CookEat Recipe
Quails Robbins
Six pâté-stuffed quails roasted under larding pork, then finished with sherry in a covered cocotte.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Use six plump whole raw quails, fully thawed if frozen. Remove any remaining heads and feet, draw and clean the cavities as needed, then pat dry without rinsing. Keep the birds and pâté cold until stuffing. Preheat a conventional oven to 210°C. Choose a cocotte and lid that their manufacturer permits in this preheated oven and that will hold all six birds without compressing them.
Step 2
In a cold bowl, mix three tablespoons of ready-to-eat goose foie gras pâté with one teaspoon of rum and half a saltspoon of cayenne pepper. Divide all the mixture evenly among the six cavities, filling them loosely just before cooking.
Step 3
Truss the quails and lay them on a roasting tin. Divide one teaspoon of salt over the birds and lay one very thin slice of raw larding pork over each quail.
Step 4
Roast for fifteen minutes. Keep the oven at 210°C and move straight on to the cocotte stage without cooling or storing the partly cooked birds.
Step 5
Remove all six larding slices and discard them, then remove the trussing strings. Place the six birds in the cocotte, pour in three-quarters of a gill of sherry and put on the lid.
Step 6
Mix a little flour and water to make a stiff dough. Roll it into a string and press it around the joint between the lid and dish. Put the closed cocotte in the oven for twenty-five minutes before checking.
Step 7
Take the cocotte out and carefully open the dough joint and lid, keeping clear of escaping steam. With a clean fine-tip thermometer, check every bird's thickest breast without touching bone and the centre of its stuffing. Each bird must reach at least 82°C and its stuffing at least 74°C. If any pâté has escaped into the cooking juices, check that this also reaches 74°C. If needed, replace the ordinary lid and continue cooking until all these checks pass; keep all the escaped pâté and juices in the cocotte.
Step 8
Replace the lid. Set the cocotte on a supporting dish lined with a folded napkin and serve at once, keeping all six quails, their stuffing and the cooking juices together.
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