Cailles aux Cerises

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •12-inch / 30 cm lidded sauté pan
• •1 1/2-quart / 1.5-liter saucepan
• •Kitchen twine
• •Slotted spoon or fine-mesh sieve
• •Instant-read thermometer

Instructions

1. 1

   Infuse the Port

   Put the orange rind into the Port and leave it at room temperature for 30 minutes while you prepare the cherries and quails. Cut away every trace of white pith before soaking; pith contributes bitterness, while the colored rind gives the clean orange perfume the sauce needs. Remove and discard the rind before the Port reaches the pan.

2. 2

   Poach and cool cherries

   Combine the water and sugar in a small saucepan and bring them to a boil, stirring only until the sugar dissolves. This one-part-sugar to two-parts-water ratio by weight is the home equivalent of the source's light 18-degree syrup. Add the cherries, return the syrup just to a simmer, and poach gently for 2 to 3 minutes, until the fruit looks glossy but remains firm. Remove the pan from the heat and cool the cherries completely in their syrup, about 30 minutes. If their skins begin splitting, pull the pan off the heat immediately; ça se rattrape, and the syrup's residual warmth will finish them without making compote.

3. 3

   Truss and season quails

   Pat the quails thoroughly dry inside and out. Tuck each wing tip behind the back, bring the legs together, and secure them with one loop of kitchen twine. This simple tie replaces the formal entrée truss: it keeps the birds compact enough to cook evenly without asking you to perform poultry embroidery. Season every surface and the cavities with the salt and pepper.

4. 4

   Brown and cook quails

   Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a wide lidded sauté pan over medium-high heat. When the foam subsides, lay in the quails breast-side down and brown them without crowding, turning until the breasts, backs, and sides are a deep, even bronze, 7 to 9 minutes in all. Lower the heat, add the remaining butter, cover, and cook for another 5 to 7 minutes, turning once, until the thickest part of a thigh reaches 165°F / 74°C. Transfer the quails to a warm plate and rest them while you make the sauce. If the butter turns black or smells acrid during browning, lift out the birds and wipe away the burnt fat with folded paper held in tongs, then continue with fresh butter. Burnt fat is bitter, but the quails are not lost.

   Dry birds brown; damp birds stew in their own moisture. The fond, the bronze film left on the pan floor, is the savory foundation that prevents the cherry sauce from tasting like dessert.
5. 5

   Deglaze the fond

   Pour off any loose fat beyond a thin coating, keeping the clean brown fond in the pan. Take the pan off the heat before adding the brandy, then return it to medium heat and scrape the pan floor until the brandy has nearly evaporated. There is no need to set it alight. Pour in the orange-infused Port and boil steadily until reduced by about half, scraping until every savory brown speck has joined the liquid.

6. 6

   Build the sauce

   Add the veal stock and red-currant jelly, whisking until the jelly melts. Tip in any juices collected beneath the resting quails, then simmer for 3 to 5 minutes, until the sauce reaches a light nappant consistency, coating the back of a spoon in a glossy film. Don't reduce it to jam; the jelly will tighten further as the sauce settles.

7. 7

   Glaze quails and cherries

   Drain the cooled cherries thoroughly without pressing them, and let the last syrup drip away before they enter the pan. Return the quails to the sauce breast-side up, add the cherries around them, and baste over low heat for 2 to 3 minutes, just until everything is glazed and warmed through. If the sauce is thin, lift out the birds and cherries and reduce it in 30-second bursts. If it tightens too far, loosen it with a teaspoon of veal stock or water. If it tastes cloying or flat, add lemon juice three drops at a time, tasting after each addition. Ça se rattrape.

8. 8

   Serve at once

   Cut away the twine and arrange the quails breast-side up on a warm platter, one bird for each person. Nestle the cherries around them and spoon over every drop of the glossy Port sauce. Bring the platter straight to the table while the glaze still catches the light. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Ask for oven-ready quails weighing roughly 6 to 7 ounces each. Four birds of similar size will finish together; one oversized quail in a pan of small ones makes the timing needlessly theatrical.
• •Use unsalted veal stock with enough natural gelatin to set softly when cold. If veal stock truly isn't available, reduce unsalted beef stock by half before measuring it. The sauce will be darker and more forceful, which is an honest change, but it will still have the body the source requires.
• •Fresh cherries give the neatest shape, but unsweetened frozen cherries are the classical pantry's honest answer outside their season. Add them frozen and remove the syrup from the heat as soon as it returns to a simmer. Cherries packed in heavy syrup bring too much sugar to a sauce already built with jelly.
• •Serve Cailles aux Cerises with a quiet potato purée or buttered noodles, something ready to catch the sauce without competing with it. A supple red Burgundy or cru Beaujolais has enough freshness for the cherries and enough earth for the quail.

Advance Preparation

• •Poach the cherries up to one day ahead, cool them promptly, and refrigerate them in their syrup. Bring them out while the quails cook, then drain only when the sauce is ready.
• •Infuse the Port up to 2 hours ahead, but remove the orange rind after 30 minutes so its perfume remains clean rather than bitter.
• •The quails can be trussed and seasoned up to 4 hours ahead. Refrigerate them uncovered so their skin dries, then take them out 20 minutes before cooking.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 235g)