Appetizing Tea Smoked Quail in a Citrus Sauce

Cooking Adventure number #7 – Appetizing Tea Smoked Quail in a Citrus Sauce

For my seventh main ingredient, my cousin selected ‘quail’. I researched and selected three recipes including hunter-style quail; tea smoked quail in a citrus sauce and grilled quail with rose petals. All recipes look appetizing and since I had the whole evening to cook, all recipes could be done. However, I chose tea smoked quail in a citrus sauce because I wanted to try another recipe from my favourite cooking show Masterchef and I knew there were a lot of recipes with quail on their website. After hours of searching for perfect quail recipe I came across this one. Since most of my family members love tea and my mum knows how to work with quail I chose this recipe. The ingredients for ‘Tea Smoked Quail in a Citrus Sauce’ are:

Salad Onions (used brown onions)

Butter (preferred unsalted)

Thyme

Sage

Bay Leaf

Water (not shown)

Tunnel Boned Quails

Lemon Zest

Sou Chong Tea Bags (used black tea)

Tarragon

Grapeseed oil (used olive oil)

Prosciutto

Plain Flour

Chicken Consommé

Lemon Juice

Orange Juice

Balsamic Vinegar (used white vinegar)

Swiss Brown Mushroom

It took me one hour and thirty minutes in total to prepare all the ingredients. This included zesting, peeling, chopping, pouring, squeezing, etc. with lots of ingredients for this recipe, I knew that preparation was going to take a long time. I was happy I didn’t go over the two hour mark.

Oven-baked Onions

The onions were put into a baking container (the type you would use if you were to cook lasagne) and I added butter, thyme, sage, bay leaf and water. Once I put everything in, the aroma was so powerful, but it smelt like rosemary one of my favourite herbs to use because of its amazing scent. I then had to put foil on top of the container and then put into the oven at 180 degrees centigrade for thirty five minutes or until soft. 

After thirty five minutes, I checked if the onions were ready yet. The foil wasn’t hot so I lifted it up and boiling steam blew into my face which made my face burn for around fifteen seconds. It hurt so much I almost dropped the onions onto the floor. The onions were brown and soft which I was happy about and the taste was full of flavour which I was ‘over the moon’ about.  I like caramelised onion better but I thought this was nice.

Tea Smoked Quail

I was really nervous about cleaning the quail when I bought it but luckily it was already cleaned for me so I was relieved. Juts to make sure, I cleaned the outside and inside of the 7 small quails. Cleaning the outside was fine for me but cleaning the inside felt strange because I have never done it before but it was a cool experience to do it. 

This is me making the stuffing for the quail. The stuffing contains unsalted butter and lemon zest. I followed the recipe’s portions for the stuffing but it seemed the stuffing was too little so I added the same amount of butter into the mixture and half the amount of lemon zest as well. I had a taste of the stuffing and it tasted pretty nice but I couldn’t imagine how it would taste with the quail as well.

Stuffing the quail was the tricky part in this recipe. I felt very uncomfortable in putting the stuffing into the massive hole but my mum showed me how and I’ve become more confident in stuffing quails. My first quail had too little stuffing and my second quail had too much stuffing. My last quail, I got the perfect amount! Practice makes perfect!

Once I finished stuffing each quail, I placed the quails onto a baking tray with foil and sprinkled them with black tea as preferred by my mum. The aroma of lemon/butter stuffing and black tea was brilliant and made me my nostrils tingle. So good and I couldn’t wait for the end product!

After putting black tea around the tray, I sprinkled sage, tarragon and thyme around the tray. The aroma turned from brilliant to magnificent! The aroma was like an opera for my nostrils and I had more tingles! I placed another layer of foil on top and placed it into the oven for twenty minutes or until cooked. My biggest worry about this dish is the quail. As mention on Masterchef, quail is best eaten medium rare – cooked or undercooked but if it’s overcooked; it is so dry and inedible which would be a shame.

Once the twenty minutes were over, I left the quail in the foil for five minutes; after five minutes, I lifted the foil and the quail was white which wasn’t a worry because it was meant to be like that. I couldn’t wait til I could eat it at the dinner table. The smell from the quail was absolutely scrumptious which made my nostrils tingle again.

