Grilled Quails with Rose Petals and Bitter Chocolate

Grilled Quails with Rose Petals and Bitter Chocolate

I love this dish and have served it numerous times at home. It works well as a starter for a Middle Eastern dinner or as part of a meze or tapas. Most of the work can be done a day in advance, and last minute preparation should not take more than a few minutes. It looks stunning, and your friends will be highly impressed. The heady scent of roses marries beautifully with the sweetness of the quail meat, cinnamon and bitter chocolate. A real winner! 

Ingredients - (Serves 4)

• 4 quails
• Pistachio nuts, very roughly chopped (Optional – to decorate)
• Shavings of bitter chocolate (Optional – to decorate)
• Fresh rose petals, preferably red (Optional – to decorate) 

        Marinade

• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon bitter chocolate powder 
• 3 tablespoon rosewater
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Sea salt and black pepper (to taste)

        Rose Petal Sauce

• 6 tablespoon rose petal jam (from Turkish Grocers or substituted by 125gr apricot Jam diluted with 3 tbsp rose water)
• 1 large garlic clove, crushed to a paste with salt
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Generous squeeze of lemon
• Sea salt and black pepper

Method

•        Prepare the marinade - mix all the ingredients for the marinade together and rub all over the quails. Place in a dish and marinade for at least two hours or preferably overnight in the fridge.

2.     

•        Make the sauce – mix the rose petal jam or substitute, garlic and cinnamon together in a bowl. Add the olive oil and lemon juice and taste for seasoning. This can be done a day in advance.

•        Grilling the quails – before serving, place the quails under a very hot grill, breast side down, for 7 minutes. Turn them over and grill, breast side up, for a further 6 minutes or until the meat is no longer pink but is still juicy.

•        Serving – place a quail on a plate, spoon the rose petal sauce over and around the quail, scatter some roughly chopped pistachios, bitter chocolate shavings, and fresh rose petals over the top. Grind some black pepper over the plate and serve immediately.

**Comfort Food Special** - Chicken and Egg on Rice (Oyako Don)

Chicken and Egg on Rice - Oyako Donburi 

This is one of my favourite Japanese recipes - it is comfort food at its best, very fast and easy to prepare, a regular at our home.  There are many variations on this dish, but it is essentially rice topped with eggs, onions in a delicious dashi broth.

Ingredients

• 175 ml strongly flavoured dashi stock
• 75 ml sake
• 4 tbsp light soy sauce
• 4 tbsp mirin
• 1tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 300g free range chicken breast, slantly and thinly sliced
• 6 eggs slightly beaten - top quality and very fresh as briefly cooked
• 600g cooked sushi rice - about 300g uncooked
• 1 onion thinly sliced - lengthways
• 4 dried shiitake mushrooms
  
• To garnish - baby cress or spring onions, 1/2 sheet of toasted, crumbled nori (seaweed), red pickle ginger, black sesame seeds (all optional)
  

Method

1. Cook the sushi rice, keeping it warm in four or two separate ceramic bowls.
   
2. Place mushrooms in a small bowl, cover with boiling water, let it stand for about 20 mins until tender. Drain, reserving the water, discard stems and slice caps.
3. Gently mix the eggs in a bowl without beating them with a fork.
4. Prepare the garnishing ingredients - thinly slice the spring onions, or wash the baby cress, crumble the nori sheet. Although optional, I would recommend using the garnish as it will add extra flavours to the dish and make it look pretty.
   
5. Meanwhile, bring the dashi stock, soy sauce, mirin, sake, sugar and salt to a simmer in a largish saucepan (that has a lid!), but do not boil it to avoid making the dashi stock bitter.
6. Add the chicken, mushrooms and its reserved water, the onions, cover and cook gently for about 3-4 mins until the chicken is cooked through.
7. Gently pour the egg over the chicken mixture in a circling movement, from the outside inwards, covering the chicken mixture completely. Cook uncovered for 1 minute.
8. Cover and cook for another minute. The mixture should have thickened and the eggs just began to set. Remove from the heat.
9. Pour the egg mixture on top of the warm rice.
10. Garnish with baby cress or spring onions, crumbled nori sheet, black sesame seeds and top it with a little red ginger pickle.

This quantity will serve 4 as a small starter or 2 as large mains. If you have any questions on any part of this recipe or just need to know where to source any of the ingredients listed, please contact me. Enjoy it!