Name: Persian Quail
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Iran
Ingredients: salt and white pepper to taste; 1 cup walnuts, toasted and skinned (with a clean, dry vaaidoek/tea towel); 1 tbsp dried rose petals (or tea), chopped, plus extra for garnish; 2 tbsp Grand Marnier or Cointreau liqueur; 5 tbsp pomegranate molasses (or moskonfyt or verjuice); juice of 1 lime or 1 tbsp bottled lime juice; 2 tbsp sunflower oil; 4 gratings of nutmeg; pomegranate jewels or micro greens for garnish (optional); ½ cup sultanas; 1 garlic clove, finely chopped; 1 tsp salt; 6 gratings of nutmeg; 2 tsp honey; 1 tsp sumac or softly grated rind of ½ lemon; 1 cup chicken stock; 1 tbsp black peppercorns; 2 tbsp warm water; ½ cup almonds (or pistachios), roughly chopped; 1 tsp cinnamon; ½ tsp powdered turmeric; ½ cup cranberries (sour cherries if you’re lucky); 4 cardamom pods, seeded; 4 deboned quail; 6 tbsp pomegranate juice; 1 small pinch of saffron threads; 1 medium onion, finely sliced; 50 g soft butter; 3 tsp sunflower oil

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Set a Table

By Karen Dudley

Published 2018

About

After supper, for a good chunk of my childhood, my brother Gavin and I would read about the kings of the Old Testament. I believe my parents’ idea was to immerse us in these stories of kings, warriors, prophets and unlikely heroes. Here were God’s chosen people wandering, lost and rebellious, through the desert – hoping to reach the Promised Land. God’s chosen people yearning for deliverance and finding, at their last… quail in the desert… and manna to sustain them! Here were the kings of P