Since my parents don’t like seeing quail white, I decided to fry the quails so the skin was golden brown. The smell took my breath away… literally. I didn’t want my parents to see the quail or else they would make me cook it in the oven for longer because of how white it was.

Citrus Sauce

This is the butter and olive oil being slowly heated up in a frying pan. The smell of butter and oil was divine but adding the other ingredients made my nose tingle again.

Adding the prosciutto made the aroma lovely. This is my first time using prosciutto in a recipe and although it’s a very salty type of meat, it is not meant to be eaten on its own and with the butter/olive oil, it was DELICIOUS!

This is me adding the chopped onion into the sauce. The onion smell was like a beautiful piece of art. I wish the kitchen could smell like this always and I knew there was going to be a better smell when I put in some herbs. This photo is one of my favourite photos in this recipe because my hand looks so magical to me.

Next was the chicken consommé which took me forever to prepare. During the preparation period, I used a container which had a tiny hole in it and I poured the boiling water in it. I left the water in the container for around five minutes and when I came back, there was a puddle around the container and almost one quarter of the boiling water was gone. So annoying!!! Once I poured the chicken consommé into the sauce, the sauce looked very appealing. This photo made my heart melt because of the way it was taken. Just gorgeous!!! Once the consommé was in, I had to keep stirring until the sauce thickened which took forever.

After the sauce thickened, I added the lemon and orange juice and tarragon. The lemon and orange juice and tarragon made the sauce very citrusy and it was so strong I decided not to put the vinegar in.

 Once I put the lemon/orange juice and tarragon into the sauce, I had to wait for fifteen minutes for the sauce to reduce. The sauce created a lovely scent around the kitchen again; the smell of onion, tarragon and prosciutto was captivating but the orange/lemon juice didn’t seem to fit in with the savoury ingredients. Hopefully, everything fits together when it’s time to serve with the quail and sides.

After fifteen minutes, I strained the sauce so I could get the liquid only. I really adore this photo because the main focus is the sauce being strained and I believe it is eye-catching and bold. Once I separated the liquid and the leftovers, I left the liquid to stay warm at a low heat while the leftovers went into the bin. I tasted the liquid and it was a combination of sweet, savoury and citrusy flavour which was magnificent!

Fried Buttered Mushrooms

The recipe stated a certain type of mushroom which would taste the best for this recipe. I had to decide between Swiss Brown Mushroom, the recipe’s mushroom or ‘normal’ mushroom which was a cheaper version. Swiss Brown had a much stronger flavour than the ‘normal’ mushroom so I chose to buy the Swiss Brown. The mushrooms were sautéed in unsalted butter which I preferred to have a buttery taste rather than an oily taste. The aroma in the kitchen changed very quickly from a citrus scent to a lovely butter scent.

After being sautéed for five minutes, the mushrooms were golden brown and looked succulent from first sight. I couldn’t wait to eat this and see if it tasted delicious!!! I used the leftover butter sauce from the frying pan as an extra sauce to pour over the quail which was a tip in Masterchef when cooking this recipe.

After an hour and a half of cooking this recipe, I was extremely pleased about the final product. It looked so lovely with the yellow tea towel and some cutlery. While I was cooking the recipe, my cousin roasted some potatoes which looked radiant as a side. Although was relieved, it was also time to find out whether the quail was cooked to medium/rare. I was the first person to cut the quail and it was cooked to medium/rare which I was relieved about. The quail was absolutely perfect in terms of flavour but with the citrus sauce, it worked beautifully together. The mushrooms were full on buttery flavour which I expected and the oven-baked onions were yummy, they did need more thyme and sage because the butter overwhelmed the herbs’ flavour. Overall it was a wonderful dish. My family’s responses were positive with only one negative. My cousin (who took the photos) didn’t like the recipe. He felt the quail lacked with flavour, the sauce was too lemony and the onion was dull. My mum thought it was marvellous but told me next time to cook it so it wasn’t so rare. My dad loved the sauce and mushrooms but felt like the quail was undercooked for him. Like my mum, he loves eating meat that isn’t raw. I couldn’t believe a twelve year old chef could cook this but I managed to make it. EIGHTH RECIPE here I come!!!

This recipe was taken from the Masterchef Australia website.

Q: How do you like your meat to be cooked?

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