Quail and Potato Pancake with Dried Apricot and Fig Chutney

After travelling for a month finally back to my hobby and this turned out to be the best dish i have ever made. Do try in love with this recipe. :)

Ingredients

Potato pancake:

• 1 potato, peeled, quartered
• Pinch salt
• 60g plain flour
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 egg
• 85ml milk

Quail:

• 2 quail
• Olive oil, for frying
• Butter, for frying
• 2 onions , chopped peeled
• 5 garlic cloves, peeled
• 5 thyme sprigs
• 5 black peppercorns
• 2 bay leaves
• 1½ tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1.5 l chicken stock

Dried fruit chutney:

• 1 orange, peeled, juiced
• 6 dried apricots, cut into 5mm cubes
• 2 dried figs, cut into 5mm cubes
• 1 teaspoons honey
• 30ml balsamic vinegar
• 5 saffron threads

To serve:

• Olive oil, for frying
• Butter, for frying
• Salt, to taste

Method

Potato pancake

• For the potato pancake, place potato in a saucepan, cover with water, and season with salt. Place over medium heat, bring up to a simmer, and cook until tender.
• Strain through a fine sieve, and return potato to pan set over low heat for 2 minutes to allow excess moisture to evaporate.
• Push potato through a drum sieve, mouli or ricer into a bowl. Add remaining ingredients and whisk until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap, and set aside until needed.

Quail

• For the quail, remove legs and thighs in one piece, leaving skin on. French leg bones. Carefully remove breasts, leaving whole, with the skin on. Refrigerate until needed. Reserve carcasses for the sauce.
• Heat enough oil to lightly coat the base of a frying pan set over medium-high heat. Cook quail carcasses for 5 minutes until browned. Add butter to pan. Once foaming, baste carcasses, cooking until dark golden. Strain off butter, then transfer to a bowl, and set aside.
• Return pan to heat, then add enough oil to lightly coat the base of the pan. Cook eschalots, garlic, thyme, peppercorns and bay leaves for 2-3 minutes or until golden, stirring regularly. Add soy sauce and honey, and cook until reduced to a glaze. Add stock and bones, simmer for 30 minutes, then strain through a fine sieve. Return stock to a clean pan, and reduce by half until thickened and sticky. Keep warm until needed.

Dried fruit chutney

• For the dried fruit chutney, remove pith from orange peel, then add to a small saucepan and cover with water. Place over high heat, bring to the boil, then reduce heat to a simmer, and cook for 2 minutes. Strain through a sieve, discarding water. Cut orange rind into thin matchsticks.
• Add all ingredients to a pan, and bring to a simmer. Cook for 4 minutes until liquid has evaporated, and fruit begins to soften and slightly caramelise. Remove from heat, and set aside.

To serve

• To serve, preheat oven to 120C.
• Lightly drizzle the base of a non-stick frying pan with oil set over medium heat. Spoon enough of the pancake mixture into pan to make 8cm-wide x 5mm-thick pancakes. Cook for about 2 minutes or until mixture begins to bubble, turn over, and continue to cook for a further minute until lightly golden. Repeat process with remaining mixture. Place pancakes onto a tray and keep warm in oven.
• Meanwhile, season quail with salt and pepper. Place a large frying pan over medium-high heat, and drizzle with oil. Cook quail for 1 minute, skin-side down. Add butter and once foaming, cook for 2 minutes until golden brown, basting quail with the butter. Turn quail over and cook for a further 30 seconds or until golden brown. Remove leg and thigh pieces and place in pan with jus. Set breasts aside to rest.
• To serve, place a pancake into centre of each plate. Spread with a tablespoon of chutney, lay breast on top of pancake followed by jus and place leg on top.