring knife to assist dig out the comfortable cloves. Put aside.
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Decrease oven warmth to 350°. Season quail with salt, together with contained in the physique cavity. In an oven-proof pan or skillet, warmth about 1 tablespoon of oil over medium-high warmth and brown the quail on all sides. Switch the quail onto a plate and put aside.
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Take the pan off the warmth and add the roasted garlic and dry sherry. Return the pan over medium warmth and permit the sherry to utterly evaporate, stirring typically. Subsequent, add rooster inventory, heavy cream, a bay leaf, and thyme, and produce to a simmer. Don’t boil.
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In a small bowl, combine 2 teaspoons of cornstarch and 1 tablespoon of water right into a clean slurry, and stir into the sauce. Simmer till thickened, stirring regularly. Season sauce to style, and barely smash the garlic items with the again of a spoon. Return browned quail to the pan, breast facet up, together with any juices on the plate. Cowl the pan with foil, switch to a 350° oven, and bake for about 10-Quarter-hour, or till quail is cooked by means of.
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Skinny out the garlic sauce with extra rooster inventory, if wanted. Discard thyme stem and bay leaf. Serve quail and garlic sauce with rice, mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, or crusty bread.
Energy: 485kcalCarbohydrates: 10gProtein: 35gFats: 31gSaturated Fats: 12gPolyunsaturated Fats: 5gMonounsaturated Fats: 10gLdl cholesterol: 158mgSodium: 118mgPotassium: 539mgFiber: 0.5gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 850IUVitamin C: 17mgCalcium: 85mgIron: 7mg
