Main Ingredients:

See below ingredients and instructions of the recipe

Cooking Preparation of the Recipe:

6 Plump young quails
6 Big flat mushrooms; plus...
6 oz Mushrooms for the stuffing
6 oz Butter
3 Garlic cloves (or more)
Lemon juice
Parsley
Chives
Tarragon

To make the duxelles, first chop the 6 oz mushrooms plus the stalks
from the big flat mushrooms on which you will sit the quails. Chop
finely, using a knife, not a food processor. Mix in 1 very finely
chopped garlic clove, about 9 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, 3
tablespoons snipped chives and 1 heaped tablespoon fresh tarragon (or
a generous 1 1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon if fresh is not available).
Cook the mixture in a little butter over moderate heat for 3 minutes
or so, stirring often. Season well with salt, pepper and about 2
teaspoons lemon juice.

Let the duxelles cool before using it to stuff the birds. Spread it
gently between the flesh and the skin, all over the breast area, to
plump up the quails prettily. Secure the flap of neck skin under each
bird with a wooden toothpick. If the skin is torn, put the stuffing
into the body cavities instead. Tie up the legs of each bird to keep
it neatly shaped.

Make about 5 oz garlic butter and reserve it. Choose a roasting tin
or baking dish just large enough to take the 6 flat mushrooms side by
side.

When ready to cook, melt a nugget of the garlic butter in the
roasting tin. Turn the birds in it to coat them with fat, then
arrange them, breast down, on a rack suspended across the roasting
tin. Bake at 425 F (220 C) gas mark 7 for 15 minutes.

Put the mushrooms in the tin, arranging them gill side up, and dot
them with the rest of the garlic butter. Put the rack of quails back
on top of the tin and turn the birds breast side up. Position the
birds carefully, placing each one above a mushroom so that the meat
juices will drip on to the mushrooms during cooking. Bake for 20
minutes or so until the birds and mushrooms are perfectly cooked.

Sit the birds on the mushrooms and serve straight away, or cover and
keep hot at 250 F (120 C) gas mark 1/2 until ready to serve. Rice,
couscous or burghul, and crisp peppery watercress go well with this
dish.

Source: Philippa Davenport in "Country Living" (British), September
1988. Typed for you by Karen Mintzias

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