Quail circle of life

Name: Quail circle of life
Yield: Serves 8 Starter Portions
Ingredients: salt; 8 whole quails – 180g each; Sous vide leeks; 16 thigh bones; 2 sprigs thyme; 16 pickled shimeji mushrooms – 2 per serving; 48 g coarse salt; 8 egg shells; 1 garlic clove – crushed; 16 baby leeks – topped and washed; 16 quail breasts; 40 g butter; 40 ml beef jus; 8 quail eggs; water; 150 ml rice wine vinegar pickle – chilled; 45 ml–60 ml white spirit vinegar; 30 g butter; lightly salted water – for reheating; 500 ml chicken stock; beef jus – for basting; 40 g kataifi; 48 spekboom petals – washed; 8 wishbones

Preparation info

Serves
8
Starter Portions

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Mile 8

By David Higgs

Published 2018

About

This dish made the cover of Culinary Artist, the chef’s magazine that Dr Billy Gallagher started. It was plated in a circle then. Just a fun dish really. With great flavours. Spekboom is a local succulent which I like to use preserved. It adds great texture and a lovely acidity.

Ingredients

Quail

8 whole quails – 180g each
40 g butter
2 sprigs <

Starter
Sous vide

Method

To prepare the quails, remove the wish bone from each quail – reserve for later. Remove the supremes (breasts) from the quails, leaving the wing bone on but removing the winglet. Remove the leg and thigh in one piece from the quail legs, and then remove the thigh bone and push the meat up to resemble a lollipop – reserve the bones for later. Add the butter to a pan with the thyme and garlic, an