Stuffed quail with marmalade and whisky recipe

I love cooking with marmalade: its bitter-sweet flavour seems just right for autumn and winter and it gives such a lovely burnished glaze to meat. 

The quail, still widely regarded as game, is not shot wild in Britain now, though it is in parts of Eastern Europe. Here it’s farmed and real game aficionados scorn it, but I’m fond of the little birds. The flavour may be mild, but quails still make for good eating: there are plenty of small bones to get your chops around, they cook quickly and look elegant.

Timings

Prep time: 20 minutes, plus 1 hour to marinate
Cook time: 1 hour

Serves 

4

Ingredients

For the quail

• 8 tbsp marmalade
• 12 tbsp whisky
• leaves from 4 thyme sprigs
• 8 quail
• 8 streaky bacon rashers
• 10g unsalted butter
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 1 small carrot, finely chopped
• ½ celery stick, finely chopped
• 500ml very well-flavoured chicken stock

For the stuffing

• ½ small onion, very finely chopped
• 2 streaky bacon rashers, finely chopped
• 15g unsalted butter
• 50g fresh breadcrumbs
• 1 tbsp flat-leaf parsley leaves, very finely chopped
• 1 small egg, beaten

Method

1. Mix the marmalade, 8 tbsp of the whisky, the thyme and some salt and pepper together and spoon over the quail. Cover loosely and leave to marinate for anything from 1 hour to overnight in the fridge.
2. Preheat the oven to 210C/200C fan/gas mark 6½.
3. To make the stuffing, sauté the onion and bacon in the butter until golden. Add the breadcrumbs, parsley and egg, then season with salt and pepper.
4. Stuff each quail with this mixture – it’s a sticky process but manageable – and wrap each bird with a bacon rasher. Season with pepper. Spoon the marinade over the quail once more.
5. Put the birds and their marinade in an ovenproof pot in which they will all fit snugly, then cover. Cook in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, spooning the juices and marinade over the birds in the first 15 minutes, then removing the lid for the last 5 minutes.
6. Meanwhile heat the butter in a medium saucepan and add the shallots, carrot and celery. Cook gently for 15 minutes until soft but not coloured. Add the remaining 4 tbsp whisky, increase the heat and allow the alcohol to reduce to 1 tbsp.
7. Pour in the stock and reduce it by half, then add any cooking juices from the quail. Now strain the sauce through a sieve into a warmed bowl, or clean saucepan, to remove the vegetables. Taste for seasoning.
8. Serve 2 quail per person with a little sauce spooned around them.

Recipe from Roast Figs, Sugar Snow by Diana Henry (Mitchell Beazley, £22), a new edition published in 2023