This is a lovely Spanish quail recipe where you stew the quail with onions, then serve them separate from their broth, which you then eat with pasta. It’s a great date night or weekend dish that works with any white meat poultry.
Grandads Cookbook is a collection of recipes from various sources reproduced here for convenience. Recipes are accredited to their original author where known and links are provided to any online source materials.
It’s called caldereta de cordonices, although it is not very similar to other caldereta recipes. It comes from Penelope Casas’ wonderful book The Foods and Wines of Spain.
Alternatives to Quail
Game birds like quail and pheasant are a tasty alternative to chicken but with a stronger flavour.
For most quail recipes you can substitute pheasant which are a little larger or even guinea fowl although the cooking time will be longer.
Quail are fascinating little game birds which I keep on my allotment for eggs and meat. I prepare my own but quail are widely available online or from any good butchers shop.
How to Prepare Quail
You will need two oven ready quail for a main course per adult serving and one each for a starter.
How To Spatchcock Quail
Spatchcocking any game bird or chicken involves cutting out the backbone with a pair of poultry shears or strong kitchen scissors. This allows you to flatten out the bird ready for grilling or the BBQ.
There is a really good step by step guide over at serious eats.com to help you get your bird(s) ready.
What you end up with is something like the spatchcocked quail shown in the image below.
Where Can I Buy Quail?
Supermarkets in the UK seasonally stock game birds like pheasant, poussin and guinea fowl but not quail.
Quail are farmed in the same way as chickens but on a very much smaller scale.
Depending on where you live you may be able to get quail fresh or frozen from a farm shop but they are always available online from outlets like the Wild Meat Company and any good butchers shop will be able to get them for you.
Spanish Quail with Paprika and Onions
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 3 onions peeled and sliced root to tip
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- Salt
- 8 quail
- 6 cups chicken or game stock
- 2 tbsp white wine sherry or champagne vinegar
- 1 bunch parsley stems only
- 1 stalk celery cut into large pieces
- 1 sprig fresh thyme
- 450 g angel hair pasta
- smoked paprika to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Conversions
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large, lidded pot like a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. When it’s hot, sauté the onions until they just start to brown a little. Stir in the garlic and cook another minute.
- Add the quail, stock, vinegar, parsley stems, celery stalk, and thyme and bring to a simmer. Add salt to taste. Cover the pot and simmer very gently until the quail are tender, about 1 to 2 hours depending on whether the quail are farmed or wild.
- While that’s happening, bring a large pot of water to a boil and add salt. This is your pasta water, and you want this ready when the quail are.
- When the quail are tender, gently move them from the pot to a plate to rest. Strain the broth into another pot, or a bowl (then wipe out the original pot), and fish out the thyme, celery and parsley stems.
- Cook the angel hair pasta in the salted water for a minute or three, then move some to each person’s bowl. Pour the broth over, and, if you want, chop the leaves from the parsley as a garnish.
- Serve the quails on the onions, topped with paprika and black pepper. If they’ve cooled too much, pour just a little of the hot broth over them before adding the pepper and paprika.
You may also like one of my other favourite recipes …
Grandads Cookbook may reference or include sections of text and images reproduced courtesy of:
- Cottage Farm Butchers
- seriouseats.com