A Special Valentine's Dinner
Stuffed Quail with Morel Mushrooms and Fava Beans
A Special Valentine‘s Dinner Menu
Valentine’s Menu 2019
I love quail, and decided it was the perfect food for this special day. The one above I made in the spring with fresh morel mushrooms.
For this special Valentine's dinner, I am going to try to replicate my birthday dinner I made this summer in France. I invited 6 people for dinner, and I spent the day before thinking of flavors from the region. We had fresh black currant berries on the vines in my parent's garden. And I purchased dried porcini mushrooms in which I re-hydrated. This was the base of the flavors in the sauce and stuffing, along with a rich quail stock I made from semi de-boning the birds.
Black Currants and Dried Porcini Mushrooms
Here in America, quail is usually sold semi-boneless. Which means the legs have their bones, but the breast bone is taken out, which makes it easy to stuff, and easy to eat with a fork and knife and not make too much of a mess on your plate.
In France, they come with all of their bones. Thank goodness for youtube! I was able to learn how to semi de-bone the quail. It took me half of the day! I needed to use many toothpicks to hold them back together. But by the 16th one, I had it down.
Preparing the stuffing for the quail.
I first cooked the quinoa in a rich stock. In another pan, I sautéed the shallots, added the cassis berries with balsamic vinegar, and probably a few other things. Then mixed in the quinoa and stuffed those little birds.
stuffed quail with currant and wild mushroom quinoa
The mushroom water, shallots, cassis berries and the quail stock made a nice sauce. It was a lovely dinner with earthy flavors. For this Valentine's Dinner, I will not have fresh cassis berries, but will be able to use preserved ones to make the sauce.
The starter course is inspired by a starter course I had at Bistro Agnes for lunch the other day. It was a lovely smoked salmon carpaccio with an endive and radish salad. I plan on making something similar with a cured beet salmon that I will practice with this week.
Cured Salmon Salad from Restaurant Bistro Agnes in Portland
The dinner is for 10 guests. I still have spots available. Please contact me here for more information.
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